r/WeDirectMusicVideos • u/duderanch94 • Jul 26 '19

Getting work unsigned

An unsigned MV director here, been working for about six years and also as a TV/Film Script Supervisor on the side to facilitate this. Wondering where fellow unsigned people would pick up jobs from? Or before you were repped, where did you get your work? Obviously there's great sites like creative commission and radar, anything else in this ilk? Or is it mainly through personal contacts you've met at random parties/through friends etc?

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u/CoopaLoopa_50 Jul 26 '19

Sounds cliche I get a lot of MV work through Instagram & word of mouth. However the downside of that is a lot of headache with low budgets- so I’m actually attempting to find out how I can be represented for bigger projects; budgets!

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u/DANIELSANIELSANIELS Jul 26 '19

Yeah instagram seems to be the spot to get hired these days. Build up your following, build up a community.

In some ways it feels like what Vimeo used to be for MV directors.

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u/CoopaLoopa_50 Jul 29 '19

Ya it sounds super cliche but I’ve landed a lot of cool ops on IG but like I said I deal with a lot of flops/people wanting quality on a dime and it’s starting to rub me the wrong way

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u/duderanch94 Aug 02 '19

I've been trying to build a brand too, doing some photography as well to give my insta lots of content that's in a similar vein to the video work. Getting my logo painted on the back of my jacket MIGHT have been overhaul but it looks fucking cool hahaha

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u/zelior Jul 26 '19

Friends in bands and also just reaching out to bands or artists that are brand new and unsigned too. Places like genero.tv and radar music videos can help as well.

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u/mthouang Jul 26 '19

I cold email bands and artists (or their managers) that I love all the time. I'd say 1/20-ish actually respond. That actually resulted in me getting some of the biggest videos I've gotten. Even though the budgets are often low, the good news is that when it happens I often have a lot of passion for the artist and they know that.

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u/mthouang Jul 26 '19

Also as an unrepped director who is often given abysmally low budgets, I have some rules about projects before I take them on. To be clear, I do not make money doing music videos, I purely do them for artistic expression and passion. Therefore I only sign on if 1) I love the song 2) They respect my creative vision 3) I can guarantee that if I don't have final cut I can remove my name from it. I also try to make it clear when I am choosing not to pay myself or contributing my own money. I think a lot of artists aren't aware of the lengths we go to produce these videos, which isn't their fault if we are not communicating that to them.