MUSIC VIDEO PRE-PRODUCTION

Music Video Pre-Production

Music videos offer great opportunities to be creative on video using low cost equipment. You can work in just about any genre or style you like, as long as it has some relationship to the song.

Most of the hard work is usually done in postproduction, but that certainly does not mean you should skate over the shooting; it is essential you have enough shot material to work on in editing.

What is a music video trying to do?

A successful music video has to work at two levels – it must sell the song to the audience, and it must reflect the mood, story, tone and musicality of the song. A music video is essentially a selling tool. Its job is to shift shed loads of CDs or downloads – that is the bottom line.

Most artists like to devise dynamic, creative and artistically exciting and adventurous videos, which add energy and a creative visual dimension to their songs. You can too.

Definitions

The song is the name the music business gives to any single named piece of popular music – or track - however long it is.

The artist(s) is the performer of the song, and it may be a band or a solo performer.

The album is a compilation of songs – even if some of them are just instrumental music without words.

The lyrics are the words of a song.

The composer writes the music of a song.

The producer works with the artist and engineers to make and edit the recording.

The arranger adapts the song for particular instruments or for an orchestra or band.

The publisher publishes the words and music of a song – sometimes as ‘sheet music’- and pays the writers of the music and lyrics for doing so.

The recording company (such as Virgin or EMI) makes the recording of the song and issues a CD or download.

The royalties are the payments that all the above receive when a song is bought by you or me, or broadcast on radio or television.

The advance is money paid to an artist for a certain number of albums, by a recording company on signing to a label. It is an advance loan on the royalties the artist will earn by selling the albums and includes all the expenses – such as making a music video - incurred in making and selling the albums. The artist receives no more money until theses expenses are paid

The gofer ‘goes for’ – getit? - the coffee and doughnuts, and makes sure the artist has everything he or she wants during the recording of the song, and gets no royalties.

Let’s look at genre first: remember genre means a type or style of media that is easily recognisable. A very obvious genre used in a very famous music video is Michael Jackson’s video for his album Thriller. Look for the original video on YouTube. It is made in the unmistakeable style of a horror film.



What other music videos can you find in a specific cinema genre, such as sci-fi, western, action/adventure, romantic comedy, high school, crime/thriller, comedy?

Activity

Look at Jackson’s Thriller on Youtube.
• What are the visual clues that tell you this video is in the horror genre - these are known as codes and conventions?
• What or who does Michael Jackson turn into in the video?
• Give three reasons why this video attracted audiences who then went out and bought the album?

The Thriller video is a spoof mini horror film and lasts for 14-minutes. It was released in December 1983 and directed by Hollywood horror movie director John Landis who also co-wrote the script with Jackson. The Thriller video was broadcast on MTV just before Christmas in 1983. It was the most expensive video of its time, costing about a quarter of a million pounds. In 2006 The Guinness Book of Records listed it as the "most successful music video". The album is one of the most successful albums ever recorded.

Choose your song

The first thing to do is to choose a song that you like, by an artist that you find sympathetic. It’s probably not a good idea to choose a song with a lot of repetitive instrumental music such as drum and base. It is much more difficult to devise and edit pictures to a repetitive rhythmic sound, than to devise pictures for a song with lyrics.

For your music video you will not be able to record the band itself. If you are lucky you may have a friend who is in a band and you could video the band playing at a gig. It is more likely that you will be creating pictures that go with a song by an established artist.

There are many types of songs that work well for a music video. Here are some categories of song that make good videos.

Story or narrative. Songs with a story always make good subjects for a video. Love songs often have a story, and a huge number of pop songs are about romantic love. Take a simple song like Michelle by the Beatles. – SEE YOU TUBE




It is basically a story about a French girl called Michelle, whom the singer falls in love with. What will you need to make a video of this song? – well, a dark haired girl who looks stereotypically French, a romantic setting - it could be a local park, or woods – and, eh – that’s it.

You could improve on this scenario by having a nice boy who meets the girl, and then film them in romantic situations. If you are lucky you could go to Paris and film some romantic pictures there, but the local park will be almost as good.

A classic story song is Is This The Way to Amarillo.

(Is This The Way To) Amarillo - Comic Relief 2005 – SEE YOU TUBE






You could have lots of fun with the words of this song such ‘weeping like a willow’, and what pictures could you put to Shalla shalla la la la? Check Peter Kay’s version for Comic Relief. I like the line ‘every night I have been hugging my pillow’ ..there are lots of great lines which would be absolutely terrible without the upbeat melody of the song.

Atmospheric songs. These songs seek to create pictures in the mind of the listener by using words to create an illusion. The Carly Simon song You’re So Vain uses images to explain the vanity of her lover in leaving her.

You're So Vain Carly Simon – SEE YOU TUBE



One line talks about ‘clouds in my coffee’ as a way of saying that her dreams of life with him, became like clouds in my coffee – in other words, just illusions. Good fun to make pictures to go with songs like these. You don’t have to illustrate every image suggested in the song – just choose ones that make sense to you.

Duffy’s no 1 song Mercy really works hard to create an atmosphere with its strong rhythms that suggest the singer is closed in, in a spell, needing release from the clutch of a lover.

There lots more going on with the fast voices that come in to suggest perhaps that she is being talked about behind her back.

Mercy Duffy – SEE YOU TUBE




Songs about something particular that is often referred to in the title e.g. Elton John’s Saturday.

There are lots of ways of showing a Saturday night out in a video, and you don’t have to film them on a Saturday, or in a club which might be difficult – think of other things that make a Saturday special – such as dressing up to go out, arranging to meet friends, etc.

Songs about a place. There are so many songs about New York that you could make a dozen videos, and many people have done using the same old pictures such as the statue of Liberty, Times Square and the helicopter shot of Manhatton, etc.

There are several good songs about Liverpool, such as Ferry Across the Mersey, but you probably have not heard a song about the town where you live.

Why not find a song that would suit your town – you can then take pictures of your local area and fit the music to the pictures.

A ska group in the late seventies called The Specials did this, and were so fed up by what they saw around them that they wrote a song Ghost Town – it’s very doomy, but then this was the time of the 3 day week and the binmen were on strike so rubbish was piled up in the streets.

Ghost Town The Specials – SEE YOU TUBE






The song creates a depressing picture of a town although the upbeat reggae style rhythm suggests that it is not permanent.

Mood music. Many songs create or suggest a mood or feeling; sorrow, loss, desire, happiness, joy, love. One well known song that creates a really upbeat, happy feeling is Walking On Sunshine.

Walking on Sunshine Katrina and The Waves – SEE YOU TUBE



Katrina and the Waves do a strong version, and there’s a better one by Tina Turner, although it does not seem to be on Youtube.

Choose your subject first

The other way to find a song for a music video is to choose what you are going to film first. This only works with certain things like an event.

Songs can be linked to something that happens. It could be an event such as a friend’s graduation from College, or a celebration after winning a football match. Here a song like Tina Turner’s Simply The Best would be a good track to go with pictures of somebody winning something.

So if you know of an event then you can shoot lots of pictures and select a suitable track afterwards. This method does have a drawback. You may not have filmed the pictures you need to illustrate the song you choose later.

It is always best to choose the song first so that you know what pictures you will need. The you can make sure you shoot the right pictures at the event.


'VIDEO TECHNIQUES'

Music videos use many techniques to create an impact. Many of these techniques are borrowed from films or television programmes.

Pastiche – copying images. Some videos deliberately recreate images from well known films or television shows to suggest a link in the viewer’s mind to those films. The video is making you think: these images remind me of a certain well known film. So the song becomes linked with the success of the film.

Spoof or parody. Another technique is to create a spoof video of a well known movie or genre. Thriller is a spoof of a horror movie. Music videos like to parody all genres (e.g. sci-fi films such as Blade Runner) if they think the song suggests a particular genre.

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner Trailer – SEE YOU TUBE
Video directors particularly like to spoof television commercials.

Activity

Look at a variety of songs on YouTube and find videos that parody or spoof films - make a list giving the name of the song and the name of the film or television series it parodies.

Put some or all of the words of the song on the screen. You can do this with the graphics tool in the video editing software or you can have someone hold up card with the words on them. This is most famously used in the documentary film about Bob Dylan’s tour of England in the sixties Don’t Look Back.

Don't Look Back Bob Dylan Documentary by D.A. Pennebaker – SEE YOU TUBE





Dylan holds large sheets of paper with important words from each verse written on them. He pulls off each sheet as he sings.

Pick up an idea suggested by the words. This is one of the very best ways to start thinking visually about a song.


Take a song like Dirty Little Secret by All American Rejects – SEE YOU TUBE




In their video they have asked people to write down a secret on a large card. They filmed all these people holding up a card with their little secret written on it. It makes for a good video and takes the technique of using words on the screen to another level.

Tell a story. A good song often tells a story. You can make a visual story to go with the music
Surrealism. You may not have heard of this art movement which was started in the 1930s by a group of artists who were very interested in the new science of psychotherapy which interpreted a patient’s dreams.

The Spanish artist Salvador Dali created surreal paintings based on extraordinary dream-like images, including a soft watch that seems to drip over a table.
Video directors use surreal images in their videos to illustrate songs that appear to have no obvious meaning.

The first music film to do this (there was no video in the sixties) was Strawberry Fields by the Beatles, which uses images of the band walking backwards and singing in trees.
Music videos offer great opportunities to be creative on video using low cost equipment. You can work in just about any genre or style you like, as long as it has some relationship to the song.





In their video they have asked people to write down a secret on a large card. They filmed all these people holding up a card with their little secret written on it. It makes for a good video and takes the technique of using words on the screen to another level.

Tell a story. A good song often tells a story. You can make a visual story to go with the music. See www.newskidsonthenet.co.uk to see how a simple story of a gardener watering his plants is made into a comic story set to the music An English Country Garden. This website also shows you how to make this simple story using a domestic video camera.

Surrealism. You may not have heard of this art movement which was started in the 1930s by a group of artists who were very interested in the new science of psychotherapy which interpreted a patient’s dreams.

The Spanish artist Salvador Dali created surreal paintings based on extraordinary dream-like images, including a soft watch that seems to drip over a table.
Video directors use surreal images in their videos to illustrate songs that appear to have no obvious meaning.

The first music film to do this (there was no video in the sixties) was Strawberry Fields by the Beatles, which uses images of the band walking backwards and singing in trees.


The lyrics are suitable for surreal treatment because the words suggest it – ‘nothing is real, nothing to get hung about’….

Make a mask - perhaps of a politician or recognisable face like Osama Bin Larden or of a historical or mythical character such as Guy Fawkes or Captain Hook. Wear the masks in a choreographed dance to make a lively video.

Creating dance sequences is effective as a music video only if it is extremely well done. Professional dancers spend a lot of time rehearsing for a dance sequence in a video and they know how to dance! A lot of sub standard wiggling makes a very cheesy video.

Animation. There are many successful animated music videos as well as the Artic Monkeys. If you can draw or use your computer to make animated sequences this can make a very effective video.

Stop Frame Animation is another option – this is how Wallace and Gromit are made.

Wallace and Gromit's Curse of the Were-Rabbit – SEE YOU TUBE for the trailer




Stop frame involves making a model out of a malleable material like plasticine, and then moving parts of it or all of it very slightly, and recording a few frames. When the movements are put together the video of the model shows continuous smooth movement. Be warned this is very time consuming, although it can be most rewarding.

Documentary. A video with a suitable subject could have documentary style pictures. This could be achieved using a hand held camera and filming ‘gritty realism’ – poor, down and out neighbourhoods, fly tipping, litter, dirt and grime in an urban setting.

Don’t film the homeless as they will not like it and it is an affront to their dignity. You could film homeless people if they agreed, and it was a serious documentary.

Commercials. Many TV commercials exploit adventurous ideas. It is not a bad idea to ‘borrow’ an idea from a TV commercial, and make your own version as a music video. Think of the Halifax ads or British Airways, or the really inventive Orange cinema advertisements.

'Howard' Halifax Advert – SEE YOU TUBE



Orange Cinema Advert with Darth Vader – SEE YOU TUBE