How was the screening with Maxime Giroux?!

awesome.

lots of people came and cozied in to Maryanna and Melinda’s beautiful “Detention” studio wednesday night to enjoy the music videos that got made this weekend (story here). we had a nice big screen borrowed by a student on our team from a local university, and a digital projector borrowed from a friend. Calling people, calling in favors, shooting emails around to pull good-feeling events together has really become part of our job descriptions over here at Indyish. We’re a network of volunteers, just starting to stretch out our extensions and connections throughout and beyond the network, to see what we can do and how far we can reach. This weekend was quietly kind of our first-ever-anniversary, and we’re pretty happy with how far we’ve come since we first put up a shell of this site behind the “montreal” password one year ago.

Wednesday night we watched the first 3 videos- by Team Malarki for Giselle Numba One, The Final Hour for Bold Saber, and L’arty (Lara Kaluza and Martin Reisch) for ThunderHeist- and then Jay introduced guest judge Maxime Giroux and gave him a chance to offer feedback. Maxime is, it turns out, a young and super nice guy with smart advice, and a completely open, sharing attitude toward young websites and aspiring music video makers. What a gift to get to meet him and have him there.

He spoke about LISTENING TO THE MUSIC. And this seemed like an important thing to emphasize. He said of the first three that only Martin and Lara’s paid any attention to the lyrics and rhythm of the song. He also said that though he hates to see booty in video, and that all of us might decide for ourselves whether we like their aesthetic, we can agree at least that they had a real aesthetic. And that’s huge.

He also took some time to talk about the video we made in 30 minutes on the bar of Club Lambi fo Bold Saber. He said it was a joke, fun to look at, and understandably made in a pinch but that anyone could do that these days. That you see the amateur aesthetic everywhere now and that it’s gotten boring. Fair enough, eh?

Then we watched the three winners- by Lela Quesney for Giselle Numba One, by Sara Johnston for Bold Saber, and by Lickety-Split’s Amber Goodwyn for ThunderHeist. Maxime said they were all pretty good actually - although the one for Bold Saber he found pretty uninteresting, dispite the fact that it featured a crab and pigs in space. To each his own I guess. =). Seriously though- it was made in 2 hours to save the day, so Maxime like the rest of us applauded Sara’s follow through and heroism. But he had even nicer things to say about the other two. The Lickety-Splilt video he found fun, engaging, and well suited to the music- he congratulated the director and partiers. They successfully captured both the fun of the music and the chaotic vibe of the 24 hours.

But the glowiest praise was reserved Lela Quesney’s interpretation of Giselle’s Listen Kid. Maxime Giroux said not only did she understand the meaning, lyrics and story of the song, but that she brought something new to it, revealing it in her own light. He said Lela Quesney’s video was the only video that showed real artistic vision, and he picked her without hesitation as the best director of the night.

This was especially cool for me when I remembered that we were actually sitting in the room where the video had been shot, and where the beautiful maquette she’d made was still in storage. One the back wall of the Detention studio where we sat watching the Indyish 24hr videos was part of a new set Lela was working on for a next video project, this time for dj/producer Killa Jewel- who of course was right there in the audience, rooting her on.

After we’d watched all the videos I put poor Mr.Giroux on the spot and asked him if he could answer a few questions if anybody had some- they did and he was completely down for it. First he was asked what the typical budget is for a video. He said the average was 30 000$. That he’d just done one for the Tragically Hip where the budget was 60 000$ but that when you do indie bands the budget is way smaller, like 5 000$, and that when he does them he doesn’t usually get paid. Next someone asked how to go about pitching a video to a band- whether you usually need to go through the label, or the artist, or what? The answer to this was cool: Maxime Giroux siad in every case you need to figure out who the decision maker is. Often but not always, it’s the label. Bands on big labels usually don’t get much say in the video, and bands on their own or on indie labels usually don’t have any idea what they want. In every case there is one person who decides. With the Tragically Hip, the label and band mates all referred to the lead singer’s taste. Gord Downey is the decision maker, and the rest of the Hip seemed not so much into making a music video at all. In the case of the Dears, the lead singer is also the decision maker, apparently to the point of dictating the aesthetic and where the camera should be placed, which Maxime doesn’t think is the best way to make a video. He and others had some choice words about the most recent video the Dears and Maxime has made together- the one where Maxime got told where to put the camera, etc. Suffice it to say, though everyone loves the band, no one claimed that particular video as their favorite.

A last key point raised by the oh-so-generous-with-his-time Maxime Giroux came up when a student attending the screening asked what advice he’s give to would be music video makers. Maxime said: work for free. He said that in the beginning he made tons of videos for bands without getting paid, and that he still sometimes does it- he did it recently for Sam Roberts Band, who he said he loved working with. The industry works like that he said, you work for free; you make about 80% bad videos because you’re learning and also because it’s your job so sometimes you just need to put your artistic vision aside and do what they want. You do this until you can say, ok, now I need to start getting paid. At this point, some people will pay a lot to work with you because you have a track record and a good portfolio, and other labels and bands will stop working with you and will go on to the next student or whoever who will work for free. That’s how it goes. For better or worse, that’s how new people get into the business.

Which reminds me of a conversation I had with Catherine Kidd, who hosted our Holla-Days show this weekend. We were talking about working for free, and giving your songs away for free online and whether it helps or hurts your relationship with fans or your sales or your chances of making a living making art. It’s tough to know, but Catherine made a great point: she said “you know what, I’m gonna do this anyway. Whether people buy my work or come see me, I can’t help it- this is what I love and need to do, and I’m just going to do it anyway. If there is anyone out there who loves it too, I want to find them and share it with them, and not just so other broke art-loving folk can pay my bills. If I don’t share it with them, how will they know if they like it, how will they know they want to buy it, and more importantly what will they really think about my motivations for doing this if I keep it from them?” Open source and art makin have this in common- we work for free until people can pay us, and sometimes after, because we are doing because we love it, it suits our brains, it makes us happy, we believe doing it we get closer to bringing good stuff into the world. Everybody who heard Maxime Giroux explain this in his tight smart way understood it perfectly. It was a cool moment.

But the coolest moment of all for me was after the screening. I love to watch people meet each other and talk about art schemes at Indyish events, it makes me feel like we contribute to the public sphere or something; and this time, I got to lurk in the background smiling while Maxime gave personal advice to students and aspiring makers, and even talked with Lela a bit about maybe passing her name along to the bosses at NuFilms. I talked with a gent from Musique Plus who said he’d help us try and get our videos in front of the people on the airing committe, and I talked with other folks connected with Resfest about a possible future collaboration there. All in all, a stellar cozy evening and hey- we even made 10$ on beers!

cheers all, and watch for the videos going online soon!
much love
r.