Brag A Little - My Vid on MTV. Need Advice!

Finite_Studios

Finite_Studios

Member
Hey guys, I just wanted to brag a bit and ask for advice. A few months ago I shot a music video for local band Dead Child (One DVX100A, handheld and tripod only. Edited in Vegas, color in Shake) , and then last week the video ended up on MTV2 and was then voted best new video and will play again this weekend. Here's the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfPV_ZUOoT4

I'm just wondering, WHAT NOW?! I've had this success, but I'm really not sure where to go from here. How can I pull in more paying jobs and really take my company to the next level? Is it time to move to LA? There's honestly not much going on here in Louisville, KY. My ultimate goal is to write and shoot features, but it seems like I'm just getting used car lot and church commercials around here....

Thanks everybody!
 
Footage was great.

What was your budget and light setup (if you don't mind).

What Now? Well, my advice would be to add one or two more music video shoots to your portfolio and start sending it out to agencies. If they know your video's have been on MTV and such you'll have a better chance of getting "picked up".

How did you find color work in Shake?

All the best,
 
so wait you don't collect royalties for this? I mean a major network is airing it. you should be getting compensated for releasing the video to them.
 
homer said:
so wait you don't collect royalties for this? I mean a major network is airing it. you should be getting compensated for releasing the video to them.
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It was probably shot with the band as the client, who holds the rights to it. As the director/editor his only money making opportunity is with the client (which is the band or record label). When you film commercials or music videos etc you get paid once. By the client. You only make royalties on stuff if it is something (such as a narrative or documentry film (video) which you yourself have the rights to.
 
cool man, just finished watching. If i may critique on it slightly, i would begin first by saying that i have never made anything of this quality before, however from a fellow filmmakers perspective, i found it to be very repetitive and bland. The same shots over and over again, i found myself wondering when things would change up and at one point it got quite boring.

Loved the lighting and camera movement. Perhaps it was due to budget restraits but only the first 30 seconds had me interested, and the rest was, as i said, was quite monotonous, with a lack of "mixing it up" factor.

Good work, all in all.
 
Cryogenic Filmworks said:
It was probably shot with the band as the client, who holds the rights to it. As the director/editor his only money making opportunity is with the client (which is the band or record label). When you film commercials or music videos etc you get paid once. By the client. You only make royalties on stuff if it is something (such as a narrative or documentry film (video) which you yourself have the rights to.
Click to expand...

thanks.
 
Thanks for all the feedback! This video was shot FAST to put it lightly. We were in an old building with terrible power and we kept popping fuses and breakers. We only shot for around 4 hours total, and one member of the band didn't arrive until the last hour of the shoot.

As far as the lighting setup, we had 4 Photoflexes on stands with soft boxes (2 500's and 2 1000's) and 4 trees of 4 lights each on DMX controllers (those are what you see in the background). Add one strobe and a monster fog machine and call it a day. There are some photos where you can see the lights on our MySpace page and a few on the Finite Studios homepage.

Working with Shake for color is great, it's node based so you can really experiment and pile stuff in there and screw around until you get something that you like.

I had a lot of other ideas to really add some flavor to this video, but given the time and budget constraints, we really only had time to run through the song a few times with the band. They were actually in the middle of a tour when we shot this.

My real question is "How do I get more work?". I'm just not having an luck in the area finding ANY work at all, not even music videos. Are there any places I could advertise or agencies I could contact etc?

Thanks again!
 
Finite_Studios said:
Thanks for all the feedback! This video was shot FAST to put it lightly. We were in an old building with terrible power and we kept popping fuses and breakers. We only shot for around 4 hours total, and one member of the band didn't arrive until the last hour of the shoot.

As far as the lighting setup, we had 4 Photoflexes on stands with soft boxes (2 500's and 2 1000's) and 4 trees of 4 lights each on DMX controllers (those are what you see in the background). Add one strobe and a monster fog machine and call it a day. There are some photos where you can see the lights on our MySpace page and a few on the Finite Studios homepage.

Working with Shake for color is great, it's node based so you can really experiment and pile stuff in there and screw around until you get something that you like.

I had a lot of other ideas to really add some flavor to this video, but given the time and budget constraints, we really only had time to run through the song a few times with the band. They were actually in the middle of a tour when we shot this.

My real question is "How do I get more work?". I'm just not having an luck in the area finding ANY work at all, not even music videos. Are there any places I could advertise or agencies I could contact etc?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...


Well, maybe I can and can't help you. Currently, I live in Pasadena, which is in LA, but not DIRECTLY in LA, it's just a few exits away. Anyways, my advice would be to move out here, because I can assure the amount of venue's and small restaurants/bars where upcoming bands play is VERY abundant. And if you want more clients: 1) come out here 2) go to shows and meet bands 3) offer to make them a music video etc...

That would be my advice.
 
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