Today we were given a talk from two video commissioners from Polydor Records.
Polydor's history is second to none with their vast variety of genres being displayed across different eras. From the 60s 'Beat Boom' onwards, through the eras of rock, disco and punk, the label has been involved in every significant new musical development. Now, the likes of Lady Gaga, Ellie Goulding and Lana Del Ray mantain Polydor's cutting-edge reputation.
Emily Tedrake who began the talk currently has 14 videos commissioned as can be seen in her videography.
Her job as a commissioner is to -
Match the director with the artist. Once the artist wishes to make a new video, it is the video commissioners job to send a brief to the directors. From this they will receive treatments which will be reviewed by management and the artist to find the right fit. Normally, they will recieve 5-10 per track. Prior to this the band would have set a budget however some artists find it difficult to fund their videos so the commissioner will try and work on product placement in order to gain sponsorship for the video, for example the Saturdays, very bizarrely have a car at the beginning f their video but it funded the project. Budgets for music videos range from £5,000 to around £200,000.
In their words, some of the best videos are those of which the artists already have an idea such as the video commissioned by Emily for "The 1975"
Matching the director with the artist is key.
The artist sometimes works with the same director but by the second video the artist has usually fallen out with the director as friction builds between them so they stop working with each other after that. However some partnerships flourish because the artist and director may have similar tastes and ideas. Shooting a music video takes normally 1-2 days and the whole process from sending briefs all the way to a final cut is around 1-2 months.
Some directors only do 1 or 2 videos a year and make a lot whereas the smaller director are lucky to make £500 per video as they have to shoot commercials. Someone like Emil Nava who directs for Ellie Goulding, Calvin Harris and DJ Snake makes around £50,000 per video.
Below are some examples of Emily Tedrake's work -
Limit to your love - James Blake
Thinkin bout you - Mabel
On my mind - Ellie Goulding
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