Create a unique music video to stand out from the crowd!

When you’re creating a music video, you want it to be captivating, memorable and show off the song perfectly. While anyone can put together a music video, it takes a little more thought and effort to make it truly exceptional. After reading this article, you’ll be able to construct a music video that will really excite your audience!

Decide your budget

You can spend as much or as little as you like on your music video, but it’s important to come up with a realistic plan that fits in with your individual budget. Some of the most memorable videos you may have seen were created on tiny budgets. Once you know how much you’ve got to play with, you can then explore different concepts to bring your song to life.

Listen to the song

Even if it’s your own song and you know it intimately well, it’s useful to take a step back and evaluate it, as if you were listening to it for the first time. Think about the emotions and feelings it generates. Does it have a strong dance beat, or is it more mellow? The images and stories your song generates will be useful in developing a narrative for your video which you can then jot down and explore further.

Choose a location

Before you can start filming, you need to identify your locations. You may want to use multiple locations or shoot a mixture of indoor and outdoor scenes, or you may be able to shoot your entire video in one place. Be creative with your location – while you may have a very particular vision in mind of a place you know well, it may not be practical to use – instead, you can find an alternative location that looks very similar, or can be made to do so with the right props.

Create a storyboard

Now you’ve got some ideas brewing, you can start to bring your video to life. A storyboard is like a comic book, with individual panels illustrating each part of the video. You can break up the storyboard either by focusing on the structure of the song, or base it on the narrative of your video. Once you’ve got panels drafted with individual sections, listen back to the song and decide on types of transitions between scenes, and whether the visuals pair up well with any changes in the music.

Pick the right crew

It’s helpful to work with crew members that have experience in creating the kind of videos you would like to create yourself. Not only will they have useful technical expertise, they may also be able to add suggestions to make your video more unique and exciting. Audition any actors you may want to use beforehand and get together to discuss the concept before shooting, to identify any problem areas you may encounter.

Shoot and edit

If you’ve planned your video well before shooting, then this step will go without a hitch. Make sure you cue the music so that musicians and actors can sync in properly with the song. Use multiple takes from different angles to get a variety of options. When it comes to editing, cherry pick only the best takes, and lay the music track over the video, before finalising it.