I’m torn. Going into it, I was initially on the side of the production company, because yes – they did the work, they should get paid.
But as I was watching it, I was thinking; how much of what ended up being recorded was the rapper’s idea, and how much was the creative director’s idea? (or whatever the title is, I don’t work in video production). Is the creative person not a part of the production company? Do they just point the cameras and film what they are told to film?
So when they were making fun of the choices in the video… were they their Sheck’s ideas, or the production company’s?
Is it possible that the things the client hated about the video were the same things they were making fun of?
I rewatched the beginning and paused on the messages so I could read them.
From what I can gather, they made the video for Sheck, weren’t paid, so they posted the video online before the song was available, pissed off Universal and the artist, got a CND letter, and decided to strip the music from the video, add a mocking soundtrack, and put that up instead. Because they do own the video, since the client didn’t pay them.
Contracts should have been made that included bail clauses and stipulations in case the client didn’t like the end product; one of which should have been that all video of the project be destroyed and never shown publicly.
Assuming I’m getting what happened.
In all, this is weird. I’ve been on the creative’s side where my work wasn’t paid for (I designed political mailers as a freelancer for an agency, and when the client didn’t win the election, she decided she shouldn’t have to pay, and therefor the agency didn’t have to pay me; yes she was a Republican, as was the owner of the agency, I had just been laid off in 2008 and really needed the money). Lashing out like children on a playground isn’t the solution. Better contracts and litigation are.
The sophomoric “humor” in the new soundtrack hurts them just as much, in my eyes. I would never go to them for video work specifically because of this video response (which is no big threat since I don’t do anything requiring video).
Based on nearly everyone else’s comments so far, I’m guessing I’m in the minority with this viewpoint.
