Talk from a music video producer
October 16, 2017Phil Tidy is from Squire Production Company. He's a music video producer / director and has worked on videos for: Spice Girls, Mcfly, Bastille, Sugababes, Jamiroquai, Oasis, Muse, Shakira, and many, many more. He is also also a co-curator and producer of the BUG at the BFI on Southbank. It's reaching its 10 year anniversary, and is an event 'celebrating creativity in music video' to showcase new and inspiring works.
He spoke to our class today to about the music industry and what music videos are actually for. Here are some notes from what he said:
- A music video is essentially a commercial for the song, and the artist is the product they're trying to sell
- The music industry is worth £4 billion in the UK each year
- 31% of all music is consumed on YouTube
- Michael Anderson (a director) said that music videos "came along in the early 80s and unblocked a constipated film industry and were a creative playground of experimentation and fun, and a proving ground for talent"
- Music videos are a portal to other creativity and getting experience in the film industry
- Directors and crew start on music videos and go on to do adverts, TV shows and feature films etc.
- As a first time producer / director, you need to think about some things such as:
- what will be on your showreel?
- who will take you seriously?
- what skills do you need?
- To get the job you need a treatment, to be able to follow the brief, have a contract to keep to, and stick to the budget
- Budget is important because you need to think about the little things, such as: food, toilets, toilet paper, parking etc. and using what resources you have
- Woody Allen spoke about how on the 1st day on set, the truck of compromise drives in
Phil Tidy then gave us some examples of things that he's worked on. One of them was 'Photoshop Handsome' by Everything Everything.
They had a 1 line pitch from the singer: 'I want the band to be photoshopped and mucked around with as much as possible'
Tidy filmed the band in front of a green screen and sent short clips to loads of different animators to get different effects:
I really liked this video because of how weird it is, and how most of it is done in after effects / post production. We might do a similar thing if we cannot find another cutaway.
The other video he showed us was Jamiroquai's 'Runaway' that he produced and co-directed. JK the singer wanted to be in a space buggy, going around London in a space suit.
I like the different elements of this video and how it's very dynamic, but I don't think anything similar would fit with our video.
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