Interview with Ana Vardi / Berlin Music Video Awards 2024

Berlin Music Video Awards

Discover the interview with Ana Vardi, director and winner of the “Best low budget” category, with the music video "aLex vs aLex - see me 4 the first time".   Check the full music video "aLex vs aLex - see me 4 the first time"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI8qerxhVzs   Follow them:  @anavardi  @sofiainsua   Credits :  Interview and edit by Sebastian Sheath and Yannick Solandt (unsigned Berlin): https://www.youtube.com/@unsignedberlin   Do you want to be part of the Berlin Music Video Awards as well? Submit your video here: https://www.berlinmva.com/submit/ We are now taking submissions.

Transcript

00:00You start off by introducing yourself.

00:20What is your name?

00:21Where are you from?

00:22Hi.

00:23My name is Anna Barty.

00:24I'm based in New York, but originally I'm from country of Georgia.

00:27Nice.

00:28What are you here for today?

00:30I was nominated for the best low-budget video, and I just won the category.

00:35Congratulations.

00:36Thanks so much.

00:37How does it feel to win?

00:38It feels amazing, especially because this was my first ever music video I directed,

00:44and I worked with my friends, so it kind of, it feels incredible to start my directing

00:51career this way.

01:01Did you learn anything from directing this video that either went really wrong, or you

01:05just went?

01:06Oh, so much.

01:07I usually, I'm a full-time producer, so having that knowledge, working on this video, of

01:13course helped, but directing-wise, I've learned so many lessons that I'm going to use in my

01:19future directing, yeah.

01:21You also, you're nominated here and won for best low-budget, but you've worked on really

01:26big-budget stuff.

01:27You did the Madonna, Takesha video.

01:29Exactly.

01:30Was it last year, I think?

01:31That was last year, yes.

01:33What's the kind of difference that you see on a video that's a really low-budget thing,

01:37like this one, versus that kind of high-scale?

01:39The difference usually is that if you're doing something low-budget, you ask people a lot

01:45of favors, and you work with your friends to save money, but other than that, it's the

01:51dedication and the passion is usually the same, it's just people either don't get paid

01:56at all, or they get paid very little.

02:03You did the direction, you did the production, but the editing is a really important part

02:14of it.

02:15The video gets a lot of the character across.

02:16How did you make sure that the communication between yourself, the artist, and the editor

02:20was just right together?

02:21Really good question.

02:22As a director, I didn't have much experience working with the editors, so my editor, Ethan,

02:28we worked on, we've had so many versions of this video.

02:32We kept re-editing and re-editing, and then for this video specifically, editing was such

02:36a big part of it, just to make sure the storytelling was right, so it was just the constant communication

02:43for weeks, going back and forth, so I'm so grateful that he was able to work on this.

02:48Nice.

02:49How much was the full video planned for going out?

02:50Because it seems planned, because of especially the composite shots where they're put together.

02:56A lot of it was planned.

02:57The storyline, we knew what we wanted.

02:58We knew that she kind of has a crush, which I've had it many times.

03:03I take subway in New York City all the time, and I see a cute guy, I crush on them, and

03:07then you leave the train, you never see them again, so that was kind of the base story,

03:12but the editing, I told my editor that I wanted something experimental, so the storyline

03:18was planned, but the most of the techniques that he used, none of it was planned, it was

03:22kind of came into, when we started editing, kind of like came into play.

03:35Do you have any advice for other people that are especially struggling with a lower budget,

03:39trying to put together a music video?

03:41Just get the camera, and go outside and start shooting, whatever.

03:45Like whatever you like, even if it's a street, a car, whatever, start shooting and then play

03:51with it, and you never know what's going to come out of it.

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