Happy Labor Day! Here’s a PSA to let you know Music video directors are the only directors in the industry to not have unionized*, giving them literally no voice against music labels. I am no expert on any of this, but here are some observations from the trenches /thread
(*Music Videos move into a union category once the budget exceeds something like $250k, but those are so rare nowadays, and I have never worked on one before)
When we made Turn Down for What, Daniel and I conceptualized, directed, edited, performed, and did VFX for two months and made a total of about $1k-2k each. That’s about $4/hour and that doesn't include the weekends or overtime we worked.
We are considered lucky for even getting paid. Music video budgets are so low that every director I know has given up their fee to put more money in the video at least once. Some dir friends of mine have told me they have never been paid on a MV once in their careers.
We grind away for little to no pay, so luckily we get a small part of the profit share. JK. We get nothing.
As I write this, the TDWF video has almost 800 Million views, which would translate to somewhere between $200K to $3.2 Mil in ad revenue (source: forbes.com/sites/hughmcin…)
That is up to 64x the original budget we were given. 64! And of course that all goes to the label. (I honestly don’t even know how much of it goes to the actual musicians, but I don’t feel optimistic about it being substantial)
(Side note: we actually have a great relationship with the label that hired us to do TDFW and a lot of this has more to do with the nature of the beast than with any particular label.)
On top of this:
-No guarantee that directors will get credit.
-No guarantee that our videos on our own websites or reels won't be taken down by labels.
-The pitching process is unpredictable and unreliable for income
-No health benefits or pension fund (lol)
-No guarantee that directors will get credit.
-No guarantee that our videos on our own websites or reels won't be taken down by labels.
-The pitching process is unpredictable and unreliable for income
-No health benefits or pension fund (lol)
This all being said, I loved directing MVs and I owe my career to it. MVs can be an amazing launchpad for new directors. BUT its almost impossible for anyone who isn’t from wealth to break in because of how much of your labor you have to “donate” to create a name for yourself.
Early on in our careers, we were on the verge of giving up, going broke, living in a converted garage, eating $1 tacos for every meal, and slowly trying to chip away at my student loans.
Daniel & I both are lucky to come from mid class families, so there was a bit of safety net, but we also got lucky because our careers moved quick enough that we moved up to commercials within a year, where you can actually get a living wage. That can take years for many others.
More directors’ rights could potentially help create a better environment for more diverse directing voices to build a career, while also incentivizing (through profit share, etc) veteran directors who have now found success in TV or Film to return and work on music videos again.
Of course its a lot messier than this and again, I don’t know what I’m talking about. But this is what I woke up thinking about this Labor Day. We no longer have to worry about most of this, but I know the next gen of MV directors might find this helpful to think about. /thread
Wow this blew up. Follow me on my instag-
JK, Its been equally great/awful reading all of your horror stories. I'm going to collect them, as well as a list of things we could potentially fight for if we were to organize in a separate tweet! Come along for the ride if you'd like.
JK, Its been equally great/awful reading all of your horror stories. I'm going to collect them, as well as a list of things we could potentially fight for if we were to organize in a separate tweet! Come along for the ride if you'd like.
