How a music video is commissioned

Today, we had a talk/presentation from Emily Teadrake of Universal Music and she came in to talk to us about how a music video is commissioned as well as providing us with more information about treatments. We were given the opportunity to ask her questions about the process and about her job as a video commissioner as well as being able to look at treatments and music videos, some of which haven't even come out for audiences yet.



'A video treatment is your best effort in defining your project, presenting a clear synopsis of your story, developing your production and organising its purpose. It is often the first and only chance you have in presenting a commerical project - making a pitch.'

She talked about the importance of matching an artists with a director based on their style and she mentioned how important it is to match directors and artists who you think are going to get on well together as well as having similar creative mindsets and visions for the video.




It is also important to ask the artist about what they want the video to include as they may already have some ideas or a concept that they want to incorporate into the video. Artists sometimes take inspiration from photographers that they life, films that they enjoy etc that they might want to incorporate into the music video.

Her job as a music commissioner is to create a brief which is then sent of to various directors who come back with treatments which display their ideas for the video and then the music commissioner has to help the artist to choose an idea.

I found it really interesting when she said that the whole process lass about 1 or 2 months from treatment to final edit as I was surprised by this information as I thought it would a significantly longer period of time considering how much pre production and  post production is required for a music video.

Another piece of information which I found interesting was that if an artist likes 2 ideas from two different directors, they are not allowed to combine the ideas due to copyright of the directors' idea.

Emily said that it is really important to have everything sorted before the shoot day including the storyboard and shot list so that everyone is on the same page.

One of her tasks as a video commissioner is to check the monitor on the shoot day to make sure that the artist looks good in terms of their styling, hair and makeup as if the artist doesn't like their look then this could end up ruining the music video. This is especially important for female artists as this can affect their star image.



The treatments need to be realistic because they have to work within what the budget allows them to do. In addition, treatments also need to break down exactly what the director plans to shoot.

I asked Emily about whether there has ever been a time when she has seen a treatment that she thought would be perfect fro the artist and fitted exactly what she thought the artist wants but it tuned out to be rejected by the artist. She said that surprisingly this happens more than people would think and her job is to try and convince the artist that this treatment is the right concept to go with and this can be through a phone call or a face to face meeting with the director to further discuss the idea. However, in the end it is the artist's video and therefore ultimately it is entirely their choice as to which treatment/concept they decide to go with.

She also discussed the importance of getting plenty of option during the shoot day, especially performance elements so that if the artist doesn't like them then the team has other options to work with. Additionally, she also mentioned the opportunities that a location can provide which was very interesting as it made me realise how much a location can convey and help deliver the message to the audience.

Emily also mentioned the significance of how the track is going to fit with with visual ideas although it does work well if the videos are not literal but rather well explained and suggestive of a certain theme or idea.

I really agreed with Emily's comment about how it works really well if all of the products in the campaign have a matching aesthetic as this can provide the audience with a clear common theme that carries across all o the products and this can aid their star image as well.

Interestingly a director will have a colour palate in mind throughout the process and the grade is also considered in the edit which balances out all the colours through contrast, grain and saturation etc.



During the talk, the site 'Promo News' was mentioned which shows you what videos are being directed and by who. Here is a link to this site:   http://www.promonews.tv/

Overall, I really enjoyed the presentation that Emily did and I learned a lot about how a music video is commissioned as well as what a treatment was and general tips about how to go about this upcoming process of creating a music video.