how is a video made

1. How is a Music Video Made?
Robyn Marshall-Dawson

2. Stages
1. The record label, artist and their management agree what to release as a single
2. The video commissioner makes a shortlist of possible directors that suit the style of the idea.
3. The director provides a treatment to the video commissioner
4. The director develops the idea into a story board once the idea has been approved
5. Heads of department are booked (e.g. director of photography), art direct, costume, ect
6. The sets are built
7. The shoot (2 days)
8. The editor produces a rough cut in 3 days
9. Viewing of the rough cut by the director and management to allow for alterations
10. Changes are agreed and made before special effects are added
11. Online video make in the edit
12. Video is passed to record label for release

3. Key institutional players
 The Record Company
 Sign up the band or artist, paying them in advance to cover the cost of releasing a single including
marketing costs, such as the music video, which is ultimately funded by the sales of the music. The
record company employs a video commissioner to develop the brief for the video, budget and
deadlines and sends it to the company/director along with the recording of the song.

4. Key institutional players
 The Video Production Company
 Represents a director within a particular territory eg the Oil Factory production company represent
the director Spike Jonze. The company acts as an agent on behalf of the director, seeking work for
them and negotiating with the client. Unlike an agent, the production company also produces
(makes) the video and takes a fee for this. Individual directors are unlikely to have the finances or
resources to pitch for a job so the production companies do this and the costs are recuperated
once the video has been made and paid for. The director used to take 10% but this is often no
longer the case and making a living from promos as a director has become increasingly difficult.

5. Key institutional players
 The Director
 Listens to the track, looks at the lyrics and any other material, such as previous videos by the same
band and outlines a proposal.
 If the commissioner/record company likes the idea, they usually hold a meeting with the director
that sometimes includes the artist. The treatment might be amended or simply agreed and the next
stage occurs which is the budgeting.

6. Key institutional players
 Budgeting
 This is done by the producer and approved by the head of production and then submitted to the
client. Once agreed a contract is signed.
 With the recent economic downturn available budgets have been considerably reduced and the
requirements of multiple signatures from those in charge of big institutions such as Sony, to agree
to the funding, hasn’t helped.

7. Key institutional players
 Shooting
 Can take about five days to prepare for compared with two shooting days (think how long you
spend on research and planning compared with Construction and you get the general idea of the
standard ratio). A shoot on location might be less complicated than shooting on a set, which has to
be built and pre-lit, often in a short space of time. Shooting days can be very long, often starting at
7am and finishing at 1am the next morning. This was certainly the case when I did videos for
Morcheeba and the Lightning Seeds. The benefit was that overtime was paid

8. Key institutional players
 Editing
 The editor must have a clear idea of what the director is after and have access to the storyboard if
required. Editing is divided into two – off-line or roughcut, which takes up to four days and then
shown for approval to the director and management company and then on-line edit, where effects
are added and the material is produced to broadcast standard. The time taken for this varies on the
requirements of the video. On-line edits are usually done by a different editor to the rough cut edit
and are based in a post production facilities house that own systems such as Flame and Inferno to
create the special effects.