Recently, music videos have become almost the main part of the information video stream. They are incredibly carefully suited to their creation, they are shot by well-known, famous directors, and the budgets of these three-minute videos are ready to be compared with the amounts allocated to finance a medium-quality film.
It is not surprising that a clip maker is not just a director making music videos for various groups. Such work requires considerable experience and great knowledge in various areas of the music and film business.
Video clip
A video clip is a small film whose plot is voiced by a song of a group. Sometimes the content of the clip does not correspond to the song, conveying its atmosphere and meaning in general terms, and sometimes the video sequence completely corresponds to the lines from the song, duplicating the action of the lyrics on the screen.
Music videos are one of the most common video formats used not only by eminent musicians, but also by video bloggers, authors of YouTube channels and many other creative people who, at first glance, have nothing to do with the music industry.
Clip maker
The profession of clip maker combines a large number of duties that are characteristic of other professions in the film industry. A good clip-maker should be at the same time: a director, cameraman, editor, composer, sound engineer, be able to process the footage, as well as have extensive experience in various fields of human activity. Well-known clip makers such as Jonas Akerlund, Jake Nava, Stobbe Harju, Ilya Naitshuller, Jonathan Glaser, are recognized experts in many topics, ranging from theoretical directing and ending with weapons.
Often, the more educated and experienced the video clip maker, the richer the video. If the author is well versed in history, culture and politics, then he can make many interesting references and ambiguous episodes that will enrich the canvas of the work and make it more atmospheric.
Of course, a clip maker is not only an employee, but also a leader. All famous people making videos have a reliable creative team that has been working under this person for more than a year. An atmosphere of complete mutual understanding and support reigns in such groups, which allows intuitively performing a large amount of work without prior discussion.
Producer
The main responsibility of the clip maker is the very process of creating a video sequence, directing it and controlling all the work performed on the set. In order to fully control the entire filming process, you need to have experience in directing, be responsible and be able to do many things at the same time, managing to think over creative ideas that can be implemented directly in the process.
Operator
The work of the operator for the clip maker is secondary, since usually a separate, already proven professional is hired for this position. An especially successful video is obtained if the cameraman and the director have long known each other and work in tandem, understanding all the tasks they face.
But in the event that the operator’s vacancy remains unoccupied, the clipmaker himself also performs his work, and the final result directly depends on his personal skills in this difficult task.
Editor
If the clip maker is the one who “makes the clip”, then the editor is the person responsible for the direct “gluing” and placement of frames in the order specified in the script. Usually eminent directors do not trust the editing process to unfamiliar people and work in the studio themselves, determining the order of frames and, accordingly, editing the film according to their own vision.
The clip maker can consult with the group, finding out exactly which moment of the clip should be suitable for a particular word of a song, musical part or solo part, or it can decide everything by itself, determining the order of small videos in the context of one large work.
Composer
Often the composition that will sound in the clip is provided by the group. However, in addition to the song, other background sounds are constantly present in the clips, for example, interlude for the prologue or composition of the atmosphere of the epilogue. In such cases, the clip maker must also have the skills of a composer in order to correctly combine the work of the group with additional sounds, to create a special atmosphere that will not only emphasize the beauty of the recorded song, but also make the video sequence special, turning it into a conceptual creation.
Sound engineer
One of the responsibilities of a clip maker is the ability to work with sound. It is very important to make the sound picture of the work monophonic, so that all domestic and additional sounds are correctly combined with the main composition, complementing it and making the sound palette of the clip richer. Of course, a sound engineer specially hired for this purpose can also do this work, but serious music video makers consider it bad style, preferring to perform the final voice acting of the clip personally to make sure the quality of the mixed audio tracks.
Post production
The ability to process the footage is the main task of the director of video clips. Sometimes the filming process itself is much easier than the final editing of the clip. The creative team spends long hours and days in the studio, gluing, adjusting, cutting, adding and changing the order of the frames of the clip an infinite number of times in order to ultimately get a beautiful work that will remain in the viewer's memory forever.
How to become a video maker?
You can get a well-deserved title as a clip maker only in the process of hard work on yourself and your creative skills, theoretical knowledge and practical experience. First you need to find out all the information about working with video, take an interest in various directorial techniques, and try to shoot several video works yourself. If among the acquaintances of the beginning clip maker there is a musical group, then you can offer her your services. The main thing is to constantly study, set high goals and work without rest, achieving each time the best result.