So recently I had the wonderful opportunity to make a music video for a new upcoming local artist. Creating a music video is always a fun project, with meeting new people, going to new locations, and the fun of video shooting. However, making a music video is not as simple as it may appear. There's a lot of logistics, planning, practicing, and more. This particular music video just so happens to be my first actual planned out music video project. Before, I've done simple music covers, and one live event that I made into a music video, but to planned out this project was a good case study for me on what it takes to make a music video. So the progress when like this...
First I'd like to mention, since this is a new area in my portfolio, I'm not going to pretend I know how to make professional music videos but rather what I do know and what I have learned in this project.
The first step was meeting with the artist to go over who they are, what their music is, what style they are into, and brainstorming ideas. I presented the video production steps of what it will take to make this. Here are my process steps to view: click here.
I also presented some sample ideas of other music videos to get some inspiration of where we are to go with this music video. Now that I had the agreed and approved idea from the music artist and the inspiration videos, I could now go to work. I then took our conversation and put it in text. I use Google Suite for most of my business work needs and this is where Google Docs shined. Google Docs for me gave me the ability to write the idea down, make side notes, highlight certain areas, and share via email with the client and her managers which gave them the ability to comment on my notes all one one sheet! Since they all have Gmail, it was fluid and easy.
Next was executing the steps in the order from storyboard to delivery. The storyboard was taking the idea and drawing it on paper. I got an artist to come to my home studio and we just talk and drew until the project came together on paper. Afterwards I scanned and downloaded the drawings to edit the music video storyboard. I made two videos. One was me talking through the video explaining the parts. The other was the storyboard video without me talking so the artist can actually get the vision of the music video. Then came time for finding locations, a dance choreographer, actors, props, planning the date for practice and shoots. This is where things became tricky. You always want to leave yourself some room for things to not go as planned. Miscommunications happened, people that first signed on to help ended up not able to, budget constraints, and so on. We were on a very low budget so with we had to stretch a few things such as volunteer time, and even practicing at my house. Once we where able to get over those humps, we then started the practice of the music video which most of it was dancing. I got a dance choreographer that assisted me with this. Practicing a dance over and over until perfection can be intimidating and stressful, but in the end it is well worth it to make it look good. Plus getting to meet new people for this project was a little nervous especially when I haven't done anything like this before. However, I had to get out there with what I do know and be as professional that I can as a video producer. The next step was to actually shoot the video which is probably the most easiest part of this project. I emailed everyone involved in the project a call-sheet with detailed info of locations with images, times, and cast and crew contact info. This is so everyone are informed and are on the same page for the day of shoot. Even though you schedule times, always give yourself some cushion in case anything happens. We went to different locations to shoot the b-roll, and role playing at first, then we went to a rented studio space to record the singing and dancing.
Lastly, I took the footage and did my magic in creating a music video in the cutting room. The editing only took two days because all the planning and storyboard made it easy to know what to make. With everything done, the thing I look forward to was the pleased reception of the artist when I delivered the video. She loved it and that was great to hear!
I know, there are simpler ways to make a music video like just singing on a mic in a studio but there are also more complex ways such as the likes of making a motion picture feature. A good place to learn how to make music videos is of course YouTube. There are many great videos that cover this. However, this was a great learning tool for me to know how to be better at my craft of videography, better at planning, better at budgeting, and better at delivering better music videos in the future. If you or if you know anyone looking to make a music video. Tell them, I'm ready.