Apple has inspired a lot of people to do a lot of things, but recently
it stoked a debate about how music video directors should participate
in sales of clips on iTunes as well as downloads to cellular phones and
DVD compilations. The call to arms for music video directors came with
the announcement by Apple that in only 20 days its iTunes store sold
one million video clips, predominantly music videos, at $1.99 apiece.
This proved that clips weren’t just commercials for recording artists
and that the revenue they generated could be tracked.
Directors have taken a strong position with a secretive online petition
posted at MVDGA.org by a group calling itself the Music Video Directors
Alliance. The document calls on DGA head Michael Apted to open a
discussion with record labels about creative rights and union benefits
for its members who shoot music videos. The group has been working on
the document since May, but felt that synching up with the timing of
Apples’ announcement would give them more momentum. “Almost overnight
we have gone from making commercials for albums, to sellable content,
from which a lot of people stand to make a lot of money,” states one of
the petition’s drafters who wished to remain anonymous. While some have
dismissed the petition as the action of a small group of untested
directors, the MVDA claims the petition had been signed by nearly 360
directors as of late November.
For over 20 years since MTV created a big international appetite for
videos, directors have signed work-for-hire contracts, which gave them
as much as 10 percent of the production budget. In the days when budgets
reached one million for big artists, that was a nice chunk of change,
but it came without any union benefits or back-end participation in
revenues. That was back in 2001. Today, $175,000 is a generous budget
and three to seven percent is a more realistic cut for directors.
Meanwhile, the scrappy industry, represented by the Music Video
Producers Association, has come to the table to negotiate with IATSE
and, more recently, the Teamsters. The directors behind the petition
posted at MVDGA.org, maintain that quite often the director is the most
poorly compensated member of music video crews. After writing
treatments, shooting and posting a clip, often a 30-day process, DGA
members working on a music video don’t get pension or health plan
contributions.
Says one of the drafters of the petition, “As DGA members we are
constantly working on DGA TV, feature and commercial sets. However, the
minute we step onto a set labeled a ‘music video’, even though we are
working for the same production companies and media conglomerates, all
our creative rights, union protection, pension, welfare and healthcare
contributions, and residual participation, disappear into thin air.”
The petition guarantees signers that their names will only be shared
with members of the DGA. The drafters say it’s a precaution to make
sure supporters aren’t “blacklisted” by the labels. Of all those one th
epetition, only still photographer/director Stéphane Sednaoui agreed to
talk on the record to Film & Video.
Sednaoui, whose videos for Bjork, U2, Garbage, R.E.M. and Red Hot Chili
Peppers were issued on the compilation DVD “Director’s Series Volume 7
– Work of Stéphane Sednaoui” in 2005, says that he immediately
sympathized with the petition’s drafters. Ten years ago, he dropped out
of music video production for a year in an effort to galvanize a push
for residuals. Of course this effort failed but Sednaoui has more
optimism for this latest effort because of its widespread support among
music video directors, even the big names in the field. “I contacted a
lot of directors, important directors, and most of them signed,” he
says.
“As a photographer,” Sednaoui continues, “every time I do a job, I own
the negatives, even if I’m paid (and I’m paid much more for a photo
shoot than a music video)…It’s weird to do music videos because you’re
being paid peanuts and usually a dedicated director is going to use his
salary to put back into production or post. After that, sometimes if my
salary was $5,000, at the end if was $500, or $100 or zero. That’s
because directors use music videos as a way to promote themselves.”
When asked what he’d like to see happen regarding music video
directors’ rights, Sednaoui says first that any agreement should be
retroactive 20 years. He says it with a laugh, noting the improbability
of that suggestion, but goes on to detail his realistic terms, “It
would have to be close to the attitude that we have in photography,
where we own part of the video. Maybe we don’t own the master but we
own part of the copyright and when it’s not used for promotion but
sold, then we should have a certain percentage of the sales like a
producer has points in a song.”
The agenda for the MVDA casts a larger net as a spokesperson says,
“Precedents are being set here on a completely new distribution format.
Today it is our music videos being sold for download; tomorrow it will
be our feature films.”
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