It seems so much has changed with music videos lately. Most seem to be about something and have a narrative. A feature we are glad to see. Even the typical performance and vérité video has taken on new meaning by adding a narrative. But why?
Much of this shift we see comes from the influence of the AI music video. This technology changed everything about the music video, bringing us into an age where the music video stands on its own as visual art. No longer just a promotional tool as it was in the ancient age of MTV (Music Television), technology has made it easier for everyone to make a music video. That, and some very astute fair use rules around copyrights.
TikiKiti was founded on the idea that the fan-made and unofficial music was the key bringing the inner cinematographer out in anyone. Of course the popularity of the iPhone and other camera phones helped. The fan-made video flooded YouTube and opened up the minds of many who found a way to share their visions with the world.
Our approach to recognizing the independent music video producer changed as well. In January we gave our last award for this year to Bryce Garrett and Cameron Elder for their video to “Too Hip To Retire” by Tim Simonec. These to high school students were the youngest to ever win the Barclay Award for this outstanding production. It was at this that we began seeing trends about music videos changing along with the music.
And then we found Mike Krumlauf of Digital T Productions and Jason Popow of Waste Of Time Productions. Two very different producers from very different worlds who did something very unique. This makes sense in today’s world of social-everything. What they did is turn their lives into a visual story — using the music video as a way to illustrate their lives.
We were following Mike Krumlauf’s videos for nearly a year before we even knew of his channel and all of his videos. They kept showing up in our video searches. It was when we found his channel, that we had been seeing his many videos over the course of a year. What we found was a jaw-dropping collection of very personal videos about his life, loves, family, friends, and the city he is from, Chicago.
Chicago holds a special place in Mike’s heart. In one of his more recent videos set to “End Of Beginning,” by DJO, Mike does the lip-sync himself while we see some of the beautiful scenes of Chicago, many shot from a drone. This video shows his mixed emotions;
“You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man.”
You see the tears in his eyes and know they are real. Mike is from Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, and is the foundation of his love for his work. It is also the place where he met his lifelong friends and his husband.
Earlier this year Mike was featured in our article called “A Slice of Life” a video style Mike has mastered, the vérité. Although he has produced several other types of videos, it is with his vérité videos where he excels. After this article it was inevitable that we would interview him for our podcast, an article spotlighting him, and our first ever Artist of the Week.
Growing up in Naperville seems to whetted his appetite for working in film and video production. He attended Tribeca Flashpoint College in Chicago and got an Associates degree in film with a focus on cinematography. He says, “Granted I went to film school after I had been doing film for 15 [years] at that point. I went to network with people my age and that’s mostly what I got out of it as I already knew what they were teaching me.” However, as with others who are self-employed, most of what he learned came from working in the business.
What Mike didn’t count on as he was publishing each of his videos is the number of people who would be inspired by his work. (Including us here at TikiKiti.) When watching his videos you may notice he always includes the equipment he works with. This is because he evaluates and rates this equipment. This also gives him the opportunity to create some spur of the moment vignettes of his life. Examples of this abound on his YouTube channel: “Wash Away (2019)” set to Hans Zimmer’s “Funeral”, where a painting unfolds right before our eyes — a rain painting: “Cool Night (2023)” where we see the city zip by in sped up fashion; “Existential Drive (2023)” where we see a drive on the freeway look like something so opposite of what we would expect.
However, it is in his performance videos where his production, direction, and editing abilities are on full display. Our first exposure to Mike Krumlauf came when we saw his video to “Down Down Down” by The Presets. There was a period when he went through a phase with The Presets — such as with “Girl And The Sea”; and His video called “My Life (2023)” — A video that is simultaneously a vérité video, narrative video, and a show reel.
The secret to all of Mike’s videos is they reflect his life — they are his life. Or, more precisely, a certain part of his life. He has created his memoir — using the music video as the vessel for each chapter. What he was unaware of when he published these videos, is how his audience would also see their life reflected. This is the essential beauty of his work — by making his life so relatable to others he inspires at the same time.
Chronicling his life in this way has given him a unique anthology. He won the Barclay Award for the overall quality, and the total number of his videos. It has been impossible to pick just one video for an award. For this reason, he is now one of two producers who have the award for an anthology of music videos.
