Polydor Talk

Polydor Ltd. is a British record label, that operates as a division of Universal Music Group. They have been around since the 1960’s and have worked with countless iconic artist like the Beatles. 

Now they continue their famous reputation by working with artists like Lady Gaga, Lana Del Ray, Madonna etc…

                                                                   

Polydor produces a variety of music spanning from Indie, Dance and Pop. We had two representatives from Polydor who came to speak to us about the music video making process . The two representatives work as commissioners for music videos as Polydor, which means they manage and oversee the process that music videos are made for their artist and supervise the editing stage. They explained how the process happens. They first meet the artist/band and find out if they have an idea for the music video; the commissioners work with the artists/band and the marketing team in order to agree on the music video’s representation of the artists/band. This is important because the music video is the first impression made on the audiences, therefore the music video concept has to represent the artist or bands ideologies. The commissioners write a brief with the basic idea and theme they want to do for the music videos; they then send these briefs to around 5-10 directors. The directors return to pitch their treatment for the music videos.

 Then they decide with which director they want to go with.  They also like to scout for directors by looking online, sites and blogs. Some directors even pick and try to contact the band or artist, so that they can make a music video for them.  We asked them how they choose most of their directors, and they told us that they work with directors they have previously worked with. One of the commissioners said “If it’s a good video that delivers – we go back to them”, they like directors who have innovative ideas and are open and willing to develop them.  They give the director the possibility to choose their editors as they are the people who will work the most alongside the director to create their idea.

They said that for a successful treatment it should be very visual with lots of images, videos and mood boards, to give everyone the same idea for the music video. The treatment should also be clear, realistic and striking in the first paragraph. The commissioners stated that the most important thing in the entire production process is communication so that everyone is on the same page, this can also be aided with a shot list so that the director can film the video with ease. They told us that the average video take between 1-2 days to shoot and 1-2 months to complete (with editing) . Most of the shoots happen in London, Los Angeles and Barcelona and they have been increasingly going to Eastern Europe to film.

We lastly, asked them what is the key to a great music video? For them the best music videos are the ones with the basic/simple concept, they are best ones because everyone can understand them; it is also what makes many music videos iconic. They also said that you need to think about the structure and how the song builds up and breaks down. One piece of advice they gave was to add something extra and to be inventive in your use of angles and performance elements. 

Overall, the talk with Polydor, made me more aware of the steps we should take as a group to be more experimental. It also highlighted to us the importance of  communication in a group and that it is not just one person’s concept but a collaboration and collection of different people and ideas.