WHY MUSIC VIDEOS DON’T COST $600.00

Very often we get phone calls from artists looking to create a music video. While we do put all our efforts to accommodate the production to low budgets, most of the time the people calling have minuscule budgets of $600.00 or less. The purpose of this article is to clearly explain why a great music video does not cost $600.00. Hoping that this post will serve as an education for people who are looking to make music videos but have very little knowledge of the business.

So after the call the questions go more or less like this:

 1.     Can I hear the track?

2.     Do you have a concept in mind or are you looking to us for guidance?

3.     What's your budget?

 These questions allow us to fully understand what and who we are dealing with.

We like to listen to the song first to evaluate if it has commercial viability or strong viral potential (or both). Often if we like the song, we are more likely to make a sweat-equity investment in the form of gear, reduced crew rates or extra edit hours. If we don't really connect with the song or make the judgment that the final product won't really have legs from a viewership standpoint, we will typically pass.

We ask the artist if they have a concept in mind for two reasons. If the artist has a vision for the video, we want to evaluate how much it will cost to realize that vision successfully. If the artist does not have a concept, we will determine what concepts we can effectively execute with the funds available, which leads us to the final question: the budget.

The music video production budget dictates nearly every facet of the music video productions and post production process. Without one, we can't clearly lay out a plan to produce a successful video because we don't know what tools we'll have at our disposal.

 Believe it or not, at this point, we are often asked, “what's a budget”? For our purposes, a budget is simply the total sum of money allocated for a particular purpose or period of time. So, in this case, it's “How much money do you have available to pay for the music video?”

Next week we are going to continue talking about things like what will be concept, locations and what kind of gear we will be using depending on the budget and you will have a major comprehension of what a good music video can’t cost $600.00

If you have any project that you want to discuss with our music division please don’t hesitate to contact us by phone at (310)467.0579 Our Facebook page, or our website.