Making a Music Video

I used to come round these parts quite a bit a while ago, because of that I gained a fair bit of knowledge into the whole area of video production. My band are recording our first album this year, so to go alongside with that we'd like to make a music video so I thought I may aswell put the skills i've learnt to some use. If anyone here has made one before, are there any tips anyone can give on making a music video?

 

Listen to your song. A lot. Know it. Don't bother with all the lip-syncing nonsense, just tell a story. Or go for 80's and flash a lot of random images very quickly that have some sort of subliminal meaning. Create a 2 colum layout with lyrics to the song on the left or a range of times, and a description of what occurs in the video on the right.

 

Yes I agree with the two column method. And yes, listen to your song ... a lot. Make the music video and visual presentation of the song not a random assortment of images (i.e. most Rap Videos).

 

This is called an A/V Script (Audio/Video), and it's a very good idea for something like this.

Unless you're like me, and you just kinda make it up as you go.
You're going to want to write down any specific shots you have in mind, as well as the parts of the song it goes with. Make sure you get those for sure.

Also, I can't stress this enough cuz I used to hit this problem back when I made videos like this in school, shoot a LOT of footage. Like, tons. More than you need.
Every song has chapters, so run your video ideas through that and see what kind of themes or stories you want to play around with and shoot them, but be ready to shoot and edit differently. Continuity isn't as much of an issue, as you want to pay more attention to the beat. Lip-synching isn't so terrible, but bobaandy is right that it's not always something you have to do. I usually like to check out who's singing, though.

Pacing is a big deal. Learn how the music and rhythm flows, and let the edit fall into place.

Beyond that... have fun. Music videos are generally considered the mainstream variety of 'experimental films', and they really are a great place to try out new things and develop new skills, or hone your old ones.

-Vaportrail

 

D'oh! How could I forget to tell him that! Yes coverage. Coverage. Coverage. Coverage. Very important.

 

Seconded.

I think this is absolutely one of the most important things when it comes to music videos.


If the song is building make sure the video is building with it.


It's a hit or miss thing, but its really important to try and nail it.


I'm editing one right now for a client so I hear where your coming from man, its a tough thing to get right.

 

I would get extra coverage of your drummer's fills. If he's a little more fusion than a straight forward drummer or sight reader, he might come up with slightly different variations of the fills in the song. If all else fails and he's not nailing anything, just shoot a series of downbeat shots of him hitting a crash cymbal.

Beware of sync issues between your source audio during shooting playback and your source music that you cut to in your NLE.

David

 

Get lots of footage and listen to the song constantly to get a feel for the video you are going to make. And also when your editing make sure your cuts flow with the music.

 

Be sure to put a lot of festive black people in a car and have them drive down the center of a street throwing money around. People love that.

(But seriously folks.)

Preparation, preparation, preparation. A hallmark of a lot of the poorly-done music videos I've seen (and in two cases worked on) is that they basically just shot the performance in six different locations and figured they could cut it together later just based on what takes looked nice when. This is not so. It should flow, tell a story of some kind (even if you're not employing a narrative as part of the video).



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Also consider the outlet for your video. Will it be YouTube? Will it be for-pay download at iTunes? etc?

I compiled a music video for one of my favorite band's music and uploaded it to Youtube and it looked terrible so I removed it. The speed of the footage resulted in a lot of artifacts. If I had less movement going on I believe it would have looked nicer in such a highly compressed state.

Anything better than flash would have been helpful.

 

In this method I chose to show video clips to the beat... it doesn't tell a story or anything fancy... but it has good color and the instruments are well lined up to the soundtrack.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cJwSSn_pxs

or you could watch it here

http://www.crackle.com/c/Create_Your_Story/The_Lawngnomes_The_First_Chronicle/2278220#ml=fi%3d%26fu%3d2394732




Music videos are really however you want them to be.

 

Music videos are a tricky thing...


I had to do one for a church a few weeks back for a trip they took to a camp.


The number one piece of advice I could give you based on what I've done and seen would be (as some have already mentioned) make sure you get the pacing right, and to make sure you get LOTS of footage.


The pacing will really make or break any film....music video or not.


Good luck though, and have fun.


PS, wasnt there some sort of music video contest on here about four years ago?

 

I've done three videos myself - two $5,000US videos and a $800US video.


$5000US

http://www.vimeo.com/747177

http://www.vimeo.com/747541


$800US

http://www.vimeo.com/747352



15 tips specific for music videos:

1) Don't get your band to lip-sync. Lip-syncing and hand-syncing never works. MAKE THEM PLAY!

2) Balance out your shoot day - whether you're shooting your story first or your band first, don't let one segment eat into the time of the other. You will regret it.

3) Musicians are not actors so talk to them and figure out what kind of direction they take best. Sometimes you just have to tell them to do something rather than try to relate to them on an emotional level.

4) Music videos are all about style - make sure you have good art direction. Make sure your set, costumes, instruments and all the rest fit into a thematic idea.

5) If this is your first music video, shoot as much band coverage as you can, even if you have to do entire passes on each band member seperately to ensure you have enough footage. You will need it and it will get you out of a jam when editing.

6) Make your band footage interesting by using dolly tracking, pull-focuses and crash-zooms if the song calls for it.

7) Don't underestimate the power of having a band member (especially if they're charismatic and hot) look straight at the camera lens.

8) For the love of god, don't let your band dress themselves. They're experts on music, not on fashion.

9) Use makeup, musicians can be awful ugly people.

10) Storyboard out your "story sequence" (if you have a story sequence) of your music video. Don't try to wing it by shooting straight drama-style coverage. You will only eat up your shoot day and come short of footage at the end.

11) If you don't know where to begin then an A/V script is a good idea. Also doing it in screenplay format is fine too.

12) Pacing is very important - running out of footage or lacking variety is bad, but so is cramming too much stuff into a single video. I worked on this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIB7yuv1qWc - which was conceptually great and the footage was AMAZING, but there's so much stuffed crammed into it and the pacing is so uneven that the video ended up being pretty tame, disjointed and some of the best sequences were dropped due to time constrictions. It was a 15-hour shoot day where half of the footage did not make it into the video.

13) Find a shooting location that adds production value to your shoot without you having to spend too much money on it. Good locations can make or break video. Don't do it in your backyard or your basement unless you have the world's coolest basement.

14) My camera of choice for a low-budget music video is the PANASONIC HVX with a wide-angle diopter or a 35mm adapter (rent some 35mm lenses). Going up from there, I'd recommend RED ONE or the PANASONIC VARICAM.

15) Good lighting and color-grading will elevate your video's quality at an exponential rate



Good luck!

 

Here's a pretty good example, IMO, of a good low-budget music video. It's funny, low-fi, entertaining, and visually interesting at the same time. I think it's all one shot, too.

 

It's not done in a single shot. It's done with multiple takes which were blended together using morphing and the speed-ramps were done using Twixtor.

Budget was a couple of thousands dollars US, from memory. The post-production was handled by a professional post-house.

 

I was in a famous boy band when I was younger, not going to tell you which one! So I've got a fair bit of experience.

Will you be doing a story board format?

 

Are you famous????

Did you used to get loads of groupies???

 

At the time I was extremely famous. Still get a lot of attention these days too. I must admit that the sex is not "on tap" like it used to be. These days I like to role play a lot when I'm in the bedroom! I pretend that I'm not paying for it!!

 

Ah. I thought it looked a little seamless for a one-shot.

That said, it's nothing that a dedicated member here couldn't throw together with enough preparation.

 

Ah! Much truth you speak! Yerrrrrrsh....

 

Or at least have a shot list. Not everyone works well with storyboards.

 

Do at least one good take of the song all the way through for every location.