Seems like most music video directors only put in 2-3 years before they get burned out on the industry and/or move onto better things. I'm curious which 'once-up-and-coming' directors out there people miss and if anyone knows any stories behind their disappearance from the music video world.

         

i'll go first. Tim Hope. In a short time, he did amazing work with a handful of A-list names. Seemed like he looked like he was on the path to focus on more live action & storytelling - but, since 2003, it appears he's only done 1 video, which i haven't seen.

         

Tim went to commercials, but I haven't seen anything from him lately...? Sorely missed, though. Francois Vogel picked up his baton a little, I think.

#2: Sam Arthur?

         

Sam also currently walks the commercials road with a series of great animated co-op ads. I think there's like a dozen of em. Great director, i'll never forget 'poor leno'

I think it's a growing trend to aim for commercials to pay the bills and mv's to unleash ur brain when you have enough cash

         

true, but so often there seems to be the tipping point - where a director is doing well in commercials and has no interest in returning to music videos.

On that note- Shynola hasn't done a music video in more than 2 years...

         

They've said the $$ isn't good enuff anymore

Three more: Henry Moore Selder? Dawn Shadforth? Vernie Yeung?

         

You folks have covered most of what I would have to say on why young talents are leaving the MV world behind. I will add this ...

The creativity gap (where commercials are boring and dictated by the agency while MVs are free-spirited playgrounds) is closing very rapidly. So on top of the money - both for the ability to make good work AND the ability to pay one's phone bill - MVs are slowly losing their "creativity" advantage.

Many new commercials/campaigns are way more inclusive with the creative types (this includes all the viral/on-line/alterna-ads stuff) - making them more attractive to directors. And music videos with ANY kind of budgets now seem to have sprouted bureaucracies of their own that dictate an awful lot of what a director can do.

         

Here's my humble opinion

This drop in budget has also been a huge insentive for mv directors to grasp more knowledge of technology; pushing them into re-thinking their post-stratagies (well the ones i know anyway) doing their own post work and receiving more money for their overall efforts.

For example: 30k budget Dir gets approx 10% = 3k

There's no average amount of videos each director is commissioned on per year, but for arguments sake lets say approx 5

So, thats an average of 15k a year, which in my mind barely scrapes above a decent runners wage and isn't really an incentive to work ur ass into the ground with every hour god sends.

But, and its a big BUT, if a director is capable in doing his/her own post, edit, fx etc... they're able to double their fee, totalling 6k per mv and 30k pa

This seems the only way to stay afloat these days, unless you're an uber name with an uber production team and work with household name bands constantly. Or, like the comments above go into commercial work, which from what i see is developing into an interesting platform indeed.

To wrap up my essay :) deciphering ways for a young mv dir to make a living.

Either struggle for a couple of years hoping to make that big break into the mainstream nice budget bands, while maybe searching for the odd commercial/art project when your not working.

Or just pilfer out into mv obscurity and maybe trying another avenue full time to finally payback for that house your wife has so lovingly supported you in for 36 months so you could have a crack at your dream job.

         

Hello, I have made a few videos that have been recieved well and have been played on tv etc... I made them all for under 10k each. I have representation (with no retainer) so can't afford to leave my day job because mv don't pay well enough. I can't afford to continue to make mv and hold down a day job because it is killing me. I worked for four months straight with no days off for 12+ hour days at a time. I can't continue to work at this rate.
I wonder how any young director can...

         

aaah - show business. ain't life grand?

         

Run Wrake? Vaughan Arnell? Heavy weights more than up'n'coming, anyone know where they went?

         

There is no doubt that videos are not what they once were, but the comparisons to ads on here are not accurate. The ad world is nowhere near a bastion of freedom, financially or creatively. In fact its quite the opposite. The ad world, while never known for freedom, has only become less so in recent years. Just ask Traktor. And money? An average rate of $5-15k US isn't my idea of the golden egg, when you add the fact that commercials have about 3 times the competition rate of vids, the work rate is that much lower where doing 3 spots a year is considered now a good year.

Ads have been hit with less budgets too and its not getting any better. So wherever you look these days, it taint a pretty picture.

         

it became also much more democratic to produce MVs. since the money you need to produce a discret quality went down. if you have a brillant idea almost anybody can do a film and event air it (via youtube). obviously this has an effect on how much money people expect to pay for their MVs. the adverting world seems more stable as far as money which goes to the director is concerned.

         

I think the main thing is that ten years ago you could only get started by doing mv's. Today you can get usable equipment like a dvx100 for very little money which makes short films and longer formats possible as well.

Another question is where mv's can be seen nowerdays. Why should an artist produce a 800k video only to be watched on youtube? Let's face it: The record companies had reasonable revenues from producing mvs at the end of the nineties.

Please excuse my poor english.

         

Vernie Yeung's still doing it.