SP - Digitisation

The way music videos have been filmed has been completely changed in recent years due to new modern technology being introduced. This is also better known as Digitisation, the movement from analogue to digital technology. This means with new technology being made available for the general public it is much easier and cheaper than ever before to make videos, films and music videos etc. Anyone in this day and age can go out and buy a HD camcorder and buy Final Cut software off the internet and they will have the same equipment as major filmmakers have. However around 10-20 years ago the cost to buy this type of equipment would have been much higher. Only the very rich filmmakers would have been able to buy the equipment needed to shoot a music video. However, it’s not just the hardware and software which has become easier and cheaper to get hold of, the effects used in these videos have also become available to the general public. In the 1990's special effects were limited so the cost to use them was a lot higher. Nowadays special effects are available on software such as Final Cut which we will be using for our A2 coursework.

Here is a list of the most expensive music videos of all time. As you can see most of the top 15 videos on this list all occur in the 1990's. This proves the point that the cost of software, hardware and special effects has fallen dramatically in the last 20 years and the introduction of digital technology has all resulted in cheaper music videos.


This is Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's Scream music video which is the most expensive music video of all time at $7 million made in 1995.