We love new directors. We also love people who love new directors. They’re lovely too. Caroline Bottomley set up online commissioning site Radar Music Video to help aspiring promo directors get in touch with labels and band and to give them a platform for their work. We caught up with Caroline for her top tips about getting into music video and how young directors can promote themselves in the internet age. Listen close young padawan…
Can you tell me a little about Radar?
RadarMusicVideos is a worldwide, online network of around 3700 music video directors, labels, artists and brands, where music videos get commissioned and promoted.
Why are you so passionate about nurturing new talent? What motivates you to keep helping young directors?
It just feels right. I thought I was going to be an artist when I was starting off, but I found out I enjoy promoting talent more than making work of my own. It feels like a very creative process in itself,I love it.
What advice would you give to a young filmmaker trying to get a foot in the door with the industry?
This is just for music videos – I don’t know so much about other films. Make work for great music – it’s incredibly hard to like a great music video with dull music. make a great and unusual music video, there’s no point trying to get attention for a.n.other video of the band playing in front of the camera. Making fan videos is fine – do a bit of research to make sure the artist isn’t rabidly anti-fan videos, some are. Also some are overwhelmed with fan videos so they’re less likely to recognise fan videos. Make videos for friends. get a reel together by whatever means! Promote your video. Winning awards in festivals is always useful, doesn’t matter if it’s a tiny festival.
Try and get the attention of commissioners. They may subcribe to our showcase on facebook (www.facebook.com/RadarMusicVideos). They certainly subscribe to PromoNews.tv’s newsletter. They probably keep an eye on MTV channels (we have an exclusive free MTV review offer for members in our Directory.) Also upload to Antville.videos.org. Look for other blogs which cover music video – there are a lot, find them in the blogroll lists on our site and PromoNews. Upload your video to Vimeo and YouTube so you can be found easily. Contact production companies direct. Once you’ve made contact be pleasant obviously.
Technology’s a double-sided sword. These days it’s easier than ever for a young director to get their work seen but ofcourse that means there are more directors and films about too. How can a director best help their film to stand out from the crowd?
Awards are good, it always makes me notice that someone else has thought a video is noteworthy. Features on blogs are great – ‘featured in’ has the same effect on me as ‘awards’. It doesn’t really matter if they’re tiny awards and unheard of blogs, someone else (probably) impartial thinks the video is worthwhile. If there are any popularity contests going, see if you can your friends to help vote you up (we have one, Shooting People have one, there are probably a lot if you look). The main thing though is to make a stand-out video in the first place. This usually means don’t make a performance video.
Do you think music video commissioners are keen to use new directors? Are attitudes changing?
I think music video commissioners have an insatiable appetite for new directors. It’s a very fashionable industry I think, in that videos that get passed around are doing something new. So new = desirable. New directors often mean cheaper too, fair enough and another reason to desire them! Animators seem to be increasingly attractive too.
I know Radar has had loads of success stories, with directors winning awards and getting mentioned in the national press. Which ones stick in your mind?
I like that a commercials director in Guatemala ended up making 3 music videos for UK artists. That Southern Fried Records will commission more from a couple of young American directors they first commissioned through Radar. That a music videos made through Radar has had over a million hits and brought the director to Saatchi’s attention (and got him a lot of other work besides). That MTV like the videos coming out of Radar so much they got in touch with us about feeding them content.
Since starting Radar, what’s been your highlight?
So many and so many low points too! Overall it’s feeling of satisfaction from making something useful, that works for people and (I think?) contributes to happiness in some way.
What’s your favourite music video of all time?
OMG! Most recently it is Hold Your Horses, by L’Ogre (headhunted and now members of Radar of course) . I love the simple wit of the idea and then the very careful and professional attention to detail in the sets and lighting (except curiously for the last set-up, everything else is so true)
I’ll always have soft spot for We Are Your Friends. When I saw it, it was such brand new territory, so exciting and worth watching over and over. Ditto for Sledgehammer actually.
I’ll stop now, I could go on for a long time on favourites 🙂
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