Indie film news, reviews, commentary, interviews, podcasts and more, updated throughout the week.
Top 12 Cheap Videos, continued
By Mike Doughty
on 02/25/2009
7. Mike Doughty - "27 Jennifers"
Alright, okay, I know, but here's how I made it; I had a cheap handycam and figured out that the only thing that looked cool on it was the glowing green night vision. So I shot a video by myself, in my apartment, using 27 friends actually named Jennifer and my bass player Scrap, in a weird homage to sex videos where the only sexy things going on are things like me getting whacked in the face with a pillow, pelted with marshmallows, threatened with a machete and pushed aside by girls in towels wearing wolf masks.
6. Madonna - "Like a Virgin"
At last we arrive in the super cheap 80s, before labels started jockeying for position with ever-increasing production values. Despite the shmancy Venice location, this video's basically Madonna rolling around on a boat. You could do this on Lake Havasu if you wanted. Fine, renting the lion probably cost something.
5. Bonnie Tyler - "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
SO cheesy -- doors blowing open and pink curtains streaming out! Barechested schoolboys! Fencing! Crazy glowing-eye people! I love the way just the quality of the videotape looks. Why isn't everybody and their mom producing cheap parodies of these weird, laughable 80s symbolist monstrosities?
- <prev
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next>
We need cheap videos, cheap films, cheap movies and cheap entertainment. I applaud your choice too. It's too bad that other countries have more respect for our "inexpensive" art than we do. That's why B-movies do so well in Western Europe. http://www.AngeloBell.com - filmmaker, blogger, idealist
Velouria by Pixies is possibly the cheapest professional video ever... though I'm not sure it's exactly good...
Very good choices Mike. What about your video for Fort Hood; didn't you say that was cheap to make? Fort Hood is a fun video. :)
Mobydickulous
Good choices for sure Mike. I remember watching that Coldplay video for the first time and being impressed with the dawn concept. I'd also like to submit Jason Mraz's "Geek in the Pink" clip which he purports to have made for the cost of the large pizza the "crew" had for lunch.
benjamin
Mike. i enjoyed soul coughing and you can also think of the expenxe of videos in different ways. i presume that much of the large budget for videos went to all the people working on them. cateres, set designers, grips, hair and makup, etc. lots of people put food on their table and gained experience working on those big budget videos.
Lisa
Street Spirit, Radiohead is worthy of mention. I have always been partial to black & white, and the simplicity of the effects that are used, I think, are quite effective.. and overall it is just a way cool video. In truth, I actually miss music video television, from an artists perspective I always had a love/hate opinion of it, because you always want to see the integrity of the music speak for itself. But, videos sometimes offer some insight into what makes an artist tic. Which is just dreamy for die-hard fan, "1 Lisa"
I've always had a soft spot for Pansy Division's hilariously low-budget "Bad Boyfriend": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juok0UHF7YM
Danielle
I forget the name of the band, but it was in England, a band performed their song in front of dozens of CCTV cameras and requested the footage from the people who owned the cameras, they got enough for the whole video/
I like to make cheap fun videos!
You don't need to spend mega bucks on a video - we made one for nothing (admittedly, you can tell it cost nothing) but it gets hits on youtube and is certainly more memorable than a bog standard band on a stage with a crowd watching them flick!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4lK5uHJxxA
Cheers
Jim
