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FACT: The cost of a music video should always be treated the same as the cost of a car(JA$)

I'm about to clear something up that someone should have done long ago. This is particularly aimed at the cheap sons of bitches with the unrealistic expectations and the viewer who wishes to criticize productions in an ignorant and unreasonable way. Note this first though, this blog does not apply to the "Diwrecktors" out there, the hustlers who're just in it for the hype or the money, the ones who no matter how much money they're paid couldn't direct their hands to their asses much less a video. Now that I've cleared that up, on to the matter at hand. And all figures mentioned are Jamaican dollars unless stated otherwise and if you're not Jamaican or familiar with the Jamaican music/motion picture scene then I doubt you'll be able to relate.

When deciding how much money you should spend on your next music video take this into consideration, "if I were to spend this money on a car, what kind of car would I get for it?". If you spent $150,000 on a car, then you've just bought a lemon! If you spent $250,000 - $800,000 on a car, my friend, you just bought a lemon, maybe a shiny, pretty one, but still a lemon! If you spent more than that but still under a million then you might have a semi decent car, but still someone else's old crap, so it will still be a far cry from perfect. Now the exact principle applies to paying for a music video, if a producer does a video for you for $200,000, take my word for it, no matter how great the director is, no matter how hard he or she tries, that will NOT look like Rihanna's umbrella video or any other hit video you saw on MTV, do not fool yourself! Same thing applies to the artist/producer who spent $500,000 on his video and the artist who boasts that they paid 800k for their video, unfortunately that hardly happens. Note, one million Jamaican CANNOT make a Beyonce video. Do not misconstrue this blog though, I understand that Jamaican music does not generate the figures international music does. I'm not bashing people for spending a little, just the dumb people who expect the world for that little, that's all. And as many experienced persons would already know, you can have a nice video for a little money or even free, but it will never stack up to the heavy hitters internationally(no matter what camera you used), even if you see a Jamaican video on an international TV station, it's still the least of the apostles.

What's my point you might be wondering, well anyone in my field who has to work in this country will understand, again, the hustlers and wanna bees do not count, because no matter how much you pay an orderly, that person will never be a surgeon! Go to med school and return a surgeon yes, but until then, sit your orderly ass down! So yes, these diwrecktors do not count. And so my points are these, one, when we hear that a particular director will take no less than $20g(US) for a video, stop hating, it's for a logical reason(no, it's not me), blood can't be made from stones and after a while, especially when you don't have to, working for a little for a client who's expecting a lot gets real old! So when a director has made his mark or fortune and decides to tell the cheapskates and broke asses to go to hell, I have no problem with that :) Secondly when you pay a producer a "pittance" stop expecting the world! Again, no blood from stones! Stop trying to make these R. Kelly videos, "up in the club" joints, it's  whack! And if I did any "up in the clubs" videos, then i'm sure they were whack too! Clients need to stop requesting these "bling" videos with their pathetic budgets!!! But I blame the diwrecktors for allowing the client to believe they could pull it off! Although from personal experiences some persons are totally unreasonable so it boils down to a "take the money or leave it" kind of thing.It takes more than a make up artist, an HD cam and a few friends in a club to make your videos look like a Jay Z joint. And I don't care if you did pay a real director or who your DP is, nobody(in Jamaica) has done it right to this day! I do believe though, they're a select few on this rock that could do an excellent video to compete with the greats with a real budget! Thirdly, before you criticize another well put together Jamaican video by a real director who tried his or her best and start comparing it to international videos, think! How much did artist X pay the local director and how much did the multi million dollar international artist pay?! That's right, money isn't everything, but it's a whole lot and unfortunately in every field you have to sometimes take the smaller jobs first in order to build, congrats to all who didn't have to, if you figured out a way to run before you creep, please share.
So my respects to all who are doing their best, all the veterans who are teaching the young ones while still improving their own game and all the young talented directors who respect the game as an art, not a hustle.The word hustler in Jamaica and black America(probably a few more places) is used with respect and I understand why, it symbolizes to many, overcoming odds and making it by any means necessary, but to me, from what I've seen, a hustler is like a parasite! A termite! Anything hustlers get involved in gets watered down severely! Anything hustlers flock to gets ultimately ruined, like the music, that's why auto tune is so damn popular and that's why most singers today can't really sing! God help us the day that hustlers over take the medical industry(or maybe they already have), but that's content for another blog.If interested, look out for my next blog entitled "A camera is not a magic wand!".