How to Make Music Videos?

It's too much, Vincent replied.

But it's only $350 dollars worth of rented equipment.

I was expecting half that, was his reply.

Okay, but we're trying to light an entire studio space.

Yeah, but do you need all those lights?

Yes. We have to light the space, the actors, and the band.

I think there's some lights already there. Did you see the photos?

That was the jist of the message exchanges between my longtime collaborator, Vincent Gargiulo, and myself as we tried to plan for his band's, Vincent Gargiulo National Park, music video shoot.

It was an ambitious plan. Three music videos, in two days. For under a thousand dollars. Of course, most of our collaborations have been ambitious plans - and usually with a smaller budget.

So I ended up settling for 6 lights, and half the equipment, and it all turned out alright. We've done must more with much less! The shoot ended up being a damn fun experience at Soundwave Studios in Oakland. The joy of setting up a camera, finding my frame, rigging lights, and balancing the qualities of light for a desired affect reaffirmed that I needed to quit my day job and get back into production. Also, the band were great folks and easy to spend the day with. Lots of joking and teasing, often at Vincent's expense as he got stressed out due to the general craziness of producing, directing, and acting in a series of music videos. Looking forward to shooting more....