You might have already seen Sarah McLachlan’s video for her song World on Fire, but if you haven’t, I encourage you to check it out here (NOTE: You must have Quicktime installed).
Basically, the premise is that instead of spending the $150,000 budget on the video, many donations were made to support people in need around the world. The claim is that the video was made for only $15 as a result. Now, I don’t want to take anything away from what Sarah has done here, as I think it is a great thing. But seriously, $15? I don’t think so.
Someone had to get a hold of all that stock footage. Even if it could all be acquired royalty free, someone had to dig it up, and I doubt Ms. McLachlan did that herself. Someone had to create all of the transitions and animations that appear in the video. Last time I checked, Sarah was not a computer animation specialist. Somone had to register the domain name (thats $15 right there), create the website, and host it. Someone had to put the video together into a Quicktime file so that it could be played on the web. Unless Sarah owns the video camera, someone had to buy or rent it. I could go on…
See my point? It’s a great thing you have done by donating money to those in need Ms. McLachlan, but please don’t lie to me and tell me that your video only cost $15.
MasterMaq's Blog 
While I agree with your cost assesment, maybe another possibility is that people volunteered thier services to do all that when they found out the money was for a good cause.
Yeah thats a good possiblity, but you would think they’d get some credit somewhere if that were the case.
it’s the music industry…
ppl would sell their own mothers to prop up their image!
*cof eminem cof*
So she gave the clip budget to the unfortunate.
Then what? She goes on with life & profits from her album.
Just a big media stunt if u ask me…
If she was really in it for the unfortunate…she use her video budget, her records would sell & a percentage would be givin to the unfortunate.
If 3 of every 10 money making artists would give 5% of a record sale… there would be a whole lot more ppl smiling in these crappy times we live in.
I guess we can dream.
Sergio
Portugal
Word man. It’s sorta like how bono only seems to help people when he’s got a record to release.
Heh… I agreed with you at first. When I first saw the article about Miss McLachlan, I was really amazed. Then, as a human, I began to wonder how the in world she did it with only $15.
Well, <a target="_blank" href="http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041005/nytu215_1.html">the truth</a> is that Sarah McLachlan didn’t make it. It was Sophie Muller, an award-winning video director. So there should really be no blame on Ms. McLachlan besides for the fact in accepting that it was a $15 video.
Secondly, it says the production, keyword, was $15, not the whole website, domain, etc. So your argument on that is pretty much moot.
The real question is why in the world she didn’t count the use of computer, video editting programs, etc. in the production expenses… do they not count?
You are right, it was the production, but it could me made more clear in the advertising. I too wonder why all of those costs were not included…
Does anyone know who the name of the animation studio/individual artist that did the graphics in the video?