Creating Music Videos?

[composer35]

Hello Everyone,

I'm planning to create videos for some of my music tracks that I will post to YouTube, IG, FB, etc.Am curious what others are doing in the way of music videos.

1. What tools / apps are you using to edit video to music?
2. Are you recording the video footage yourself or getting it from somewhere else?


I'd love to hear how you're approaching it.

[an-electric-heart]

I use Premiere and other various Adobe software (I do video at a semi-pro level), but I'm sure you could cope with free stuff.
I personally think you should avoid using stock, although I did make one for myself using free stock recently, but I got pretty creative with it.

[BONES]

Nice clip - the transitions work really, really well.

So far I've done our clips in Adobe After Effects, because I spend 8 or 9 hours a day using it work, but I will probably make the next one with Blender, an open source 3D modelling and animation application. These days there are so many time saving resources you can tap into that a one-man 3D clip is actually viable. You still need to know how to use the applications but you don't need to spend countless hours making and animating everything yourself any more.

The stock video you can get for free is mostly pretty basic but if you're new to this, you might find it worth paying for some good stuff if it will save you a lot of time.

[an-electric-heart]

Cheers, Bones. Yes, your stuff is quality too, I've watched it before. I always dig a glitchy ascetic.

Here's one I made for someone else, it actually just premiered about an hour ago.


I was instructed to do something like this:


I shot the sharp looking live footage, and I was provided a bunch of pretty rough handy-cam footage that they wanted me to use. The band was pretty specific about certain things, so there are things in there I wouldn't have done if it was up to me... but, you know. Sometimes you just gotta do what you're told.

Anyway. Music videos are all in all pretty fun, and you can get away with being much more wild and creative than you can in other forms of film.

[composer35]

OK, thanks. Seems like Adobe tools so far are the ones to check out. I've been using iMovie a bit which is pretty basic, but would like to develop a better, quicker process while still hitting a higher quality bar.

[jancivil]

The basic version (which is fully loaded, it just lacks the collaboration features) of DaVinci Resolve costs nothing.

[BONES]

Yes but there is a fairly massive learning curve associated with it, especially the compositing and visual effects side of it (Fusion).

[jancivil]

at that level, I imagine so. For basic editing it's pretty easy. Coming from FCP, it has that look as an option, among others. I like FCP for its handling of effects, an idiot can use it.

I have certain things I just know how to do in FCP, but FCP's audio is not right, I don't know why or how. I re-up the audio in videos using Resolve, it's the first thing I knew it for (printing the vid w. PCM audio is now possible in FCP, but something ain't right). But it's very robust for something which costs nothing. Also I can get what I do in a very high definition (3840 x 2160) easily, which makes Youtube give you better audio decoding.

[deastman]

Rather embarrassingly, I’ve never made music videos for my music, despite always having wanted to do so since the 80’s. I say embarrassingly because I’ve spent the past 30+ years working in animation, motion graphics, VFX, and video production. My life always seems too busy to devote to personal projects like that, and if I do have the time, I’ll usually spend it making music.

This is a great time to be starting out, with an incredible array of high quality, free tools available. I’d be looking at Blender, Resolve, Unreal Engine, Quixel Mixer, the free version of Nuke, and any number of others. If you aren’t adverse to spending money, Adobe Creative Cloud is the first place I’d look.

[deastman]

Regarding stock footage, it exists for a reason. If your story requires drone footage flying through the Alps but you live in Arizona, it only makes sense to use it. However, stitching a video together using nothing but stock will yield a generic look, the same way assembling a song exclusively from Apple Loops will sound paint-by-numbers.

This is also a great time to be a filmmaker. Drones are affordable, easy to fly, and produce amazing footage. My iPhone 11+ shoots fantastic slow motion. Mirrorless cameras and motorized gimbal stabilizers and motion control sliders are all within the reach of modest budgets, as are LED lighting rigs. Even anamorphic lenses are starting to hit a budget price point. Lens flares, light leaks, gritty overlays, glitch transitions, and color grading LUTs are only a click away.

[an-electric-heart]

Yes but there is a fairly massive learning curve associated with it, especially the compositing and visual effects side of it (Fusion).

When I mentioned getting by with free stuff, I was talking about Davinci Resolve. (I've never used it) I've heard it's a bit tricky if you're used to Premiere or Final Cut because it just has a completely different work-flow, but seeing as though he's never used any software like that, anything's going to be tricky. Might as well start with Resolve seeing as though he's got no base-line.

[ATS]

Cheers, Bones. Yes, your stuff is quality too, I've watched it before. I always dig a glitchy ascetic.

Here's one I made for someone else, it actually just premiered about an hour ago.


I was instructed to do something like this:


I shot the sharp looking live footage, and I was provided a bunch of pretty rough handy-cam footage that they wanted me to use. The band was pretty specific about certain things, so there are things in there I wouldn't have done if it was up to me... but, you know. Sometimes you just gotta do what you're told.

Anyway. Music videos are all in all pretty fun, and you can get away with being much more wild and creative than you can in other forms of film.

Ok I am just gonna come out and say it. You are f**king amazing.

[an-electric-heart]

Cheers, Bones. Yes, your stuff is quality too, I've watched it before. I always dig a glitchy ascetic.

Here's one I made for someone else, it actually just premiered about an hour ago.


I was instructed to do something like this:


I shot the sharp looking live footage, and I was provided a bunch of pretty rough handy-cam footage that they wanted me to use. The band was pretty specific about certain things, so there are things in there I wouldn't have done if it was up to me... but, you know. Sometimes you just gotta do what you're told.

Anyway. Music videos are all in all pretty fun, and you can get away with being much more wild and creative than you can in other forms of film.

Ok I am just gonna come out and say it. You are f**king amazing.

Cheers. That's a nice thing to say. I studied film (as well as visual art and photography). Film excites me as much as music does. As I get older I'll most likely lean more towards writing and film, rather than music. I'm working on a traditional animation video for one of my new songs at the moment. I'm hoping to have it done in a month, the going's super slow... Such is the nature of animation.

[excuse me please]

Thanks for all the info. Think I'm going for Adobe Premiere Elements. It's €90, but it's exactly what I need.

[excuse me please]

PS the video of An Electric Heart gave me more ideas than only having a slide show of my pics going along with my music as I had planned