Amid slump, union sets sights on music video industry. (Up Front).

As the leading director for Los Angelesbased music video powerhouse DNA, Francis Lawrence has worked with Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, Aerosmith and Janet Jackson, to name a few. Two weeks ago he won a Latin Grammy Best Music Video for Shakira's "Suerte," in which versions were filmed in Spanish and English.

But even Lawrence is not immune from a two-year slump in local music video production that has made jobs harder to come by, less lucrative and subject to ever-tighter budgets.

"Record labels aren't making the money they once were, and they are a little more scared to spend on music videos' he said.

Now, Lawrence and others fear that a renewed effort by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to organize what has been one of the entertainment industry's few non-union segments will worsen the economic pain in an industry that can ill afford it.

The level of music video activity has been in steady decline since peaking in 2000, according to the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., which issues permits for location shooting in Los Angeles County.

Through the first eight months of this year, there were 998 days of location shooting in Los Angeles, putting 2002 on pace for 1,482 days, down from 1,609 days a year earlier and 2,052 in 2000.

While Lawrence directed about 16 videos last year, with more than half boasting budgets in excess of $1 million, only one of the nine jobs he's done so far in 2002 had a budget over $1 million.

And $1 million videos are the exception -- reserved for major stars. A typical music video for a band with some national recognition might now be budgeted at $200,000, compared with $500,000 a few years ago, according to several local directors.

Budget pressure

"Our members have been seeing their revenues go down. It's definitely become a more challenging environment," said Pam Tarr, president of the Los Angeles-based Music Video Production Association.

The recent struggles of record companies have been blamed on everything from the weak economy to the computer downloading phenomenon that allows computer users to swap free music on the Internet. Whatever the reason, marketing and promotional costs -- including music videos -- have been slashed in recent years.

Randy Sosin, a video production executive at Interscope Geffen A&M Records, said his company makes 80 videos a year, about 30 percent fewer than three years ago. Moreover, average budgets have fallen by about 30 percent during that time.

A major problem, said Sosin, is that with the exception of hip-hop and soul, there is less programming devoted to music videos than a few years ago. MTV, for example, only runs a few hours of straight video programming each day, and its video-intensive sister station, MTV2, is not available on many cable systems. Those with digital or satellite service have more channels devoted to music videos, but such systems are only in a limited number of U.S. households.

"We're making less music videos and spending less money because there are no outlets," Sosin said. "You can't spend the money you would when you were getting a video played 50 times a week if it's only getting played a few times a week."

Sosin also said the six-month strike two years ago by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists against advertising companies damaged the local music video industry. The walkout forced commercial producers, many of whom also do music video work, to seek out-of-state and foreign locales for filming, and not all of them came back. "The commercial strike hurt L.A. terribly," he said.

Some say the current slump would be worse if not for a bump in the number of Spanish-language videos being shot in Los Angeles, particularly by Mexican and Mexican-American bands.

"There used to not be many videos in Latin music," said Enrique Fernandez, senior vice president and executive director of the Latin Grammys. "Now everyone has a video, and L.A. is a natural place not only to make videos but also to record albums."

Still, many of the Latin music videos are filmed on even tighter budgets than English videos.

Union moves

Local unions, some of whose members freelance for music video productions, have for years said they wanted to organize music video sets. In recent weeks, said Tarr, IATSE has sent organizers to several production locations in an attempt to "shut down some sets."

"It was clear that they were prepared to disrupt the production activities," Tarr said. "They are making a pretty strong statement that they'd like to organize the music video industry for IATSE."

A union official said the actions demonstrated the serious of the union's organization effort.

Meantime, MVPA has met once with IATSE to discuss terms of a possible collective bargaining agreement with the association's members, a group that includes the biggest music video production houses and dozens of smaller companies. Formal negotiations are set to begin Oct. 9, Tarr said.

Tarr, whose Squeak Pictures, produces music videos and commercials, estimated there are 25,000 people countywide who work on music videos, though only about a quarter of those do video work exclusively.

Tarr and other producers remain unconvinced that the average crew member would benefit from union involvement in the industry.

Brad Mendelson, a producer-director who owns Los Angeles-based Noisivision, said any extra benefits would cancel out in the form of union dues. "It's important to get health and pension, but they are going to have to cut (producers) a very good rate on salaries," Mendelson said.

An IATSE official said that the union was aware of the budget constraints facing music video producers and would factor that into its bargaining, just as it has with other sub-industries such as commercials.

However, the official said that "what's really is at issue is these people who are doing the work deserve a good benefit package," as well as the ability to work in film and television. He dismissed talk of strong-armed tactics.

"We heard the same honor stories back in 1996 when we organized the commercial industry," he said.

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