How To Make Your Own Music Video – Unsigned and Independent Artists

As an artist it’s great to have a team behind you when making a music video, Producer, Videographer, Runner, Editor, Colourist, Make-up Artists, Wardrobe. All these people assist in creating a top notch professional product leaving you to relax and concentrate on your part of the project, performing.

Thing is, in the world of an independent or unsigned artist, this can mean a big budget project and more often than not the funds are not there to employ a production company or a team of professionals.

You can always scale back, use volunteers, students, start up’s and keep the costs down to a minimum – however when people are receiving little or no remuneration, if you’re just calling in a favour, you do run the risk that your project may be de-prioritised, people may pull out last minute or before the project is complete due to paid work taking precedent, they may do a rush job or simply produce an unusable product due to in-experience – any of these factors can result in your time and energies being wasted and leave you heading back to the drawing board.

Another option…daring as it is, is to acquire a few new skills, buy a few bits and pieces and make one yourself.

This is the road I took recently, with a near zero budget and not requiring a large scale production but simply a classic, basic video for a ballad. The song is simple, emotional and very close to my heart, I didn’t want too many gimmicks getting in the way of the song and it’s emotion. I love to steer the artistic direction, it’s not always possible and although I am inspired by others idea’s – occasionally it’s great to own a project from start and finish. It can mean consistency in the flow, flavour and tone and there’s a rush of satisfaction in knowing you did it all by yourself – off your own back.

So in my kit was:

1 x Canon FS200 Legria SD Handycam

1 x Tri-pod & Coffee Table

1 x Couch & white wall

1 x Editing software, Adobe Premiere Elements version 10

I already owned the Canon, which is a consumer grade handycam that I purchased in 2010 for about approx £250, so all I needed was the editing software which I bought for £99 (although it’s now only £83). Both the camera and editing software are solid investments as you can repeatedly use them for promotional videos, music videos, live gigs etc. In a world where content is king, being able to create your own at the drop of a hat is a powerful tool.

I chose a day with decent light coming in through my loungeroom window, I used the basic 3 point lighting rule but with natural light coming from windows to my left and right and also used a lamp for the hairlight which tended to provide warmer lighting on the face, I checked for shadows and ensured that room wasn’t too bright (some good starter tips on DIY lighting are 3 Point Lighting and Cheap Video lighting). I set the camera up on a tri-pod on the coffee table, I did my own make-up (after teaching myself via online tutorials, such as eHow TV & Movie Makeup, as make-up for film can be a little different from your everyday make-up) and proceeded to do a one take video, continuously looking at the camera on the same angle for the entire video (this was a little artistic element I wanted to include, that left me feeling slightly cross-eyed).

I took the footage and loaded it into Premiere Elements. I have been using audio software for quite a few years now, but am new to video editing software. The footage was only one take – so all that was required was some basic colour grading and effects. Don’t panic about learning the software, it’s quite intuitive and there are loads of tutorials and support online. Premiere Elements is geared toward Prosumers, more so than professionals, so it’s designed with new users in mind. If you’ve not used any editing software before it will likely take a bit of patience and time and a few experimental projects, but once you know how it works you can’t unlearn! I spent about 3 days working on the colour and effects as I wanted the video to look as professional as possible, so I experimented, chopped and changed overlays, effects and colours until I had the right balance of artistic elements and a clean professional looking video.

Anyway that’s enough chatter from me. Below is the finished product. It’s not technically groundbreaking but it conveys the right emotion, which was my fundamental aim and I’m pretty happy for a first go.

Good luck with your project!! Feel free to send me any questions. I’m no expert but happy to share whatever learnings I have. Also happy to take any tips or advice from others. It’s pretty fantastic that in this day and age we have so many affordable tools available to us to be as creative as we like. Once you get a handle on them, the options are endless.

The video is to ‘Arms Open’ a ballad I recorded in January 2012 (read all about it here).

For more video’s head to http://www.youtube.com/kerriehoskins or listen to music at facebook.com/kerriehoskinsmusic or www.kerriehoskins.com

P.S  – A basic ‘how-to make a music video’ I came across on youtube

A little room for magic, my learnings making a music video

A little room for magic, my learnings making a music video

Sometimes you need to stare smack bang into the face of what you don’t want, to finally realise what it is you actually do want!

I think this is what happened with my music video venture at least. We had it all planned, the script, the locations, the props, pretty much every move.

The shoot itself was a lovely day, every detail was organised to the detail, every hour was accounted for, every shot was safely confined with in it’s own boundaries of conception. What could go wrong? Well, nothing really, nothing went wrong and nothing went right…what we got was lots of nothing.

So we lost the truth, we lost the love – it was all buried beneath a rigid script and my awkward poses.

See the thing is, even though the day was perfectly executed, you can’t plan magic, you can’t plan the raw energy and emotion that flows naturally from just loving a song, believing it’s every word and performing it’s soul. You can’t confine that to a inflexible schedule of do’s and dont’s, stand here, sit there, look that way, don’t sing here, sing there – magic just doesn’t happen that way.

So we lost the truth, we lost the love – it was all buried beneath a rigid script and my awkward poses.

Timeless elegance of black & white

I’m always one to learn from failure, find legs on a floppy doll, so it was back to the drawing board for me – my minuscule budget already exhausted and my confidence slightly askew, I wasn’t too sure how I was going to manifest this video and who I was even going to do it with, but I knew I would…somehow!

I went back to my original lists of concepts and this time did what I should have done initially, I chose the first one I wrote down. My first instinct! The one I originally pushed aside for no apparent reason other than it came too easily, the one that had been sitting naggily in the back of my brain for months. Timeless black and white  elegance, habourside simplicity, I had inspirational photo’s littered all over my desktop, it was kind of obvious really.

All I cared about now was the energy shining through, not painfully planned angles or some subliminal storyline, not a big budget and the best lenses, all I cared for was having a music video that took the listener visually on the same journey they were experiencing musically. For them to feel the paranoia, the vulnerability, one step closer to crazy.

I chose to do the video close to home, I didn’t want to be stressed with driving from location to location, I lived on the beautiful Balmain Shores in Sydney – I jogged, walked and lazed dreamily on her land day in and out and at that time, that was where my heart was. I wanted to share the serenity and innocence of Elkington Park, the marvelous strength and beauty in the industrial architecture of the Iron Cove Bridge and the stunning shores of Sydney Harbour.

This time, in my heart, I knew exactly what I wanted. I just needed that one person (I considered filming it myself but after thinking it through sober I decided the plan was stupid). I knew I didn’t need a team, a trailer, a wardrobe assistant or a caterer. All I needed was that one person who could find a little magic in the lens of a camera. Someone who loved music and didn’t want to smother the song in their own expectations.

Dejected, I had to make the hardest decision of all and that was to walk away.

So I went searching once again, only to unearth much of the same, enthusiasts who suddenly vanished when the relationship was due to move from email to person, quote breakdowns that included a catered lunch for the Directors favourite pooch, huge ideas based on tiny budgets and sub plots that included and were limited to Models mooching around looking sexy and skimpy as to give people a break from having to look at me.

Dejected, I had to make the hardest decision of all and that was to walk away. The person I wanted was not to be found lurking in that pack. They were there waiting politely in the corner, waiting for me to clear enough space for their arrival, so that’s what I did.

Every night I went to bed and played the video through in my head, the light and shade, the emotion, the feel. Everytime there was one empty space, the person at the other end of the camera remained conspicuously not present. Then, a month out from my pending move to London, it happened, a friendly voice popped up on the other end of an email, “How’s your music vid going?, I’m interested, let’s talk”. Hallelujah, Benjamin Fletcher – Director and all round genius creator of my music video had emerged and all was ready to roll.

Insert 1 x Ben Fletcher, all round creative genius and nice guy.

All aspects of the day were an absolute pleasure. From the make-up session with lovely Amelia Axton complete with Tim Tams and tea, to the clothing (vintage pieces already hanging in my wardrobe bought from my fav local Vintage Store, Mint Condition) to the shoot itself. Company was effortless and enjoyable. Ben brought his best buddy Andrew Lodge along, a talented DOP, and with two Cannon 7D’s, the cheapest portable CD player from good ol target and the magical direction of “do what you want, we’ll follow”, my video was born!

Sandstone under the bridge was a stunning contrast. Another idea that was 'off the cuff'.

Now don’t get me wrong, there was some effort required here, nobody rowed me out or winched me down from a helicopter on to the massive cement pile on under the bridge, I unceremoniously waded out there, slipping on moss in front of a parade of passers by and hoisted myself up with the aid of a pointy rock, a skirt up around my head region and some strange mermaid wriggling type movements. Same goes for the slightly prohibited entrance into the old abandoned Power Station, entered via clambering over a large, locked, unfriendly looking iron gate.

Sun setting as we shot the last scene on the pile on. A magic end to a magic day...until I had to wade my way to shore that was.

Anyway in closing, the day was memorable. It wasn’t focused only on the end product, it was about enjoying ourselves in that moment of time, the present not the future, as wisely said “in the now”. It was about great company and great friends, jokes, cursing (only me) and homemade sandwiches. it was about that delightful feeling of doing something you really love!

I came to the conclusion that in life and music video’s, you don’t and can’t always be prepared for everything – some of the best shots of the day came from the unbiased eyes of a newcomer. Yes we need structure, yes there is a place for legs in order to stay upright, but I guess the learning is always leave a little room for magic, because it’s there, waiting to be found.

http://kerriehoskins.com | http://www.youtube.com/kerriehoskins | http://www.facebook.com/kerriehoskinsmusic | Buy music on iTunes

Looking through the windows into the old unused Power Station on Balmain Shores

Andrew Lodge, also creative genius and all round nice guy.

The End

 

Belting on the green belt…my latest recording venture

“…that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King, and a selection of Poems

——————————————

Recording music, it’s such a creepy cocktail of pain and pleasure for me. The obscene amount of self analysis that takes place leaves me hovering over a whirlpool of insanity, I can feel the vortex sucking me in! By the end of a session every muscle in my body aches, mentally and emotionally I’ve been drained to an inch of my being – as I lay horizontal staring blankly at the ceiling with drawl forming at the corners of my mouth. You’d think I’d run a marathon with a gun wedged in my spine. Not recorded a few measly songs.

“Why do you do it?” you ask,…

“Strong in will” I reply…

and “weak in brain” I think

So last month I packed up my kitbag of self masochism, anxiety, hope, heartache, dreams, highs and lows, water, sandwiches, shortbread and a scattering of peppermint teabags and headed off to Surrey on yet another recording expedition, to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

I traveled with Jon Spanyol, a talented, extremely easy going pianist who kindly accompanied me on my songs. The original plan was to play the piano lines myself. However after a few too many Don Music moments, I figured that my modest budget could not withstand these frequent outbursts once we hit the recording studio. Plus to be honest, the dents on my forehead were getting a little embarrassing.

I recorded with David Ezra, a particularly delightful Israelite eccentric. Another talented being with a great love and respect for music and an almost disturbing attraction to chocolate.

In true Kerrie fashion what started out as a ten hour project ended up being around twenty five. I re-recorded vocals, over analyzed dynamics, scrutinized performance and invested much time in a frenzy of internal paranoia…I could hear something sharp…or was it flat or was it too fast or too slow…is that the right tone for the song?

You get the idea. David impressively never tried to kill me, quite an achievement really, especially as I alleviated him from the majority of his chocolate supplies in the first hour.

Anyway, they say it’s all about the journey and I did very much enjoy my repeated trips to Surrey. It was quite refreshing to ditch central London and dwell in the green belt for a change. The quirky streets of Claygate, the quaint and inevitable church on Church Road, being greeted by the smell of woodfire as one disembarked the train, the ancient *late night cabbie who’s demeanor very closely resembled the clinically depressed robot, Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy and heartfelt marriage proposals from the odd cyclist.

*Late night in Claygate refers to after sunset, which at this time was taking place around 4pm.

However, to be honest – I was all about getting my greedy hands on the end product. The thing is, I love my songs and I was eager to share them. They’re part of me, these 3ish minute mini documentations of moments or feelings in my life.

And I guess that’s the important part, not so much what reverb is on the vocals or if a note is slightly out (all though those things are important) but a real human person, telling a real human story or sharing some real human feelings – not an electronic bird chirping some sonic noise at you in a sequined pointy bra. Which in our age of striving for perfectionism – is more increasingly what we are being dished up.

So after all my paranoid android Don Music moments, the biggest achievement for me was the unexpected blubbering noises that emerged rather in-eloquently from my mouth when I finally played the songs back. Yes some notes were a little off and yes I sheepishly admit there are some rather creative rhythmic moments….but that’s just part of me….just a fault of mine – and surprisingly that’s not what bought the tears to my eyes, what made me sob like a knob was the reality, the emotion, the memories that were provoked when hearing my words and thoughts played back to me.

And now I see why I ache all over and feel like a rinsed out mop at the end of each recording session. It’s not only my developing ocd tendencies in overdrive (although you can’t rule that contribution out completely), it’s from the outpouring emotion. The piece of my being that I just threw out on open un-censored display for anyone with ears and a spare 3ish minutes.

So after many trips to Claygate to belt out some songs in the green belt, I came home with a poorer pocket but a richer heart and mind. A bargain really.

If you have 3ish minutes to spare (per song) you can hear Arms Open, Shame on me and Warm Warm Heart here and if you are eager you can purchase the tunes here.

You can also indulge in some music from Jon Spanyol himself here or check out Don Music here or Marvin the Paranoid Android here.

I recommend all of the above!!

Still, there is a calm, pure harmony, and music inside of me.

- Vincent van Gogh

Ah the green belt, first view of Claygate

The inevitable Church on Church Road

Jon Spanyol

David Ezra

Marvin The Paranoid Android

Don Music

Thanks for reading!!!

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