Jamie Thraves Case Study

Jamie Thraves is a director, he made short films at university. In university he used award winning shorts films as a 'calling card' to get a 'foot in the door' with the video production company factory films. He began by shooting three very short budget music videos which cost about £5,000 each.

This is how the process works:-

• A 'commissoner' from a record label sends a track to 5-10 directors.
• The directors then each submit a treatment.
• This stage is unpaid.
• The director who has submitted the 'best' treatment is then commissioned to make the video.
• Only then is the director paid.
• As can be seen for many directors in the business it is a precarious existence where their livelihood is dependant on each commission. 
• Jamie Thraves submitted treatments for his two best known videos and each was accepted. 

Here are some examples of videos that had low budgets and where shot in a few days:-

• The first video was called 'Just' by Radiohead. The budget for this video was £100,000 and the video was shot in three days.
• The second video was called 'The Scientist' by Coldplay. The budget for this video was £200,000 and it also took three days to shot.