HOW TO MAKE A MUSIC VIDEO

Equipment needed

- CCD camcorder with stand

- Key light, floodlight, back light.

- Up to date computer

- Telephone

- Internet connection

- Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, or similar video editor

- Cd player/boombox

- DVD burner

1. First an idea or story is presented to a musician

2. Production is started after the idea is accepted by the musician

3. Crew is then hired by posting on craigslist in your local area

4. A Choreographer may be hired as a member of crew if dance is incorporated

5. You will need to hire a storyboard artist, or draw pictures yourself of every action

6. A date will need to be set for the shooting date, all crew and musicians are called

7. The film is then shot against the music of the cd player using the 3-point method.

8. The footage is loaded into a computer with a video editing program

9. the audio waves are placed in sync to the video.

10. The file is saved and exported to dvd.

Analog camcorders uses the formats of Betamax, VHS and Video8

Digital camcorders uses the format of Digital8, DVD, Flash/Solid-State memory, Hard Drive and miniDV.

Advantage of digital video

- less generation loss

- No color bleeding

- No fade

- No jitter

- Full resolution (720x480 NTSC and 720x576 PAL)

Disadvantages of analog & digital video

- deterioration of analog and digital tape

- DVD rot, which will erase large amounts of data

Analog

Betamax- Used in old sony and Sanyo camcorders

VHS - Used in VCRs

VHS-C - Used in portable VCRs and can be played in normal VCRs

Video8 - Small tape made to compete directly with VHS-C in size and quality

S-VHS - Used in high-end professional equipment

S-VHS-C - An S-VHS tape with much better quality.

Hi8 - Upgrade of Video8 with better quality.

Digital

DIGITAL TAPELESS

- "MPEG4" codecs are used to record to flash memory. The upper end models records to a hard disk.

- "MPEG-2" is a the codec that JVC and Panasonic use for their standard and high-definition recording.

DV CODEC

- "MiniDV" records the highest quality picture for transfer via USB and Firewire to a computer. This is a consumer standard used for low budget films.

- "Digital8" is the Sony alternative, they both use the same DV codec although and is just as capable of making film productions.

MPEG-2 CODEC

"MICROMV" uses a very small cassette. This was made by Sony for software editors using Microsoft Windows.

"DVD" recording uses the formats mini DVD-R or DVD-RAM, and can record up to thirty minutes. DVD-R can be played on most DVD players, but cannot be recorded over after initial filming. DVD-RAM cannot be played in most DVD player, but film can be over-written. DVD camcorder are generally not made to be connected to computers for film editing.

"HDV" records an hour of HDTV MPEG-2 of very high quality high-definition signal on a MiniDV cassette.

Different angles can effect the mood of a scene

Canted Angle: The camera is tilted at an angle, giving a sense of strangeness

Dolly Shot: Camera is mounted on a wheeled platform, giving a sense of importance

High Angle Shot: The camera looks down on an actor, giving a sense of weakness

Low Angle Shot: The camera looks up to an actor, giving a sense of power

Straight Angle Shot: The camera is at eye-level, giving a sense of equality

Talking Head: A medium shot of a person from the torso-up, used in newscasting

Different shot sizes give different feeling to a scene. Two factors that effect shot sizes are the focus of the lens and the distance from the object.

Close-Up: Builds suspense

Extreme Close-Up: Very close shot of Facial feature or object.

Long Shot: Shows the entire body of a person to show comparison to background

Establishing Shot: An extreme long-shot to show the entirety of a new location

180 degree rule - Two Characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to one another. (example, if a car leave from the left side of a screen, it should enter from the right.)

Cross Cutting - Cuts directly from scene to another. In action scenes it is used to suggest the continuity of action. It can also be used to show sharp contrast of scenes.

Cutaway - Interrupts the scene by bringing in a short scene of something similar to the scene that is happening. (example: A man waking up in the morning to get his newspaper might show cutaways of the newspaper boy, school buses or birds chirping)

Dissolve - Where a new scene fades into a previous scene. Can be used to imply a great deal of time passing.

Insert - Similar to the cutaway shot except it only shows a part of the master shot of a scene such as a close-up of the face of a character.

Master Shot - The whole segment filmed showing every character from that scene.

Point of View Shot - Shows what a character is looking at in the 1st person view of the character, through his/her eyes.

Sequence Shot (Long Take) - A very long shot of several minutes, used to tell a narrative or add drama. A dolly will be used in the case of a moving sequence shot.

Shot Reverse Shot - A scene that shows a character looking at somebody. Then the next scene showing that person looking back at the first character.

If you are short of cash you can rent equipment instead of buying it. Usually in your phone book there will be lighting and filming equipment renting available. Since you may be shooting your video on a one-time basis this may be the smart decision to do. Just remember you need a 3CCD camcorder, key light (the main, most important light) , fill light (to contrast or highlight details) and a back light or reflector (to be used from behind to shine on an actor)

Actors and film crew may be hired through craigslist on a voluntary basis.

The final step in production is distribution. A film distributor company is used. They represent the film production as their agent and present it to the film exhibitors to secure placement for viewing on movies theaters, DVD and on-demand video.

Film distributors convince the film exhibitors that a profit will be made by the film. A contract is made that will show how much profit of the ticket sales will go to the exhibitor while the rest will go to the film production company. This contract also states that the film production will ensure shipping and media advertising such as commercials and posters.

The most popular video editors are

Adobe Premiere Pro

Price: $849

Avid Liquid

Price: $999

Final Cut Studio 2

Price: $199

iMovie

Price: Free, is include with all new macs

Pinnacle Studio MediaSuite

Price: $129.99

Sony Vegas

Price: $449.96

Windows Movie Maker

Price: Free, is included in Windows

Free Video Editing Software

- Blender

- iMovie

- Kino

- Pinncle VideoSpin

- Windows Movie Maker