Making music videos

Recently I decided to persue an old idea I had of making music videos.
So.. naturally, I've been watching a lot of music videos just to get a feel for them.. and you know what? I believe there is some SERIOUS SHIT out there. No, I'm not kidding! Who thought up the idea of doing a 'film/Hollywood dolly + tripod' music video for the metal goodness that is Breaking Benjamin - I Will Not Bow needs to sit down and think about what you feel when listening to metal. If I had been the one behind the camera, I would have shot/edited that bitch until it gave everyone nosebleeds! Metal is hype, exciting, worth screaming to. It's not Hollywood film! You smash cut the hell out of it, mix in some white flashes.. and shake that camera a bit. Let me give you an example of a well made music video:



Before you groan and say "But it's not metal!"... let me explain. It's rap, rap is similar to metal in these ways: It's exciting, it's fast paced... and the subject tends to change quickly. Let's examine the way they made this video. In the first few seconds, we see a nice smooth Dolly/crane shot. Not one shake. Until we cut to a close up, which was obviously shot with a shoulder mounted camera. Progressively through the video, they mash nice "Hollywood" camera movements (Dolly, Crane, possibly steadycam) with those elements of 'nauseacam' or shoulder mounted/handheld work. It's shaky, but its tolerable for your average music video viewer.

This is where slower paced editing, and dolly work is better suited (not that it didn't suit the above video):
(Click the link, Embedding is diabled) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-MvTpOQhCU&feature=related

Even when the band begins to rock out, there is some element of 'shakycam' in there. The director could feel the emotion behind the song, and when the song changed from haunting piano to glorifyed rock ending... he made sure the viewer knew it!

So, my message to those of you who make music videos... for the love of god, analyze the genre of music you're shooting for... and edit/shoot accordingly. Metal videos with just wide shots SUCK... Metal videos that are shot on tripods SUCK. Get in there, don't be afraid to stick a camera in the singer/guitarist/drummer's face and ROCK THAT AUDIENCE!

Thanks for reading.