How to make a music video

HOW TO MAKE A MUSIC VIDEO…The Directors Approach:

FILMING STAGE:

FIRST:

• Record a scratch track. This will help you synchronize the shots with the clean track in post-production.

SECOND:

• Instruct the singer to sing properly. If they mumble or mime, it will not look right when you lay the shots against the song, because 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 of the song.

THIRD:

• Do not use the recording of the artist singing in the shot. You need the definitive recording of the track before you shoot, and the singer must match it exactly.

FOURTH:

• Shoot plenty of angles, and make sure that most angles cover the entire song. If you do not, the final edit of the video might be too slow.

FIFTH:

• You should also shoot plenty of cutaways. Use these to give some variety to the video. Some directors intercut performance or dance routine shots with random cuts to shots in which the singer is neither singing nor dancing, but doing something vaguely relevant to the music video’s theme. This jump cut technique is usually disastrous in movies, unless it is used to achieve a specific effect, but it works nicely in music videos.

SIXTH:

• It is inefficient to shoot complicated and time-consuming setups that only cover a small part of the song, don’t use too many of these

SEVENTH:

• If there is a dance routine, make sure that the dancers know it properly, and that the lead singer is also completely at ease with it.

EIGHTH:

• Always focus on the client’s needs and what they want the final piece to look like.

EDITING STAGE:

FIRST:

• Review all the takes and choose your favourite take for every shot. If you prefer the beginning of one take and the ending of another take you can edit them together through a cutaway.

SECOND:

• Use the waveform picture in your editing application to align the scratch track with the master copy of the track. In this way you will achieve perfect synchronization between sound and picture.

THIRD:

• Then disable the scratch sound tracks, but don’t delete them from the timeline, because you might need them again later. In this way when you scrub the timeline you will only hear the master track and you will see your music video take shape. 

FOURTH:

• Place all the selected clips on the timeline, one above the other on stacked video tracks. They must all be in their correct positions relative to the song, i.e. they must all be synchronized – except, of course, for the cutaways, which can be placed wherever you like.

FIFTH:

• To cut from one shot to another, you simply use the razor tool and delete all clips above the one you want. In this way you cut the video without having to drag and drop clips, because your clips are already synchronised with the song. In this way you are effectively switching view from one angle to another.

All this should produce an effective, professional music video.

EMIL NAVA’S STORY:

Music video director Emil Nava has worked with the likes of Jessie J, Tinchy Stryder, Ed Sheeran and Paloma Faith. Here’s his story-• “I write pitches for music videos and commercials, which involves coming up with an idea from a brief from the

record label or a script from a commercial agency. I then work with some other members of the team to collect the right picture references for the idea so whoever I'm pitching to gets the idea visually.”

After winning the pitch-• “Then we go into pre-production. I could be choosing cameramen, casting, finding locations, working with the art

department, working with a storyboard artist or meeting the clients. It's all about making decisions and leading the team to deliver what the client wants — while making sure it's something I'm truly happy with artistically.”

Shooting stage-• “There isn't much time and a lot to film. It is always stressful and I try to keep the clients happy and ready for

the long day.”

Post-Production stage-• “We focus on editing, CGI, sound and colour grading. There is a lot of time spent looking at monitors and crafting

the piece into the final film.”