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What would a rapper and a comedian do if you gave them $5,000 and told them to make a music video? If you think the answer would be to get pizza with Childish Gambino, dress up like a chicken, and buy some shiny suits, you would be exactly right because that is just what Chance The Rapper and comedian Hannibal Buress did in the video for "NaNa" when the YouTube comedy network Jash gave them $5,000 and told them to make a music video. Despite the simplicity of the concept, the video is a lot of fun and does a great job showcasing Chance’s personality, which isn’t always easy to do on a $5,000 budget. Chance, whose new mixtape Acid Rap is one of our favorite tapes of the year, also brought along Austin Vesely to co-direct the video with Hannibal, as well as to shoot and edit the footage. We talked to Austin and Hannibal about video, about working with Jash, and about how spending $5,000 in a day isn’t as easy as you’d think.

Inspiration as a filmmaker can come from all different places. For DP David Kruta, he was able to succeed in his current career by drawing influence from his previous careers, including his time spent as a graphic designer and as a dish washer. Since his days washing dishes, David has gone on to work as a DP in the film world, the commercial world, and in the music video world with directors like Michael Lawrence, Grant Singer and Eli Stonberg. David also recently lensed the upcoming music video for “Ghost Hits” by Shake the Baron, directed by Alex Amoling. We talked to David about working as a DP, being influenced by his previous jobs, and lugging camera gear on the subway.

The Uncluded, the genre-crossing duo comprised of Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson, has been on a music video tear recently, already releasing four videos off of their debut album Hokey Fright, which was released last week. Likely our favorite video from the album so far, “Delicate Cycle” directed by Ben Fee and Pete Lee, features The Uncluded along side a cast of over 80 different cast members – both people and animals. We talked to Ben and Pete about collaborating with The Uncluded, shooting with a cafeteria full of kids, and practical washing machine effects.

For their last music video, “Wasted My Time” by I/O, director duo BRTHR spent three days running around Long Island, packing in multiple locations with multiple setups all within a short period of time. For their latest video, “Bounce” by Iggy Azalea, they also packed in a lot of locations, but this time they were in Mumbai, India shooting with an elephant that legally isn’t supposed to be there. We talked to BRTHR about shooting in India, working with a large budget, and collaborating with a Bollywood crew.

The Art of Pop Video is an exhibit in Liverpool that tells the story of music videos by showcasing over 100 of them from the past 80 years. The exhibit is currently running at FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) through May 26th. Like Spectacle: The Music Video, the exhibit currently running in New York, The Art of Pop Video proves that music videos have had a significant cultural impact, an impact that continues to grow and find new ways to be appreciated. We wanted to lean more about the exhibit, so we talked to Lesley Taker, Curatorial Assistant at FACT, to do just that.

Right behind Psy on the list of recent artists who have used music videos to propel their careers would have to be Macklemore X Ryan Lewis. Despite being named to XXL magazine’s 2012 Freshman Class, it wasn’t until the success of the video for “Thrift Shop,” and to a lesser extent “Same Love,” that Macklemore X Ryan Lewis really started to blow up. The follow up to those two videos, “Can’t Hold Us,” is massive in scope - not just compared to those two videos, but compared to any videos, period. We talked to Jon Jon Augustavo, director of all three videos, about the 18-day “Can’t Hold Us” shoot, co-directing with Ryan Lewis and Jason Koenig, and making the ultimate Seattle video.

There comes a time in every music video where the money runs out. Even on music videos with six figure budgets, eventually someone ends up working for free, or for much less money than they deserve and the only thing keeping them there is because they believe in the project and have a passion for the work. This is especially true, however, on a video with almost no budget, like for the video “Call It A Comeback” by Banquets, directed Kevin Slack, where they didn't run out of money, but basically just had almost no money to begin with. We talked to Kevin and his DP Brian Dieck about working with Banquets on the project and how they were able to stretch such a small budget into something interesting and beautiful.

We’re all inspired by Destiny’s Child in one way or another, it just manifests differently from each of us. For director Austin Peters and the girls from Haim, it came through in location and dance move choices in their videos for “Forever” and “Don’t Save Me.” In these videos, we get to enjoy Haim as they ride mopeds, play basketball, and relive their favorite 90s music videos. We talked to Austin about working with Haim, going through their old home movies, and Destiny’s Child chorography.

Since being first invented by visual graphics artist Kevin Burg and photographer Jamie Beck in 2009, cinemagraphs have been seen all over the internet on sites like Imgur, Tumblr, and ReactionGifs.com. They even have their own subreddit, which is where we found the music video "Back To Me" by Joel Compass, directed by Ian & Cooper, which is made almost entirely of cinemagraphs. We talked to Ian & Cooper about how cinemagraphs work, posting the video to Reddit, and leaning how to use After Effects so they could edit this video.

No one was more convinced that they wouldn’t win the music video competition at SXSW than Saman Keshavarz. Not only did he think there were better videos than his, he has won already, in 2010 for “Luv Deluxe” by Cinnamon Chasers, so in his head that was enough to keep him from winning again. Obviously, he was wrong, because his video for “Stamina” by Vitalic won the music video competition, meaning we got to take pictures with his award. We already chatted with Saman about the video a few months ago when it came out, but we wanted to talk to him again, along with producer Sarah Park, about what it means to them to have a winning video at SXSW.