Have a plan!!!
It’s a good idea to have a worked-out plan before you go off shooting…
- Is this a ‘Narrative’ video – telling the story behind the song? Or is it going to be a simple ‘Performance’ video?
- For a Narrative, a good idea is to Storyboard the video – a series of simple sketches that describe each set-up – whether it’s a performance location or B-roll related to the story.
- There’s nothing wrong in finding inspiration from other videos!
Performance Videos
- Your video is a big deal! If you’re hoping to impress potential venues and promoters, it needs to be good! Plan on spending some time and a little money to get it right.
- Ideally borrow or hire a venue for the shoot. Light it and make it as realistic a ‘concert’ as possible.
- Have a good quality, nicely mixed studio recording of your chosen songs. The recordings will be the basis for the final video when it comes to the edit.
- Rehearse miming to playback of the songs, aiming to be as consistent as possible with performance moves etc.
- Unless you have multiple cameras available, you’ll be performing several ‘takes’ of each song, miming to playback.
- It’s important that the camera is also picking up the playback audio. That audio will be used for synchronisation purposes in the edit.
- For the purposes of these tips, I’m going to assume that your band has one lead singer as well as a number of musicians.
- So, for one take, the camera stays on the singer for the entire song.
- Another take should be a fairly static wide-shot of the entire band.
- Next, plan subsequent takes so that all the musicians are featured – particularly during their solo parts.
- In the edit, we use the audio that the camera picked up to sync those takes to the studio recording of the song.
- Now read the Technical notes below!
Narrative Videos
- Usually plan on at least a couple of different locations – could be indoors, outdoors, day or night – doesn’t really matter. You can have as many as you like.
- You can use a tripod, handheld or a gimbal – it doesn’t really matter.
- For playback, very important to use the song that you’re actually going to use in the edit.
- The important thing is to have at least one base performance shot of the entire song, from start tio finish, with the artist in focus and in frame throughout, that you can always rely on and cut back to if needed.
- Shoot at least one wide shot and one closeup at each location.
- You can change locations, outfits
- If possible, sing along to the actual song while playing it on set – looks more realistic than lipsyncing.
- It’s important to record the ‘scratch’ audio on the camera mics. Will be used for syncing in the edit – so without it, we’ll be in trouble!
- Shoot some B-Roll too!
Some Technical Stuff
- Whether you’re shooting with a high-end camera or an iPhone, you will need to choose the resolution and frame rate.
- For music videos, the best standard is 4K resolution (3840×2160) at 24fps for a cinematic look, or 4K at 30fps for a smoother, high-energy feel.
- For slow-motion performance shots, 60fps or 120fps is recommended. Use a 180-degree shutter rule: Your shutter speed should be double your frame rate (e.g., 24fps = 1/50th sec, 60fps = 1/120th sec) to produce natural-looking motion blur that mimics human vision.
- Whatever you choose, make sure all cameras are set to the same resolution and frame rate for all the shoots.
- Portrait or Landscape? If your video is likely to be shown on YouTube or Facebook, best to shoot everything in Landscape (16 x 9) format. We can always make a Vertical version for Instagram etc from landscape footage.
- Back up! Backup! Backup! After your shoot, copy all your files to at least one good-quality hard drive. – preferably a SSD (though they are expensive!)
Need Help?
If you are planning to shoot your music video and would like to discuss, give me a call. Happy to help!
Do you have tips of your own? Email them to me: tim@timwatson.co.uk
Tim Watson Editing 