Making music videos sing

Post, Nov, 2003 by Matthew Armstrong

Music videos have come a long way since the early days of MTV where labels and directors were feeling their way with the new format Some were simple performance pieces against a plain background; some were culled from concert footage. Many of the successful early videos were almost like short films that followed the bands through a storyline.

These days videos are approached in much the same manner as fashion photography in that it's all about creating a unique look And technically, they are much more complex with multiple locations and set builds, complex color treatment, editing and visual effects.

VIDEO NATURE

There are several factors that make music videos unique in terms of production. First, the music video medium opens the door to an unlimited range of visual possibilities that include mixtures of performance, narrative and sometimes even abstract symbolic images, all of which may coincide with the song's theme or deviate completely from the song's tone and subject. Additionally, the three-minute format permits more latitude than a commercial and doesn't have to adhere to the strict structure of a feature film or TV show. So creatively, the door is wide open.

"The thing about music videos is every one is different. There's not a formula," explains Mark Intravartolo, Discreet Inferno artist at The Post Group (www.postgroup.com) in LA. "And the clients let you get more creative. With a commercial, the client tells you what needs to be done and you make it happen. With a music video you can say, 'Hey, I think this idea might be cool,' and 90 percent of the time you can get that shot into the video. They ask for your opinion more so you can make it more of your own."

While there is much creative freedom, the name of the game in the music video business is fast and furious. Once a record label decides to make a video, it expects that song to be on air within only a few weeks. This includes concept development, shooting, posting and approvals.

"The biggest challenge is the timeframe," says Bert Yukich, president of editorial/visual effects house of Kroma (www.kroma.biz). "You have less time to get more done."

Intravartolo adds, "People don't take the time doing music videos that they used to. There's a lot more pressure to get the videos done so they can capitalize on the radio play the song's getting ... you just have to bang them out as fast as possible."

This fast track production pace is aided by the fact that the director is usually the one dominant voice, and the often-exhausting process of approvals and test screenings that prevail in commercials and films simply don't exist in the video industry.

"Things move along very quickly," notes Yukich. "There's a couple stages of approval; first the telecine, then the edit, which can vary a little, and then the beauty work Artists will sometimes ask for more beauty work. The biggest thing is that the director has a lot of say in videos. The record company has final say but for the most part they leave it up to the director. It's not like commercials where there's a lot of chefs in the kitchen."

With little time, there is also relatively little money for music videos. "For most :30 commercials, the average budget is around $300,000," says Evan Schectman, president of NYC-based finishing house Outpost Digital (www.outpostdigital.com), which also has offices in Santa Monica and London. "For most music videos, even for A-list people, the budgets are basically the same, but the videos are several minutes long."

COLOR

The biggest difference between the post production of music videos and commercials or films is that the telecine transfer is generally the first step after production is wrapped and the footage is processed. This is where the stylized color is established.

"The normal telecine process on a video is they come up with five or six different looks and you transfer all the footage in those five or six looks, which are all approved by the record label," explains Gareth O'Neil, president of production/post company Reconnaissance Films (wwww.reconfilms.com) in LA. "That way everybody has agreed what that look is going to be, and once they do their edit they've got locked picture."

Editor Paul Martinez of editorial house Lost Planet (www.lostplanet.com), which has orifices in New York and Santa Monica, predominantly cuts commercials and notes that when cutting videos, "it's great to work with the final color corrected film. Everyone knows what it's going to look like in the end so you don't have to manage expectations." With commercial clients he has to explain that things will look different with the color in place.

While doing the telecine transfers first is the standard practice with music videos, there are always exceptions to the rule and some projects might get color correction after the edit is locked. This happened with the video for the song "No Fucking Around" by The Special Goodness. "For this video, we transferred everything with a really good best-light because our texturing process happens in the Inferno," explains O'Neil. "That's where we like to like to peel things apart and do our color correction as opposed to trying to predict what's going to happen with the edit. I feel we can work more organically that way. Then we'll go back and transfer selects to maximize what can be done in the telecine."