What is an independent art project really?

In culture, money is pretty big factor. Considering the field of art maybe it is the cheapest to be a writer, and the most expensive to be a movie maker. That's why it's important to see what is really possible to do as an independent artist.

First of all, there are professional and amateur artists. This is also a strange subject which deserves special set of blog posts, but if we focus on professional artists, independent means that they invested their own cash to make a thing they want to make. Right? Well yes, and no. If some camera rental company borrows you their camera and set of lights, they are spending their potential profit so you can have that for free. Is that really not sponsorship?

Ok, not to go into small details like this one, we believe that it is almost impossible to make a great product with no money or with your personal savings you kept for the new car. It's just not enough. Here we are mainly talking about moviemaking because it's the most expensive thing to do in art, and we are familiar with it.

Does that mean that every filmmaking project is sponsored in a way?

Yes! But that doesn't mean that it isn't independent.

For us, that means something else, doesnt matter if you are college-educated or just an ambitious artist. It means that your story is independent.

Real difference between "good" and "bad" production is in the choice of actions that are not instructed by the sponsors of the project. So even if you have a really good story in your hands that you want to shoot, it can turn into disaster if your sponsor (and by sponsors I also mean on movie studios) tells you to cut some scene because it's not appropriate or to limit the duration to just 100 minutes, or to remove violence scenes completely. Imagine your baby movie that you've dreamt about for years being massacred because you got some ammount of money. Would you rather wait a bit longer or shoot it as a no-budget movie? We would do a second one surely.

On the other hand, is it good to have a bad looking product because you didn't have enough money for that drone shot or some high-quality blood? Yes, it's sure a tough question. But, as long as the story is good, the chances of movie to succeed are greater, because deep in ourselves we are all children, just wanting to be entertained or taught. And that can be done with a simple story around a campfire, not a million dollar scenography behind the shot.

So, to conclude this part of the story: one of the main factors of independent project is the story, visual, musical, written or painted. It is important to be intact. Everything else is in the second place.

We will get more on to this subject, soon. Long posts are so passé.

(very short) Story of music video production on a very important location

When creating a music video, it is important to correlate song's lyrics to the cinematic story itself. One of our video production projects was for the song "Save me" ("Spasi me") by Michael Bob Vidaković. This is how we did it.

1. Initial meeting

First, we talked about the lyrics. What does it mean? What do we want to say with this video? What is the mood of the song itself? We came to a conclusion that the poetic narative of the song is related to imaginary relationship between the singer and the girl who doesn't even know that he exists. That gave us some ideas.

2. Script and casting

What is the goal of the girl's character in this story? It was simply to find the guy and save him. Save him from himself, actually. Then, the point of the video is searching. We needed the location and just one actress that will fill the requirements for rebelious, sexy girl the singer wants. The story would take place in some abandoned or rustic building full of hallways where the guy could call her with his song and she would go and search for him. But search for him how?

Through dance.

The next step was to write the actual script and to see what would be the culmination of the music video. In the end, of course, she will find him. And he will not have to call her through the song anymore. She would be wondering through the corridors searching for him, getting closer and closer, dancing more and more.

The dance was important. That's when Bojana, our choreography master came into the scene and we auditioned several actresses that fit the description we made. She tried her signature moves with them and we decided to choose one actress that is the perfect fit. The actress was not entirely free with her moves and she had that dreamy look we wanted, which was good as she would fit in the space itself and the story.

3. Location scouting and the final arrangements

We considered several locations for our music video production, but the one that was especially important to us was the "BIGZ" building in Belgrade, which was to be sold soon and repurposed into something entirely different. The building had great importance in Belgrade's history, and we wanted to make some sort of omage to it's hallways, vastness and all the stories that took place there.

The rest was just to go and find the exact locations for the shots that we will be using in the music video. We took several test shots, agreed on the camera angles, costume, lighting (decided eventually to go full natural with the light we already had there because of the unique atmosphere in the BIGZ building), and the shooting schedule. And what was left? Just to shoot the video!

4. Conclusion

The crew came and the shooting started. The details of the shooting are pretty borring, but what was interesting is that exactly the next day from the shooting, the "BIGZ" building was sold. It was not the part of Belgrade as we knew it anymore. We took the location that is very important for all of us and preserved the piece of history trough one music video which, ironically, has the title "Save me".

Of course we are proud of it. But the more important thing is that we included something with a greater importance in one "regular" music video. And that's why this story is special.

Oh and yes, below is the song if you're interested:

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