In order to capture the eyeballs of audiences, an artist requires arresting filmed content. Traditional short form music videos are increasingly being taken over by trailers, interstitials and other filmed content. Our Q&A session will discuss the plethora of platforms and formats required, how to plan out a video & marketing campaign and how to deliver that. Our industry guests represent different facets of the process.

Louis Baker

With a powerhouse voice that’s capable of a primal RnB scream or tear-inducing plea, and a talent for writing deeply personal, Baker has spent the past decade evolving his sound from nuanced acoustic ballads to seductive soul grooves. In 2013 he was selected to attend the prestigious annual Red Bull Music Academy in New York. He then recorded and released his self-titled EP, and was a top five finalist for the 2014 APRA Silver Scroll Award for Back On My Feet and was top 20 in 2017 with his song Rainbow and again in 2018 with Black Crow. Baker has also performed at festivals across the world, including Field Days, Sziget Festival, Sonar Festival, The Great Escape, and Splendor in the Grass, building an appetite for bigger crowds as well as more intimate spaces.

Cushla Aston

Cushla Aston is the founder of Aston Rd, a boutique management company who manages soulful singer-songwriter Louis Baker. Cushla joined the New Zealand music industry in 2011 after returning from a decade of living in the UK. In that time she has worked with notable New Zealand independent platinum selling such as Fat Freddy’s Drop, Kora,Trinity Roots, Thomas Oliver, Estere and more. Collectively Aston Rd’s clients have been winners and finalists for the APRA Silver Scroll awards, NZ Music Critics Choice awards and Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards. They have toured in the UK, Europe, Polynesia, South Africa and Australia, and have achieved independent debut album releases charting within the top ten New Zealand album charts.

David Ridler (moderator)

David has been working in NZ radio and NZ music for more than 20 years, starting out hosting music shows on student radio in the mid-90s. He has worked in programming and operations at several NZ commercial radio networks, including Content Director of the Alt-Rock format Channel Z in the early 2000s, and most recently Content Director at the re-launched Radio Hauraki network. Alongside a radio career, David has also worked extensively for the Government funding organisation NZ On Air. Initially he held a role there working in promotions and radio plugging, then more recently he spent four years in the Assistant NZ Music Manager role. In 2016 David was appointed the Head of Music for NZ On Air, managing all of the NZ music content funding schemes and promotional interventions to support broadcast and online audience connection with the contemporary popular music of New Zealand.

The Music Filmmaker Series is part of the Recorded Music NZ Tui Music Series 2019. The Series supports the Artisan Awards creative fields of music production, design and film making. Go to nzmusicawards.co.nz/tui-music-series for more information.

Recorded Music NZ gratefully acknowledges the support of NZ On Air and Massey University College of Creative Arts.