Directing music videos, especially ones that are concept/narrative driven is challenging in itself, but Directing a music video within a digital video environment is even more difficult.
Commercial directing felt like a very natural transition from my comedy, sketch, music video directing experience.
I'm not into just one thing; I always felt like I had to have my hand in everything revolving around what I do, whether it's directing videos, making beats, making music, performing.
I think the key to directing a great music video is in making sure the song is great, and if it is, then it becomes really fun.
It's typical for video customers to often use licensed music - whether a soundtrack, background music, or sound effects - to complement their video projects.
We're trying to make the music service a cultural point of reference, and that's why we're making video. We're making video for our Apple Music customers and our future customers.
My work is entertainment, and I look at what entertains people, whether it's a selfie video or a music video.
The music video, Lil Nas X, he asked me to be in the 'Panini' music video. It was crazy. I was just listening to the song and I was like, okay, this is going to be my first music video but it was really fun.
I learned from making random little personal projects, like school projects or little GoPro montages with music. Then once I made my channel, I really improved just by making video after video.
I did a video with Mick Jagger down in Rio de Janeiro. But I played a video director, and that's the closest I've gotten to directing, except Bob Dylan came and had a few meetings with me about doing a video for him.
Zooms are lazy closeups. And too many people hang their hats on video assist; it's a way to avoid too much. Video assist helps people dissociate from the scene that they are directing. Pretty soon the director will be directing all the way from his apartment.
One day, my mum bought me this music production software for my computer, and I started making beats... I realised it was more like production than a video game, but it was a video game when I was playing it. That's how I got into music production.
Very quickly I realized that directing is a combination of things: It's visual, it's directing the actors, it's telling a story. And people don't always mention this part of directing, but it's also knowing how to really edit something into something that makes sense.
Two things - one is obvious: always keep making. The second thing, with regard to music videos specifically - the music video industry can be a place that takes advantage of young freelancers and filmmakers. Make sure you're making stuff that you're proud of and you can get behind.
Whatever you are making, whether it's a song, an album, a painting, a film, you're connecting with a tradition, and I do feel connected to New York music.
My process in making a music video is pretty much a formula of talking to the artist. I've never made a video where I didn't talk to the artist before I wrote the treatment. Basically, I enter into it knowing we are collaborators.