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We invite you to sign up for the Music Videos Group during Film Spring Open 2021. The workshop’s mentor will be Konrad Aksinowicz, a specialist in music videos and commercials. He will come to us (almost) straight from the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, where his feature film “Powrót do Legoland” was included in the main competition.

This is how Konrad Aksinowicz sets the agenda:

“The main goal of the workshop is the understanding of music, creating an original idea and proper visualization in a short form of a music clip. I would like to convince the participants to look inside themselves and draw inspiration from it for future music videos, so that they do not subconsciously copy what they have already seen.

Stage one: the essence of the music video

I will introduce my method of dividing video clips into three categories:

– music videos for an excellent song

– music videos with excellent visualization

– music videos with an original idea.

I want to trigger a discussion in which we’ll come to the conclusion that a good music video should represent at least two of these properties.

Using the example of classic music videos, we will consider the idea of an abstract understanding of reality, which makes a music video so different from the other forms of audiovisual art. I will also present independent music video productions that, in their simplicity, win with the great productions of large record companies.

Finally, I will talk about writing treatments that enter competitions with many other scripts before the record company and the musician himself finally choose the right one.

Stage two: abstract thinking

I want to surprise the workshop participants a bit by asking them questions about themselves. I’m interested in the way they dress, in shoes they wear, music they listen to. I want to know where they come from, how many brothers or sisters do they have, etc. The listeners will quickly understand that their decisions and view of the world are unique and that only they can really tell their own stories.

Later on, we will write a script for a song of my choice to understand how many visions it can provoke and how our subconscious influences the way we read the lyrics. I want to convince the participants that it is worth departing from the words and concentrating on the mood itself in order to compare it with the impression it evokes in each of the listeners. And this impression must be transferred to the screen, given a certain amount of time, film resources and a crew.

Photos by Filip Błażejowski

Stage three: verification of ideas

We will discuss the limitations of the process of working on music videos. We will consider, whether it is worth having ten locations for one shooting day. Is it worth showing all the surprises in the first minute of a three-minute song? I will talk about my experiences on the film sets and problems I had to solve. Sometimes you have to go far from the initial idea, when it comes to: time, budget or vision of the musician himself. We will consider what is most important in production. The director’s vision or the vision of the artist who will end up being the face of the project? How to reach a compromise? How to listen to artists? How to help them and keep our own ideas at the same time?

I am convinced that after our meetings, the participants will have a better understanding of the world of the music videos. And they will realize that the more we are open to our personal experiences, the easier it is to avoid the clichés used in thousands of previously viewed video clips.”

Soon we will inform you about the artists the Group will cooperate with.

Konrad Aksinowicz – born in Wroclaw, Poland. He studied filmmaking at School of Visual Arts in Australia. Then took up a course of screenwriting in Fox Studio under Robert McKee supervision, and it radically changed his attitude towards story concept. Returned to Poland in 2004 where he gained recognition as a TV commercial and music videos director. His characteristic and unique style won him a special award at KREATURA – Polish most prestigious advertising festival for “Tramway” commercial. He has made three feature films, including “Powrót to Legolandu”, which premiered in the main competition of the 46th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.

We invite everyone interested in joining the group!

If you want to join the group, register for the Film Spring Open Workshop.