Behind the scenes on the set of Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs' latest video
Back in the early '70s, long before Video went and Killed The Radio Star, music videos were quite a different thing. Dreamed up by marketing executives to promote their artists’ latest releases, they rarely featured anything more exciting than a few bearded musicians walking over hillsides in cords. Fast forward 40 years or so, and the music promos have become a multi-million pound industry, and one of the fasted evolving art forms of recent times.
Obviously, the internet has helped things along quite a bit. Whereas MTV was once the only place to see a band's latest release, nowadays anyone with a digital camera and a Youtube account can make a video to accompany their track.
The rise of the low budget promo has put much more of an emphasis on the ideas behind the videos. A great concept well executed can be far more effective than a million dollar video any day. Famously, OK Go found worldwide fame with the much talked about video for ‘Here It Goes Again’. The idea was simple but brilliant, and a fairly average song that would otherwise have floundered in mediocrity was suddenly heard by millions and loved by association. They group have since fully embraced the vast potential of the music video, making all kinds of weird and wonderful films, and in the process rescued themselves from musical obscurity.
Aside from writing for the Spoonfed live music desk I am also an art director, and have worked in theatre and film amongst other things. But I particularly love making music videos. Often the art direction in promos is much more of a driving force than it would be in, say, television, where it acts as more of a backdrop, and the creative freedom you are offered is greater than almost any other artistic medium on such a populist level.
The speed also appeals greatly – videos rarely take more than a day or two to film, as opposed to months on a film set. Video director Lily Smith agrees: “the rate at which you can realise something that was just a picture in your head a week ago is what makes it so great. Music videos have such a quick turnaround compared to other art forms: the idea that you can storyboard, shoot, cut and deliver in a couple of weeks is unlike anything else.”
It all starts with a track, and in this case it’s Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED)’s latest single ‘Household Goods’. It helps that this track is a great one. TEED, aka Orlando, is a brilliant artist, and it’s always a much more enjoyable experience when you actually like the track you’re making a video for – especially as you have to hear it dozens of times over the course of the shoot.
The process of making the video begins with director Lily outlaying her ideas in the video’s treatment – a document in which the themes, tone and storyline of the piece are outlined. Lily’s concept for this shoot comes directly from the her reaction to listening to the track; the staccato blips and bleeps inspiring the idea of rippling pixilation, distorted light and recreating a lo-fi take on technology.
This video’s a pretty low budget affair and lacks quite a few things most bigger budget shoots would normally have – such as a producer. “Dwindling budgets are the biggest issue I think I've had to deal with,” says Lily. “It's astounding how much most directors and crew are supposed to do for free, but at the same time that does force you to think more creatively about how you tell stories.” And it's extremely rewarding when it works.
Once the concept is OKed by the artist and their management, the art department then need to find a way to make the visual side of things a reality. In this case, a lot of it comes down to experimentation on the day. Bridget, my co-designer, and I collect as many things as we can that we think will be interesting to film through and against, in keeping with the lo-fi concept. Then Brian Fawcett, the director of photography, plays around with light and a really tacky crystal chandelier we’ve procured to obscure Orlando’s performance.
Some things work better than others, and I think one of the most effective is a grid we placed in front of the camera, which Orlando performs behind. We created the grid by sticking tape on a sheet of Perspex and attatched different coloured squares of film onto the grid to create a pattern. After each take we change the formation, which is then edited in post-production to make the squares move. We then create a 3D “pixel” set from painted cardboard boxes, and spend a few hours running about moving the boxes around Orlando – he's an extremely patient dinosaur.
Once the shoot has wrapped the next stage involves Lily working with the editor to add various pixilation techniques and after-effects to enhance the initial concept. This stage will probably go through various stages and rough cuts, and once the director, label and artist are all satisfied the finished product is released onto the world, via music television, YouTube, blogs and the like.
Since its early incarnations the music video has become completely ingrained in modern popular culture, and few mediums have the ability to capture people’s imagination in the way they do. 'Like' it, 'Dislike' it, Tweet it, write a comment beneath it – for the people on our side of the camera there's nothing quite like it.
Photos by Michelle Jeffery.
Click here to see all London live music
Click here for London gigs
Click here for things to do in London
.jpg)
Add an event
Review: Byzantium
20 years after Interview with a Vampire, director Neil Jordan cooks up the theme on a ...