Music Video Post-Production

Opening and closing.

In any video production the beginning is very important. If the opening is weak and boring the audience will stop watching.

Start with a sequence that is arresting, dramatic, visually exciting, has plenty of movement and will hook your audience. Once you have their attention, you have to hold onto it. If the action peaks too soon, the rest of the production may go down hill, and you will lose your audience.

Don’t forget the ending. This is the last thing the audience will see, so keep something special for the last few shots. A strong ending will leave the audience with positive feelings about the music video.

Create a narrative and your audience will want to know how it ends, so give them a dramatic ending. Tears always work, or a final kiss or achieving something memorable, like finding the Holy Grail

The pace of the editing.

The cuts and transitions should have a similar pace to the music, or they should reflect the mood and tempo of the music. You will see in professional music videos that fast music has lots of cuts – even if it is telling a story – and romantic or slower music has fewer cuts. The chorus of a song will probably have a slightly different pace to the verses, and this should be reflected in the editing.

Editing a dramatic scene for a movie the editor will often cut on the action. If a cut is prompted by action, that action will divert attention from the cut, making the transition more fluid. A character gets up from a chair to confront his boss – cut as he rises and the scene will have dramatic tension and the cut will appear seamless. You can do the same in a music video, although a music video can be altogether more imaginative. You do not need to follow any logic except where the music takes you.

The general rule for editing pictures is that edits work best when they are motivated by something in the narrative or by a look or gesture from a character

The motivation in a music video is the tempo of the music, or the words of the song.

Making a cut or transition from one shot to another risks breaking the audience’s concentration and subtly pulling attention away from the story or subject matter. On the other hand cutting or making a transition is a way of gaining the attention of the audience. Use transitions sparingly. A cut often works as well as a transition.

In a music video, cuts and transitions are a way of keeping the audience hooked on the visuals and listening to the song. Does that mean that you should do lots of cuts? For a music video, yes you should, and vary the number of edits for each sequence.

Cutting to the rhythm

Editing a music video involves cutting the pictures in rhythm with the music. At a basic level this means cutting on the beat. You don’t have to cut on every beat but your picture cutting should be in tune with the rhythm of the song.

For a fast song this will probably mean cutting on the dominant beat of the music – the one you tap your foot to. Certainly start off by cutting the pictures to this beat. THE MUSIC PROMO VIDEO