Vogue's Media Blog: Meeting with video commission editors from 'Polydor Records'

In our lesson, as a class, we met with top music video commission editors, Emily Tedrake & Hanan Cher, who have worked with very famous artists such as Lana Del Ray, 1975 and others. It was a very interesting discussion and I feel I got a lot out of it. (http://www.polydor.co.uk)

Notes

Lana del ray, 1975
Speak to artist first, they usually know what they want and then are matched to a suited director
sometimes the artist just leaves it to the director if they don't know what to do
discuss whether the artist wants to be in the video, more of documentary etc
write brief then send it to a few directors
brief is usually pretty pacific, times, imagery, location, what the track is etc
brief isn't always that specific so that the director can take a few ideas from
then the director sends back a treatment and there is a discussion on what the best/right idea would be
shoot day is usually a day or two then the edit process then delivery
1 to 2 months to complete a full video from treatment to edit
timing for videos has to be extremely pacific
if the video is done in a short period of time it has to be extremely planned so everyone knows exactly the structure of the shooting etc
never combine different ideas as it would be stealing another directors work and idea
need to keep artists, directors and everyone else happy as a lot of effort goes into the whole process
when on shoots you have to check any issues that could arise after
everything needs to be sorted pre shoot; if things go wrong everyone needs to be aware of what is being lost, no surprises
lighting right, makeup is good, making sure artists are looking good
if artist doesn’t like it, the whole video is scrapped
do a really concise summary and then you can go into detail of the idea, and then visual elements
ideas have to absolutely be realistic as they won’t be able to be done on a low budget
avoid any arguments and stick to the original treatment
helps getting the artist and director face to face so that they can see how they get on
consider visual art of the video and how you keep the audiences interests up
something different happening in the middle 8 and then something exciting at the end
consider how the track is going to ft with the visuals
try get as much performance element as you can - fill the whole track
‘promo news’ - a good website to find certain jobs
advertising agents
colour palette in mind
the grade is considered, balancing out all the colour - contrast, saturation, grain etc
avoid linking image with lyrics
really research the artist and track