the process of making a music video

Last year we had a talk from two professional music video directors, Jake and Jim. In the talk they went through the process of how a music video is made.

1. The record label or band (if unsigned) releases the track to potential directors and production companies.

2.The directors that are interested 'pitch' for the track with their ideas and concepts, they have come up with bassed on the brief from the record company and the music track they have listened to.

3. Then the record company chooses the directors pitch they want and allocates a budget, which can be as small as £100 to as big as £250,000 depending on the artist, genre and director. The producer looks after budget and arrangements for the process- a percentage of the budget is allocated to this role

4. Director of Photography and art director(production designer) then join the team. It's the art director's job to oversee the planning for the look of video, they must scout for locations and plans the shoot location.

5.Then everyone (artist, director etc) meet at the shoot location and the video is shot usally in a single day

6. It's then time for the off-line edit where an editor assembles all the footage with out effects over a period of a few days; the record company and artist may want to see it and suggest changes.

7. Afterwards is the online edit when the editor adds all the special effects and tidys it up for a final version.

8. Fianlly the finnished product is deliverd to the client and if it is to their standards then its released.Steps 1-8 may take as little as 3-4 weeks these days as budgets have fallen and demands are greater.