Like the song. But theres something about YET ANOTHER music video where the band members stare blankly at the camera whilst doing not a whole lot...

         

in reponse to musicvideosyay: Its what you get when you give a company -10k to make a video. The only way to see fewer 'studio based/minimal set' videos is to convince commissioners to spend more. At least Dan Lowe has created a mood and aesthetic that matches the tune here.

         

Unless Partizan did a whole lot of bargaining on this, I think the budget was 2k. I wrote too and would have loved to make something, but ultimately couldn't do it on 2k with a fortnight delivery schedule. It's the old quality-timescale-budget triangle in action.... you can have any two.

With that in mind, I think Dan has done a pretty good job. Respect.

         

With these shoe string budgets, (in reference to the young group of Partizan directors) how are these guys generating income? Are they shooting commercials on the side? Does Partizan give them some retainer of sorts? How does it all work?

Sorry if my question is too direct, but I didnt realise how incredibly tight these bugets are.

         

a resounding silence.

         

Surely production houses don't even get involved with low budget music videos?

P.

         

i have a feeling dan and the partizan camp are gonna ignore this post but maybe we can provoke them not to.

word on the street is: join partizan, and go to the bottom of their directorial foodchain. sign with them and the only work you'll see is work passed on by every single other director before you. so, bardou and gondry see the top shit, and it trickles down from there. furthermore, ep's at the company love to put their fingers in your mouth and poke at your teeth. cause you know, you're their new breed of puppies. do they really try and build your career? who really cares. your work is cheap looking (hip) and helps promote the partizan brand.

do any new signees make money there, oh hell no. but partizan will try to get you press in promo magazine or some other bullshit place so you keep your mouth shut.

we knock these young partizan directors but in reality should be commending them. the PA made more money on this shoot than the director did, and what does he have to show for it? an okay video with an okay song that no one is really going to champion anyway. so dan, congrats on the vid.

i want to hear more from the young directors. you guys are suffering out there and you know it. there are many many talented young cats and I almost wonder if this discussion should move away from, how can we make a living in the promo world -and more into, how can we pool our resources and move on from here.

if you are afraid of getting called out, just continue in my name. I am dragon2 because I ate the dragon before me. Who will be dragon3?

         

Looking at Partizan, it has a massive roster, and i read somewhere that no two directors pitch on the same work, and considering theres not thatt much work around all the time, I suppose it would be pretty tough going.

Also, maybe their handing out the no budget work to the group of young directors in order to prime them for the bigger work?

         

Like most start-up, creative media production companies, we do corporate cobblers to subsidize the low budget music vids - which we produce because we love the music - a brilliant example being Vib Gyor's 'The Secret' which we shot on the director's 16mm Bolex. It's still on our myspace.com/xgfmedia

We approach the corporate stuff the same way Fincher and (his usual DP) Claudio Miranda treat commercials: as an opportunity to experiment...with colour grading, ad-hoc motion graphics, 3D cinematography, etc. Fincher's clients rarely know that he's creating the commercial with one eye on the pre-production schedule for his next film, but they rarely care, especially if it picks up an award or two.

It is important to cut one's teeth at the bottom but there needs to a technical/ orchestration/vision plan in place for any director/business, so they're not going home after 5 years in the biz and leaking tears over their Chris Cunningham DVD wondering where their VFX budget is.

With the music industry slowing imploding under the weight of bit torrent (et al.), though, I can't imagine the budgets will get better any time soon - hence those exploitative 'Make a Video' for so-and-so rockstar competitions. Although with the demise nigh, I'd much rather be on the viewfinder side of the camera than some struggling muso hoping to get signed off of his (or her) myspace friends list.

Darren Director, X-GF Media Ltd