Less is more: Big budget versus good quality music videos
Creating a good and quality video does not necessarily require an artist to invest tones of money in paying the creators of the video in order to make it happen. Tanzanian music artists should remember that doing a video on a yacht, chopper or a limousine is not a must even if the song is about popping bottles and hitting the club.
It also does not mean that a low budget video should always be of someone walking down the pavement or sitting at the beach if anything, all ideas are just a cliché. Sometimes it just takes a creative mind to come up with a brilliant idea for a video with very little cost.
The video can be shot at a location or in a studio setting with just a plain back drop and the rest of the work like adding effects and editing mainly becomes the videographer’s task. The key here is to get a director who knows what s/he is doing. The director does not necessarily need to be a big name. This is one way to go about it but some artists like the traditional way of doing it by including elements and real objects/things in their videos because they find that authentic as opposed to their work being more a product of the computer which might sometimes be considered as cheating. Most videos in such scenario often times require a location shoot.
Recently, Shaa pointed out on CloudsTV that her Sugua Gaga video is so far the least expensive and most successful and popular video that she has ever put out. This goes far to show that not only high budget videos are the ones that will be appreciated by people. A video that simply resonates with people can also have quite a positive impact for an artist.
In my opinion, what makes a good quality video is out of the box, attention-grabbing visual concept accompanied by a nice and solid storyline that will take the viewer through an emotional journey. The video can have a specific theme(s) or contain completely random visual messages depending on what and how the artist and the director of the video want to portray as long as it’s not over the top or disturbing. It is also very important for the quality of the video to be of a high resolution especially now that fans have seen a lot of videos with good resolution to make comparisons with.
The viewer should leave feeling that s/he has understood the content in the video or simply entertained by watching it. If the video is created to have the WTF/shock factor for the sake of going viral then an artist should be certain that this is the direction to go though I personally wouldn’t recommend it. It has however worked for some artists in countries where most people have access to the internet and online video streaming sites like YouTube are popular.
The Korean pop sensation PSY for instance managed to have so far more than 1 billion views after his ‘weird’ music video Gangnam Style came out. This go-viral idea however may not necessarily work for Tanzanian artists since their majority of their fan-base depends on local and national television to see the videos. The stations may choose not to play a video if they find it ‘controversial’.
Here are some general tips that artists may need to know when trying to make a quality music video:
• An artist should identify the person s/he wants to work with by believing in his/her talent through seeing some of the work that the video creator has done before. It is important to know that that there are good videographers who are not out yet so a little research is necessary.
• Every artist should have at least a rough idea of what s/he wants the video to be. This should be the first thing communicated to the creators of the videos and be discussed back and forth until a mutually agreed creative concept about the video is developed.
• The artist should have a set budget and not overspend. Limit your wardrobe requirements or seek sponsorship for such line items in the budget.
• Involve capable and reliable people whom you know are passionate about your art. These may be friends or relatives who can help you with some activities to help you realize your video making goals such as scouting locations without pay but rather little perks to incentivize them.
