Music Video Shoot

4 Responses

1. Play songs on your phone when you’re not busy to keep yourself sane.

2. Glad to hear times are changing for music videos! My advice was going to be prepare yourself for an 18 – 22 hr day. But I haven’t worked on one for over 6 years….for that reason. And yeah that playback will start to drive you crazy, hope you like the artist!

3. Bring an earplug your non-walkie-talkie ear. The playback that accompanies most music videos tends to be VERY loud — and prepare go home with the worst ear-worm ever. You’re going to hear every verse and chorus of the song more times than you ever wanted to, until it has been burned into your brain. It’ll be replaying inside your head for the next week.

   From what I hear, music videos aren’t nearly so bad as they used to be. Back in the day, video budgets for major artists were huge, so it wasn’t unusual to work 18 to 24 hour days — and that’s a long time to listen to the same fucking song again and again at ear-splitting volume. Those days were truly abusive. The last video one I did was in the new era of lower budgets, and with no money for overtime the producer called wrap right at 12 hours. Not so bad.

   And it actually is possible for a music video to be fun. I did one Randy Newman video (Money that Matters) that was all day exteriors, very low key and relaxed. We had a great time… but believe me, that was the exception that proves the rule.

   Still, music videos are so different from any other type of production — light years from a mult-cam show or office PA work — that you’ll probably have a blast. The first two or three can be fun.

   Unless it’s a rap video, of course. In that case, God help you…

4. Don’t sit down. Just keep working.