The Inventory Series is an ever-growing stockhouse of information and inspiration. An appreciation of all things creative. A place where creative professionals share resources for discovery and inspiration: the tools of creation.

This time we have visual artist and filmmaker Albert R. Hildebrand giving us his current inventory:

How to Make a Music Video

Making a music video is a balance between very structured preparation and free improvisation. For me the process always begins with the music.

I’ll ask the musician to send me the track without telling me about their visual ideas. This way I can listen to the music and let the images form naturally  from my own frame of reference. After this, we share our ideas and collectively develop the ideas further.

This gives me the freedom to react intuitively and discover the inspirations that guide me in the moment. 

The most important thing is to create a trusting relationship, where the musician feels safe being honest. The process is an exercise in finding each other, without planning everything out beforehand. I’m almost always working with small teams and simple setups. This creates room for experimentation and spontaneous ideas, instead of trying to fit everything into a tight schedule. It’s not only a technical job – it’s also a relational process.

The location is the first set element and sometimes the only fixed frame. This allows for everything else to develop freely, while filming. I use Google Maps to find places. I’ll often go for a “walk” inside Google Maps and archive places.

I’m inspired by artists like Arthur Jaffa, Laurie Anderson, Noah Dillon, Es Devlin, Pierre Huyghe. 

Often, I work with spaces that tend to have a quality of being between two worlds. For example in “Caroline”, the music video for School of X, I worked with match cuts and panning to create a feeling of connection between the two worlds: a performance in a dark room with strobe lights and an outdoor setting with the band performing surrounded by nature. The scenes shifting between different POV-recordings.