Week 2: Presentation by Polydor Records' Video Commisioners

Today we met a Video Commisoner for Polydor Records, called Emily Tedrake. She spoke to us on how the music video commissioning and production process works in the professional world, giving us advice on how to carry it all out ourselves.

Polydor Records:

• http://www.polydor.co.uk/
• Urban / Indie
• Substrate of Universal

How the Commisioners work:

• send out track to 5 - 10 directors
• put together images/clips for preferences
• select the best idea from a director with the artist
• organise budget, equipment
• edit & then delivery
• roughly 10 man crew for a £5k budget - depends on each idea
• they are the middle man between the label, the artists & managers, the director and the crew - high intensity - lots of effort.
• £20k on female hair & makeup in a video
• Went to uni - then lots of interning to find the right job

TIPS for Music Video Production:

• 1st video for a band is very important as its the first impression/representation of them
• create a treatment for our idea - put together detailed scripts/ideas/moodboards/brief/visual-references (clarity is v important)
• really important to have everything very organised and structured - makes life easier
• TOPTIP: shoot lipsync/beauty shots first (keeps the artist/actor happy - most important shots done) - any other extra shots, weigh up how much time it will take to shoot vs how much time the shot will take up in the video to see if it’s worth it.
• Match artists tastes with directors tastes in order to showcase each other and harmonise.
• Shoot each scene throughout the whole song - maximise amount of footage shot.
• Make sure the edit is musical (works in time - not discombobulated)

Polydor Videos:

Jax Jones - House Work
... an example of a tongue n' cheek dance music video.

 - this video has the simple, sophisticated and fun look that our group is going for with our own production.

Dusky - Sort it out Sharon

... an example of a more alternative dance music video that is very visually stimulating, but is slightly too serious and dark for us.

Rosie Lowe - Woman
... an example of a more organic female (message sending) video, again with a sophisticated look, but an overly serious narrative/message.