1. Storyboard that bad boy, a music video, like a drama, should be planned, even scripted, before you shoot. Flying by the seat of your pants isn’t going to get you where you want to go. Do a little homework. Study music videos and performances featuring music of the same genre and note techniques that impress you. Try to figure out how and why the directors took the shots and made the cuts they did. You don’t have to duplicate what you see, but it won’t hurt to borrow some ideas from the pros.
2. Instruct the singer to sing properly – no half-hearted singing or, worse, miming. If they mumble or mime, it won’t look right when you lay the shots against the song, as the tension and movements of the face and body will not be consistent with the sound of the song. They must sing as if you were making a real recording.
3. Shoot plenty of angles, and make sure that most angles cover the entire song. If you do not shoot enough angles of the whole song, the final feel of your music video might be too slow.
4. One simple and good tip is having GREAT locations, obviously this can be dictated by budget, but sometimes a skyline view or a disused warehouse can give your music video production that big budget feel.
5. A very underrated tip is feeding your crew good food! This can be an easy and achievable way of really picking up everyone’s spirits halfway through a long shoot and getting the best out of them.
Those are my top tips on music video production; I hope they help you as much as they have me.
I’m Mark Wilson the Managing Director for London video production company Phink TV
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