Meet The Top 5 Music Video Directors In Nigeria

8 years ago

Meet The Top 5 Music Video Directors In Nigeria

Many lovers of music videos don’t really know there are people behind the scene who are responsible for directing the beautiful and scintillating scenes that make the videos what they are. ANTHONY ADA ABRAHAM writes on 5 top music video directors in the country

Music video directors have contributed in no small measure in catapulting various upcoming artistes to top positions in the Western music industry with the quality of work they put into their music videos that make them a huge success.

Today every video that surfaces online or on TV is judged by the creativity of the music video’s director. There are Nigerian music video directors like Clarence Peters, Patrick Ellis and Aje that are doing great things on Nigerian locations but they don’t come in cheap. It is not known exactly how much the top-rated Nigerian directors charge to do music videos but it’s sure will be in millions.

It is high time music video directors were given their rightful place in the entertainment industry for their contributions to the development of the Nigerian music industry.

Though there are lots of music directors, these are the five top directors that can make any music video talk-of-the-town.

1. Adasa Cookey
He dumped the telecommunications sector for entertainment and hit pure gold in 2012 when he directed the music video Boy’s Like To Party”. This music video launched his career. He has worked with DJ exclusive, D’ Prince, Samklef, Ketchup, Splash and others. It was gathered that his fees vary. He charges upcoming and established artistes differently, but he will not shoot a video that is less than N1.6 million.

In an interview he once granted, he said “I am actually a self-trained director. I did not go to film school. I thought myself everything I needed to know because it was where my passion is. I won’t say that I didn’t have the opportunity to go to film school because if I wanted to go to film school, I would have but for some reasons I just didn’t go and I didn’t see it as necessary at the time. But I have been in a class where film was taught. It was just a short course. And it was not film making per se, it was producing. That does not teach you to be a film maker. It teaches you the basics of the business,” he explained.

2. Matt Max
Mathew Abiodun Aina also known as Matt Max is another top rated music video director. Despite the fact that he has been registering low patronage since he got married, his creativity standard still remains one of the best to beat as the cool dude will never settle for less when it comes to shooting good videos. It was gathered that he charges N1.2 million and above.

3. Clarence Peters
Clarence Abiodun Peters is a Nigerian music video director, filmmaker and cinematographer. Peters was born into a prominent family. He is the son of Sir Shina Peters, a musician, and Clarion Chukwura, an actress. He is the founder and CEO of CAPital Dream Pictures, a production company that specialises in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video. He is also the founder and CEO of Capital Hill Records, a record label home to Chidinma, Tha Suspect, and Illbliss.

Clarence is very strong in the music video game; he still holds sway amidst his contemporaries in terms of creativity. This son of Juju music maestro is reported to have the highest charges to shoot a musical video. Those in the know say the capital Hull Record label boss charges more than six million naira to shoot a four minute musical video. Phew!!!

4. Mohammed Musa
“The type of business I run is a film & video production company, Online Video Broadcaster of UK & Afrobeat music culture.” That was Moe Musa whose first notable work came out when he directed the EME video “Get Down Tonight”.
His career blew up from there. He has since directed videos for Wande Coal, Iyanya, Ice Prince, Fuse Odg, Seyi Shay, May D, Dr. Sid and others. He is one of the most sought after music video directors in Nigeria. He charges N2m and above.

“We do everything from your high end glossy music video, internet music promo, viral marketing videos, events coverage, behind the scenes, short films and documentaries,” he added.

5. Patrick Ellis
Patrick Ellis is one of the fastest growing music video directors in Nigeria. It’s no doubt that musical videos are taking another dimension in the Nigerian music industry. One of those who brought glamour into it is this young and vibrant dude who shot ‘Holla at ur boi’ for Whizkid.

Patrick Eritobor, aka Patrick Elis is one of the youngest and most vibrant video directors making waves in the Nigerian music industry at present after shooting the award winning musical video from the stable of the EME “Holla at ur boi”. This gave him an edge in the entertainment industry with the well appreciated song with its visual clarity and well-arranged videos and unique concept.

Within the short time, Patrick Ellis has over 30 great musical videos to his name, shooting his first video for Samklef Labalab, which was Samklef’s first musical video and later a series of great videos like Sheyman, Lie, Dude Tetsola, More than music, El-Phlex’s Let go.
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