Hollywood Cinematographer Analyzes Popular Music Videos

Catering to the lyrics is when your artist says "yeah I drive a Lambo" and then you literally at the same time they say that you show them driving a Lambo number one mistake a music video director can make. A video that I'm most proud of I want to hear about this I just wanna take a sip of water. What's gonna on Indy Mogul my name is Ted today I'm here with my buddy Justin Jones he's an amazing cinematographer that shot music videos for people like Diplo Tyga G-Eazy he was also the head of production over at create music group which reps people like Marshmallow Porter Robinson the Migos as somebody that has seen like a million music videos that has been a part of a lot of music videos what are the five biggest mistakes that music video directors make and they're just starting out but also walk through what does it actually take to make a great music video in addition to that I actually want to walk through and watch a couple of the most famous music videos out there and hear from a music video directors input what actually separates them and what does he see we're not seeing as well. Ready to do this? Let's get it. Let's do this. Alright so like what I really like the main kind of categories of music videos that you see coming out these days? So definitely the narrative. The narrative is the number one I think what everyone tries to go for. The next one would be performance started off with like live videos and they didn't see like oh how can we record this music video to show the artists having a visual that somebody knows rather than just hearing somebody really adds to their brand. A person actually playing it and singing the song. So next I would say would be experimental, right? The artist doesn't have to be in it at all it could be animation it could be imagery put together to invade emotion but it doesn't necessarily have to make sense but it has to have a creative concept behind it it's like in any film right you're setting up the world when as long as people get the rules that you show them yeah then you can do whatever you want. So this could be more just like visual montage stuff basically all music videos fall in really these types of three categories. These three categories or mix of them so now we're getting really deep into it so a mix of these music videos would be a narrative performance video right which is 90% of videos I think a guy's in a warehouse he's got a gun this and that right he's like doing a bank robbery cut to the big atrium of the bank beautiful lighting performance shot with him performing in there cut back to the bank robbery it's really just keeping the audience engaged right it's giving it more content and more umph. You've shot too many of these videos. A lot of hip hop videos. I think the things that are overused and it gets tiring: falling asleep the music video happens and then waking up at the end time and time again a director will say alright but we got to remember to shoot at the end the guy wakes up and it was all a dream that way everything makes sense right? I mean I think it's just a easy in and an easy out to a video right so if someone messes up on anything it's like well we'll just have him wake up and that was that it didn't make sense but it's okay cuz it was a dream first time it was done cool second third time okay but now it's like years later right a bunch of other kind of cliches are like well I shoot a lot of rap videos so strip clubs, Lambos, house parties, it's just all these things that are continuously used over and over and over again it's like you got these really talented directors and artists coming out with this content that has none of that involved and they're the ones you're seeing kind of rise to the top. Another one that's actually very recent and new would be the whole shooting your video it doesn't look that great but we're gonna spice it up in post we're gonna add a ton of effects alright we've watched some YouTube tutorials you know now we're gonna make this video insane right yeah so it's cut up like crazy like crazy cuts now another one is kind of like tracing lines right like so you're animating lines onto the footage and the line can like trace somebody a guy named Ruff Mercy started that his work is amazing but now people are taking it and they're not taking the time like he does to actually master the craft they're just like learning it on YouTube and applying it so it's like these single frame animations go on their footage and it looks like crap. This kind of stuff yes this kind of stuff is so popular in advertising right now popular right now. And so Ruff Mercy is kind of like the-- guy that invented-- the guy that invented it he did this and now everybody you know some guys like oh I know how to do this let's make a tutorial on it right so I think that's like another really bad effect that everybody's copying and no one's taking the time to do right and if you decide to do that before you shoot yeah then it's a creative idea right yeah if you go after your shoot and you're like oh man it doesn't look that great what can we add to it yeah that's another thing that's just really kind of destroying these videos yeah but then another one would be adding in all these taking a free scaling that frame down I've been seeing that a lot and the other like do-do-do-do-do all right-- no it's like I think final cut one-- had that as like a reset transition it's like no. I guess my question is really when you see this many videos like what separates the ones that take off and are like seems like art? I think it really starts with being an innovator finding a new way to show something yeah is really refreshing right so if you're making a video and you're like oh I seen all these ideas I'm gonna do that idea yeah your video is not gonna pop as much as wow that idea is cool but what if I mix it with that idea and then add this camper movement and then I make something unique that when I show people they're gonna be like I've never seen that before right it's like the first video to put quasars in the background I'm afraid yeah no seriously I use a stare a tube a lot so I am guilty of this but use them in a new way right so now I'm doing stuff where I'm lining like hallways to where it looks like a spaceship right and the lights are flashing at me instead of just having them straight up in the background right yeah look some of these videos that we're watching obviously you know we're not asking you to make a Taylor Swift video or some write full team those have the money to be able to polish and do a proper really polish it for hours and hours and hours to make that yeah there are tons of videos up ready but how do you know when this is going to be a solid video and this is not going to be a slaught video you're not even talking about the video the way that the treatment is laid out if you get a treatment from someone and it's like made in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint and it like it looks like the idea is gonna be and it's gonna come out like then again I get a treatment from a guy that I work with every treatment he gives me he puts so much time in because it means that much to him right because then it's like a slippery slope because you get that and then you start reading into it and all of a sudden it's a pretty starts with a guy falling asleep on his couch in terms of music videos where it's something that's so intensely visual and it's so about like one concept for a short period of time yeah it's like you better make sure that concept is fresh because if it's been done before then the video is officially already old you've officially just started in aged videos well let's watch oh let's watch a couple videos what are like the takeaways from HP and what are you seeing here all right all right okay let's do this here we go now before we dive into it it's time to bring up today's sponsor which is story blocks if you have heard about them before that's because you haven't seen enough Indy mogul because they are a longtime sponsor but let me introduce you to what should be your first stop when looking for b-roll on your next indie project save some time and ensure that you get quality footage have you ever tried to get your own aerial shots of the Statue of Liberty or the pyramids it can be an absolute nightmare try to get all that footage through traditional legal means planning flights sure and gear getting locks for your bag making sure your batteries are charged up with story blocks all you have to do is use the internet which by now you should be good at story vlog starts at 1650 in a month and for unlimited downloads and all of them are royalty-free which means yes you don't have to worry about all those copyright complaints or anything like that so stop spending your life savings trying to get your own stock footage head on over to Starbucks comm slash in demos to get a free trial and now back to the video oh yeah this is a classic so Dave Myers is a director he shot a ton of Kendrick videos consistently just solid on all levels this church with this big light beaming through it I've never seen that and I when I first saw this image that it like burned into my skull I got goosebumps looking at that that is an incredible image so all of his videos have like these tiny little vignettes some dudes hairs on fire or like he's using motion control to go from one thing to another thing and so here so they took three cameras when I'm right next to each other same exact lens mm-hmm and then they focused them all exactly with him centered you know and then they're cutting back and forth and every other frame so I just got a new camera it's called an ashika yeah and it has four lenses and then in post you just do one on top of another on top of another on top of another yeah and then you just make a gif out of it it's really cool yeah how does that like a really cheap way to know that the cameras like $200 and you can literally make this effect another thing you really don't want to do in music videos is cater to the lyrics but I feel like he does it in a tasteful way right yeah it's only like on one or two things catering to the lyrics is when your artist says yeah I Drive a Lambo and then you literally at the same time they say that you show them driving a Lambo number one mistake a music video director can make it's like listen to the come on there's metaphor like think of some kind of metaphor to explain that rather than just showing that but he's talking about Grey Poupon this day Grey Poupon the AV yeah so it's like get throw it in there it's funny yeah oh yeah I love this frame because this to me is such a great example of you don't need huge gear huge budgets to make something visually amazing right you can make this effect happen with like four people some of the most iconic shots and these shots that like burn into your eyes not super expensive no you know they didn't have to be for the und you guys cuz they're new there's something that no one's seen before and that is really captivating ya know that's good so what is this video that we're talking about so this is from the same directors hardcore Henry so hardcore Henry and his other film were shot on GoPros this one he I read an article he wanted it to be way more cinematic obviously less like Distortion so they used the codex action cam but strictly speaking the camera is not the most high quality fast image rendering no needs period out there this is not reliant on the camera that they're absolutely not it's reliant on like four major things right first off how will the stories put together right this entire video is shot like a one-take yeah right so already you're like as a filmmaker are drawn into it it's got visual effects yeah it's got car chases explosions yeah so for you that's the thing that stands out the most is really just that one that's something you haven't seen before right and two how much time does somebody spend on seriously this okay now this is an example of money of an expensive very expensive video you should always strive to make something that you can't because you might fall flat but you're gonna learn way more than if you stayed in your lane what I'm saying is that don't try to copy something if you aren't sure that you can surpass it in the like greatness of it that goes back to what we were saying right you copy this they're gonna be like oh well that's far as possible arm that's a knockoff but you know it's different if I think you know you're but then you won't take you're gonna do like a space heist or something you really think you have something you can add to this style he looks at himself in the mirror at the end and there's no it's like all right moving on this video Turner what nice how do you know it immediately cuz I've seen it a million trillion times and it's very inspiring back when I was in film school they're showing this video as far as like experimental it's a totally experimental narrative music video there's a version of this music video that just sucks and this is its far surpasses yeah exactly what the lyrics are about you know that this entire video was shot in one room what so they just kept shooting hence redressing the room you kidding me oh my gosh so boom same room if you just pause it like you can find little like that door right there that or that yeah put a thing over it yeah and then this is real this is just like what's the wildest shit we can do to make people go what did I just watch right you think there is a component there there's a completely there's a component in making music videos in the digital age there's something to be said about WTF yes WTF we'll stick in your mind for years and years to come any okay go video those videos are like performance and experimental and experimental and I think those kind of videos are an excellent way to do something and they'll stick around for a long time and maintain their validity right because this to this day this video can hold up with any video that's when you as like a director or DP or someone actually start to pop you got to step out of your comfort zone before you start to move forward if you stay where you're comfortable or you stay where the company is comfortable then you stay at that level pitch concepts that make people say WTF right so one of the things you can do is you can shoot like a test sample have you ever done that like shot a test sample of a visual thing oh yeah it depends on how much time you have for your pitch but if there's this idea and you're like this is the idea that needs to be for this video no do it for Dave Myers exist for example right mm-hmm how are you gonna tell somebody about that that weird trippy like just to do effect and that's also gonna help you out figuring out if you can actually do it a lot of times I have an idea I'm like cool I get to send I'm like oh wait maybe it's not gonna work out like then you're screwed yeah actually never seen this one does this Barry a friend so this one's directed by you Michael Chavez they built this rig where they can mount the camera and her to an apparatus that spins from aluminum at the same time right oh that is a visual that's not I'm saying raisi visual build build images like that like that I can't that that doesn't leave my head is there a way in which you can compose music videos where you think about it visual by visual but you got to think of it as like there's five points in this video that are gonna hit heart this is one when she starts spinning that's another so create an image storyboard it draw it out you know if a music video is composed of three to five three to eight different sets and different looks at least each of those looks will have like one killer visual yes that the set is organized around yes and I think that's something that separates the amateur stuff the inter stuff is just like it's all this kind of like blah they don't think about like pulling back and showing this as its own standalone image and yeah this is the cases the rig yes so this is the shot that we're waiting to see which is crazy yes how can you blow someone's mind can we put a mind-blowing emoji right here all right what is this video Oh Taylor Swift if you if anyone out there has any beef you gotta respect some one thing that's at play the game in terms of just being known by everyone and being she's literally the rockefellers she gets together with Joseph Kahn Joe Kahn is probably one of the biggest names in the game right now just killing it t did this video they actually will do a full previous of the entire movie so literally Teleca be sitting there watching the entire video before the end then she could be like no I think this should be different before the shooting yeah that's so smart I wish everyone can do that speaking of that cinema 4d is an incredible tool basically a previous tool that I use to light my scenes before it actually gets a set location scout go into cinema 4d build the set just how it looks same measurements and everything working with matt worth any designer any designer he has all the lights in there from like Asteras to sky panels you could put the light in you can shine it through your window you could see what beams it's gonna make you can see where it's gonna hit but you're saying that you never do a video now with up revisiting it absolutely if if I have time when is this video you told me inaudible oh wow does it keep going oh wow they made them big holy crap this is an actual set that gets smaller and smaller as it goes down way towards life-size and then goes down so this is not pasta this is not running this is a bunch of look-alikes that's awesome oh he woke up at the ah nevermind I don't care who it is now this is an awesome video do you talkative how it's pretty close that was rigged that's alright okay so here's here's a video I really like it's an artist called Rufus due to soul song called say a prayer well they start off slowly releasing new information right which is really cool because keeping you engaged but they have lasers and so they strap these lasers in different positions in the forest and created these like shafts of light in the forest so it's like a mystical so these are sharpies these are lights like you would see on stage they're pretty expensive and they have to come with an operator and they're like they're very strict about your talent because if your talent looks at them they'll blind you I mean you can you can get them in like you can use lasers you can use my smarty store lasers will work they I mean they're not obviously gonna work the same but it's what you do with them really all right how many you have I did a video for Veronica Vega featuring quavo this inspired me to do that video so there's these really cool art pieces that kind of surround quavo stage then they made him I had a 900 watt laser on the left a 900 watt laser on the right and the cool thing about them coming with an operator is I was able to dial it in see the set box on the right hand side mm-hmm I was able to dial it in so the laser just spun around that and kind of outlined that box and then you sync your frame rate to the lasers yeah you can actually I didn't do it here because we wanted some movement with it but you can actually make the lasers freeze in midair so like this right here I could just keep it like that instead of it moving he has a little frequency thing on the laser control yeah where as I was watching the monitor he's like bringing it down and lasers going through faster and then slowed down and I was like right there what something that's just starting to get popular right you've seen recently first one would be probably the lasers right and so lasers are really coming into fruition a lot of live performances are using it and I think it's carrying over into the music video world and then the second thing would be I think lens effects so lens effects are an extremely easy way to get an image in camera right basically you screw on filters then I have effects already tilt in right so you can just screw it on your lens it's a kaleidoscope effect I use it in the trippy red video yeah and I like that a lot because no one image is gonna be the same exact look it's a way to add visual character without actually having to do the exact same effect that somebody else did that's it yeah as a filmmaker it can be really taxing on like your pride when you spend all this time in pre-production and you make this incredible image and it gets 2,000 views on YouTube that's gonna happen but that's also okay because you're building your real and your these images at the end of the day the number of eyeballs on the video huge portion of it is the artist and a popular song absolutely and as much as it sucks like you just gotta power through that kind of thing next to me we'll still showcases you as a filmmaker right so it's not like oh this artist isn't big let's not try as hard kill it on everything build that real get up to the bigger artists then you get the numbers you shot this for example I shot this video Joe Joe sea-washed she's amazing she's really cool the videos whatever right it was not really much direction other than this girl's like at school and there's like this shy girl and these bullies and she kind of saves the bully or saves the shy girl from the bullies but it got seven hundred million views like yes I should have not taken a day rate on this video and just said give me like a point five percent of the YouTube revenue but you never know this some of those things like it also led me to three more videos for her right yeah never underestimate the power of an audience that's not you yep you should put that on a on a poster or something the video I'm most proud of is the mamacita video mm-hmm for Tyga differing yg Tyga actually rode my Harley in the video we also crashed it Tyga gets to this place meets up with this girl Danny Trejo comes in I guess it's her ex-husband or something a brawl breaks out Danny Trejo gets a chair snapped over his back funny story Danny Trejo actually told me how to shoot a couple shots in here cuz I was gonna shoot him a different way and then I was thinking about it and he's like no you want the camera here I was like hold on hold on it's like no shut up you want the camera here literally I bowed down to him and I said you know what you were completely right this guy gets thrown over the bar boom so another story the diopters I called for never showed up so we had to send a runner to like a Walgreens to get a magnifying glass and the only way that I could get those shots of him playing is if we sent somebody to go get a magnifying glass and tape it to the lens you're kidding me dun dun dun it worked and I went to me good I want to thank storey blocks just one more time don't forget that you can say let's Hana time and money just like we do every day by heading over to storey blocks comm /nd mo we actually put a link in the description down below for a free trial get started on your stock footage journey I really Justin thanks so much for joining us out here absolutely people that have questions that want to reach out to you we're gonna find you um on Instagram at Justin Jones DP before we go guess what we have March because not only can you rep the channel but you can also help us out in the process and you can look great by doing so in some classic designs and oh keep an eye on the shelf down below this video because we may be adding some new designs the holiday season is coming up like this one this one and this one thanks so much for joining us thanks for watching guys and of course we'll catch you guys next time appreciate it oh yeah don't suck okay ready

Channel: Indy Mogul

Views: 678,849

Keywords: kendrick lamar, billie eilish, the weeknd, bts, tyga, wiz khalifa, taylor swift, tips for making better music videos, cinematography hack, how to light, music video breakdown, ycimaging, parker walbeck, easy lighting setups, camera movement, film school, tutorials, directing music videos

Id: J_SQoOjv8aM

Length: 20min 36sec (1236 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 15 2019