The Music Industry and Pop Videos

 What is a Music Video?

(Taken from Wikipedia)

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980's, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980's, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert" etc.

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.

 Today the music video has several purposes:

• To help a music track to be heard globally, by a mass audience.
• To help promote the artist or band, providing a visual representation of the band. 
• To ensure people remember the song and video. 
• To give the audience a better understanding of the song.
• As a platform for film makers- e.g. Michel Gondry.
• To invoke a representation, sometimes possibly controversial. 
• To provide the audience with an incentive to see the band live.
• To lead to more sales and longevity of the artist. 
• To extend income, keeping the artist or band in the public eye, after the album release. 
• Entertainment purposes- to show off the talents of the artist e.g. dance routines etc. 

Undoubtedly, music videos today are made for commercial purposes, this is is why they are sometimes referred to as Pop Promos- they are promotional material. However, there are still some videos that might be called art, these tend to be more concept based such as the works of Bjork, The Arctic Monkey's and Lady GaGa. 

How a video is made 

(Teaching Music Video by Pete Fraser)

• How a music video is made

Although there us variation according to genre, artist, budget or director, it is possible to identify stages in a process which generally apply: 

1. The label, artist and management agree what to release as a single.
2. The video commissioner make a shortlist of directors. 
3. The video commissioner sends the track with a broad brief, summarizing ideas for the project, to shortlisted directors. 
4. Directors provide outline treatments to the video commissioner. 
5. A director is chosen and budget and deadlines are agreed. 
6. The director develops the idea with storyboards and location photos. 
7. An art director, wardrobe and director of photography are enlisted, locations are booked, sets are designed. 
8. The sets are built. 
9. All personnel are on site for the shoot (usually one or two days).
10. Shooting complete, the film is transferred for editing. 
11. The editor produces a rough cut, which usually takes three days. 
12. The label, artist(s) and manager view and comment on the rough cut.
13. Changes are agreed and made before visual effects added. 
14. Online finished video is passed to label for release to TV stations and airplay in advance of single radio.