VIDEO DIRECTORS-UNCUT! (AVID LIONGOREN)

INTERVIEW WITH (LOCAL OPM) VIDEO DIRECTORS - A SERIES

AVID LIONGOREN
"DIRECTOR EXTRAORDINAIRE!"

An award winning director Avid Liongoren shares his idealism on his directorship and how he comes to terms with things which made up a valuable director. Avid won as Best Director on MTV Pilipinas for directing Everyday by Barbie's Cradle. Besides, the advertisements he directs dictates considerable commercial success on television as well as prints on varied arts.

He is a solid director with a potpourri of artistic splendor that defines his own style of self-expressiveness. His creativity and brainchild is now spawning the cyber world stunning casual fans and even technocrats. To mention few of Avid's commercial craftsmanship he directs advertisements for Dutchmill Yugort Milk, Pride Detergent Powder, PLDT My DSL, Lipton Iced Tea, Coca-Cola Beat Game, Rebisco, Globe Communications Fan Zone and many more. Finishing Fine Arts having majors in Ninjitsu at UP College of Arts is seems divergent to his preoccupation at this juncture in his life, however his doing some.

Of course the music videos he directs from various local artists, accordingly as he favorites them: Martyr Nyebera (Kamikaze), Mottaka (Cheese/Queso), Same Ground (Kitchie Nadal), Jealous (Nina), Say You Love Me (Regine Velasquez), Time In (Yeng Constantino) Macho Version 2 (Parokya ni Edgar), Everyday (Barbie’s Cradle).

Director Avid Liongoren started formally started his director thing at a responsible age of 22. Doing it first for Moonstar88. “I was 22 (I’m 28 now), I did a non commissioned video for Moonstar 88, it did not air… my first real record company music video was Mottaka for Cheese under Warner Music Philippines.” He enjoyed his video splash together with some other, perhaps, pity mistakes and some complementing devices. “It was fun to do and I made a lot of mistakes and it felt so hard back then but I was so excited. My computer back then only had 6 gigs of hard drive space and 256mb of ram and we did animations.”

Robert Quebral (from Parokya Ni Edgar videos) was his first role model, though he had more often than not confined to his own creativity, “I’d talk to Robert Quebral (Parokya videos from late '90s to early 2000s) regarding costs and stuff. I looked up to Furball for being brash & young though we never interacted much… I hardly interact with anyone. I’ve always been a hermit.” Despite his sharp inventiveness, Avid used to encounter dismaying points in his directorship, especially at the dawn of his career. He elaborates, “well the beginning was fun, bumpy but fun…I’d figure out different creative ways to use the small budgets like working with students who are willing to work for free and passing off the music video as a school project to get discounts on lighting equipment and film (I had about 8 fake “thesis”).”

“Working with different kinds of people… you learn so much in 6 months worth of projects as opposed to working 2 years in an office.”

Besides fastidious cronies, for him, it's the meager budget that tests his patience and gives him the bottle-neck at most. “It was in the later years when I realized “hey the budgets are getting tinier and tinier and our expenses are going higher… this is not fun”. You come to a point when you get tired of apologizing to people about how low the budget is and how you can’t pay much (or at all!) but is hoping that they would do it for the love of…. Music videos are fun if you are an incredibly rich person that owns helicopters & submarines or when you are fresh grads out to get some experience and you still live with your parents and is not pressured to support yourself,” explains Avid. It seems founding a living on such music matter will put your family's welfare at stake. After all it gives us the impression that it's an elite-class endeavor.

He wants to teach that music video making is not bad as long as won't spend your own financial load or penny unto it. On the basic misconception about them he said, “that we make a shitload of money. We don’t! Not out of making Music Videos. Pick your favorite video… if it looks insanely amazing, chances are the director did not make money out of it or probably even spent his or her own money on it.” Spending a gross of thousands to a video that must have been a shared duty among the rest, might end you up sobbing instead of jingling with your video.

This is where creativity pays them, not him, “that’s what I did… we pursue creativity for creativity’s sake. In my first pop music video I ended up shelling out 30k of my own money or I’d always forfeit my fee so the money can go to making the video look nicer. If we do make money, it’s nowhere in the vicinity of what we deserve… we can make more money if we let the video look ugly and cheap… but no director really wants that. That’s why I moved on to directing TV commercials instead. I’d only do Music Videos now for artists that are old friends or new artists that I really believe in.”


MORE VIDEO TALKS

What are the perks of being one?
Working with different kinds of people… you learn so much in 6 months worth of projects as opposed to working 2 years in an office.

What are those things that test your patience in making your craft as music video director?
Tiny budgets & big egos of some artists. Even if budgets were tiny and egos were big, in the start it was fun. I didn’t really mind as I was younger and just wanted to make music videos and I had the support of equally eager friends.

Growing up, did you envisioned yourself doing this?
Nope, no really, I just kind of fell into it. I wanted to be a ninja.

Do you usually base your visual concept on the meaning of the song itself?
Most of the time.

Does adding visuals to the song make the song more expressive? What do you think and in what way?
Of course it does… but often we hear a song first and we have made images up in our own heads already in how it personally relates to us so the music video is more of like an addendum or a way to see your favorite artist performing.

How do you choose song or songs to be made into a music video?
Well often it’s because you were asked to do a music video for an artist’s single… that is the record company’s choice. In some cases though… I like a song so much, I offer the artist a music video that I pretty much fund by myself even if it’s not yet a single… I did that for Drip’s “Pushing Him Away”… Barbie’s Cradle’s “Independence Day” and Kitchie Nadal’s “Same Ground”.

As a particular director with particular taste of music, what type of music or song do you usually directs or interested in making a video?
I like any genre as long as the artist is interesting to shoot.

Years after years of directing (producing) music video, what is the shortest time you've spent so far to come up with one?
Parokya ni Edgar’s Version 2 of Macho was shot in one take & was thought of on the spot after we spent all day doing version one… I just asked them to stand in place, shake their hips and voila… magic. That’s why I love that video so much.

And the longest one?
Kamikaze’s “Marty Nyebra” took around and 7 weeks from planning, to shooting to post production.

As head and director which gives imperatives every now and then, how do you get into terms with the artists themselves?
Most of the artists do not interfere with the music video process… they show up, you shoot them, finished… the ones that want to be involved… I sit down with them and talk and manage expectations.

What segment or part in the music video making that makes you exited or expectant?
When I’m in front of the computer and putting it all together.

When does a music video takes a lot of finances to make?
When you shoot on location out of town with many many lights and nuclear explosions.

What do you think makes a music video salable in terms of market and popularity?
If it features the artist prominently or it makes the song feel nicer… often you have songs that you don’t really like so much but if the video is great you begin liking it. But a great song, with a terrible video would still be a great song.

Does making a music video, makes a living too?
No. NO.

I guess that is the important part of this interview that I hope people who want to get into music videos realize. Before my time, music videos cost a certain price… I came in and I was happy to do it for much less and I did so many music videos thinking the budgets will get higher if I do a good job. Wrong… the record companies were just happy that a new crop of directors were doing it much cheaper and then comes a new batch who are willing to work for much less and they work on most videos because the older ones have smartened up…. and then a newer batch comes in bringing the price even lower…. It’s a vicious cycle…Music Video production is at an abysmal state where in it’s simply used to build portfolios and no one can support themselves by working on them… Sometimes it’s bordering on abusive even… some artists even if they have commercial endorsements and pull down huge sums per concert still insist on tiny music budgets. That’s why I moved on to making TV commercials instead and I’d only do Music Videos now sporadically for artists that are friends or with decent budgets.

So far, whose music video you wish you would have directed?
Eraserheads.

What would you tell an aspiring music video director?
Just read my answer to “Does making a music video, makes a living too?”

Would you recommend it to other people who are thinking of going the same route?
Not the part where you spend your own money.

The greatest lesson a music video director can ever share?
Shoot the performance of the artist first. Because if all else fails, you’ll still have a video : )


NEXT IN LINE:

WINCY ONG
TOPEL LEE
RA RIVERA
CARL DAVID PALISOC
PAUL SORIANO

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Special Thanks to:
Pinoy Mag 5th Anniversary Issue
Released Date: 06 November 2008
Special Feature: MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTORS
Facebook: Pinoy Magazine (official)
And for all the proceeding and preceding articles in this blog.