Music Video Tips & Guidelines

Today we got a visit from Luke who works in the media tech department, he came to give us some useful tips on how to make a successful music video:

• The essential idea of what we are doing is manufacturing a band for a song, and this will be that bands first release, and it is our job to make the video successful.
• We will start with the image of the band, ensuring that their style is fit for the style of the song and that they know how to play the instruments required so they can realistically mime the track. Then we can create a concept for the video that will blend well with the music.
• The band we are creating obviously has no fanbase, so it is up to us to get them out their via various marketing techniques and digipacks.
• The best type of music video contains three different narrative strants, a performance element which the label think is vital as it acts as a fail save. A lip sync element, just simply singing in a situation with very few props. Lastly, a narrative element, the story, which will be led by genre and style. The music video will then consist of constant cutting between these narrative strands, this keeps the video exciting and interesting. 
• We were adviced to make a 'Mood Film', this involves a set of images or a simple video to create a short film to demonstrate the ideas for the final product. This helps clarify the idea, and helps identify potential problems. 

After Luke gave us these tips, he showed us a webpage called Radar Music Videos. This is a site which helps up and coming artists find a director/producer to work on their music videos. 

Here is an example of a music video which was on radar and is now very successful. The reason this video was successful was because the video and the lyrics went well together, like at the begining where there is an electro beat in the music, the video shows some kids on DJ decks, so the picture at the track are working together to make an appropriate music video. As the band does not have a fanbase, they also use the webpage to promote the band as shown in the picture below the video.

The reason why these music videos are so successful is because of the technical aspect of the way that they are shot and editied. Luke also showed us this South African band called Die Antwoord, there music videos are very unusual and interesting but also very simple. All of the videos are linked by a colour scheme and symbolism. Most of them are technicallly shot flat on to the camera.


These tips have made it clear to me that it is essential for me to link together my video and the lyrics to the song, otherwise the video appears too random and unclear. Secondly, I think I will develop a 'Mood Video' because that will make shooting day simpler as I am unlikely to come across problems as I hopefully would have discovered them in the mood video. Lastly, I believe that it is vital that there are 3 narrative strands as that will make the video more interesting and it will prevent viewers getting bored.