As an artist, your music video is where camera meets creativity. It’s where you’re allowed to go crazy and show off your artistic talent. Just make sure not to overdo it. You can lose the main message the song is intended to pass along.
It takes a real professional to test the boundaries without breaking them. If you’re not a professional music video producer, you basically have choices:
- Go to a video production school and learn how to produce your own video
- Shell out the big bucks and hire a professional in the video production industry
- Take the chance of ending up with a low-quality piece after hiring a cheap producer
- Hire interns from a high-quality video production school in your local area
A music video’s main purpose is to promote a particular track. Artists use them to promote their music and their brand. Successful videos bring a lot of attention to the label as well. It promotes the sales of the CD and downloads of the music.
That means your video not only needs to look good, it has to speak to the hearts and minds of the viewers… the fans of the music itself.
3 Steps to Making a Music Video
Step 1: Come Up with a Concept for the Video
Music producers do a lot. The treatment, or concept, is the most important factor in making a music video. It speaks the message behind the track. This is where things go right or wrong. Coming up with a concept that reels in viewers is a major gamble.
Because a budget is generally involved, the best concept is not necessarily what the artist envisions. As the artist, you are inclined to go with what fits your budget.
Some professional video directors are known to produce outstanding concepts while working with a small budget. This is because they concentrate more on making the artist a star and not the MTV fuss around the videos.
Hiring a local intern puts some ease on your video production budget. Because they work for free, with the hopes of being hired in the future, you end up with a cost-efficient crew member that’s truly eager to work.
Step 2: Take Heed to Licensing, Locations & Logistics
It’s really easy for a video director to get distracted by other things. You may lose focus on the main message the video intends to bring out. To avoid this, the three L’s need to be followed:
Licensing
Music is a business. There are a ton of legal matters to take into consideration. Many laws have to be followed to the tee. This is why you need the correct legal protection before making any major decisions.
Get yourself an entertainment lawyer to work on your contracts and licensing agreements. This confirms your music rights are secure and all deals are fair. You don’t want to end up the party taking all of the risks with no music to call your own in the end.
Locations & Logistics
Most videos are shot at various locations. Adequate pre-planning must be done to ensure you have the necessary permissions to access the areas, with approval, prior to shoot days.
You’ll find your video production crew attracting attention from those passing by the area where you are shooting your video. Find ways to deal with the crowds of unnecessary people you do notwant to feature in it.
Step 3: Synchronize Your Audio
When making a music video, synchronizing the audio requires great talent. It’s a true work of art. You don’t need to invest in high-quality equipment for audio synchronization. But, for lip and instrument synchronizing, a higher quality technique may be required.
Most of the time, you use a song recorded in a recording studio for the video. The sounds picked up by the microphones during the video shoot will not be used. So, the best approach is to separate your song into different sections.
Have ‘two pops’ to signal each segment. This technique has been used repeatedly by industry experts because it’s effective. It even works for those with tight budgets! The purpose of dividing your song into different sections is so you don’t have to keep restarting the song every new take.
If the idea of synchronizing your own audio sounds intimidating or too time-consuming, hire some help. Hiring a local intern from a college or trade school near you will get you the help you need, while keeping your pockets intact.
Creating Awesome Pitches for Your Music Videos
Record labels do not want to bear any risks when it comes to music and videos. They work on tight deadlines and fixed budgets to keep their profits high. There is no room to make and correct mistakes. The final product must portray professionalism and legit attitudes.
Pitches are all about sales. You may need a pitch to find funding to make your video. In this case, your pitch needs to be top-notch to get what you want and need. Here are some tips for creating awesome music video pitches that rock.
Introduce Your Treatment/Concept
The introduction should include:
- Summary of your idea for the video
- Artist’s name
- Track title
- Name of the director
- Production company
- Background image to sum up the music video you are pitching
Explain Your Idea
Write exactly what you aspire for viewers to get from the music video. Have a storyboard to write out descriptive comments about each moment of it.
Talk about other videos you may have worked on briefly and provide links to them. If you hire an intern to help, more than likely they have a portfolio of projects they’ve completed that you can add to the pitch.
Explain Your Method and Technique
Explain the technical parts of your video and how you plan on achieving them. This will make it easier for people reading, listening to or watching your pitch to understand the process you plan to take to arrive at your goal.
Include Contact Details
Make sure to include your contact information in your pitch. Provide your personal and office phone numbers, as well as your website URL and professional email address.
Your social media details are important too. Just make sure your profiles are complete before adding the links to your music video pitch.
Hire a Local Orlando Intern for Your Music Production Project
Getting that music video idea out of your head and onto film can be very costly. Even with the proper funding, it’s important to stay within your budget, or you may run out of money before the project is complete.
Ready to learn how to become a music producer?
Interns work for free! F.I.R.S.T. Institute students are required to complete internships in order to graduate. An Orlando video production school has a reputation for dishing out quality video and film producers. Hiring one of their interns means gaining a valuable crew member whose internship is fully-managed by F.I.R.S.T.
Take some time to talk with the Career Developers at F.I.R.S.T. Institute about hiring Orlando video production interns. They’ll be more than happy to answer all of your questions.
Call us at (888) 9-FIRST-1 or contact us online. You won’t regret your decision to hire an intern from F.I.R.S.T. Institute to help produce your music video.
