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If you read this blog, I am sure you have heard about the new music video site 99dollarmusicvideos. I realize I am a bit late to the game since the site has been getting talked up on Videostatic, Idolator and the Ville (where 99$V has drawn less commentary than the ‘controversy’ about Kanye and data-moshing).

The idea behind 99$V is a clever one and will surely draw attention to a few interesting directors and recording artists. This kind of site is not the ‘cause’ of anything bad, but it does indicate where the music video industry is right now – and that is no place very good. This is essentially a video contest, and (as I have written before) those do attract some attention but usually don’t make the best videos.

My first thought was that the glossy intro graphics package on the site (you can see it at the head of a ‘making of’ video) cost way more than the video that followed. Heh, irony.

Any video created within the constraints of the website’s rules – one day shoot, one day edit, spend only $99 AND make a video of how the shoot went down to prove the budget was followed) – is destined to have limitations. That is fine in theory, but for a director, putting an artificially limited video out there for all to see might be problematic – even if doing it in a day for less than a hundred bucks IS an accomplishment. Kind of like going on a job interview after strictly allowing yourself just 15 minutes to shave, shower AND type up a resume – that rumpled and harried person is you, but maybe not the best way to get hired in the future.

The triangle. Good, fast or cheap – you can pick two but not three. Guess which one is gonna get left out of the $99 videos shot in 24 hours?

The formula on the site works great – if you want to see the drama of 'the struggle' like a reality TV show. Watching the designer-contestants on 'Project Runway' rush to make a cocktail dress out of recycled plastics and $17 worth of buttons in less than four hours is much, much more interesting than seeing the resultant garment. Or wearing the half-junk dress, for that matter.

The goal of the 99$V site is to get viewers for Verizon ads – which is a fine and noble goal. The best way to do that is to show us the drama of a harried director grinding to get the video done in the allotted time for the tiny budget. If the resulting music video helps the band's (or the director's) career very much is secondary.

The ‘behind the scenes’ videos are more intriguing (at least to my drunken eye) than the actual music videos. More than anything, maybe that shows us where music videos are at these days.

Labels: contest, hipsters, insider, music video, video link, viral video

I know I touched on this before, but does anyone still think that fan made music videos are going to be the next wave?

Here are some suggestions from the site for the newest fan-mercial contest from Heinz Ketchup.


More posts coming soon. Until then, try not to let this girl steal your job.

Labels: contest, music video

I know the topic of fan created videos has been covered before – both here and other places, but I though recent events justified a new mention.

Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal had a whole article dedicated to the “downside” of fan created videos. Seriously, it is sub-titled “Hundreds Enter, but Some Complain Winners Are Often Pros Seeking Exposure, Not Loyal Listeners.” You can read the WSJ piece here, but you already know exactly what it is gonna say.

Once a mainstream media outlet gets a hold of something from the “fringes” of society – crunk, flash mobs, Scott Storch, lipstick parties, et al – you know the gig is up. If it is getting major ink in Time or the Wall Street Journal, you know the cool factor is already long gone. So I was assuming that fan video contests were deader than Ja Rule’s Reunion Tour until I saw …

A new contest on the horizon. No, not Spielberg's "The Lot" reality show. Seriously, this new competition changes it all. This is a new paradigm. The website even gives prospective directors some great advice:

Think original. Be creative. Impress us. Actually, wow us! Is the idea behind your video fresh and new? Will it make people say, "That was really clever!" Or is it just another version of an idea we've all seen a million times already?

Win us over. Regardless of how original your idea may be, is the video appealing and interesting? Will people enjoy seeing it and watching it over and over?
And be sure to keep it clean. [ARTIST X] is a good guy, so we’ll ask ourselves, “Is it respectful of [ARTIST X]?”

Details, Details. [ARTIST X] sweats the details and knows that even the best ideas fall apart if they're poorly executed. Have you paid attention to the details? Have any embellishments you've added strengthened the idea or do they just distract?

Who could save the world of fan created content and make YouToogle relevant again? Why Mister Clean of course? The above creative advice is excepted from Senor Spotless’ website and you can even watch a sample of their idea of a creative concept on the splash page. (is that Gondry-esque stop motion?)

Check it out and rejoice that fan made video contests will live forever.

Labels: antville, contest, music video, YouTube

The list of Grammy nominated videos came out this week. I believe the selections are solid and remind me of the choices the Grammy voters seem to make every year. In the same way a famous actor playing a character that is fat/ugly/retarded almost assures an Oscar nod, the Grammys seem to look for certain things.

The main thing they look for is a “hook.” Hooks are good, they sell treatments to labels and make for some memorable videos. The Grammy voters like ultra-high concept stuff like “Hey Ya!” and the dancing Walken video – which is certainly not a bad thing.

This year the nominees are Big & Rich with a tear-jerker about war veterans, The Killers with a telenovella, Chili Peppers with themselves playing dress-up, Underoath wedged into a nightmare dollhouse and OK GO bouncing around on choreographed treadmills. I believe OK GO is/will be one of the most significant and memorable clips for this era of music video, despite what some people might think. The full list of Grammy nominations is here.

On a side note, the long-form nominations are usually a collection of uninteresting concert footage, backstage interviews and old videos. This year is the same except for the Death Cab collection which is fresh new stuff. Congrats for those involved.

Back to the short-form nominees. All these are good videos and the makers should be proud. High concept videos are neither good nor bad in my book – some are excellent others are Trapped in the Closet. Those big hooks and high concepts certainly jump off the page in treatment form, which is definitely a good thing.

Hook videos are sort of the opposite of the “execution” videos I have written about before. Execution videos, like Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” or No Doubt’s “Hella Good” are not ‘about’ any one thing but rather more focused on performance, the photography and style. Execution videos are also often harder to describe in one sentence, at least in a way that makes them sound like a good idea for a label to shell out $$$ for. Seriously, Hella Good is the band in vaguely futuristic/apocalyptic looks, completely alone in and around a decrepit cargo ship all shot in black and white. That doesn’t sound great in one sentence, but the final video was excellent (IMO). Hook videos are the opposite, with quick, easily digestable pitches (RHCP perform on stage in dressed and shot like a living history book of rock and roll, from British Invasion to Glam Metal and everything in between). Both “types” of videos (and there are obviously way more variations and shades of grey than just these two) can produce great results but the hookier ideas are easier to sell to the client and they are usually the kind that award shows (like the Grammys) notice.

I, personally, don’t think that hook videos are usually the best for a new artist. The performers can get lost in the hub-bub of the idea, which is fine if you are as famous as the Killers or Flea, but not so good if you are the guys in Underoath.

I don’t think that the Underoath video really serves the band because most viewers have never seen them before and after watching the video, still haven't seen them. I feel like I wouldn’t recognize them if I saw them again. To me, they get lost in the cool visuals of the clip. Same thing for that Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity” video, their only clip that ever aired much in the US. I am still not sure I know anything about the group. Band? Solo guy? I don’t know. I do know the Jamiroquai dude is famous in the UK but Americans don’t dance we just pull up our pants and do the roc-a-way.

Execution videos usually make better introductions to new performers or artists switching to a new image – “Crazy in Love” or Christina’s first “Genie in a Bottle.” Execution videos usually have longer close-ups and they focus more on performance without too much story, effects or concept getting in the way. I have encountered labels booking a job based on a hooky concept that is fun to read and then the same execs try to turn the finished clip into an execution video during the shoot and/or edit, usually with poor results.

On a side note, I have recently figured out how to see who logged onto this blog and what link referred them and so on. Basic stuff, but that’s how I roll. Anyway – I have been getting a trickle of traffic from people who have Googled “execution videos” and are really looking for something far, far darker that I have to offer.

I know some commenters don’t like the tone of the blog, because it is too grim and they don’t like the view I have of the music video industry. To those people I say, Sony and Warner Bros laid off MORE employees in the video departments on Friday. I ain’t making this stuff up and at least no one gets “executed” here.

Labels: contest, media, music video, review, videostatic

Many of you will wonder, “Why in the hell is this guy writing the same freaking post again?” Well, I wonder that myself sometimes. On the automotive industry blog call “The Truth About Cars” they have written over a hundred posts about the inexorable demise of General Motors, so I am just biting their style.

Over on the ‘ville there is a discussion about a contest to finish a video for The Decemberists. More details on video static, since my Mac-loving makes logging onto any MTV related site painful to impossible. Overall, this is a great marketing concept by Capitol, especially since it has been picked up by The Colbert Report and smacked around on a REAL television network (sorry MTVu).

The prize for the contest from MTV/Viacom? Ironically, a Mac laptop. But that’s it. Oh, and airplay on MTVu. Whoop-de-doo. That’s fun as a lark, but it showcases once again how directing music videos is no longer a career. MVs are now something to be done in one’s spare time – since you will need to keep your regular gig making lattes, driving a UPS truck or working at a sullenly-unkempt indie record store (oops, scratch that last one) to pay the bills.

Making music videos is slipping away from being a profession and moving into becoming a hobby. Videos air on websites and not television networks. Or they do air on TV, but in such obscure spots (MTVu) that they have the same viewer-ship as a website.

Addendum Dec 2: The Decemberists and this contest are not the problem, nor are they even causing the problem. This is a smart idea to promote a pretty cool band, but it does illuminate the creeping amateurism in what was once a professional industry. Back in the day, MTV had a contest called "The Basement Tapes" where baby directors made videos for their local bands and got airplay on MTV. That contest discovered Scott "Parents Just Don't Understand" Kalvert, one of the most influential video directors ever. That was different because it sought out amateur directors to do videos for small, local bands that would get major cable airplay. This contest is being sponsored by a major label band and only gets airplay on MTV's college network (which is viewed exclusively by non-CD buying "downloaders"). To me, that is a major step back.

That leads me too …

The Mine. Raw. A Few Miles North. Propaganda. Geneva Films.

Those are all music video production companies that have gone out of business. Some were significant players. Some probably still owe you money.

The most successful production companies – HSI, @Radical, Black Dog/RSA – keep their doors open by producing commercials. Music videos are only an afterthought. Yes, Paul Hunter is at HSI, but he makes more commercials these days than videos. HSI is not a “music video company” any more than your local McDonalds is an “ice cream parlor” because they have a soft serve machine behind the counter. It ain’t music videos that keeps Stavros in Aston Martins.

Things are changing. Things always change. But the business of music videos – at least the big-budget "Hollywood" end of the pool that I swim in – is “changing” by going away.

That might mean more opportunity for young directors who are hungry enough to enter contests and beg favors to get $5k jobs shot. Let’s just hope your prod co stays in business long enough to pay you.

What are these dark, empty parking lot photos doing here? This is the former executive parking lot for Band Apart. You remember Band Apart – Tarantino, John Woo, Robert Rod …

This used to be the exec producer's parking spot. It is where I park now, when I go to my gym.

Labels: antville, contest, death, music video, prod co