So, I’ve finally been commissioned to make a film for someone. I’m completely over the moon that someone has chosen me to direct, edit and produce their first music video. This is honestly such a big deal for me as this is massive kick-start to my future and career. I can finally start to put together my own personal show-reel and start putting myself out there.

A couple weeks ago, I received a text message from a friend of mine on Facebook asking if I had ever made music videos and if I would be interested in making one for him. Turns out, his girlfriend, a good friend of mine, mentioned I was a film student and that he should check out my work. To begin with, he always had it in his mind he wanted to commission a Film Student in order to boost their career and confidence in the field, but I was flattered to know I was the first person he asked!

He originally began by sending me an idea of what he wanted his video to be like just to see if I would be able to do something similar.

The idea is relatively simple, I know I can achieve something similar to this and produce it to a high standard. It isn’t very different to the other music videos I’ve made and considering my FMP is also a music video, I will have had a lot of experience in making them, and this shouldn’t be much of a challenge.

Of course, I have never actually been commissioned to make a music video, so I had no clue of what the rates were, and thus didn’t know what price to quote for him. I spoke to my tutor, as I know he has also made films and music videos in the past and he suggested I charge £100 as I am filming the whole thing, as well as directing and editing the whole project. In my mind, at this point, I thought this was a lot, and was actually scared to go back to my client and quote him this much. I decided it would be best to just ask him what his budget was so that I didn’t scare him off with my price. Turns out, and to my delight, that his budget was £300-£600. Not going to lie, I was a little bit shocked. I told my tutor and he suggest that I get a better idea of what he wants, so that my idea is coherent to what he envisions his final video to look like. In response to this, we sent several more videos to watch, which I spent the afternoon scouring through and grabbing ideas from them.

Out of all these videos, he mentioned how his favourite style was “Avril Lavigne” by Jakkyboi so I started by watching that one first. From what I can tell, my client likes the camcorder style editing with the 4:3 aspect ratio, as well as having the older, more old school quality of film as this seems to present in a number of his examples. I also discussed with him the possibility of rota-scoping over the top of the video to add the little animations which the “Avril Lavigne” has. He loved my pitch and I got to work putting together a final price. I came to the conclusion that I should charge £500 (£250 deposit and £250 once the project is completed) for the overall project as all the work, after all, is on me. The price is inclusive of the time taken to plan, direct, film, edit and produce the final project, as well as make any final touch ups. Considering how long it will take me to rota-scope, I feel this is sensible asking price, and my client agrees. What is left for me to do is draft up a contract and get to work planning.

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My college have offered me and my peers many opportunities to get involved with film projects outside of college in order to gain some work experience of what it’s like to actually work in the film industry. Finally, I have been able to secure a place on the crew for Freedom Community Festival, a festival based at Freedom Fields, Greenbank, Plymouth.

I will be able to book out equipment from the college and I get to film the bands playing, as well as the general festival atmosphere. I hope to be able to make my own video on the side, as well as the footage for the festival. i want to create a little homage to the festival in the form of a documentary style interview of the festival goers about what the festival means to them. However, even I if I am not successful in this, I hope to be able to film some of the bands, hopefully Mad Dog McRea as they are one of my favourite bands of all time!

I’m so excited to get involved with this project, because not only do I get to gain festival work experience for Summer 2020 (I plan to work at some festivals), but I also get to experience what it is like to work in the film industry. I get to learn about how to film events and band sets, all whilst enjoying the amazing atmosphere at the festival.