Whether it’s a creative art project or a professional music shoot, there are some basic steps to making a music video that you can’t ignore. These steps can decide between an amateur attempt at a music video or a successful endeavor.
But in most cases, if you have a creative idea, a good team, and a reasonable budget, success won’t be too difficult to achieve
Thus, Here is a brief guide on all the factors to consider while making and filming a music video.
1. Planning and Conceptualization
Considering that you’ve either written, produced, or bought the rights to a song, the next step is to formulate and conceptualize the message you want the piece to convey through the music video.
This requires you to determine your intention with the music video and the mood or tone that fits best with the song. Getting inspiration from highly popular, successful, and most-watched music videos in recent years could prove helpful in idea conception.
There are countless directions you can go forward from here. You could choose a traditional approach to the music video, drive more attention towards the music’s message, or even make the video itself the prominent aspect. The creative possibilities are endless.
2. Find a Shooting Location
This step is a bit more fun, though it can also be complicated at the same time. Imagine you find the perfect location to film a brilliant music video, but they don’t have an open schedule or have rules restricting your creative spirit. In whatever case, double-checking can save you from a lot of trouble.
If you’re opting for time and cost-efficiency, then sticking to a single location will save you on labor, management, and budget costs for the whole project. Taking snips of the surrounding areas and picturing an aesthetic view of the atmosphere is a clever way to transition and diverge from the usual theme of your location.
While working with another company to rent the equipment or book a location to shoot the video, having good email management tools to quickly contact them regarding any issues or questions you might have is vital.
3. Casting and Film Equipment
However massive or tiny your project scale is, you’ll need a team to help you with it. Some roles you’ll need to fill are:
- Professional camera operator
- Director
- Lighting person
- Audio recording person, if required for the video
- The actors/models for the music video
As you gather your team members, you will also need to rent or purchase the equipment they’ll need for the project. You can find a reliable team or service to provide their supplies in an ideal situation. But if you have to get equipment yourself, renting equipment from local art programs or community centers might be the best option.
4. Filming
Now comes the big part where everything comes to fruition. All you need to do is concentrate on your plan for a successful filming day.Â
While composing the frame, every element you choose, including the lighting, angles, actions, and lyrics, plays a massive role in portraying your story.
It can prove extremely helpful to have somebody on board who knows about framing shots and making them look how you want them to. Get experienced people who know how to make a music video and the right tools to give it a professional look.
5. Finishing Off
These days, professional video editing can be accomplished with free or reasonably cheap editing software. Although you should avoid using excessive special effects on the video, using some products to create a certain feel or heighten certain moments doesn’t hurt.
If you’re not too familiar with computers and editing software, it’s best to leave it to the professionals. You could hire video editors to make your music video a finished and furnished product.
This process can be pretty long if not done correctly.
Simple tasks like figuring out how to download a video from various websites like a tutorial or stock video can become time-consuming since every platform has different infrastructures, and some don’t even have a download option.
