King Parrot’s Guide to Making a Killer Music Video
To celebrate our sponsorship of Origin’s upcoming U.S. tour with King Parrot, Beyond Creation, Abolishment of Flesh and Your Chance to Die, MetalSucks will be presenting one guest column penned by the members of each band. Last week Abolishment of Flesh shared their collective top ten tips for successful touring, and today Australian thrash/grind-freaks King Parrot — who are known for putting the same amount of energy and creativeness into their music videos as they do their insane live performances — share some helpful tips to make your band’s next music video as killer as can be.
Ask Your Friends For Help
You never know who might’ve had experience at their high school drama class or just has a knack for creating something cool that may play a big part in your clip. You may know a scriptwriter, comedian, or brilliant actor or have a friend of a friend of a friend who is Spike Lee. Ask around, don’t be shy and broaden your scope; everyone likes to be on camera!
Collaborate With Experienced People
Make sure you’ve done plenty of research on who’s making videos in your city and who is doing work that is closely aligned with your vision. There are plenty of great people out there, so make sure that you are on the same page with the producers/directors, etc. that you have chosen. Students can be really good people to work with, so keep that in mind if you are on a tight budget. Don’t just get your mate to do it because he has a camera and wants to make a video.
Know Your Role
Just because you’re the singer in the band doesn’t mean you are going to be the best actor or person to play a lead role in your band’s video. Fact is you probably suck (see King Parrot videos for examples of this). Know your role and if there is a guy or girl in your band that has a natural ability to act, let them shine and do their thing. It’s about making a good video, not stroking your ego! If you don’t have any good actors in your band, please get in touch with King Parrot’s bass player Slatts. He is available at very competitive rates.
Don’t Be Afraid To Try Something Different
With the scope of great new local videos and the way they’re being made changing all the time, don’t be afraid to try something different and new. There are so many performance-based music videos out there, so if you’re going down that road, try and add an extra angle to it, or do something different. A bunch of dudes playing in the shed out in the backyard has been done a million times and it ain’t very entertaining.
Do Your Research
Come up with a bold and original idea for your video and then go about searching for other videos of a similar ilk. The more you collaborate with your team on this the better. There’s bound to be something similar that has already been done. Even if it is an entirely different genre to what you would normally listen to, it doesn’t mean there may not be a good idea or influence that you could use to make your next video totally awesome.
Release Your Video At The Right Time
Don’t just do a video and then not follow it up with something exciting that is happening with the band. Your video is supposed to be used as a promotional tool so use it in conjunction with your next album release or an upcoming tour. Don’t just put it out and then sit on your hands and wait for some music industry person to sweep you off your feet — it ain’t gonna happen. Get on the road!
Use Good Equipment
Source out the best possible equipment you can find and try to use the best people available on the day. This may require some extensive research but sometimes the difference between a great clip and a poor clip can come down to the type of camera you’re using. It’s as simple as that. Ask people you know and try and source the best, most cost-effective equipment you can find.
Keep An Open Mind
Don’t be afraid to share your ideas with your team, but be open to everyone else’s input and allow all involved to be a part of the process. You may have come up with the original concept, but other people can always help you build and develop the idea into something even better than you could have imagined yourself. Working as a team to produce the final result will always keep everyone happy and makes for a much more enjoyable experience when making the video.
Check out some of King Parrot’s music videos below:
“Shit on the Liver:”
“Dead End:”
“Bozo”
