IN December, the New York-based Massive Entertainment Group (MEG) is expected to launch operations in Jamaica with offices in Kingston.

The man in charge of producing the company’s music videos is Donovan Howard, who has been involved in the film industry since the mid-1990s.

Howard, who was born in Kingston, is a director and writer with MEG which operates out of Poughkeepsie. He was recently in the city filming the video for singer Fabian Marley’s Naw Go Say We Poor which debuts on the Tempo channel tomorrow.

The 48-year-old Howard, who started his career with Spike Lee’s 40 Acres And A Mule production company, also directed Warrior King’s Wanting You video.

He spoke to the Jamaica Observer about the MEG’s plans in terms of music videos.

“If I say our videos will be different from other videos I would be lying. The fact is, there are wonderful works being done today and it’s all been done before when it comes to videos and films. The only time you can do something different is when you implement new technology in production,” Howard explained.

He added: “What we plan to do to separate ourselves is to keep a certain standard and don’t go below it. We plan to create products that are cinematic. Because almost no one shoots with film anymore, techniques and production standards have fallen. We plan to keep the standards in order to produce cinematic and 35mm looking movies and videos.”

The first music video Howard directed was in the early 1990s while in college. It was for the song Chase The Vampire by Jamaican deejay Sancho.

While the experience was good for the budding film-maker, he also learned the seedy side of the entertainment industry.

“It was shot entirely on 16 millimetre film. Unfortunately, I gave his manager the master copy because he pleaded with me to let him see it. I dropped the Beta master off at his office and I’ve never seen him since,” he said.

Music videos exploded in the early 1980s through the hip new cable channel, MTV. After Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking Thriller video in 1983, record companies committed huge budgets to visuals for top acts to help push high-profile albums and songs.

In the 1990s, budgets for major artistes including Jackson, his sister Janet, Guns ‘N’ Roses and Puff Daddy, consistently went over US$500,000.

The contemporary video is not as extravagant. Many artistes film on the proverbial shoestring budget, then post the visual through the Internet on YouTube.

Howard, whose films include the soon-to-be-released Artifice and 2004’s Real Show, acknowledged the industry changes.

“It is understood that the golden age of the music video is over. If you receive a $15,000 budget to do a music video today you can consider yourself fortunate compared to a $100,000 or more budget 20 years ago,” he said.