We watch and listen to music for hours every day, and music videos are everywhere. As content creators, some of us also film/direct/edit music videos, may it be for fun or for a living. I caught up with director Cole Walliser, who has directed videos for P!nk, Katy Perry, Laura Marano, and a bunch more. We discussed one aspect of a music video we don’t always think of: art direction. Photo courtesy of Cole Walliser A Quick Tour of the Music Industry Today it’s hard to really stand out as an artist in the music industry. New songs and new trends come and go, but music is now a consumer good. You listen to an artist’s album and just move on to another artist on a daily basis. Also, it’s difficult to draw attention without a video to go with a song. With YouTube being the second most popular search engine after Google and one of the biggest music streaming platforms in the world, new music videos pop up every minute. Of course, it’s amazing because you can now easily discover new artists and new music. With these new content marketing needs, an entirely new era of young directors came out. At the same time, a new “trend” also came in with all the cuts in budgets allocated to music videos. Thankfully, technical costs, i.e. film equipment for making a music video that looks “cinematic” also dropped drastically. It started when Canon introduced the DSLR revolution in 2008, thanks to the Canon 5D Mark II. The production costs continue going down, and the technical possibilities are still expanding. It’s an amazing time to work on music videos. Photo courtesy of Cole Walliser What It Takes to Make a Good Music Video I ask myself that question a lot: What distinguishes a good music video—one you’ll want to watch over and over—from just an average one? Of course, there are a lot of aspects involved and also personal tastes. The number one factor is probably the concept or story behind the music video. But for this article, let’s just focus on the more artistic part. So you wrote your treatment, and everyone is happy with it. The day of the shoot, you have a lot of things to think of, especially with small crews, because low budgets usually mean fewer people on set. You are on set, and you try to focus as much as you can on your lighting because as everyone knows, it can really make or break a music video. It goes the same way with camera movements, acting, editing, color grading, and so on. But there is one thing we usually don’t think of because we are too much “into it.” And I have found that all those components—lighting, camera, editing, etc.—have one thing in common: art direction. Photo courtesy of Cole Walliser Why Art Direction Is Crucial Personally, I think the art direction is one of the most important parts of a music video. When I talk about art direction, it’s not just a color theme or some outfits for the artist. It’s a comprehensive package that will drive you through the entire project. You have to think about it in the early stages of your project & treatment, and your proposal about art direction should definitely be in your treatment. If you have doubts about your type of lighting, your choice of gels, your camera angles, or how your editing should look, you can always come back to the art direction that you defined at the beginning of your project. But again, that’s just my point of view. In order to gain more insights about it, I asked Canadian director Cole Walliser what he thinks about art direction in general. Could you introduce yourself briefly? My name is Cole Walliser, I am a Canadian director living in Los Angeles. I’ve directed videos for Pink, Katy Perry, Tinashe, Laura Marano, and more. I work a lot in the beauty space and also direct commercial and digital content for CoverGirl, Pantene, Almay, Revlon, and others. For you, what differentiates a “good” music video from an average one? That’s a good and very subjective question! Typically, videos that I find “good” are the innovative ones. They do something a little different. That’s probably why I think videos by the Daniels are always so amazing, but I also find myself liking very simple videos that just hit the nail on the head as far as tone and style that match the music well. You don’t need to be all fancy and crazy—if the visuals match the emotion of the song, I find I’ll label it as good. Have you seen a change in the music and music video industry in the past years? Absolutely! The advent of smaller and cheaper digital cameras changed no other aspect of filmmaking more than music videos. Suddenly everyone is a director, and everyone has a music video. I actually view this as a good thing (despite budgets also getting smaller and smaller). Photo courtesy of Cole Walliser How would you define art direction and the importance of it in your job? For music videos, it is paramount. A music video can be called good with zero story but amazing visuals. The same cannot be said for films, TV shows, or even commercials. Defining art direction is a little harder—it’s anything that denotes what the video should look and feel like. How do you work on a concept for a music video? Do you rely on the art direction of the artist (or the label)? It varies with every job. Sometimes labels or artists have a very specific vision, and it’s up to you to repackage that vision into feasible and creative production. Often it’s very loose, and they want you to interpret it. (We want an unconventional love story, or strictly a performance on a beach, for example.) And then sometimes they just give you the song, and you gotta come up with it all! For you, what aspects of a project art direction are most influential? Camera and lenses selection, lighting, camera moves, editing, color grading, or all of these? Personally, I view art direction more like the overall look and feel and production design. It can involve lens selection (if there are specific shots that pertain to the concept’s creative direction). It also can denote the choice of a camera: maybe the idea is to creatively shoot a whole section on 16mm. It all boils down to this: if the visual idea denotes what camera, editing, or color need to be used in order to execute that concept, art direction can dictate what those should be. Do you think new directors should focus more on art direction nowadays to improve their work? I think directors can do a lot of things to improve their work! Not that I think we are generally sub-par in any way, but because it’s always an evolution. You are always learning as a director, so I would say art direction should not be excluded from that, but it’s just as valuable as any other aspect of production. If you are asking specifically about music videos, though, I would say it’s marginally more important, as MVs lean heavily on the art direction. Photo courtesy of Cole Walliser Do you give tips or insights to artists who are just starting out in the music industry about the art direction they should follow? I really love having these conversations with artists, and especially new artists who are defining themselves for the first time or redefining themselves. The only tip I have, really, is to look at the big picture—how does one want to be represented? Think about what makes an impact and will last, not just about what’s hot today. If you could pick one music video you are really proud of in terms of art direction, which one would you choose and why? I think it would be the first Tinashe music video I directed. She was just starting out as an artist, and we had very little money. We bought a bunch of Home Depot lights to recreate Maxi-Brutes and shot a dance video in a single warehouse location. Tweaked the color a lot in post-production. I thought it came out really dope! If you could choose one artist to work with because you love his art direction, which one would you pick? Hard to say! I love working with women artists because I feel like you can do more with them. They can be bright, dark, strong, soft, beautiful, fierce, etc… For better or for worse, the range can be so much more dynamic for female artists these days, and with that said, I’d say of course Beyonce. One last thing you’d like to add? Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts about art direction… I’m going to go think about it a lot more on my next projects now! Photo courtesy of Cole Walliser Part Two is coming with another interview and more insights about art direction in the music video industry. Do you work on the art direction treatment at the early stage of your project? Did you find this article useful, and would you like us to do more of them? Let us know in the comments down below!

The folks over at Red Giant have teamed up with alternative rock band They Might Be Giants on a new music video contest. Make their next music video and you could win cash and a ton of nifty Red Giant production software. All the contest details are below:  The contest is asking for unique music videos to highlight the track I Left My Body. Take a listen to the song below: Follow the link HERE for more contest details. Red Giant software has long been a fixture on set and in post-houses because of its user-friendly interface and useful tools for first-time filmmakers and professionals alike. There will be 3 winners: $3000 + the complete set of Red Giant Tools to the Grand Prize winner (Total Prize Value: $6,694) $1000 + the complete set of Red Giant Tools to two other winners (Total Prize Value: $4,694) The complete set of Red Giant tools includes: Trapcode Magic Bullet Universe Shooter Keying Effects So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start creating. All entries must be submitted by March 1st, 2018 for consideration. 

My name is Colin J. Mason and I’m from the Northern VA/Washington DC area. I am a director, photographer, musician, and I co-own the independent studio Mirandum Pictures along with my lifelong friend and business partner Mike Powell. Our people have done film work in 15 countries on 5 continents since 2006 and we work with amazing craftsmen from just about every discipline to bring our creations to life. Name and age: Colin J. Mason, 32 years old. Currently based in: Northern VA/Washington DC area. Language(s) spoken: English, Spanish. Occupation: Director. How did you get started in our industry? My business partner Mike and I always joke that we were film nerds with big dreams and then suddenly the internet came along and we had jobs. We were scraping along, trying to get work wherever we could and making cheap films in the early 2000s with the Panasonic DVX100 (remember that one?). When YouTube and Vimeo really took off and more and more people were getting smartphones and faster internet connections, suddenly the demand for quality video skyrocketed. Like many young filmmakers, we were right on the cutting edge of that revolution and have been benefitting from it ever since. Current assignments: I can’t talk about all of them, but we’ve been handling a lot of mini-documentaries at Mirandum Pictures, including one about Flying Dog Brewery and their Raging Bitch IPA controversy, as well as some fun music video projects we have coming up. What types of productions do you mostly shoot? Things are pretty diverse at Mirandum Pictures, which is how we stay in business. Like most directors at our level, we do lean on commercials, music videos, and mini-documentaries. The dream, as with all of us, is to eventually move into more short films and eventually feature filmmaking. What is your dream assignment/job in our industry, and what are you really passionate about? To be the director of a major motion picture whose story I’m deeply committed to. As a result, any client project that even resembles that always makes me really excited. I love doing music videos or narrative short films for that reason, and I’m always really excited when one of my clients commits to doing something truly creative. In the work that you are presenting us, now that it is done, what would you have done differently throughout the production? That’s always tough for a filmmaker to answer. In this case, I’d have loved to have more time. We only had two days to shoot a tremendous amount of material under very difficult conditions: either in historic buildings, or outdoors in rural areas at night with no access to power or facilities. We didn’t have the budget to bring on the lighting equipment we really wanted for the outdoor work, so there was a tremendous amount of stress involved in doing the setups in the grave-digging scene in particular. More time would have helped a lot. In connection with that, I would have most likely spent some of my own money and brought on at least one HMI light for the outdoor scenes, instead of relying on multiple tungsten sources, which provide beautiful light but just lacked the firepower we really needed. This would have saved us a massive lighting headache and it would have been well worth the expense. What current camera, lenses and sound equipment do you use? What camera I use entirely depends on the project and the DP I’m bringing on.  We’ve shot everything from RED cameras to GH5 to GoPro – it entirely depends on the client’s needs or the story we’re trying to tell. As I’ve moved from operating my own cameras to the director’s chair, I try not to become married to any particular system, and rather allow the needs of the project to dictate what tools we select. In this case, we shot on the Blackmagic URSA Mini with two XEEN cine prime lenses: a 14mm and a 35mm. The URSA has a crop factor of 1.4x, which effectively turns the 14mm into about a 20mm, and the 35mm into about a 50mm.  We also used a GlideCam 2000 for the motion shots since they were simple enough not to require a motorised gimbal. Nothing in the video was stabilized digitally. All the sound was recorded onto a Zoom H4N through a Sennheiser MKH416P48, since there really wasn’t that much sound work (we only recorded audio for the opening scene in the prison and even the majority of that is design and ADR). For larger projects we use a combination of shotgun mics and wireless lavaliers from Sennheiser. You chose to shoot your project with the URSA Mini. Can you please describe why you chose to use it, what was your workflow, were you happy with the results and will you ever go that way again? We chose the URSA because the budget for this video was tight, and URSA is a more inexpensive option than the RED, while remaining surprisingly robust. This video’s DP, Jacob Schwartz, has a lot of experience with the URSA Mini, especially on motion rigs, so that was another deciding factor. This project was intended for release online with minimal VFX, so we were comfortable shooting in 4.5K ProRes instead of RAW. We also love the precise over/undercranking options the URSA offers, as we were doing a lot of work in this project with in-camera frame-rate tricks.  The performance portions of the video were either shot in 48 fps to a sped-up track of the song, or shot in 12 fps to a slowed-down track of the song for the jerky dance portions. Even a lot of the action was slightly overcranked to give it just a little more weight without the motion seeming overly slow. At Mirandum Pictures, we work on custom-built high-performance PCs, which provide more bang for the buck than Macs. The whole studio works off a common server and each project has its own hard drive. We edit on Premiere CC and used the proxy functionality to generate lightweight footage proxies to make the fast-paced edits easier. Once the cut was locked, the VFX were done by Anthony Pilon, a really talented VFX artist and animator who handled the gunfire and bullet hits. For VFX work we always export ungraded PNGs from the locked Premiere project and all VFX work is rendered back out as PNGs before being added back into the project. For the gunfire, we had a little 150-watt ARRI light that we rapidly flagged and un-flagged to to create the practical strobing light effect. Anthony added muzzle flare, shell casings, bullet hits, and some smoke in After Effects, before doing additional rendered smoke in Blender and adding that to the After Effects composition. Sound design was done in Sony Vegas 13 and Adobe Audition. I did the color grade using Lumetri in Premiere, starting with a Kodak Elite Color 200 LUT and a 35mm Fuji medium grain overlay before the final project was exported as an H.264 for upload to Vimeo and Vevo. What’s your favorite light equipment and why did you choose that kit over other solutions? Lighting equipment is so project-specific it’s hard to pick a favorite. I try to stay mentally flexible and not get too attached to any specific lighting solution since we handle so many different kinds of projects. However, I will say that I have had good experiences with ARRI lighting in general.  We used two ARRI T1s on this project with some modifiers and were able to handle the vast majority of the lighting that way. For the outdoor scenes I would have loved to have a Joker, but the T1s did fabulously for most everything else. I also brought on two Quasars and was able to take care of a lot of the supplemental lighting that way. Quasars aren’t really appropriate as key light for most projects, but they are flexible secondary lights and can serve a lot of functions. On this video we used them to illuminate the doorway of the church in the grave-digging scenes, and they provided the soft warm glow coming through the door in the kitchen table scene. Do you use drones or gimbals in your productions? If so, what is the most effective way you’ve found to deploy them? We use both drones and gimbals in our productions at Mirandum Pictures, particularly gimbals because of my love of wide moving master shots. I think that modern filmmaking often relies too heavily on cutting, and wide moving masters give the actors more freedom to stay in the scene and work with each other. On this project we used a GlideCam 2000, but for work of any complexity we use the DJI Ronin 1 with a wireless follow focus and director’s monitor. A good 1st AC is essential for that setup but the results are really rewarding. For drones, I try to only use them if the story calls for a stronger sense of place, usually for locations that have strong visual interest. They can provide some production value but oftentimes they are overused, so I can find them to be distracting. When we need work we hire a fantastic local operator named Brandon Habuda (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3027573/) who has worked on projects like Birth of a Nation and Burning Sands. What editing systems do you use? I edit in Premiere CC. Jacob works in Resolve and has been working on me to switch over – I’m a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to changing editing systems. I probably will when their editing capabilities become more robust. It’s hard to beat Premiere’s integration into the rest of Adobe’s products, as well as its systems for file management and proxy-rendering. How much of your work do you shoot in Log and what is your preferred way of colour correcting? We shoot everything in LOG. One of my least favorite things about the URSA is that it shoots in its own flavor of LOG that’s roughly similar to Sony S-LOG, but we have a LUT that converts that LOG space into C-LOG. I have a library of film LUTs that are specifically designed to work in C-LOG, so we always need to either shoot in that color space or convert into it using another LUT. How frequently do you travel, and do you have any tips when it comes to packing your gear? We travel frequently for Mirandum Pictures, particularly to foreign countries. My main tips for packing? Pelican cases and packing foam. Don’t skimp on your packing materials and cases unless you enjoy having broken gear in a strange place. That, and that just about everything can be made to fit into a smaller space if you’re motivated enough. To see more of Colin’s work at Mirandum Pictures, head over to mirandumpictures.com.

In this part of our talk with music video director and producer Ben Griffin, Ben tells us about how he adapted his workflow to change with the times. The evolution of the music industry during the past couple of decades meant that big artists were no longer spending millions on their music videos. In order to adapt to the times, music video producer, director and DP Ben Griffin saw the necessity to streamline in order to reduce costs and be able to offer his work at a competitive price. In a time when most music videos were still being shot on film, Ben saw an opportunity in the emergence of the then brand-new RED One. Although many were skeptical of the new era of digital filmmaking, Ben Griffin was one of the early adopters of the technology, which allowed him to offer an image comparable to film, but at a fraction of the cost. This very same drive to stay ahead of the curve by streamlining logically led him to initially wear many hats on his productions, taking the roles of director, DP and producer. However, upon moving to LA, he would soon discover that, while this method of working may have worked in the smaller filmmaking industry of the Bay Area, things were done very differently in Hollywood. Please visit our sponsors’ websites to keep new episodes of ON THE GO coming! Kessler FUJINON G-Technology Schneider-Kreuznach Watch previous episodes of ON THE GO (& On the Couch) by clicking here. Visit our Vimeo and YouTube playlists, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

For this round of cinema5D ON THE GO, we welcome music video filmmaker Ben Griffin. Ben Griffin is a director, producer and DP originally from the San Francisco Bay area, but who is currently based in LA and focuses on producing music videos. He shares with us how he developed a passion for the filmic medium from an early age, as well as a taste for MTV music videos. Ben’s interest in the industry led him to being involved from a young age, eventually deciding to study at the Academy of Art in the San Francisco Bay area. Having to leave education due to personal circumstances, Ben continued working in the industry as a PA, and later as an editor for what he describes a “straight-to-Blockbuster feature”. After starting a later venture in DVD production for car shows, his shooting style was recognised by record labels and members of the music industry, which opened the door to his first forays into these kinds of productions. In the standard-def, pre-YouTube era of Myspace, Ben found his style in using 35mm adapters for video cameras and, armed with a Panasonic HVX200, he went on to create videos that really drew an audience. As his work evolved, it became clear what the next logical step was: to start a professional music video production company. Stay tuned to cinema5D ON THE GO for more about Ben’s career in the music video industry, and some pretty hilarious anecdotes! Please visit our sponsors’ websites to keep new episodes of ON THE GO coming! Kessler FUJINON G-Technology Schneider-Kreuznach Watch previous episodes of ON THE GO (& On the Couch) by clicking here. Visit our Vimeo and YouTube playlists, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

Indie-pop band OK Go probably spend as much time coming up with their music videos as they do with writing and recording their songs, and they have proven before several times, be it in zero gravity or high up from the air looking down. Now, they have done it again with their new video “The One Moment”, but spending only 4.2 seconds in the process – and it’s another fireworks of colours splashing and things going boom, people flying through the air and things getting thrown at them. Although it certainly took a long time in preparation and planning, the actual recording was done in just 4.2 seconds. How? Simple (yet not simple) – super slow motion, likely shot with a PhantomFlex camera (the same one we used on my documentary Through The Thick earlier this year). Watch for yourself and see the behind-the-scenes reel at the bottom! OK Go – The One Moment – Official VideoLadies and gentlemen, please enjoy our new video for “The One Moment.” A million thanks to our partners at Morton Salt #WalkHerWalk. Posted by OK Go on Wednesday, November 23, 2016   The total length of the video is 4:02 minutes, which means roughly that every second in realtime ended up being a minute in the music video. If our math is correct (and I hope OK Go will release more details about it soon), they shot the video at around 1,500 frames per second. (The PhantomFlex4K is capable of 1,000 frames per second in 4K, but more if you drop the resolution lower.) Despite looking like a one-shot, they did actually do different takes because, as the lead singer says, “there are no robots currently fast enough to shoot the entire action in one go”. If you look at how fast that Bolt motion control arm moves across in the behind-the-scenes, you will understand that he is most certainly right. OK Go – The One Moment BTSWatch the making of our new video for “The One Moment.” Posted by OK Go on Wednesday, November 23, 2016

EDIT: The recorded webinar is now available for free to stream on the Sony Pro Europe website. Head over to watch the 1-hour conversation in its entirety! Ever since the heydays of MTV in the 80s, music videos have been a creative experimental outlet for musicians and filmmakers alike. Budgets vary incredibly, probably more than in any other field of film/video production, but financial constraints can sometimes even spur creativity. I will be hosting and moderating a webinar discussion live from Sony’s Pinewood Studios facility in London on July 6 (in about two weeks), and the guests will be independent DOP Tom Swindell who has been busy shooting many music videos over the years, and Mike Marchlewski, who is an in-house DOP and project manager for Sony Music’s production team. from our music video production “Those Goddamn Hippies – Drift” – photo by Tony Gigov The format is not unlike our ON THE COUCH talk show series, with the difference that it will be streamed live and the audience will be able to take part in the discussion via live questions to the panel. Sign up here on the Sony site to join in on July 6 at 14:00 (BST) / 15:00 (CET) / 9 am (EST) or to gain access to the recording afterwards (this will be available only about a week after the recording). The discussion will last a total of 1 hour.   Here is what we will be covering in the webinar: •     Look like a million dollars: shoot attention-grabbing music videos on real-world budgets •     From storyboard to screen: conveying your artist’s vision •     Master your art: which cameras and lenses work best •     Telling a musical story: schedules, locations and shot lists •     Capture a great performance: taking care of lighting and audio •     Making the cut: break into the industry and get your work noticed Last but not least, here are three music videos from Mike Marchlewski (Sony Music), Tom Swindell and myself: Music Video: ‘Florrie – Real Love’, Sony Music Music Video: ‘Kes – People’, provided by Tom Swindell Music Video: “Those Goddamn Hippies – Drift” – directed by Nicola von Leffern, DP: Nino Leitner

Have you had a chance to watch the amazing video that pro skier Nicolas Vuignier did in early 2016? A good half a year and 4.000.000 views on Youtube later, the first music video which uses this so-called Centriphone technique has popped up. The Centriphone technique Pro skier Nicolas Vuignier released a really cool video back in February and he used a technique called Centriphone. After the massive success of his video, he created a making-of in order to answer all the questions he received from all over the world. The effect is just stunning! You can purchase the original Centriphone vessel on this official site, or, if you’re a proud owner of a 3D printer, you should check out the open source project, also by Nicolas Vuignier. Make your own Centriphone video It was just a question of time before more videos like his started to appear. New York based Indie-Pop duo Matt & Kim just released their new video for their song ‘Let’s Run Away’ using the amazing Centriphone technique, and it actually it looks like the effect is quite east to pull off successfully. As they explain in their video description, they used a GoPro on a string instead of an iPhone, and built their custom ‘rig’ around a wooden coat hanger and a bit of fishing wire (wait for it) because it seemed safer than the original. Sounds simple? Actually, it is! All you need is a good swing and some creative ideas of what to do with this device. But judge for yourself: No fancy gadgets needed, just a good amount of creativity and a GoPro and a you’ll have a ton of fun. I think it’s a great idea! One thing to keep in mind, though: the resulting footage will be really hard to watch when played back at normal speed. The super-fast rotating footage will cause some serious headaches, at the very least. But when you start to slow down the footage (which is why you would need something like a high frame-rate capable GoPro in the first place), the real magic happens in front of your eyes. And speaking of headaches: please make sure nobody is within the reach of your spinning DIY Centriphone rig, because a whack to the head with one of these could produce just that. Make sure to visit Matt & Kim online, as well as the YouTube channel of Nicolas Vuignier.