The Austrailian based production company, Graetzmedia, may have just created one of the most inspiring, insightful, and incredibly entertaining behind-the-scenes videos ever! Have a look at how you can pull together a Hollywood level shot on a small-hometown level budget.
After stumbling across the Behind the Scenes & music video "Saramona Said" by Violent Soho posted on the website No Film School, I've probably watched them both over a dozen times now. I'm reminded of just how much passion goes into the craft of photography & videography when the right people are involved. That, and how there really is some "magic" left in the process of what we do. While the budgets were dramatically different, a group of incredibly passionate & organized artists were able to pull off a shot that would make the pros proud.
It also shines a spotlight on another interesting point - just a few years ago, it would have probably cost a near fortune AND taken months to pull a shot like this off. But now with the world literally at our fingertips and easier access to professional level gear, all it takes is a well placed ad or request on the right social media channels, and you'll find the people to make your project happen!
The whole process made me think of Benjamin Von Wong. An artist who's well known for creating incredibly crazy images on a shoe string budget, all because he's able to reach out to the right people who have the same passions and drive to see a dream come to life. He really is one of the only people I know who can show up in a random city in the middle of no-where, hop on his Facebook and make a post saying "I've got this idea about doing this awesome thing?!" and within a few hours he'll have built a team that will travel from all corners of the earth to help make it happen!
The way I see it is this, the way we create & share art is changing pretty rapidly, and it feels like it's moving towards a crowd-sourced model. People want to see and be a part of incredible things, all it takes is the right person or people to bring them all together. My question and concern is, what does this mean for the business model? And how sustainable is it for the people "creating" the art?
Check out the videos below and let me know what you think. Show me your own Behind the scenes and share your crowd-sourced project stories!
Quoted from the Graetzmedia website;
"The idea for this clip originated many years ago after viewing the brilliant film Children of Men, (Scene seen here), and was never destined to be produced on indie-label budgets. But when a band like Violent Soho get pumped on a concept you just have to sack-up and embrace the spirit of MacGyver to somehow get it done.
And here’s the complete single-shot clip - Saramona Said:"
Photos & Videos used with permission from Bianca Holderness, Graetzmedia, and Robert Hardy.
Awesome! Thoroughly enjoyed the BTS and the Clip. Nice to see the mighty Brisbane Broncos jersey there as well. Thanks for the post.
My Pleasure Christian!
Now that is awesome. Great to see some fellow Aussie work here! Seriously this makes me proud to be an Aussie and creative. You guys showed that money is only a problem if you let it. It was awesome to see the mistakes along the way and how you all came together to fix it. Seriously this is an awesome behind the scenes video, you should all be proud. A+
Really great, enjoyed both the clip and the BTS, thanks for posting!
Love this article!
Freaking amazing music video!!
Let me address the sustainability question that was put on the table by the author of this article. It seems that every time an articule of this nature comes out, it made to sound like someone with an iPhone, PVC pipe and some duct tape "MacGyvered" a video together. The whole reason that this video happened was that someone had purchased a boat load of equipment, at their own expense, and was willing to use it to make this video happen. The camBlock motion rig starts at $17,000 (https://camblock.com/shop/modular/). Add $550 for the base model smallHD monito (http://www.smallhd.com) and I can't really tell which camera is being used for the primary shooting. So, $20,000 to $30,000 you have the start of a really cool, no budget, free music video. And this doesn't take into account all the time, studying and experience to learn how to operate all this gear and make it look easy.
I get it. I've worked on projects that I believed in, wanted to be a part of and worked for free. But somewhere, somehow this is getting financed ether with time, money out of pocket, or personal resources. Now unless you are a hobbyest, and a damn dedicated one at that, with a good paying fulltime job to feed said affliction, you'll be living in that Gumtree car used in the video. I think people are loosing sight of that.
My thoughts exactly. Loved the vids but "budget" doesn't necessarily mean only "money".
I have to agree with that Garth fellow. I loved the bts, but it only looked awesome because a lot of pretty experienced people worked for free, and some pretty high-end gear was used. I use my friends a lot, but I'm always afraid they'll break something because they don't know how to use it. Experience comes at a price around here
I don't know if I'm watching the same video as the author but I guess "small-town budget" is a relative term. This a full crew using a RED camera with tons of gear and yes, ingenuity. Nevertheless, the gear they are using does cost a fortune.
the driver? dude or chick?
Doing a behind the scenes video is cool, doing a real video is very cool, it getting picked up and going viral is amazing. telling everyone you work for free, I don't know, sometime all exposure gets you is lots of job offers to work for free. It is up to you whether you wish to work for free or not but unless it is on a really nice children's charity project I don't know if you want everyone else knowing about it
Good bts for video production, we are also Video Production Company Perth.
http://2getherstudios.com.au/
Nice work! Fucking killer band!
Huge serious props to everyone involved and for the extra effort to do a BTS in addition to what you had to accomplish. That was true brilliant and inspiring guerrilla filmmaking. Thank you for sharing :-)