welcome back everyone it's Robert Macfarlane here and today we're going to be taking a look at how to
come up with a unique music video concept
music really is a part of our day-to-day lives and when that music is paired to a brilliantly directed
video it absolutely enhances and reinforces just how fantastic that track was
now we have all seen and if you haven't go back and watch it Michael Jackson 'Thriller'
it was one of the first music videos of its time to bring narrative storytelling
dance music performance all together in a high production value masterpiece of storytelling
there has been a vast and very textured history to music video creation over the years
it's probably one of the most diverse cross-sections of video making out there
pretty much any style concept idea thing can be thrown into a music video and
with the right execution it can become brilliant just look at the Gangnam Style
that humorous brilliantly produced music video was also a satire on an entire
subculture in Korea that music video actually also forced youtube to raise its maximum view
count to accommodate for how quickly the Gangnam Style music video was accruing views
now of course don't don't get me wrong there are also some pretty bad music videos out there
they don't really leave you with any lasting impression other than a bad taste in your mouth
i also believe that music videos are a brilliant way to practice
filmmaking believe it or not i mean you're able to create music videos very quickly and you're
able to improve and iterate on your ideas and your directing style and your filmmaking style
each and every time when i started out on music videos i did my first six music
videos for completely free and through word of mouth alone i was able to get
lots of new artists in regularly coming back to me for new music videos
each of you will have a different idea of what type of music video you enjoy the most some of
you will enjoy performance-based music videos where the artist will sing to the camera and you
will evoke in them through camera direction and blocking the most evocative performance possible
you may also love the narrative music video
and you may enjoy your alternative music videos
my process breaks down into a few very defined steps when i get the go-ahead that the musician
wants to get a music video for their particular track i will then spend probably the next two days
listening to that track on repeat and i am looking for a moment that catches a image that starts to
blossom in my mind now i will not jump on the very first thing that jumps into my mind generally that
is the thing that you don't want to go for it's the obvious music video it's the very
but what you want to do is to jot all your ideas down over those two
to three days where you're listening to that track over and over and over again now if you are living
with other people please uh don't listen to it on loud because you are gonna drive everybody insane
once you have listed out a whole bunch of ideas you are going to make sure you have a
conversation an open and frank conversation with the artist of the track and this happens after
you have heard it after it is ingrained in your very soul
and then you ask them why did you write this track what does this track mean to you and how do
you see a music video for this track even though they may have a vision for the music video
it may or may not be the right music video for this track but what it could do is jog some
new ideas or piece some of your concepts together into a more coherent whole than you had previously
and no you're still not going to make a final decision on the music video okay
instead what you want to do is you want to take a look at the audience for your artist if you
don't know who that group of people are then you probably are going to make the wrong video
the next level now this might sound strange but you are going to think about the budget
most likely your artist has come to you and said hey i've got
this much money this
is the point in which you start to evolve the concepts you've had and the ideas that you've
had you may have whittled it down to two or three concepts and this budget may well get rid of
one or two last concepts so you're left with maybe just one concept that could be executed
properly for the budget now this is something that i really want to hammer home
it's really really easy to over promise on a music video especially one when you're excited about the
music itself you can really want to go to town but it's really important to remember that you
have to be financially viable if you're going to pay people to come and help you you have to pay
them a good wage and you also have to pay yourself for your time so to create a music video that
makes sense for the money that you're being paid you also have to come up with a concept that can
be executed within the limited time and scale that you've been given
here is my kind of secret sauce a little sprinkling of secret sauce once i've got
my last couple of ideas and i'm literally singing it in my sleep i will then go away and also start
to watch alternative forms of content i won't watch music videos instead i'll watch short films
i'll watch corporates and adverts and feature films and tv series i'll start consuming content
books and magazines i'll start looking at artists instagram pages and i will allow this content
to start seeping into me start to trigger things in me that i am then able to start applying that
content to the music video so instead of me looking for inspiration in other music videos
i'm looking for inspiration in the rest of life i'm looking at inspiration in other other creators
work to then apply that in creating really unique music videos finally we get to the
stage where you are going to put all of this into a concept and you are going to create a treatment
now treatments can come in various styles and lengths but i do recommend a two to three page
treatment and you are going to very briefly describe the track and what it means to you
and what it means to the audience
your vision for that track and how it applies to the audience
how you are going to approach the music video what will be the styles that you
will utilize where have those styles been used before and why are they successful
showing the client the musician the label if you are lucky enough
to be dealing with a label as well exactly what music video you will produce for them
and you've got to remember that these people they're not there they're not being paid to
imagine you are being paid to imagine you are the one who has to prove that you can imagine a
brilliant beautiful unique and successful music video for this artist
now you've probably sat there and watched 100 or 200 music videos from similar artists of similar
styles and you have done your absolute very best to come up with a concept that makes not
only makes sense budgetarily but also fits with the brand the audience is really super cool and
interesting but also you need to make sure that it comes from your own voice and this is where
a unique style comes into play to create a unique music video you need to not only be aware
of everything that has come before but what music video have you not seen yet and one that you think
would speak to you jot down your 10 top music videos the ones that made you feel made you smile
made you jump up and down and dance and then start to look at how these music videos could
inspire the music videos that you produce in the future these are so incredibly important to
understand what makes you excited when you watch a music video and it's the same thing for film
and short film as well to understand what excites you as a filmmaker will ultimately give you the
answer as to what type of music video you will create and what you can uniquely create yourself
thank you so much for joining me today if you found today's content useful
don't forget to check out the links below to up your game on your next film