Interview with Music Director Keith Schofield

1 October 2009

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LA based Keith Schofield started his career by directing low budget music videos. Since then, he’s gone on to make spots for McDonald’s, the Minnesota Timberwolves and most recently the highly talked about viral celebrating Diesel’s 30th anniversary, SFW XXX.

Keith’s recent music video for Fatboy Slim’s new project “The BPA” featuring David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal caused a stir not only for it’s full frontal nudity but also helped Keith on to the cover of Creativity’s Directors to Watch, 2008.

Kieth won best International Music Video at the 2008 MVAs for his Supergrass ‘Bad Blood’ video.

FTI spoke to Keith about his work as a music director and got some practical advice on getting your work seen by an online public.

Keith will be speaking at Semi-permanent on Tuesday 13 October More

Why direct music videos?

I was a huge fan of mid-90s MTV; when directors like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry were reinventing the genre. It stuck with me and I’ve been following it ever since. I always liked the idea of doing a little short film, and “tricking” the audience into watching it by having a cool song underneath.

What is best about the job?

It’s really gratifying to see everything come together. Sometimes it’s on the shoot, sometimes it’s after the first cut.

What seduced you back from commercial shoots?

I love commercials but sometimes certain aspects are out of your hands. On a music video I often have more creative control. Especially since I’m the one coming with the idea.

Plus – it’s fun to do both!

You use found footage and pop culture references to excellent effect, what are your influences and loves?

Off the top of my head…

80s genre films
local furniture commercials
Nintendo culture
Atari history
Kollywood (Tamil) film clips
public television programming
optical illusions
found photos

You started your career making low budget music videos, what did you learn from deck-to-deck editing?

Hahah, well that was a bit before my time. I edited my first video in 2001 on an Avid.

But….. I did a ton of tape-to-tape editing in high school. I found it fun and fast; and actually found the entire non-linear editing process to be rather tedious. However; I couldn’t imagine editing a video now on deck-to-deck. Sounds like hell.

How does shooting a commercial differ from a music video?

Biggest difference is that in commercials you hire actors; who will do whatever you want them to do, are cast to look the part, etc. On a music video; you work for the actor (the artist) and have to make them look good. Commercial actors don’t have any influence on the final cut of a commercial.

WIRED has picked you as one of the next wave of music video directors, making music videos cool again. While detecting a new wave is always somewhat an artifice, what would you say, are the ingredients of this cool in your work and is there something about now that’s contributing to a resurgence of the music clip?

Ingredients of Cool = 2 parts Awesome, 1 part Bodacious, and a pinch of ‘Radical!’

Are the conditions of online viewing (versus broadcast programming) a factor?

People are definitely watching a larger variety of music videos. I definitely credit the Internet (though this was all a year or two before youtube) to getting my work seen.

Where to next? Do you have a plan?

I’d love to do movies! I really want to spend the next year giving a lot more attention to pursuing it.

Do you have any advice for filmmakers just out of film school?

(I’m assuming the question is about someone interested in a career in music videos. If they’re interested in a career in commercials – I actually recommend beginning a career in music videos; because it’s a good way to begin without having to do spec commercials.)

I have very specific advice!! I send it to everyone who contacts me. Here it is:

Find an upbeat band who wants to do a music video, and do it on spec (i.e., you front the costs). Do something fun, funny, provocative or R-rated. Before you come up with a concept (and do come up with one!) ask yourself: what would make anyone want to email this clip to a friend? No one knows who this band is, but what will make them say “holy shit, this no name band did this totally (choose one: funny/crazy/explicit/pop-culture-referencing) video, you HAVE to see this.” Take advantage of the fact that this won’t be playing on MTV – have stuff like nudity, violence, trademarked brands, etc.

Don’t let the band hijack your concept. If you’re paying for it, they can go along with your idea. If they don’t want to compromise, find another band. There are a million of them. Also, make sure your band has a decent quality sounding recording. It doesn’t have to be a mindblowing song, but it should at least sound as good as an average band.

Although I did it later in my career, my E.T. video for Wintergreen took a no-name band, with no label promotion, and got about a million hits online (pre-youtube); press articles, etc. I actually landed my first commercial because the agency loved it so much. We did a similar thing for the ‘how to make meth’ video, which directly lead to my Supergrass video. Budgets were $1200 & $200.

Mistakes people often make on their first videos (myself included) is that they make something that is only enjoyed by fans of the band. Or they do something dark, serious or dramatic. Or they choose their friend’s boring acoustic song, where a fun video seems out of place.

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Image: Keith Schofield & friend