Dan Millar’s (Low-Budget) Playlist
Thursday, 21. February 2008 - 10:31 am
(Sony BMG’s stylish video commissioner takes time out of his busy schedule to present a few of his current favourites. Appears he has a particular fondness for stuff that didn’t cost anything – ed)
Things sure ain’t what they used to be in the music video world and is seem to get less “like it used to be” every year.
Less money, less time. So I’ve decided to playlist my current favourite zero-to-low budget music videos.
Pretty much everything here put together costs less than the hairstyling bill on your average Westlife video…
The Metros
Education Pt.2
Director: Indica
Prod co: PTE Media
This is one of our bands, and I don’t think that I’ve seen a better debut video in a long time. We are lucky that Indica had spent a lot of time with the band shooting gigs and documentary footage. When we came to do the video they really knew the guys and I think that they’ve brought their personality out brilliantly. It also looks like it cost five times the actual budget, which is nice.
Watch here: YouTube
Red Hot
Junior Spesh
Director: ???
Quite literally a song about the benefits of saving money by ordering a children’s portion at a cut price chicken shop. Educational and Entertaining. I like the fact that this was made for virtually no money in no time and is brilliantly stupidly hilarious. We watch this everyday.
Watch here: YouTube
Dubbledge
Lips 2 Da Floor
Director: ???
Another zero budget Youtube Grime favourite. It’s quite old now but it is a constant fixture in our office. Whoever did this just ripped hundreds of videos from Youtube and cut them together, and aside from the relentless action on screen it is a really great edit, like a coked up You’ve Been Framed. This is the sort of viral brilliance that agencies and marketing departments spend too much time and money trying to duplicate, and it was free.
Watch here: YouTube
Effects test
Director: Berlin & McCool
Prod co: Pulse Films
We did a video with Pulse Films’ new kids Berlin & McCool just before Christmas and I think they’ll do great things this year. They have got bags and bags of ideas. Here is an effects test that they have done that I think is brilliant.
Watch here: Embed
Ida Maria
Drive Away My Heart
Dir. Magnus Renfors
Prod co: Filmteknarna, Sweden
This is another one of mine. Magnus was recommended to us by the girlfriend of the drummer in the band and he is a revelation. The budget on this job was truly tiny and I honestly have no idea how they managed to get all the costumes, cars and locations.
Watch here: Quicktime movie
Wintergreen
Can’t Sit Still
Director: Keith Schofield
Prod co: Factory Features
If you’re anything like me you like to get high as much as you like to save money, so why not try making your own narcotics. Like Junior Spesh this is another frugal viral gem.
Watch here: Quicktime movie
21. February 2008 - 10:09 pm
are these music videos? i thought they were some crappy amateur vids made to impress your friends. crap i say.
22. February 2008 - 12:55 am
Some really good stuff – love the Metros vid especially. I know ingenuity should be applauded… and the resulting videos (if decent) celebrated but there is clearly a worry here. We are openly celebrating the fact that professional products can be created with no money… this atttiude isn’t limited to the no-budget end either, it’s at all levels. Budgets drop, expectations & ambition don’t.
It’s no great mystery, if everyone does their job without getting paid, kit & time donated for free, favours called in – you can make pretty much anything for nothing. Dan says he “honestly has no idea how they managed to get all the costumes, cars and locations”. The simple answer is they didn’t pay for any of it…
Music videos now recieve budgets based on what they can get away with rather than what is actually required to pay all involved. But if nobody (other than record label & glam squad) is receiving a decent (if any) wage for their work, we aren’t technically an industry… we’re an after school club. A bunch of very enthusiastic amateurs.
Somebody draw a line…
22. February 2008 - 2:51 pm
poor mystery jets.. their lovely video is merely an an ‘effects test’ in dan’s eyes. it’s dog eat dog out there, bruv.
22. February 2008 - 4:23 pm
Actually Vidiot, this was a test, we never paid for this, but we are such a lovely band people just like doing things for free when we’re involved.
23. February 2008 - 11:19 am
the labels are mean, the bands are mean, so it must result the filmmakers are very cheap themselves, innit
23. February 2008 - 9:01 pm
Actually i am quite appalled by Dan and promo news’s whole take on this.
Lets face it what Dan is saying is as follows:
I laugh in the face of all of you talented music video directors and i will do everything i can to pay you and your crew/cast etc as little as possible as lets face it i can.
The mystery in how these low budgets are done is simple…..people who work very hard for a multinational company (bmg) in the vain hope of furthering their careers have worked for free and to be honest have been shafted. As Dan sits there in his chair looking for all intents and purposes like he is giving all of the people he should respect the finger. I know Dan and he is a lovely guy but this irresponsible attitude is why the industry is in such trouble an it is in trouble. Directors work very hard for very little and to debase what they do by implying they can do it for less than a westlife hair budget is an insult. Dan , wake up and smell the coffee. When BMG decide they can get some monkey to do your job for half the price don’t come looking for sympathy when all your hard work, of which i know there has been a lot, is disregarded.
Wake up and smell the coffee whilst you can still afford a half double decaf latte with a twist Dan!!
25. February 2008 - 10:18 am
Hi thetruth, thanks for your anonymous and somewhat personal comments.
I was asked to playlist some of my favourite current videos and to be honest this is really what I have enjoyed watching recently. There is no evil plan to drive down budgets and to see producers and directors out of business but I think all of these videos have truly entertaining merits. I like the DIY fun of some while I think that others are great because of the amazing jobs that the producers and directors have done.
I think that these things are definitley worth celebrating as much as the higher end stuff that is on this site everyday.
25. February 2008 - 4:06 pm
I think you are missing the point somewhat, thetruth.
Fear not, you need not be appalled. It is quite clear from your post you have no idea what you are talking about; your disgust is quite misplaced because your reasoning is wrong.
Music video budgets are dropping for many reasons, the main and sadly unavoidable reason being that people are not buying music any more. Major record labels as businesses are not performing as well as they have done in the past, from a business perspective it is very hard to justify spending huge money on videos, the numbers just don’t add up. Do you use Limewire or something similar? If so that makes you partly responsible.
I’ve worked with Dan closely for a couple of years now and I resent you questioning his attitude. For those that don’t know him he is an excellent commissioner and a very nice young man to boot and undeserving of such ridiculous criticism.
If only it was just attitude, or just Dan’s attitude for that matter, that was responsible for the state of the industry, how easy it would be to fix, how happy we would all be. People. Are. Not. Buying. CDs. This has been the main revenue stream for major record labels, until solutions to the many problems faced by the future are found, video budgets will continue to decline. We would love to be able to spend more money, it would mean we could execute bigger ideas, travel more, all of that, are you kidding? As commissioners at Sony BMG major financial decisions that effect the health of the company are not ours to make.
He was asked by David Knight to do this, the tone of the article is light hearted, I see nothing here that would prompt your unfortunate and bitter post. This is a positive piece that brings attention to some work people may have not seen. How you arrive at your conclusions I am not sure, inless of course you have no idea what you are talking about. Not your fault, but you should be more careful about spreading your particular flavour of misery about.
For what it’s worth I happen to think the industry is in a pretty good place right now. As sites like this and others show, even when confronted by diminishing budgets, there are many directors out there doing work of a consistently high standard. The irony being you post is the most disrespctful thing of this episode.
That burning sensation in your hand? It’s the coffee you made but have clearly not smelt. I would ask that you re-read the whole piece, then your comment and question whether it was really necessary to get personal in the way you did. You say you know Dan? To you sir I say liar, because if you did you would have never written such nonsense.
Who the fuck are you anyway?
25. February 2008 - 5:12 pm
What I think you have to understand is, when directors, producers and crew see articles like this they get a little frustrated. When interpreted in a certain light it can feel like a celebration of what has become a very difficult area of filmmaking to work in.
The industry often doesn’t feel like it’s in a good place on this side of the fence. We genuinely struggle to provide the same quality and level of promotional product as we used to. That in itself bothers those of us that care about the work we do and even enjoy it!
It’s even the sad case that many of us can’t afford to keep doing promos, despite wanting to. As you know, on a 10k video a director takes 1k and a producer £500. That’s at least 2 weeks work. Look how few purely promo production companies have survived into this year. I don’t think anyone with any understanding would disregard the impact downloads have had on the music business. But what hurts is when we make a tiny amount of money go a long way and then the label spends 5k on glam squad, or drinks for the artist, or pays to re-edit the video… we understand why, it can just feel disingenuous when we’ve asked a skilled crew member to significantly cut his fee.
As I said you have to understand that you’ll get reactions like ‘thetruth’s because its sad to realise you can’t make music videos anymore and earn a living from it.
I’d continue the coffee metaphor…. But I’m just not that creative
25. February 2008 - 6:07 pm
Good old Leanne!x pouring oil on stormy coffee…..(did you see what I did there….?;-)
An interesting read. Its nice to see so much passion and loyalty squeezed into the paragraphs above.
I think ALL of us on both sides of the fence need to give ourselves a pat on the back with the relentlessness of it all…..
Anyone for a green tea?….x
25. February 2008 - 10:49 pm
as one of the directors (of the Wintergreen “Can’t Sit Still” video), I can offer a comment.
I do “real” videos and commercials all the time, but every once in a while I like to do stupid stuff for fun. I basically came up with this “How to make your own drugs” concept and knew no band or label would ever touch this idea; much less include shots of trademarked products. I also didn’t want to include a big “just kidding!” at the end. I wanted to see how many people would fall for it.
Basically, this was a for fun project to see how many hits we could get on youtube.
It wasn’t even run through a production company. I acted as DP (why it looks so shitty); we had a 3 person crew which was made up of non-film industry friends. It was shot it at a buddy’s apartment and by just walking into grocery stores. The total budget was $150, which included a carpet cleaning.
It’s worth noting that Wintergreen isn’t signed to a label, has no real manager and this was not commissioned through any channels. No label executives are benefitting from this.
So: yeah. Sometimes directors just want to shoot stuff for fun. It always feels like work when you involve labels, managers, permits, even producers.
BUT: if a label approached me about doing a $150 video for one of their bands…. well of course I would say no. Unless it was Radiohead.
25. February 2008 - 11:15 pm
Jesus fucking Christ. Is this Dubbledge
Lips 2 Da Floor
Director: ??? what a music video commissioner deems worthy of such praise as: ‘really great edited’? It’s a fucking track set against some mindless low res footage. Viral, maybe. But this ain’t no music video. It’s just another Pootube by-product.
26. February 2008 - 3:56 am
James and Dan, I have one honest question about the record labels and video budgets. For the first time in the history of the industry, videos are a recoupable form of marketing. Videos are sold on itunes and dvds, and labels that post their videos on youtube share a percentage of the ad revenue every time their video is viewed. A friend of mine that works at a bigger indie label boasted to me recently about how one of their bands recently recouped their ENTIRE 35k budget just through youtube views alone. Here is my question: Given the shady nature of record label accounting and the desperate grab for new revenue streams by labels both big and small, is it possible that there IS more money available for video budgets, but it’s just not reaching the production companies? I have the sneaking suspicion that even if videos became the MAIN source of revenue for the labels, they would do everything in their power to keep their margins as large as possible. Really, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
26. February 2008 - 12:06 pm
Dan, you are a very naughty boy and as punishment you should be locked in an edit suite overnight by a apprentice transvestite posing as a director until you have learned your lesson!
26. February 2008 - 10:32 pm
“If you’re anything like me you like to get high as much as you like to save money”
Now that’s the attitude. Glad to hear the frugality of video production has some pay-off. Put your feet up Dan, and please allow me to lick the last particles of charlie off that V you’re waving in my face.
S
27. February 2008 - 8:45 am
Leave it to these blogs to trash talk on a commissioner thats doing good by giving some props to some up-and-coming directors. Dan gave me a chance this year to work with him and The Editors and supported the project all he could, it was a great experience all around. I think that if anything we should be giving his Gervais looking mug some props for acknowledging hard work.
And btw Dan didnt ruin the music video industry nor is he to be held responsible for ” theshady nature of record label accounting” he’s in it just like the rest of you, working hard to make something good for little.
-vince
27. February 2008 - 2:55 pm
I don’t mind saying this, as I’m stopping making promos anyway, and therefore have no worry about future ramifications, but Daniel Miller’s comments were well meaning, if a little ill-judged and revealing, but not anywhere near as much as James Hackett’s.
The unfortunate stripped down fact of the matter is that promo makers provide record companies with product that help them make money. Their ability to do so with an innovative idea doable on little budget deserves more pay than anything, but unfortunately the record industry has gotten a little used to things not needing to be paid for, in the name of ‘opportunities’. Now its just a given that a budget will be low, although it will have the same expectations, if not higher these days, as something that could pay for the crew it was using.
Don’t get me wrong, its a great creatively open format, and a good road in for almost anybody with visual ideas, so promo makers benefit from it too, and no doubt it provides a great creative outlet for those otherwise paid by the advertising industry.
But to state that the industry is in pretty good shape, when people are constantly working favours, all in the name of putting themselves in the frame for other work, is somewhat sickening.
i don’t think any promo maker will be about making money, but to prey on the fact that music videos are a more attractive proposition than other lines of work is more than a touch exploitative.
I’m not hiding behind a pseudonym either James, so unfortunately you won’t be able to levy the charge of not knowing what I’m talking about at me, like the other guy who didn’t agree with you.
Whilst i don’t think my videos have ever really amounted to much, they’ve certainly done their job and achieved rotation over the years.
And i’d happily continue to do stuff low budget, as i know artists ain’t always getting it great either, and its kind of their money, but under the current climate, without wanting to go off and do soul sapping stuff to pay for my support of the record industry, then it’s impossible.
27. February 2008 - 3:59 pm
Free Dan Millar!
27. February 2008 - 4:47 pm
….with every box of Shreddies?
28. February 2008 - 12:16 pm
I think smelling the coffee is a good idea…….drinking it makes me feel all weird and twitchy
10. April 2008 - 1:00 pm
This is such a good thread.
Currently, as a production company, it seems to be a given that if we take on a music video commission it is down to individuals to work outside of the normal workload to get it done purely because of lack of budget. There is always a sense that to do cool work that satisfies your creative side you are going to have to sacrifice a lot of spare time for no financial gain at all. This is fine if, like me, you still care passionately about the music video medium. But you quickly realise that a few months have gone by and you haven’t had a day or evening off – and that’s got to be worse for your health than any amount of coffee.
So why do we even consider taking on a £500 music video where you are having to put in the hours just to pitch for something you might not even get? Well for a start, I’ve never seen our team get so excited about a piece of work when a music video goes well. But the wider benefit to a production company doing commercials and corporates is that we’ve won much higher budget commercial work because the clients like the ideas coming out of the music videos and want a pop video director to make their program look amazing.
So low budget music videos are great if you can afford to make them!
11. September 2008 - 2:04 pm
This is great.
Just when i thought that no-one in this industry had any balls… Full respect to Blair Young, you are my kind of soldier.
It seems to me that there is a lot of cock sucking going on here from some new directors quite happy to be taken from behind because they believe they will be given ‘the next video when they have more money’. You won’t! Another young sucker will be found.
But..lets not blame the commissioners. They have a very difficult job to do. Deciding which is the most artistic/original/fresh concept to suggest to their masters. Although this job has become easier now as its all down to which job can be done for the money. Don’t you just love art?!
Most of the industry (on this side of the fence) pretend to be their mates at the CAD’s when really they have zero respect or belief in their integrity. They are all part of the beast that exploits us people with any talent and shits us out of the other end. At least we have a showreel!
They are on a salary so they can afford to be so sanctimonious; one step below estate agents on the evolutionary ladder and will all be out of a job one day, when the music industry collapses under the weight of its own greed in a cloud of cocaine dust. Thats what Youtube and the internet has given us.
So Dan and James, please stop trying to justify yourselves and just admit that you are guilty of exploiting all us poor sensitive types and stop blaming your slave masters in their offices upstairs. You are all just as dispensable as we are.
Leave creativity to the creatives; technicians, artists, film-makers and the producers.
Long live the music video industry and all who sail in her!!!