Jamie Thraves Case Study

Director - Jamie Thraves

• Made short films at university 
• Used award-winning short films as a 'calling card' to get a foot in the door with video production production company factory films
• Began by shooting three vary low budget music video - cost about £5,000 to make each.
• He had to show his films to a lot of editors to get hired

He had a process of how the music video works:

1. A 'commissioner' from a record label sends a track 5-10 would do a plan/ story bored 
2. This stage of planning is unpaid
3. The director who is chosen for the best concept is then contacted to make the video
4. Only then is the director is then paid

As can be seen for many directors in the business, it is a precious existence where their livelihood is dependant on each commission
Jamie Thraves submitted treatments for his two best known videos and each was accepted.  The two videos were:

1. Radiohead - Just

• This music video budget was £100,000
• It was shot in 3 days

2. Coldplay - The scientist

• The line that inspired the concept was " Lets go back to the start"
• the budget of the film was £200,000
• it was shot in 3 days

Jamie thraves most recent music video was 'song for lisa' by Japanese Pop-stars

Currently videos cost about £20,000. Shooting time is 3 days maximum.

Jamie has used the music videos as his way to get into the film business. He produced shot films in his music videos.

Jamie's Top tip

• Use the lyrics but try not to be to literal (don't put a picture of every line in there)
• Most importantly - go with the emotion of the lyrics (if the song is about heartbreak and you could hear that the song is aggressive you wouldn't have a scene where it is all cute and "lovey-dovey"