Music videos - A look behind the scenes

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This weekend I got to see a fun film about the film business, The Last Shot (and don’t let the first 5 minutes of the film misguide you). Joe Devine pretends to be a movie director, and gets Steven Schats to believe that his film will be produced. At one point this dialogue entails between them:

Joe Devine: Have you actually seen a person die, watched them bleed to death, seen them take their last breath? I’ve seen that… many times.
Steven Schats: Why have you seen that?
Joe Devine: I used to produce music videos.

Which is especially funny if you have worked on music videos. Or pop promos as they are often referred to in the industry.

The types on a pop promo set

Pop promos are a totally different type of films from all the others; most notably there often isn’t a story, no one seems to worry about continuity, and generally there are 4 to 6 types of people on set:

1. Crew - the ones who ensure that at the end of the night, there will be something that can be cut. Also: making sure that noone gets killed.
   The DP is sort of the General of the whole operation, giving the entity its visual style.
2. Director - often a cool, hip young dude in flashy clothes. I’ve never been totally sure whether they are really needed on the set; my impression is that most of their work is done before and after the actual shoot.
3. Main talent - pops in for a fraction of the shoot to do the performance. The bigger the name, the larger the entourage. I had one pop promo, where the talent even brought her own cook - and she was on set for maybe 2 hours.
   Some have to show their attitude by being late/drunk/stoned/totally unprepared/gruffy/hostile/unable to remember the lines of the song they supposedly wrote.
   I was surprised to find out that even big name front figures do have very limited control over the content of their videos. Which brings us to�
4. Executives - their main job is to prolong the shooting by coming up with last-minute alterations. Since they are also the money people, they do have the last say. And of course, since they are virtually superfluous on the set, they have to make the comments � otherwise they would realize the illusion of their imporatance.
5. The band - They have to hang around much longer than the Main talent, then they are filmed in various close-ups; most of which ends on the cutting floor. They are usually great to work with, and happy to get some undivided attention. And very realistic as to their status as being background for the Main talent.
6. Extras - Just like in most other types of films, they have to have an incredible patience. But they get to say that they’ve been in the latest music video from whats-her-name.

Orbital meets Kafka

On YouTube I came across a video I worked on when I lived in the UK; Style by Orbital:

This is a very unusual pop promo for various reasons:

• The band members were never on the set
• It was not a live action story, but animated (inspired by Kafka)
• Shot in the course of 2 weeks (usual is 1 or 2 days/nights)
• I worked on the set without ever having heard the song
• Very calm, concentrated, friendly set

Usually the music is played over and over during the filming, so that at the end of the shoot you drive home exhausted, and during the night you constantly dream about that very song. Exhausting!

On this occasion a friend of mine, Jorge Luengas, was working as Focus Puller on the shoot, and somehow he got production to hire me for two days as a Clapper Loader. A clapper loader’s first job is to keep the film camera (an Arri 435 in this case) loaded with fresh film. Which usually is a rather demanding, and, in the UK, totally underpaid, work. Except that on a animation film you might shoot 10-30 seconds per day, and a roll of film holds 10 minutes. So there was not a lot of work to be done. But I got to work on the film for 2 days - and you can even see my hand in shot (when the lady tries to squash the bug (crossing the TV) with a newspaper (incidentally my favourite German daily, the S�ddeutsche).

Directors Luke Losey and Jonathan Charles, DP Jonathan Bloom, and camera operator Grant Wakefield all did an excellent job.

Treat your surroundings like dirt, and see what happens

I could also mention my first pop promo as a camera operator, where the band turned up drunk, and started throwing food at the camera and me. At which point I refused to enter the set with this rather valuable camera � we ended up shooting the remainder through the windows while the band enjoyed themselves in the mature activity of a full scale food fight.

Naturally, they didn’t clean up after themselves.

Oh, and their planned re-launch never took off. I wonder if that might have anything to do with professionalism and respect.

Or lack of.