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Formats3 min read

LESSON 126

Music videos

Images built around a finished song.

IN THIS LESSON

  1. What a music video is
  2. A short history
  3. Shooting to playback
  4. Practice: planning a video

What a music video is

A music video combines a song with images made to promote it or to express it as art. Today it is mainly a marketing tool to sell recordings and is shown on music channels and video sites. Styles range from live performance to narrative, documentary, animation and abstract film, and many videos mix them. Some follow the lyrics, others build a theme, and some are simply a filmed concert. What sets the form apart is that the soundtrack is finished before shooting starts, so the pictures are cut to the music rather than the other way round.

A short history

The ancestor of the music video was the illustrated song: in 1894 two sheet-music publishers hired an electrician to project slides with a magic lantern while their song was performed. Sound films brought musical shorts in the late 1920s, including many Vitaphone shorts. Promotional films for songs grew in the 1960s. In 1975 Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, with a video by Bruce Gowers made for Top of the Pops, has been described as the first global hit for which the video was central to the marketing. The form rose to dominance in the 1980s when MTV built its channel on it.

Shooting to playback

This is working practice. Performers mime to the track, which is played back loudly on set, so every take is in sync. Because each take follows the same song, cameras can cover the whole song from many angles and the editor can cut freely between them. Use a slate or clap with the playback, or timecode, so takes are easy to sync. Faster frame rates with sped-up playback can give slightly slowed, dreamy lip sync when the footage is conformed back.

Practice: planning a video

This is working practice. Listen to the song many times and mark its sections, verse, chorus, bridge, on a timeline. Choose one strong idea that fits the song rather than many weak ones. Plan where the big moments land, often on the chorus or a drop. Shoot a full performance pass for safety, then the story or concept shots. In the edit, cut on the beat at some points and against it at others, so the rhythm does not become predictable.

Try it today

  1. 01Pick a song you have the right to use, or one by a friend.
  2. 02Mark verse, chorus and bridge with timecodes.
  3. 03Film three complete performance passes from different angles.
  4. 04Film eight concept shots that match the chorus.
  5. 05Cut a 60-second version and check the sync.