You’ve decided to shoot your own music video. You have no budget, no expertise and all you have is trusty YOUTUBE tutorials, a hope and an amazing song you want to get out there. So how do you make an amazing music video to reflect your song? Well, there is a lot to consider, but here are my top 5 things.
- Equipment: What will you be shooting with? You will have to make sure that the format the video camera/phone etc.. resolution is a good enough quality for youtube, or where ever you want to share it. Also keep in mind that if you have a small hand held camera that does video, you may get more hand shake, and will need to work with a tri-pod. If you have an iphone, the sizing may not translate into the specs you want for Youtube. If you rent, make sure that it creates a file format that your editing software can read (most do).
- Software: I don’t recommend buying expensive industry software until you have tried out editing and you know it’s something you want to invest in. You can easily get free editing software for PC and for Mac I believe it comes with iMovie.
- Editing: Make sure when you shoot you have enough footage to work with to add into your edit. Only 3 minutes of video can be a lot more time spent than you thought. If you want a visually interesting video you will need to plan out a lot of different shots and splice them into the song. For editing the rule of thumb is when I blink, I cut the film. I also edit when it goes with a lyric or beat.
- Music Video Ideas: I go to Pinetrest and create boards of different colours and theme combinations. You can search for anything you want and find a lot of really good quality things.
- Help:Aside from having a subject and the film maker it’s good to have one person designated to help with props etc..It saves time and gets things done faster.
Here is my most recent music video Revolution Cover:
- Equipment: Shot with Mark II Canon, 35mm Sigma
- Software: Premier Pro CC
- Editing: Processing the footage was lengthy, wanted a really visually impactful video so it took 18+hrs of editing
- Music Video Ideas/Inspiration: https://www.pinterest.com/mayjunmuse/music-video-inspiration/
- Help: Just my Cellist and I
The theme I came up with was dark, shadows, casting a spell, interesting visuals (used a crystal to make it look like future eyes), I wanted it to go with the lyrics as much as possible.
Good luck with your music video. Please send me a link of your video when it’s done by social media @mayjunmuse
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