SW Institutional Context - What is the procedure for making a music video?

Once a record company has signed a band and the band are ready to release a single, the band need as much advertising as possible to promote their song. This can be done in several ways, through advertisements in magazines, on the radio and through making music videos.

The first stage of making the video is hiring a video commissioner. The commissioners job is to make a brief of an idea for the music video. This brief involves the budget, the deadline and other information to send off to potential director's to provide ideas for the track.

The second stage of the video is the planning by the director. He listens to the song and listens to the lyrics. He also takes in the style of the band and the style of previous videos and comes with a proposal. This provides a visual pitch for the record company to look at and to choose the best one.

The third stage is deciding a budget. This is decided by the producer and then approved by the head of production. The budget must be manageable to include all mise-en-scene. It must also not be out of the price range that the company can afford.

The fourth stage of the video is the shooting. The shoot usually takes about a week to prepare and film. Using an actual location is easier than making a set which takes time to build and then pre-lit. The days of shooting can be very long, starting from very early in the morning to very late at night. The job of the director is to make sure that the video looks as good as possible with the budget that they have. The shooting can be extremely expensive because the paying of people used in the video is needed however the extra costs covering the people food and drink is needed whilst they are used for the video as well. Working over-time and longer than expected can be costly for cast and crew, therefore the director needs to make sure that the recording runs smoothly. After the filming has finished, the producer will spend a couple of days making sure that the cast and crew are all paid.

The fifth stage is the editing of the music video. This makes sure that the editing is continual. Also, the editing needs to be in time with the music.

The final stage of the music video is the exhibition of the video. This is showing the video on music channels to advertise the song and allow the target audience to visualise the artist and narrative of the song.