by Marc Rickenbach

Baby, Baby, Baby

Kill me

French duo Make the Girl Dance pretty much make it clear that they
deserve the award for best use of a marketing budget. In the age of the
flip-cam, iMovie and all the other cheap filmmaking paraphernalia that
is too easy to get your hands on and use, music videos continue to cost
labels a boat-ton of cash for over-the-top productions that more often
than not fail to balance the books. Who knows why, but it’s the case.
These guys, along with so, so, so many other artists, have shown again
that it’s just not necessary to spend so much money on cutting a video
(unless you’re spending it on booze and a good time, as they did). But
above all, regardless of cost, these videos are pretty great.

In the first clip for “Baby, Baby, Baby”, a one-take stroll down Paris’
chic rue Montorgeuil and a trio of nude models is all it takes to turn
some heads. This one video reached well over 1 million views on YouTube
alone. In the second clip for “Kill Me”, though they did put up a year’s
salary (for some) of $30,000 to cut a video, it’s as DIY as could be.
And, who can really argue with the way they spent the cash? Instead of
spending it on actors, crew, equipment and location, as is the norm,
they spent it on a good time and the end result is just as successful.
It’s unique and it does its job in terms of creating discussion.

So it begs the question: if you had $30,000 and only a handheld camcorder, what sort of a video would you shoot?