Now, this is even more relevant for video people than Soderbergh's State of Cinema speech...
Director Anthony Mandler gave his thoughts to Forbes contributor and fellow vid director Brian Petchers, focusing on how to get noticed in a medium that traditionally rewards big productions, but is no longer able to fund them for most artists. (Plug: See The Rules for why that's the case).
Here's the money quote (so to speak):
“Part of what is missing today are event videos.” We all remember Michael Jackon’s Scream (made for upward of $6 million) or Jay-Z Big Pimpin (made for roughly $2 million). It is videos like these that become timeless and memorable…People still love the event videos…but, the vast majority of videos today are underfunded” and it becomes tougher to execute unique ideas on a small budget. “70% of videos today don’t have enough money invested in production or start with a clever enough idea to do something unusual … and, therefore, slip into the sea of the average,” says Mandler.
And on how to succeed in music videos:
One of Mandler’s key to achieving this level of impact is by enhancing the experience by bringing a cinematic feel to music videos He also looks deeply at the image the artist is trying to convey (i.e. who is Eminem vs. Marshall Mathers or who is Jay-Z vs. Sean Carter.) “How do we take that character and tell their story?” For Mandler, when a video starts to come together in the right way, ”…the lyrics and the music become the soundtrack of that story and those two elements [imagery and music] together become something like 1 plus 1 starting to equal 4.”
Read more at Forbes, including a breakdown of Mandler's controversial Lana Del Rey x A$AP Rocky "National Anthem" video...
