How to make a music video?

At first glance, creating a music video may seem like a rather difficult and time consuming task. But first, let's define and find out what a music video is. In fact, this is the same film, only very truncated, short.

The process of creating a music video is almost the same as the process of creating a film, using similar techniques and techniques. And some moments even exceed the creation of the film in complexity, for example, the installation of a music video lasts much longer. Immediately, before proceeding to the question of how to make a music video, let's look at a little more in the purpose and objectives of the video.

Purpose, tasks, types

With the purpose of the clip, everything is quite simple - an illustration of a song or musical composition, with the aim of showing on music channels or on the Internet. In a word, something like advertising, for example, a new album or single. The tasks of the video clip are much more, you can select three main ones:

The first and most important, the clip should be to the liking of fans of the artist or group.
The second task of the clip is the visual addition of text and music. In some moments, the video series reveals and enriches the work of the performers much deeper.
The third task of the clip is to reveal the images of the performers from the best side.

All video clips are divided into two types - in the first basis is the video made at the concerts, and in the second the thoughtful storyline. So let's begin, directly, the stages of creating a music video.

Step One: Choosing a Composition

Choosing a song for the future video should be guided by some criteria. First, the duration of the composition should not exceed five minutes, and ideally its duration should range from three to four minutes. It is desirable that the story be told any story, although to come up with an idea for a composition without words can also be quite interesting. You can not take someone else's records without permission - either use your own, or ask the opinion of the author.

Stage Two: A Flurry of Ideas

Now you need to think about ideas to illustrate the selected composition. It is not necessary to transmit the lyrics of a song in a video, you can experiment with mood, music or themes. Then there will be much more space for ideas for the video sequence. And the illustration of the composition will not be a banal, patterned video, but really a real creation.

Stage Three: Storyboard

After the final choice of the idea, it should be stumped, that is, to make a list of frames that will be necessary to create a video. Some shots that are an integral part and carry the main essence of themselves will need to be drawn. It is the qualitative preparation of this stage that will allow the process to go more disgustingly and much faster.

Stage Four: Stylistics

You need to decide on the style of the clip in advance, maybe the video will be black and white, and maybe there will be some animation in it. All this needs to be thought out and recorded. Another not unimportant fact is the opinion of the performer, someone wants to be present in the video in the lead role, and someone does not want to appear in the video at all.

Stage Five: Shooting

So, we come to the main actions in the question of how to make a music video - this is shooting. Basically, in the clips, the sound track is the work itself, on which the video is shot, so you should not worry about audio tracks. We take sketches of a storyboard prepared in advance and proceed directly to the shooting.

We remove the main points of the conceived idea, not forgetting to do several takes on each scene. If scenes with a singing performer are planned in the video clip, then when shooting, it is necessary to put a song in the background so that the movement of the lips is similar to the recording. Then follow the storyboard to finish everything up to the end, also not forgetting to do all the scenes in several takes, because the more footage, the easier it will be to edit, and the video will look better.

Stage Six: Editing

Now you should start editing the footage. There are enough such programs, the choice will depend on the budget. There are programs for editing video worth thousands of dollars, and there are completely free. Beginners in this complex, but remarkable and creative process will be suitable inexpensive options for similar programs, for example, Final Cut Express or iMovie.

So, the finished material is loaded into the video editor, be sure to include the composition on which the video was shot and proceed to editing.

The main thing in this case is to remember that a good, high-quality video clip should be an illustrated version of the composition, for example, a slow guitar solo sounds - video frames should correspond to the tempo and rhythm of the music. After all, it would be strange and unnatural to watch a series of fast shots during a slow melody of the entry. So, editing the footage, you should be guided by the mood of the composition itself.

Stage Seven: Effects

In some video clips, the effects are simply necessary according to the plot of the composition, and in some you can do without them. But still, if you decide to add effects, you need to remember that they should be the finishing touches, and not the basis of the video sequence. You can, for example, make some shots, and make the scenes blurry better, in some, on the contrary, correct the color gamut, you can add slow motion. In general, you can experiment, the main thing is not to forget and clearly see the final result.

Following exactly all the above stages of preparation, shooting and editing video, you can capture great material for the composition. In this case, the main thing is not to overdo it, in some moments a "golden mean" is needed, thanks to which both the process itself and its end result will bring only positive sentiments to all participants of this laborious and complex business.

Over time, after the second or third video clip, the question of how to make a music video will not seem so complicated and overwhelming, the process will deliver only good emotions, and the result will be better and better.

The author - Stanislav Kolesnik

At the end of the article, watch the video on how to make a simplified version of the clip from photos and music: