Unofficial music videos

L

Lynos

Well-known member
What is your take about making unofficial music videos?

I don't mean splicing up footage in an editing software with a music track and uploading to youtube, I'm talking about actually getting out there with a crew and shoot a music video - only nonofficial - since obviously it doesn't involve the artists or their consent.

Has this been tried before? Is it considered copyright infringement even if it's just for online use with no intention of making money out of it? (maybe a naive question).

I have a couple of favorite tunes to which music videos were never made, and I would love to create videos for them.

Will be happy to hear your thoughts in the matter.

Thanks.
 
ANY exhibition or distribution -- Internet or whatever -- would be a copyright infringement, regardless of whether or not you do it for profit. That doesn't mean similar stuff isn't done all the time, and it's probably doubtful anybody will come after you for it. Still, if the law is important to you, then don't do it.
 
seems like a lot of work for something you then can't show off publicly.

Personally I'd rather make an official music video for a local band who would love the publicity. Even then, you'll need a carefully worded contract - they don't want your wonderful freely available video (whcih includes their song) taking sales away from the actual song, but equally they may be delighted to have that video creating publicity for the rest of their album.
 
I find that it's not that easy to find songs by local groups that I actually can envision a video too. For me, I really need to like the song.

I wonder if anyone here knows about unofficial videos... I would be curious to see them.
 
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There is some leeway in the Fair Use Act for videos used as spoofs... I will do some research...
 
People do it all the time for their demo reels. They shoot fake commercials of real products as well (then try to get the product-maker's agency to hire them to make it again for real).

It's called "Spec". As long as you don't broadcast or distribute it, no problem.

If you want to get into music videos, there's tonnes of bands out there that have great music and would love to have someone do a video for them.
 
Have you tried to buy the rights to the song? I'd be curious if you'd try and report on your experience.
 
I really do believe I will not be able to afford buying the rights to the songs I'm interested in.

I guess one can always try, though...
 
There are unsigned bands out there with a heck of a lot better music than most of what plays on the radio, you just have to find them. That's really the trick. I have been extremely lucky so far to find two great unsigned bands to make killer videos for, but right now I'm stuck on trying to find the third and fourth that I want to shoot this summer. It's not easy unfortunately, because as you said you have to love the song to want to make a video for it, really. I cannot listen to a song 200 times if I don't care for it, unless I'm being paid an obscene amount of money.
 
People don't feel like answering your question for some reason.

Short answer - go do it.

If it it's really good the worst that happens is you get a ton of attention and YouTube eventually pulls it - but not before the band takes notice and thinks about hiring you to do their next video.
 
I don't feel like there's anything wrong with it, and have done it a couple of times for big bands. I could never acquire the rights to that music without spending a pile of money, but it was good practice, good for the reel, and I have a feeling any band would get a kick out of it (though their lawyers might not).

Technically you can't put someone else's music on your demo reel either, but almost everyone does that too. There's a big difference between a spec video, commercial, or use of a song in a reel and actually trying to sell someone else's work without them benefitting. I say go for it! Sometimes there just isn't music locally that really grabs you.
 
Why would anyone want to hire someone who has proven they have no problem with stealing someone else's material for their own use? Seems like a bad business move to me.

I hope nobody does the same to any of your projects.
 
It's against the law. If you have no interest in being legal or ethical, then do what you want. Just don't complain if the day comes when somebody decides to steal YOUR work for their use.
 
Ok... but what does it really hurt? If they already have a video on YouTube, you can't say that he is hurting their record sales. That's obviously 100% bullsh** because anyone who wants to listen to the song can go to YouTube anyway, so it's not unethical because it doesn't cost anyone any money, nor does it harm anyone physically or financially. It's just not a big deal, i.e. nobody really cares about knockoffs like that.

I'm not saying I'd do that myself, because I think it's a total waste of time and money to make a video for a song that you don't even have permission to shoot for, it just seems stupid to me, but that doesn't make it unethical. Oh no, some guy made a video and posted it on YouTube with our music that's available everywhere, what ever shall we do?! *yawn*

Especially funny commentary considering how many bands recently have actually held contests to let fans make videos for them and then paid the winning filmmaker for their video, made it their official video for that track or a bonus video on the CD, etc.
 
It's not unethical and it's not against the law. It's just a waste of time considering how many cool bands there are out there that would love to have someone do a video for them.

If you don't have any ideas for the video, listen to the song over-and-over-and-over with a notepad and pen in front of you, and wait for the ideas to flow. This, after all, is what really matters -- how you come up with ideas. Don't expect to be doing too many videos if you can only think of videos for songs that you've already heard a thousand times.
 
Very true, Mark, that's part of the process. I love coming up with an idea, though. Well, I guess, I love and hate it. It's very exciting because you can see something taking shape in your mind, and that can change at any point, but it's also very frustrating at first because you keep thinking of the stupidest ideas, or worse yet, nothing at all, until you have that AHA! moment. Usually the first few times I listen to a song I picture everything literally, which is in my opinion a horrible way to do a music video, unless it's Weird Al and your music video is White and Nerdy, then it's hilarious. But in general you want to ignore the literal interpretation of lyrics, lest you come up with something unoriginal, derivative, and ultimately nothing that adds to the song itself.

I would say that alone is a pretty good indicator of a good versus mediocre video. Good videos always have really interesting interpretations of the song that you hadn't thought of before, or that are just wacky and out there but somehow work visually with the music. At least, that's my opinion...
 
It IS against copyright laws. I don't know how you think it isn't.

And taking someone else's work for your own use without their permission is unethical, pure and simple. Whether or not anyone is 'hurt' is not the point.
 
hey lynos. I am a film commissioner for Universal Music Group out of NYC. The general consensus for most "unofficial" music videos is that they are good publicity. However, there may not be a need to do it unofficially. I gather you would like to do it for free. If you reach out to the proper people, a lot of times they will work with you to make the video. At least then you have a good chance of having it promoted and credited properly. The future of music videos are now moving away from the huge directors and looking for the new talent that is out there. All of these extremely talented people who just need the opportunity. The tools are now available to nearly anyone with a modest budget.
In the coming weeks Island Def Jam, will be holding a series of contests where unknown directors can take a crack at making their own "unofficial" music video. the winners of these contests will then have an opportunity to write for some of premiere acts. For ambitious directors this could be a fast way of moving straight to the top.
I generally recommend against directing a music video for a local band. Unless it's merely to gain knowledge. if you're confident that you'll deliver a great music video then there are plenty of signed acts, both big and small, that will allow you to do a music video. As long as you make a deal with whoever it is, that it will be properly promoted. That is where the payoff will be.
 
Hmm, interesting advice. I think it's fairly difficult to find signed bands with whom to work, though. I'm here in Los Angeles and I haven't had any luck with that, at least. I certainly think I have the quality of work to be doing record label videos now, but I'm sure on a smaller scale, the low budget stuff. I know a few directors who do record label videos and they're quite good, but I think I'm capable as well.
 
JonathanLB said:
Hmm, interesting advice. I think it's fairly difficult to find signed bands with whom to work, though. I'm here in Los Angeles and I haven't had any luck with that, at least. I certainly think I have the quality of work to be doing record label videos now, but I'm sure on a smaller scale, the low budget stuff. I know a few directors who do record label videos and they're quite good, but I think I'm capable as well.
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do you have a reel? what bands you like? are you looking to do a video for free or cheap? if cheep then how much?
 
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