Hello all, it’s me, Beni Barca, now blogging for The Daily Rind. Today I’m here to talk about Music Videos… or more specifically, YOUR music video. What’s that? You say you have no music video? What a shame. You know how important they can be, right? Yes, I realize you’ve already got your song on YouTube, playing to a picture of your cats playing Scrabble, which I’m sure has already gained you many fans in the LOLcat sect of humanity, but I had something more, uh, traditional in mind. I know that the early stage resistance to this is generally the lacking of funds and/or creativity, but there are also a lot of people who don’t understand the benefits of an actual music video. I have come today to pull back the veil on that mystery!
First off, lets discuss WHY you need an actual music video. Music videos are, first and foremost, an excellent promotional tool. Pairing a song with complementing visuals can boost interest, explain an intention, or completely change the way people feel about a song. There have been many songs that only caught my attention once I saw the music video.
Secondly, a good video performance can help promoters and booking agents get a better feel for an artist/band’s personality and performance ability. This is especially beneficial to a new act that hasn’t done many live shows yet. Also, bloggers love to get their hands on music with a visual edge. Music bloggers receive lots of audio tracks, so an actual music video will help you to stand out in the crowd… and if the video is creative enough, many non-music bloggers may want to include it as well.
But it doesn’t end there…
Music videos are also a great bargaining tool to entice your fans to buy your ENTIRE album, instead of just your single and/or cherry picked album cuts. How does that work, you ask? Well, here are two words that can change your career: “Video Bundle.” As I’m sure you are aware, the majors have been doing this for years… and so can you! Giving away your creative and interesting music video is an excellent perk for purchasing the entire album. Fans LOVE freebies! I assure you, there are a number of albums in my collection that I have purchased specifically for the bundled video content… at least two of which I didn’t even preview before I purchased, LOL!
Now, let’s tackle that early stage resistance. First off, lets talk about cost. Gone is the era of industry standard six figure music videos. Even the majors rarely venture into that price bracket these days. Honestly, it’s not necessary. Much of the cost of shooting videos, back in the day, was the film. People still shoot on film, when they have simultaneously the budget and preference for that aesthetic, but most people shoot music videos digitally these days. Now, you COULD shoot on an F1, or a RED, or some other cinema quality camera, and that would be beautiful, but in all honesty, you can get excellent quality video off of many Digital SLR cameras, such as the Canon 5D.
Brandon “Beni” Jackson
Video Engineer
Joined The Orchard in August 2011
Beni, you work in the mysterious dark room by the Production Studio and the Dungeon where Business Insider discovered an old computer rigged as a Nintendo Classic MOD. What the #@&$ do you do there?
LOL, yes, mysterious indeed! I spend most of my time hiding from the light, drinking bootleg iced coffee and playing Legend of Zelda… oh, no… that’s what I do at home, LOL. What I actually do, on paper, is prepare music videos, movies and TV shows for digital distribution, but in reality, it’s a bit more involved. I design production workflow, inspect the videos for quality issues, provide post-production tech support for our clients, and even do a little bit of in-house video production.
I hear you’ve got 16 years of digital media production experience behind you! What do you have to say for yourself?
Yeah, 16 years… and for those who are familiar with Non Linear Editing, yes, that’s WAY before it was practical for most people, LOL. I have been working in the music business, professionally, since I was a teenager. I started out producing music in my mom’s basement and soon landed a position at one of the radio stations doing dubbing and production for commercials. After that, I became a Recording and Mixing Engineer, which eventually brought me to New York to do writing and production for Toby Gad. While I was working for Toby, I got pretty heavy into video production, and have clocked well over 15,000 hours in Final Cut since I started back in 2006, all self taught, (believe me when I say, I have made EVERY video production mistake possible…) which brought me to Sony Music Entertainment, where I worked in Video Production and Engineering before coming to The Orchard.
Who is Beni Barca?
Who IS Beni Barca, LOL! Beni Barca is the name I create music under, and it’s pretty much who I’ve been for some time now. My family back home calls me Brandon, but I very rarely hear that in here in NY. Toby actually once wrote one of my paychecks to Beni Barca, LOL. Check out some of the stuff I’ve worked on here (Arama Mara lyric video), here (Shakira ft. Pitbull remix) and here (Britney Spears remix).
I heard you recently treated one of our visiting partners to a tour of the House scene in New York. Can you take us on a virtual journey of your favorite clubs of the city, old and new?
We actually never made it out on that tour, but we did talk about it in great detail, LOL. I’ve only been living here for 6 years, and during trips to the city before that I rarely left Midtown… Actually, the only time I left Midtown was to go to TVT… kinda weird that I work in that office now. When I first moved here, I was a BIG fan of Studio B. I saw a lot of good shows there. I loved the way Avalon looked, but I wasn’t too excited about the $100 credit card minimum at the bar. I saw Sasha at Cielo, but I don’t really hang out in the Meatpacking District all too much… except for Le Bain… I like that place. I was a fan of Cheeky Bastard’s parties at Hiro Ballroom, and still will go to Girls & Boys at Webster Hall, when someone I want to see is DJing. Right now, I’m more into smaller venues like Public Assembly and stuff in the Village and East Village, but what I like most are Warehouse parties… even the commercialized version that has become popular with marketing companies these days. As far as the legendary clubs go, unfortunately I missed them all… well, except for Limelight, which became Avalon.
Thanks Beni, now we know what the #@&$ you do! Also, our sources located this amazing photo of you from back in the day. We thought our readers would enjoy it.
favorite part of the music biz: Going to shows and concerts. I used to keep a video blog, and I’m starting that back up now.
best video so far this year: I have seen LOTS of great videos this year, but I feel one of the most memorable was “WELCOME TO BABYLON” (yes, the official title is in all caps) by A Toys Orchestra. It follows the principle character from birth to death, and it kind of puts life into perspective.
activity of choice once you punch the clock: When I punch the clock I hop in the trenches. I either head to my studio in Bushwick to work on tracks or practice DJing, go to a show or concert to get pictures and video, or if I’m feeling particularly counter productive, I put Shochu in a water bottle and walk around the East Village… actually I do that a lot. The winter is coming, though, so it will be too cold to be counter-productive pretty soon, LOL.
random: A random fact, huh? I walked from Roppongi to Shinjuku [in Tokyo] one night when I missed the last train and didn’t feel like spending 2,000 yen on a Taxi. I had no idea where I was going, but the buildings in Tokyo are usually under 10 stories, so I just walked in the direction of the skyscrapers till I got there. It took like 3 hours, LOL… is that random enough for ya?
