Music Video Ideas For Me?

Steven Bogda

Steven Bogda

Well-known member
Hi
I am looking to make a music video just to see how it differs than shooting little shorts and random stuff. I just want to do something simple and just have footage of the band mainly or their equipment. I am thinking in my head to just have them play the same song like a dozen or more times and shoot different each time then put it all together.

The problem is is that I dont know what exactly I should do differently in each version. I want to do one song for each of the members and focus on them and just roam around them. Then maybe a song roaming around more than one member.

I have a dolly too that i could make use of.

Anyone have any ideas of other ways or things to shoot to add into the video?

Thanks,
Steven Bogda
 
you and the band need to think about the visual setting for the performance - where do we the audience see them? on stage? in a recording studio? in a blank white room? sitting in their lounge? in a bus? walking down the street? All of the above? (Seriously, that can be an easy way to make a music video - film them performing the song (or miming to a recording) in as many different settings as you can think of, then cut it all together using the best shots from each.)

As far as shots go, just make sure you get shots at every distance from extreme close-ups (mouths singing and fingers strumming guitars etc) out to shots of the whole band at once.
 
at the risk of sounding rude, don't you think you should be thinking this stuff up yourself?

the thing about music videos is the director is in a sense the 'writer' - or one of them.

the way i look at it, the song is like the script, but what i mean by script is the initial starting point. the director then interprets this material in imagery. this is eventually manifested as a treatment, then shot list, and finally the photographed shots themselves. so to continue the analogy, what the director does is akin to rewriting a script.

this process - the director's interpretation - is a creative act. so, without getting too confusing, a music video (imo) is kind of like a two stage writing process, and the director contributes at this conceptual level as much as the band/musician.

the point i'm making is this: as director of a music video you are required to contribute the ideas you are here asking for from other people. it's just the nature of the position.

my suggestions is go back to the initial script - the song. get comfortable, remove distractions, perhaps even use headphones; close your eyes and actually LISTEN. listen to it again and again and again. what jumps out at you? how can these things be translated into images? how does it make you feel? how can these feelings be emulated/complimented on screen?

personally, and i am very INexperienced at directing music videos, i suggest you really push yourself to develop very clear ideas. judging by your post, you're still at a very hazy stage of the process, and that's cool. but to really pull it off well you need to be A R T I C U L A T E. clear. precise. in your treatment and shot list, avoid the following words: maybe, perhaps, kinda etc. this is not to say spontaneity cannot be part of the process. in fact quite the opposite is true: you should always be open to capturing unplanned, unpredictable moments of pure magic where it seems like the universe is converging around you.... (sorry i'm getting a bit carried away)..... in fact you can structure entire videos around this. but you must create an environment, a context in which these things can happen. know exactly what you are trying to achieve with the video, then you can create a space in which these unpredictable things will happen, with you knowing in advance that they are helping you to achieve your desired end product.

directing music videos is a highly personal and rewarding artistic experience. it is an expression of how YOU visualise the song. when done well, it will resonate with an audience, perhaps even articulating things they can't. but it has to be personal. you have to own your work.

hope that helps.
 
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