Fourth-year African American studies student Mike Flores works behind the scenes of a music video as part of the Office of Residential Life’s “AudioFeed” segment.
A lot can go wrong while shooting a music video, including scheduling conflicts and unexpected rain on a filming day. ResTV’s show “AudioFeed” experienced both of these problems while shooting its latest video for AKA Rappers, “Up Off My Grill.”
Since winter 2007, the UCLA Office of Residential Life has produced music videos for student artists for its “Audiofeed” segment. Each “AudioFeed” video has an extra, behind-the-scenes video featuring interviews with members of the production crew, the cast and the talent.
As with professional music videos, the “AudioFeed” production staff has many technical jobs ““ such as the editor, the director of photography and the graphic artist ““ that require specific tasks and contributions. Each member of the resTV staff has the opportunity to learn every role of production.
“Everyone gets to direct. Everyone on staff learns how to do every job,” said Rebecca Olson, a fifth-year film student and the video production student supervisor.
For the students involved in the making of “AudioFeed,” the show is an opportunity to learn and promote their talents in music and video production. Mike Flores, a fourth-year African American studies student who hopes to work in video post-production after graduation, said the experience has been rewarding.
“ResTV has a quick turnaround, which means you’re always busy,” Flores said. “It’s given me a whole lot more skills in post-production, in every level of production.”
From concept to production, an “AudioFeed” music video usually takes about three weeks to make. Once the production team has chosen the band, they work together for a week to a week and a half, planning and brainstorming the concept.
“We work a lot with the talent,” Flores said. “We brainstorm ideas ahead of time … and then we have a second brainstorm with the band.”
The concept for one of the fall 2010 resTV videos, The Psykes’ “The Best Is Yet to Come,” was created on the spot with the band, Flores said.
“I came in with a few ideas to pitch to them; we bounced ideas off of each other,” Flores said. “In the end I think we came up with something kind of new.”
The video follows a young woman sitting on the grassy field by Janss Steps as she manipulates her surroundings. The woman topples buildings with a poke of her finger and picks people up between her finger and thumb. The video has a ’90s quality, Flores said.
Also from fall 2010 is “Never Gonna Stop,” No Insurance’s video featuring UCLA alumna Katie Boeck, who won both the solo and overall awards at each Spring Sing from 2007 to 2009.
“It’s mainly about different perspectives on first love,” said Brandon Contreras, a graduate student in education and one of two lead singers in No Insurance.
No Insurance, which will perform at this year’s Spring Sing, got its start last year when it unsuccessfully auditioned for the show. The experience pushed the band to take its music more seriously, but also to be more daring, Contreras said.
“That’s where our name No Insurance comes from,” Contreras said. “It’s kind of like we’re not looking back; we’re just gonna take these chances and just go with it.”
For resTV, just going with it means dealing with all the hazards of video production, but there are days when things seem to fall into place, like the shoot for “Up Off My Grill.”
“Our (AKA Rappers) shoot, once we were on set, was one of the smoothest shoots I ran … because the talent was really into it,” said Flores, who worked as the assistant director and editor for the video.