Re-inventing the Music Video

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Posted by Admin on 28, June 2013 with 2 Comments
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I’ve long since stopped enjoying watching music videos. I know there is still a huge market of people that will watch them, but unless there is a great hook to the video and I see it’s going viral, I rarely even watch videos for songs I love, more or less for artists I’ve never heard of.

I also make a small chunk of my income off music videos. I’ve edited 5 or 6 in the past year, nothing inherently wrong with any of them, but nothing that made them exceptional either. Cookie-cutter music videos, fit the mold for the genre and gives the artist a moment to feel like a movie star. Boring if you ask me but only because there are thousands out there just like them.

What can we do to change that? Music videos inherent value to artist is there chance to reach a wider market, most directly, by having viral capabilities. I don’t find the average music video to have much viral potential, but the concept of music videos I think can be very viral if we re-define it.

As filmmakers, we have our own goals with music videos, traditional music videos are good enough when the track is good, but if the music isn’t great, it’s not going to be wildly successful. Or will it?

Lets take a moment to find music videos that have that flare and unique quality that made them worth sharing despite having artists and songs that never quite got famous.


Moones – “Better Energy” – 400,000+ Views – Posted 4 days ago (June 24, 2013)
A straight-forward, 4 camera performance video. 4 takes, but there were 80 beers consumed between the first and fourth take and the audience choses the angle they want to watch. I love the use of annotations to chose between angles and takes, which actually updates times so you are cutting “live” between takes at the same point in the song. Very fun and engaging use of the Youtube platform, a chose-your-own adventure type approach. If you watch the whole video from every angle, you have over an hour of footage from your audience to choose from! I found this yesterday when it had 30,000 views, now it’s nearly at half a million. Simplistic success.

 


Biting Elbows – “Bad Motherfucker” – 14 Million+ Views – Posted March 2013
This one was a true viral success a few months back, it’s all first-person shooter POV-style with the appearance of it being one continuous take. Done before, but never this well.

 


Oren Lavie – “Her Morning Elegance” – 25 Million+ Views – Posted Jan 2009
Stop-motion. For the cheap production with nothing but time. It’s always a challenge, but when done well has great effect.

 


Kina Grannis – “In Your Arms” – 9 Million+ Views – Posted Nov 2011
Another stop-motion. Had to add this one because they did a great BTS video (which I think greatly added to its success), and it was a great mixed-media type, using a traditional macro stop-motion format and mixing the real life talent with it. Commitment.

 

All 4 of these videos are relatively cheap in actual production, varying from the cost of beer and jelly beans, and how the filmmakers value their time, and the songs and artists aren’t the big names with big hits we would all like to work with, but somehow they were all hugely successful! What other music videos managed to be successful despite the track never becoming commercially successful? What music videos have you made that broke the status quo in someway? Share! I want to see more music videos break the norm and become successful in their own right.

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Jared Abrams is a cinematographer based in Hollywood, California. After many years as a professional camera assistant he switched over to still photography. About two years ago a new Canon camera changed the way the world sees both motion and still photography. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
  • Erin

    http://youtu.be/SogyletTQlI

    HypnotizIng video. I feel like the concept matches the song. Great song. Cheap? Oh yea.

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