Music Video Industry Research

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RESEARCH INTO THE MUSIC VIDEO INDUSTRY Georgia Evans

Transcript of Music Video Industry Research

RESEARCH INTO THE MUSIC VIDEO

INDUSTRYGeorgia Evans

What is the purpose of a music video for the companies and artists that make them? ■ Promotional – selling the song and the artist to the public by invoking a

reaction so that the audience will remember the song■ Marketing – exposure and expansion of artist’s profile, widening of

audiences■ Promoting a song will promote an album, encouraging the audience to pay

for more of the artist’s products – generating money for the record company

■ Selling an image – for example, My Chemical Romance’s music videos sell the image of ‘goth’ or ‘emo’ music due to the dark imagery and themes

‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ ‘Helena (So Long and Goodnight)’

‘Famous Last Words’

Who are some famous music video directors? Why are their videos so well known and successful? ■ Mark C. Eshleman of Reel Bear Media productions is fairly well known for his directing of

multiple Twenty One Pilots music videos such as ‘Fairly Local’, ‘Guns for Hands’, ‘Ride’ etc. His videos are well known because Twenty One Pilots are hugely successful and his performative/narrative music videos raise a lot of questions about the content. For example, after watching ‘Guns for Hands’ the audience might wonder why the band chooses to wear balaclavas, or why they cover their faces with duct tape during the video. He is known for using very minimal mise-en-scene, such as plain backgrounds and natural lighting.

■ Michel Gondry is known for his concept music videos, as they are usually rather strange and have nothing to do with the lyrics of the songs he works for. He has collaborated with famous artists such as Daft Punk, Foo Fighters, Bjork, The Chemical Brothers and more. This is successful, though, in leaving the ideas of the music video with the audience and therefore imprinting the song on them. For example, his video for ‘Everlong’ by Foo Fighters features dream sequences of growing hands, phones bigger than men and legs turning into wooden logs.

■ Mark Romanek generally creates more performative music videos, although there may be some concepts within the video. This makes him well known as it gives the audience a chance to see the artist, which gives the audience motivation to watch the music video. He has worked with Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay and more. An example of one of the more performative music videos is ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift, in which Taylor can be seen dressed as a bunch of different ‘stereotypical’ groups of people, such as dancers or gangsters. It mainly consists of people dancing around her while she lip-syncs to the words.

‘Guns for Hands’ – Twenty One Pilots

‘Ride’ – Twenty One Pilots

‘Everlong’ – Foo Fighters

‘’Go’ – The Chemical Brothers

‘Shake It Off’ – Taylor Swift

‘Can’t Stop’ – Red Hot Chili Peppers

How much money is usually spent on the average music video?■ The average studio music video budget is $200,000-$500,000 (2010)

[1] ■ Music video production budgets typically cover concept development,

storyboards, pre-production, casting, on-camera talent, choreography, rehearsals, location fees, props, costumes, production equipment, production crew, post-production, editing, motion graphics, visual effects, colour correction, video encoding, and digital delivery

■ Some examples of estimated music video budgets[2]: – Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye ft. Kimbra - $35k-$50k– One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks) by One Direction - $50k-

$70k– Gangnam Style by PSY - $500k+

[1] source: http://garrettgibbons.com/music-video-budgets/[2] source: https://www.indigoprod.com/nyc-video-production-blog/2013/08/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-music-video/

‘One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks)’ – One Direction

‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ – Gotye ft. Kimbra

‘Gangnam Style’ - PSY

Estimated production costs[1]

Estimated production costs:■ Producer fee: $500 – $1250/day■ Director fee: $500 – $1250/day■ Camera operator: $500-1000/day■ Camera equipment rental: $150 –

$3500/day■ Key grip + assistant + lighting

gear: $1000 – $1750/day■ Wardrobe: estimated $20 –

$1000/day per character project■ City permits: $25 – $1000/day

(depending on the city, exact location, whether roads need to be closed, etc…)

■ Location fees and rentals: $250 – $2500+/day

■ Actors: $200 – $1200/day (each)■ Extras: $50 – $200/day (each)Estimated days of post-production required: 2-3 days■ Editor fee: $500 – $1250/day■ Redundant Hard disk archive:

$200 – $400■ Visual FX artist fee: $75 –

$150/hour■ Colourist fee: $100 – $200/hour

[1] source: http://garrettgibbons.com/music-video-budgets/

How do audiences access music videos? ■ Most audiences access music videos online■ There are a multitude of streaming websites which can be used

to access music videos, the main choice for this being YouTube – although alternatives like Vevo, Vimeo and DailyMotion are also available for most audiences

■ An issue with YouTube and streaming websites is that material can be made unavailable in specific countries so this might narrow the worldwide market

■ Audiences can also access music video via music channels on television like MTV

■ However, not all audiences may own a TV so this might be an issue

■ Social media is also used quite often to promote new music videos, such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, but this usually links with YouTube

■ Artists might also display their most recent music videos on their websites

■ Music videos can also be bought on iTunes and downloaded to any Apple device