Affordable music videos vs cheap music videos. What's the difference?
Hands up if you want a broadcast quality music video that can get you on TV and that won't break the bank? Hands go up.
Hands up if you want to spend next to no money, risk getting something poor quality or unwatchable and waste your time doing it? Hands stay firmly down.
When we talk about shooting affordable music videos we aren't talking about making something cheap. Far from it. Our videos are not cheap. You see we would be doing ourselves and our artists a disservice calling anything we do cheap. The music they make is not cheap, they've spent their precious time and money creating something personal, powerful, meaningful and priceless and we like to do the same thing when we work with artists to create their dream video.
You see music video production is a vast and wonderful beast. No two music videos are the same, no matter how similar they may be in style, look or context. Each performance, each take, each shot, each edit choice is unique so no matter how 'off the shelf' or 'packaged' a music video may be by a company or freelancer, ultimately the finished product will be utterly unique. It will live on seemingly forever through the powers of the internet and broadcasters as a beautiful piece of history to be enjoyed for eternity. That's how we feel about the music videos we produce.
So what is the difference between affordable and cheap when it comes to music videos? Well, cheap ultimately means low cost. It means it won't cost you much. But music videos do cost money, there's no two ways around it. Locations cost, actors cost, hair and make up cost. The Camera operator and director costs, the lighting assistant and the editing costs. You may well not need all the bells and whistles, so there is a cost saving there, you may only need one self shooting director/camera man for a simple performance video and a one day edit. Hate to break it to you... that still costs money, just not as much as a full blown mini movie production.
So onto the good bit, the 'affordable music video' bit. Yes, we do offer affordable music videos, absolutely. And we pride ourselves on this fact. Our videos are very affordable because we take time to discuss with our artists during our initial talks what they want to achieve and with what budget and set up a simple payment plan with no hidden fees which allows our artists to spread the cost of their dream video making it affordable without compromising on quality. Our artists don't have to lose a single thing from their production in order to make it cheap, because that's not how we want their vision to be seen or remembered. Our artists end up with exactly the video they wanted without breaking the bank. Find out more about our affordable music videos here.
Let's take a look at the real world process involved in producing, shooting, editing and delivering your dream video with a quick breakdown of what the processes are and where things will eat into budget with a fun money meter! $ is equal to a cost and a smiley face :) equals zero cost, free of charge, all part of the service, yay!
Initial meeting: Discuss your video concept and budget :)
Mood Board: Artist provides reference material and we compile a mood board for looks and tone :)
Booking the shoot and putting down the deposit $
Pre-production planning: This can be simple or complex depending on the scope of the music video $
Booking locations $
Booking actors, extras and additional crew such as make up $
Production design: Sourcing and purchasing set dress and production design elements such as accessories and set props. $
Shooting your video! The big day or days, cast, crew, location, lights, camera, actions! $
Editing your video! Cutting, compositing, grading and reviewing multiple versions with feedback from the artist $
Compositing and special effects: Fancy post production work $
Delivery: Optimising and exporting an online version and broadcast ready version as well as any social media specific aspect ratios and video lengths $
So as you can see, there are quite a few points in the process where things just cost money to be done well, so doing things on the cheap... well it's not really possible.
The good news is once we agree your budget and the initial instalment is made, we cover all the production costs involved in the creation of your video, you just make the final payment on delivery. So by spreading the cost you can keep everything you want in your dream video without losing a thing, without cheapening it. This makes our music videos affordable, but never cheap.
At The Red Red Video we have a mantra and it goes like this... "Give your sound the look it deserves". Your music deserves the best, and the best isn't cheap. But guess what... the best music videos can be affordable!