Lens of the Experts

In my last blog I’ve shared about how I emailed professionals who I look up to in the different field I am interested in, field of music video directing, to music production. I took the chance not knowing if they were going to respond or not. But to my surprise, I received 7 responses out of 12 that I sent! From the 7 that responded, 2 are individuals that have directed big names from the music industry such as Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, the Weekend and more. I was blessed to have gotten their advice and hearing about their experiences and how they got to where they are now. Among all they shared, there were three points that I’d like to highlight and are worth mentioning in this blog.

Point one, start by doing. This was one of the points that both directors shared and had in common. Start by doing means to simply pick up your camera and start shooting music videos. One shared how he started creating music videos for free with his friends and started building his portfolio with those projects. He also brought to my knowledge that there are many artists out there, so offering to create music videos for free as a start, the artists would gladly accept. The other director shared the same experience; he started out making a ton of music videos for free and learned lessons on what to improve on from those projects. Lessons like, how to shoot better, experiences with lighting a scene or communicating with your artist and team. This leads me to point two, have good communication skills.

Practicing and mastering your communication skills is crucial, especially when you are working with a group of your friends or even the team shooting with you. The tool to use it is what they called a Treatment. A treatment goes hand in hand with communicating your ideas to the team, as it contains an outline of the overall idea for the mv. Within it is the concept, direction, aesthetic and style which is shown through texts and images, making it easier for your team to understand the mv’s direction. So they pointed out that learning how to explain your treatment as well is important.

Lastly, point three is building a network. When you start creating your mv’s, collaborate and get to know the cinematographers, editors, photographers and more around your area. Doing so helps develop your communication skills, and to top it off, the exchange of knowledge from the people you meet and the feeling of community will benefit you in the long run. These three points have become a guide in my next steps to becoming a Music Video Director and I’ve applied it into my course. The idea to collaborate with others and to just start making mv’s has ignited my fire to continue learning and start creating!