If you’re tired of watching the latest fat man singing and dancing in front of his computer on YouTube, maybe it’s time for a change of pace. Why not check out a music video directed and produced by two UA alumni?
Media arts alumni Jonny Pulley and Andy Martinez recently created a music video for an unsigned L.A. band called She’s Your Sister. The video is part of YouTube’s underground video contest, which allows people to vote for each band’s video at www.youtube.com. There are 2,264 videos entered in the contest to date.
Pulley and Martinez both moved to Los Angeles shortly after graduating last spring. Both wanted to work on a project together because they had not really done one on their own outside of film school.
“”You don’t get excited about local bands very often, but I got excited about this one. The band told us about this YouTube contest, which is great, because we’ve been wanting to get involved in YouTube,”” Martinez said.
Pulley’s girlfriend is a friend of the bassist for She’s Your Sister, and the band was looking to make a video for the song “”Gravity.”” Pulley and Martinez were available and agreed to do the video.
The video is made up of about 1,000 digital still photographs. Some were archived photos from the band and some were shot over the span of three days by Martinez and Pulley.
“”It’s made like that partly because when we moved, we had no cameras, so we sort of had to work with what we had,”” Martinez said.
As the producer, Martinez had to acquire all the resources to get the video made, including acquiring cameras, finding locations, developing the concept of the video and promoting the video after it was made.
The video chronicles the band from its formation in Chicago to its move to Los Angeles.
“”The concept was to use still photographs to tell the story of the band. I took any photos that they had,”” Pulley said. “”We wanted to try to create motion through still photographs. It was just kind of like an experiment, an idea I wanted to try out, and it worked.””
Pulley currently works at what he calls an editing boutique called 60 Hz. He is also editing the special features for the DVD release of “”DǸjÇÿ Vu,”” a new film starring Denzel Washington.
In terms of getting into the industry, both Pulley and Martinez say there’s nothing that could prepare them for it.
“”All the stereotypes about Hollywood
assistants, getting coffee and stuff, that’s all true,”” said Martinez, who is currently an executive assistant for a television director in L.A.
“”In terms of making film, (the BFA program) gave me a great opportunity to create work, to make short films,”” Martinez said. “”It provided me with a process. How much it helped me make this music video – a lot. I wouldn’t have known how to make films.
“”But there’s no real route to work in Hollywood, it’s just about meeting people and impressing people – really just falling into something.””
After graduating, Pulley moved to Los Angeles in June, where he had an unpaid internship for three months. During those months he lived off a stipend, but he soon realized he needed to somehow get his foot in the industry.
“”Technique-wise, I got everything I needed to know,”” he said. “”The whole process of finding the job and networking, there’s not a whole lot that can be taught in school. Internships can do that, but you don’t really know it until you get out there. It’s any means to get your foot in the door.””
Pulley said he hopes to keep working with other UA graduates from the BFA program like Martinez.
“”I want to write more short narrative pieces,”” Pulley said. “”Right now I’m trying to put together a series of online shorts in the manner of comic strips, like short little videos. There’s a bunch of us in that graduating class, and I want to include them.””
