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Ten tips for...
making your own music video
Two or three years ago, Pete Fraser wrote a piece for the very first issue of MediaMag with tips for students on making a music video – probably the most popular task for OCR A2 coursework. Since then, changes in technology have led to some opportunities to help make your music video project even better... Here he is again with an update.
Step 1: Choose a trackIdeally your track will be provided by your teacher as part of a selection for the whole class to select from. The most successful choices are usually unknown or semi-unknown artists. It is rare that moderators see work featuring tracks by very well-known stars; often choosing your favourite track or favourite artist leads to self-indulgent work.
MySpace is a good source of material; if you (or a teacher) search by genre, you can quickly find a range of stuff. You could even search by genre and by geographical area to give yourself the opportunity to find local bands who might even be prepared to appear in the video.
Make it short! Tracks that last five minutes rarely make good videos. It becomes very hard work to sustain the audience’s attention for more than three minutes and it means an awful lot of planning, shooting and editing. A really well edited two-minute video can earn much better marks than a long video which contains lots of padding.
Step 2: Write a treatmentIn your group, listen to the track several times and discuss the ideas that it generates. Don’t just go with the lyrics – look to them to provide a springboard for ideas and soak up the atmosphere of the track. Write a pitch for the material with a strong and simple idea.
Have a clear concept which is workable! Don’t try to include too many different ideas – the more complicated you make it, the more can go wrong.
Step 3: Plan for everythingStoryboard – you can always shoot extra material but you need a very clear plan for what you are going to shoot so that no time is wasted when you get there. Plan people, places, props and costumes. Arrange every detail like a professional producer would.
Get everyone’s mobile numbers! You need to be able to contact one another easily. Aim to shoot it early, not up against deadline when something will always go wrong; if you are ahead of the game, you will avoid the problems turning into disasters.
Make sure your performers have rehearsed and know the words; it can be very embarrassing to watch something where the singer doesn’t know the words and it can ruin all your hard work elsewhere in the planning, shooting and editing. It’s part of the director’s job to motivate, so make sure your performer is motivated!
Step 4: Set up a blogThis is a fantastic way of enhancing your planning. You can use it to link to videos that influence you from YouTube, to the performer’s MySpace and to any photos that give you ideas. Take recce shots on location and post them onto your blog; put up pictures of props, costumes, instruments. The advantage is that you can add to this planning from any computer and every member of the group can contribute.
Look at relevant real examples – choose tracks from the same genre to give a sense of what the conventions are, not just great famous videos which may be impossible to emulate.
You can also do an animatic of your storyboard, where you film each of your drawings (however rough) and then capture your shots in the edit program before adding the music. This then gives you the opportunity to see how well your planning, and particularly the storyboard, is likely to work in practice. You may well find that the shot of the band you thought would look great will be revealed as lasting much too long when put with the music, indicating the need to cut the whole thing faster and re-think the storyboard. You can then upload your animatic to YouTube and paste it into your blog for feedback from others.
In effect, your blog becomes a place for all your ideas and the development of your planning as an e-scrapbook and something which can be submitted to the moderator as evidence for your planning marks.
Step 5: Know your equipmentDo test shots to try out effects. Check any quirks that the camera has; it is much better to find out before you go on the shoot than when you get back. You may need to check things like how to avoid the camera switching to widescreen mode. Do you know the edit program well enough for the things you intend to do? Experiment before the main thing!
When you do go out on your shoot, make sure you have the tripod and the attachment to fix the camera to it. Have you checked that the tape is loaded? Have you got the CD and player? If you don’t have it playing out loud on the shoot, you will find it very difficult to synch up the sound in the edit stage.
Step 6: The shoot
Make sure your location is useable for your purpose. If you are going to have passers-by going through the frame all the time, is that going to mess up your video? If you are on a stage, is it going to look convincing?
Shoot the performance at least three times with different set-ups. More, if possible, as this way you give yourself more options in the edit. Don’t forget: lots of close-ups! Shoot some of the performances with moving camera, handheld, whatever, otherwise it can end up looking pretty static. Make sure you have plenty of cutaways, experiment with extra angles and lighting changes.
Enthuse your performers – they must give it plenty! But overall, shoot more than you think you will need – there will always be shots you don’t like when you come to edit.
Step 7: Capture your footageLabel everything you capture so that you don’t have lots of files all called ‘untitled’ or just with numbers. Label by description for example, ‘close-up singer good 1’ to make it easy to find. Break it into manageable chunks, no longer than the full length of the song itself, and be selective! Don’t capture stuff you don’t need or which is obviously rubbish footage as you’ll fill up your computer unnecessarily and give yourself too much material to wade through.
Step 8: The editSynch up performances first and aim to get the whole picture rather than tiny detail. There is a risk of spending far too long on little moments of the video and never getting the whole thing finished: getting a rough cut which comprises just the performances intercut with one another should be an early target. Aim for a dynamic piece of work, which moves along at a pace. Cut and cut again – it’s rare that shots feel too short but common to see videos where shots drag on...
Upload a rough cut to YouTube and your blog and get feedback; it will also enable you to trace back your decisions when you come to the write up.
Do any effects work last, such as greenscreen or adding motion paths. This could be several hours work, so leave plenty of time to complete it.
Step 9: Screening
Hopefully you will have the chance for a big-screen premiere of your work at a local cinema which many schools and colleges now negotiate, but at the very least your work will be shown in class for feedback. Get feedback wherever you can and note it all down.
Upload your finished video to your blog via YouTube and look out for feedback there. Get the artist to look at it, to put it on their MySpace and give you feedback.
Step 10: Analysis
Unlike the real world of the promo director, you’ll have to write about it. Take advice about what is needed in your write up and start early. Get help with drafts of writing – get teachers to read it and comment, give it to parents or friends to help you proofread.
Make use of your blog – use it to remind you of the process and all the stages you went through.
Pete Fraser teaches at Long Road 6th Form Centre, and is Chief Examiner for OCR Media Studies A Level. This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 19.
