Re: Record Company's

JohnT

JohnT

Well-known member
Re: Record Company's

Have any of you folks had any luck pitching your video and editing services to Record producers or recording studios for new bands starting out as far as putting together a music video for them at affordable prices? I dont know if I should hit up the recording studios of try to find some way to market directly to the bands out there.
JT
 
Re: Record Company's

Re: Record Company's

I would guess that you'd have a better shot if you approached the bands themselves rather than the record companies. Every city has plenty of up-and-coming bands. You could try pitching to the bands in between sets at a gig. I don't know if that would work, but my guess is it would work better than pitching to record producers. And recording studios don't generally promote bands; they just rent out their studios them (for the most part).
 
Re: Record Company's

Re: Record Company's

Yea just contact the bands Manager if they have one then negotiate a deal from there. You can find talent at Open Mic nights and talent shows as wells as other events and festivals and bars...

The thing with Record Labels is that they are not going to give you a "Nobody" a big budget to shoot a music video. You might be the best at what you do. However, if you get out there and make a name for yourself and shake things up so to speak with your style and technique that may get their attention when you start to shop your material.

Most of the well known directors are employed by well known Production companies that the Label Hires to do the video.

Now some Labels like Arista for example have their own Video Department. I used to have a contact person at Arista. I think that department mainly did Video Promotion type stuff though.

It would be wise to put together a reel of your work and have something portable like a MiniDV deck or DVD player that you can show your work on in an instint. I keep my DVD player with me all the time and at least one or two of my Music Videos with me... you'll never know who you might meet or a bands Manager might want to see your work especially if your talking up your experience.

The thing I have noticed in recent years is that bands, hip hop groups, etc. on the UNSIGNED level are not prepared financially to pay for a quality Music Video. They think you can do a video for $100 bucks! I might charge $100 an hour to just shoot the thing....a little more an hour to edit it. So make sure they are prepared to pay a video when your looking for bands to do videos for.
 
Re: Record Company's

Re: Record Company's

I find that having sex with someone in the biz who is lonely is a great way to break the ice. Then you get a shot at pitching your video...

::)
 
Re: Record Company's

Re: Record Company's

that happens a lot too...Thats how Mary J. Blige got her deal way back when. She slept with record label exec's. A friend of mine from College used to shoot behind the scenes Music Video footage for Bad Boy Entertainment (P-Diddy's company) and he gave me the low down on it. He didn't go into detail who she slept with though.
 
Re: Re: Record Company's

Whoa - foul on the play here...  Mary J. Blige is not just a celebrity, she's a person, and should be given proper respect, don't you think?  Unless you have direct firsthand knowledge of something like that, you shouldn't just state it as fact -- nobody but Mary (and possibly her alleged counterpart) know what happened or didn't happen... spreading locker-room rumors is bad form.
 
Re: Re: Record Company's

I would think going through the band "manager" is the way to go..but remember...start up bands more often than not have no money. And what I mean by no money...is they might be able to scrape together $500 -$1000...but they will want the thing to look as good as any music video on MTV or VH-1..and also will have no idea of what concept the thing should look like. So..you will have to use your vision on the entire concept..locations...wardrobe..grahics..any special fx..tons of editing all for what really amounts to peanuts compared to the amount of time and think tanking you will spend on it. Now if you just want to do one for your reel and not expect immediate compensationl..that's cool.
 
Re: Record Company's

Re: Record Company's

Like I said I had a friend that worked for Bad Boy entertainment. That is how he knew...Its not uncommon for an artist to sleep with a producer or video director...Not saying it happens all the time but you'd be surprised how much it does happen though.
 
Re: Record Company's

Re: Record Company's

My very first Music Video, I shot for this Gospel R&B group in Virginia Beach a few years ago. Like you said, I was the Camera Op, Location Scout, Wardrobe person, Editor, You name it, I was doing it. We shot for 2 full days all over Virginia Beach. I storyboarded 1/2 of the video then shot the rest on the fly (I knew I what I was looking for). Got some neighborhood kids to stand in as extras for one scene. All in all, for my very first music video, it came out really nice. The sad thing is that after I had done all that work from pre-production through shooting to post, then didn't pay me nothing! I couldn't believe a Gospel group would leave me hanging like that! How did I get them back? I gave them 1 copy of a copy of a copy that was on VHS! I still have the Master which is on BetaSP.

From that point on, I don't do anywork without contracts or half payment up front and the rest when the project is completed.
 
Re: Record Company's

Re: Record Company's

Great. Thanks for all the response. Atlanta has a lot of Hip Hop bands and Country bands. Might try to hit some Bars scenes and as mentioned Open Mic nights. Back when I freelanced, I was mostly doing Stedicam and would show up, shoot and leave. Had some good contacts back then (95-99) but a lot have moved on or just plain lost contact when I quit shooting. Just trying to keep the weekends busy now. Never know, my current employer might do a big layoff in Aug and am just trying to catch back up on on the new gear and stuff and if that happens be prepared. So far I have been doing weddings using 2 DVXs and a Sony PD100a. Now, if I just could figure this Vegas thing out I could sleep much better. ;D
 
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