Filmmaking

First things first; yes, I acknowledge music video as a form of filmmaking. With that having been said, I recently came across the group, Singleton, while searching for fresh, new music for my radio station. I immediately fell in love with their music for a variety of reasons and quickly added their songs to Source Point Radio. I describe it as having the same freshness that we loved when listening to Nirvana, The Cranberries, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, NineInchNails, Everything But The Girl, Smashing Pumpkins (whom I called Smashed Up Pumpkins for the longest time), to name a few. These groups were all so very different from each other but there was something about the energy of them that made them very different from everyone else as well. Singleton has that same freshness about them and their music.

I was equally delighted when they released an official video for their song, Get Out of My Mind. It’s an amazing song. When I first saw the video a few months ago, I could not stop watching it. And even now, I still find myself sneaking a peak at it whenever I get a chance. I was absolutely in love with the video. It was inspiring and made me want to try my hand at doing music videos.

On my favorite film-making community message-board, there was a post basically bashing most types of music video production. I posted the Get Out of My Mind video and they didn’t like this video either. What a surprise. One filmmaker said they hated when a music video didn’t tell a story. Having one’s own opinion about art is all fine and dandy but that’s just down right silly. Not all songs have a story to tell (in the sense that they described having a story as being able to show what the lyrics are describing). Many, many songs are all about emotion and have little to do with a tale of events.

I guess in this filmmakers eyes there should never be a music video for most blues songs. *Smile* For example, B.B. King’s The Thrill is Gone is an emotion based song and I think the video of the song he did with Tracy Chapman was absolutely beautiful. I think this is also the case with Singleton’s Get Out of My Mind. Do you have any idea what Alina is talking about in this song? Nope. It’s not about the what. The song is an emotional song that leaves you with the feeling that whatever it is, it’s stressful. You don’t even know if it’s a good stressful or bad stressful. She could be talking about going on stage, getting married, being manic (and expressing the inability to control her feelings & behavior while in that state), who knows? It’s not important, but the feeling is.

So acorrding to the filmmaker, making a music video should force the filmmaker to tell us the “what”. I don’t agree with that at all. I love a visual portrayal of just the emotion. That also makes for some very beautiful and moving music videos. It allows for more creative freedom. When the “what” is there. You are basically only allowed to tell that story. It may be easier (and perhaps that’s the root of it all) but not better per se.

I felt I needed to voice my thoughts about this because I also just watched a documentary about making documentaries where the filmmakers were all in their little self-imposed boxes and it just drove me up the wall. I just don’t understand how such a freeing and creative artform can have so many people who insist on making cages for themeselves and other artists. The filmmakers talked about documentary filmmaking as if it were completely monolithic. It was the equivelent of saying filmmaking only has one genre! To them, documentary filmmaking only included the dirty, gritty, in-your-face style films and I couldn’t help but think, “what about all the other types of documentaries?”.

And I’ll say this to filmmakers everywhere… What about all the other types of music videos?

Here’s one: Get Out of My Mind by Singleton

I’ll go on to say this is a fantastic and effective video for this song and for the group. And we also have to take into a band’s budget into consideration when we go mouthing off about our ideals. The bottom line is, was it effective and within the budget? If the answer is yes to both, life is good. I think sometimes filmmakers can get too caught up on themselves and forget that they aren’t the only type of artist out there. A music video doesn’t have to just serve their creative whims and needs. It’s an expressive marketing tool for the band as well. And to be honest, this video was a bit refreshing because there are many indie bands unwilling or unable to make a music video. Also, there were several filmmakers complaining about bands having only $5k to put towards making a video as if to imply it was pathetic. I wondered what planet these people are on.

Actually I wonder that quite often in regards to some filmmakers. *Smile* When they started to break down their idea of costs for making a music video it became clear… the problem was really their inability to make an effective music video without an army and NASA to help them make it happen. What I find most inspiring about this music video were the “making of” photos. Looks like they used two HDSLR cameras and a track dolly (and other essentials, like lighting, etc.).

I know there are different types of viewers in the world and we all process things differently. That’s awesome for sure. It would be a lot more supportive of a world if we all knew and accepted that. For instance, perhaps the video might look mundane to some. However to someone like me, there is a lot of visual candy there and I don’t just mean how pretty the picture looks. I love how the filmmakers focus on Alina Fedorova’s hand movements and I love the facial expression she does at the end. I also love some of the straight on shots of the entire band. It really brings you to them as a group and not just the lead singer. The bent over drummer… and Alina’s emotional “Get out of my mind” while backing away from the mic… brilliant. Again, it’s the emotion of it that attracts me. I believe I blogged about the first time I saw B.B. King play (ever) and how I was instantlly mesmerized by his facial expressions because I felt like his love of music trully took him somewhere else while he was playing. I love that!

What I also liked about this video was its fantastic use of movement. The camera moved just enough to give the video a little more energy but not enough to overstep it. I’m also glad that they didn’t go 100% Hollywood in a desperate attempt to overcompensate for a one room video shoot. It wasn’t neccessary and like I said, seeing what they were able to do in one room really inspired me!

You might be thinking, well there are tons of good videos like this out there. You’re right! *Smile* I just join the world of visual media only once in a while even though I make it. This video just happen to come into my universe at a time when I decided to tag in.

And come on, you gotta love a band that looks like at least one or two of them probably has candy. *Smile*