Case study 2 - Emil Nava

Emil Nava - Director of music videos

Emil began as a runner for film production companies. This allowed him to get into the industry. Emil worked for Blink productions and now freelances for OB Management.After working as a runner emil graduated to Assistant Director where he managed the video shoots. He then signed to Academy, the biggest music video production company at the time. After he then worked for Between the Eyes and then Pulse. Emil began to create adverts which generally have a higher budget and production value than music videos, however he felt that they did not allow him to express his creativity and were dull and 'boring' to create. One of the adverts he produced was for L'Oreal 'Dare to be Different';



Companies want to advertise their products in a specific way allowing for less creative freedom although they pay more than music videos.

In a single year Emil made 24 music videos, highlighting that the process of creating and producing music videos is fairly fast.
The budget of music videos varies from the labels and the name of the artist. When Emil began directing videos for independent labels, he only had very small budgets of as low as £5000 to £10,000.
However one of his more expensive videos to date is for the artist Jessie J which had a budget of £160,000. His first budget was for the band Kid British, for the track our house. Shot in 1 day, in Manchester, the music video only had a budget of £20,000 highlighting the contrast between the different names and record labels and the budgets their videos have. It took 1day to film the video, 2/3 to edit the video and 10 days of pre-production, again demonstrating and reinforcing the idea of small timescales/production times music videos in the industry have.

Kid British - Our House;




OB Management

OB management work as agents for music video directors. They aim to;

• Nurture talent
• Work with record labels
• Work with production companies
• Match the right director with the right artists

Some of the production companies that OB work with are;

• Pulse Films
• Rocket
• Agile Films
• Friends
• Wonda

OB management represents many directors including Emil Nava

Emil's Videos

Some of Emil's more known music videos he has directed include;

Paloma Faith - 30 Minute Love Affair
Client - Sony





Paloma Faith - Picking Up the Pieces
Client Sony
Cost - £80,000




Ed Sheeran Lego House 
Client Atlantic





Ed Sheeran - You Need Me
Client - Atlantic
Cost - £35,000




Rita Ora - RIP
Client - RocNation





Jessie J - Do It Like A Dude
Client - Island 
Cost - £25,000




Jessie J - Price Tag
Client - Island





Emil's Top Tips

Emil states that a good music video utilises;

• Extreme Close Ups on faces wherever possible
• Avoid shooting videos only in Medium/Long shots

The use of Extreme close ups can be seen through his videos. For example in Do it like a Dude, there are many extreme close ups of Jessie J throughout the video.

Other well constructed examples of the inclusion of this technique include;

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compare to U

And, Godley & Creme - Cry



Both these videos highlight the use of Extreme close ups and have been extremely successful.