How to make a music video with great techniques by Rob John
Have a plan, and basic idea for song
When making a music video or visual it's always good to have a plan and just a over all idea on what you want the visual for your song to be about. By doing this you can write up a story board by creating a theme, and drawing up scenes, characters, and so forth. This method will be better than just grabbing your camera, and filming in a free manner, it may work for some but I guarantee you that your video will be a great master piece because it will show that you took time by writing up the story and it will help your project to be more organized.
Pick characters, and location
The next step to creating your music video will be to choose your characters, and to pick a location to film your visual. Good places to film your video is a friends house, city parks, in nature, schools, maybe even churches, your city, and so forth. The most obvious main character for your music video will be you the music artist. I've researched, and seen videos online where there was just one main artist in the whole video. The one person who is performing the song can be good if there is a great story line to back it up. You can add more characters in your music video to spice up the visual more as well. You can also film extra people in your video to tell the story more . A great example of this is filming in a city environment which captures a great feel to the whole visual. You can see this a lot in Hollywood movies, and popular hip hop music videos when you see just extra people in the background doing things pertaining to the movie Story. A good way to start picking characters for your visual is choosing a close freind or maybe your family members. I'm pretty sure they will be thrilled to be apart of your music video.
Filming time!
And 3....2....1.... ACTION!!! Now here's the fun part which is getting ready to perform your song for the video. You can ask a freind or family member to help you film because trust me filming a music video by yourself is a very hard task especially if your a perfectionist at your work. I've shot a few films by my self and let me tell you it can be tiring holding the camera for multiple shots, and running back and forth in front of the mounted camera on a tripod, it's a great workout!
Make sure you use a tripod because it can make your camera more secure which can reduce camera shake, and also this will give you the availability to capture more of your subject. You can get away with camera shake depending on the scene like if your walking but make sure you have a stabilization option on your camera or movie software so your footage won't look so shaky. The next step will be to have a speaker or for me what worked was using my iPhone to play my song while performing the song. Try to film multiple verse, and chorus takes that way you can get different unique angles so your scene performances won't be so boring, and flat. You can do cutaway shots for your chorus or verse scenes. Another way to add creative shots to your music video is to have B- rolls. There are many videos on YouTube, and online that explains how to film b-roll footages for your film. A b-roll is a simple footage of another subject other than your main character performing your song. For example picture me rapping, you see me saying my verse than all of a sudden you see another scene show up that shows what I'm rapping about. Like if I'm rapping about a pair of sneakers you will see me rapping and then you'll see a scene of a pair of the pair of sneakers that I'm rapping about.
Make sure to have good quality, and great light source for your music video. A good way to do this is simply using nature, and sunlight depending on the weather, and time of day. For me I found shooting footage at sunrise was great lighting to certain scenes in my music video. Also shooting during sunsets can add dramatic feel and life to your visual. Also make sure you use great equipment as such as a and good lens you can use to add depth of feild to give it a movie look. The latest smart phones like iPhones and galaxy's have great video options for shooting.
After your music video is done you will be satisfied of the finished project. Making a music video is a great way to show what type of person you are, and what your music is about.
Please feel free to check out my latest music video project here titled Soul City.