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Ezridax's Video Making Secrets
Making music videos can be extremely fun and very challenging, but most of all - time consuming! You need severe patience more than anything else when making videos. But there is one secret that I will share with you, your major key to success in creating a rocking vid – planning!
I am not saying you need to have the entire video, scene by scene, planned out in your mind before you start. But you should know exactly what you are trying to accomplish before beginning. Which types of scenes you want for each part of the song.
I try and tell a story when I make a video, and I will tell you how I accomplish this.
Step 1. Find the song
The song comes first, before anything else. Ideas for videos are great, but unless you find that perfect song, they will never come to fruition. Most of the time, the song brings the ideas to my head. But sometimes, I have the ideas, yet I am search for the perfect song. In those times, I go though my collection of music. And If I still don't find anything, then I just listen to the radio!
Step 2. Plan the video
Once I have the song, I listen to it incessantly, on repeat, over and over again. Here is the first time the patience comes in. If you can't stand listening to the same song 100 times in a row, you are going to have a hard time being a video maker.
As I listen to the song, certain lyrics will jump out at me as being perfect for a certain scene. Sometimes I don't have the specific scene I want to play to lyrics, but I know that I want it to be a T'Pol scene for example. That will be good enough for now.
I will admit, the beginning and ends of the song are the toughest – usually its just a musical intro or exit from the song. Those are the most difficult parts to plan. Usually those sections of the music get resolved during the actual video making.
It’s not always possible to have the entire video planned out in your head before you start. But at least try to have the majority of it planned out, because it makes the next steps so much easier!
Step 3. Get the clips
If you have the video totally planned out in your head already, then this part is as easy as pie. Normally you know enough about the theme of the video, the story you are trying to tell, to grab the proper clips for this. If not, during the actual video making process, you can always go back and find the rights clips for a scene. This is definitely a time when, the more the merrier. Grab as many clips as you can, even if you don't think you will ever use them. You never know when they will come in handy.
Step 4. Make the video
Everyone uses a different video making software. I use Sony Vegas. But I want to talk just about the basic of video making, irrespective of what software you use to actually accomplish the task.
Now this is when all your patience is going to be tested, even if you have the entire video planned out in your head. Because things inevitably feel great in your head, but once you actually see them, it’s another story.
I start at the beginning always. I like to make the video section by section, mentally splitting in into thirds. Making sure that the beginning is complete before I move onto the middle. Sometimes I leave the musical intro undone for a bit, as usually I have nothing planned for that and inevitably something will come to me for that part.
The main keys to the actual video making are patience and timing. By timing I mean getting that scene to play with a certain part of the music exactly. This is were the patience comes into play again, as you may need to redo a scene quite a few times until you get the timing exactly right. Don't give up and keep at it. If it gets frustrating move onto another part of the video and come back to it. It’s always a good idea, when you are certain you are happy with a section to render the video out and watch it. Most of the times it is going to look different once it’s rendered as opposed to how it plays inside your video making software.
By the time I am finished with a video I have watched it in some incarnation or other at least 100 times, easily. And in the process, I must render the video out about that many times as well.
Special effects are nice but not always needed. I am of the mind that – do not use a pretty effect unless it adds to the story. Some of the best videos I have seen use no effects at all, aside from simple transitions. Don't overuse transitions. I myself have been guilty of this in the past. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a straight cut to the next scene. Only use a transition if necessary. I normally wait until I have all the scenes laid down and I am happy with them before I play around with effects.
Final thoughts
On a final note, as much as I love making videos, I have to admit one thing. I envy those who watch the video for the first time. By the time I am done making a vid, I have already watched it so many times, it not new or fresh anymore.
Hope you enjoyed reading my tips and tricks and happy video making!
ezridax |
Latest page update: made by ezridax
, Jan 28 2007, 4:59 PM EST
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