8. The Story Behind the Song

Photo by Jeff Stolhand

Story of the Song

By: Ava Wang

How music videos are made, and personal opinions about filming.

Lights and cameras all around you. This can help you grow as an artist, or it could all be for nothing. People watching online or right in front of you with sweat dripping down your face. The littlest mistake can embarrass you. The pressure is on to show everyone what music you have created.

Making music videos really helps artists nowadays to promote their music. This creates advertisement to their songs, so they can grow. The music industry is a really competitive place with many

Photo by Andrew Lamping

other artists competing to be on top.

Jeff Stolhand and Andrew Lamping both work in the music industry creating music videos for artists, and are producers in the company, Expressions in Film and Video. This company makes music videos, commercials, animations, and they do photography that is based in Austin, Texas. They all give their insights on how music videos are done and how they interpret a piece of music to a video.

Stolhand and Lamping talk about their personal experience and how they got into filming. These two producers got into music videos and photography at around ages 9-12, and have always continued with that interest. Lamping also mentions why he likes to film.

After, they start getting into the process of how they do music videos. “Typically what we have done is, a client will come to us with a song, and they might have a bit of an idea of what they want to do. But, it might not be fully fleshed out. So then we would take time to listen to the song, kinda get our brain wrapped around what the story of the song might be,” Stolhand said.

“Usually it’s an artist coming to me asking for help with their video because usually it’s the artist looking to put visuals to their music and their body of work. So, they would usually come to me and ask me what I think and what I see in a music video,” Lamping says.” Something that had surprised them was how people or the artist don’t have any idea on how to do a video, or they don’t have a vision for it. They explained that’s what their job is mostly, and helped them establish what they visually want.

Stolhand and Lamping help think of ideas for the artist to help portray what the artist wants in the video.“There are 2 types of music videos, there is a performance video and then there is a narrative video. Sometimes it’s a combination of the two,” Stolhand explains.

“So, what we try to do is just come up with a way to shoot the video to hopefully make a personal connection to the people watching it. That’s why I prefer narrative

music videos, something that tells a story, because I think when you can connect emotionally to the audience that’s half the battle.” Stolhand mentions. “I think the more you can make the music video look flashy, expensive, and with a nice production value. I think the color palette is important. Sometimes, we will think in terms of one or two types of colors that we would use to design the music video.”

“I think it was mostly just the fact that you can make a pretty much like a short film, and the script is already there more or less. You don’t have to worry about writing a script, it’s there for you, and it’s just your job to tell that story that you already see inside your head, and again presented to an audience that might not know that artist yet,” Lamping mentions. Lamping adds on how “flashy materialistic lifestyle” helps with promoting music videos nowadays. “It seems like nowadays most of the things you’re gonna see on the trending YouTube page are the music videos that are going to be set in a fancy house.” Lamping also mentions how there isn’t a lot of big narrative with orchestrated music now, and it is mostly all rapping.

Stolhand starts talking about the advisterising aspect of the reason why music videos can help an artist. “Well, I think a music video as long as there is a fan base for that style of music, and today I think more so because everybody is on their phones and everybody is on their laptops and a lot of people watch things on their computers,” Stolhand says.

Stolhand mentions how artists can reach out to their fanbase to help promote their music video too. He also says that those who have a small fan base or are just starting out can also do music videos. “So, just because you don’t have the barrier of entry, I guess. You don’t have to be on MTV, you can make a music video and put it on your own YouTube channel, so it’s really a matter of how you reach out to build the fan base,” Stolhand says.

Sally O’Grady is a producer/ director for short films, documentaries, and commercials in the company Headlands Studios that is based in Austin, Texas. She started at a later age when she moved to New York CIty, and hasn’t stopped.

“I was always interested in movies and then when I moved to NYC from my hometown of Sydney. I interned at a documentary production company. From there I made connections and was able to get a job as a researcher on and independent documentary

Photo by Jeff Stolhand

and after that I was able to secure freelance work as a producer on programs for PBS, Discovery and History. After moving around and working in a few different companies, in 2019, I launched Headlands with my wonderful friend Jennell Lewis.” O’Grady mentions.

O’Grady adds her advice for people that just started filming or are thinking about starting, “I would say don’t be intimidated, but do be curious and question yourself and others (in a healthy way). It takes an incredible amount of dedication and you won’t necessarily make a lot of money so be sure you love working in production. When working on bigger projects try not to let other people’s anxiety influence your process. Always be 10 minutes early and always be dedicated to the task at hand.” She says.

The music industry is always changing with new artists, along with technology evolving everyday. Music videos help make it possible for people to portray something that they want on the internet, and promote their career.