Polydor Records - Video Comissioner Talk (18/10/15)

Emily and Helen (Universal) Polydor Records

We had two Video Commissioners from Polydor records (a conglomerate of Universal) come into school to talk about what they do and information about the music industry in general.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Both Emily and Helen commission videos for the label and they are the point person between artist label director. They oversee the process, get the track or get given a single and then they are given brief. They get a deadline for when the video should be finished by and get a date for when the artist is able to shoot. Their job is to make sure everyone Is on the same page about what the video is going to, trying to let the artist be the artist and be creative. They are the ones asking for storyboards cast list etc. and have to know who's who.

CONTENT OF VIDEO

They then get to talk to artist to see if they have any specific ideas for the track or if its based on a specific meaning of the song, what they want to avoid, if they want to be in it. They also talk about if they want it to be a literal video or Narrative based? Studio? Location? The artist normally has the final say.

BRIEF - DIRECTOR

They then write a brief and send it to a few directors 5-10. Sometimes they know exactly what they want and its straight forward or they will show the artists different directors reels, that way they can choose which director they want. The more open the brief the better, that way they can choose the right director. If its too specific it might not work out the way the artist wants it to be. Picking directors: most of them signed to production companies others have no representations. The production company will help with the treatments, bank of references and generally support the director. It is not rare that they use directors who are not very experienced. It is good to take risks.

BUDGET

The budget is given to them depending on record sales and popularity of song. Budget's usually range from a couple grand to 100 grand. 20-40 grand – years and years king (decent budget). Most videos they do are 10-15 thousand pounds. low budgets from 5,000 pounds (lowest)

TIME FRAME

A week before they shoot video they are given the brief and the storyboards, 1-2 day shoot editing a week then the first cut delivered then can input if any changes needed. On average there is a 6 week turn around from script in to the final product.

MARKETING

Most videos go on Vevo to push up the view count. Mostly commercial artist use Vevo because they make the most money. There is Press department at Polydor that takes care of marketing the video and getting the communications for the artist to get the most beneficial marketing for their song, i.e finding their target audience.

CENSORSHIP

When filming they need to be aware about restrictions due to the difference in rules with TV compared to online. They may no do certain things if the video is going on TV, this could mean that they make two different versions or that they will not be showing it on TV in general. This usually depends on the popularity of the artist as well as who their main target audience is.

"We try not to rush creativity"