In this final post I thought I’d try to tie everything together with a couple of real life examples.

I recently discovered this excellent video, (which doesn’t even require a video camera as it's simply a sequence of still images) and thought we could watch it and then dissect it.

The artist was Ellen Murphy, who now performs as Only Girl, and she very kindly agreed to shed some light on the making of the video, as well as sharing her her top tips. Here’s what she had to say:

Concept

The concept was thought up by the director Barry Pilling, he was a friend of the band and approached us about making a stop motion video as he had experimented with the technique before and thought it would make a great music video.



Top Tip: Whether the director already has an idea or you are working together to think of a concept, make sure it's not too complicated and don't be too ambitious if you have a small budget and limited time.

Cost

The video actually cost us nothing to make, apart from small expenses like buying pizzas for everyone etc. The locations we used were; someone’s house, Telegraph Hill in South East London, and a venue called The Bunker Club in Deptford (as I know the owner Annie and she is a great supporter of local unsigned bands). We were lucky enough to work with a director and cameraman who didn’t mind working for free!



Top Tip: Try and find locations you can use for free or minimal cost as these can often be the most expensive thing. Although this video was free to shoot, for another video we hired out the basement bar of a pub in central London and it was £200 for the weekend, which split between 5 members of the band was only £40 each.

Team

The team was made up of friends of the band, who all helpfully work in the TV/media industry. We had Barry as director, his girlfriend doing make up, Vicky Duffin as producer (she put together a proper call sheet etc.) and Dave White as cameraman who was a friend of Barry’s. We were quite lucky to know so many people within the TV/film industry and our guitarist was a video editor which was also very useful! However for any unsigned bands wanting to make a video who don’t have these connections, with enough hard work, creativity and being resourceful, you can definitely create a smart and effective video to promote your music.



Top Tip: Search Facebook and Myspace groups to find people, I found the London College of Fashion Make Up group on Facebook which often has postings looking for make up artists for photo/video shoots.

Time

The video took us one weekend to make, as we all had full time jobs we needed to make it over a weekend so had a very long Saturday and Sunday!



Top Tip: Always overestimate the time it will take to ensure that the video is ready at least 1 month before the single release to ensure maximum promotion time.

Thanks for that, Ellen! Some very useful tips there. Another video I came across was this from My Tiger My Timing - no strangers to the BBC Introducing stage - a beautifully simple concept using projectors and a white space.

I spoke to Director Ian William Galloway, who told us:

The band had a friend who lived in a converted gallery space in the old Crouch Hill station - she's since moved out and it's scheduled for demolition. They'd also had a recent photo shoot with an old slide projector. We decided to tie the whole thing together with the promotional images they already had. We borrowed a slide projector and a video projector. We dressed them in white to match the space. We assembled some of Anna's family's old slides and photos, and some old slides I had lying around, and filmed the track lots of times with every combination of people, slides, projections etc. The whole cost must have been about £150.

OK. One last boring bit about uploading before I set you free to create. You’ve filmed your masterpiece, it looks amazing, it’s even better than you imagined. Whatever you do, don’t fall at the final hurdle. This bit always takes longer than you think. You might find it tedious, but it has to be done.

Uploading and unleashing to the world

If you are uploading to YouTube or Vimeo, make sure you export the video at the best possible quality. Once you have exported your master at full quality, back it up somewhere safe. You will now need to compress it using a program like Compressor or Sorensen squeeze in order to make the file small enough to upload. I'd suggest searching for tutorials online that take you through settings step by step. You don’t need to understand what you are doing, just follow what they say! For example, I found this really simple video tutorial showing you how to upload to Vimeo in HD using Compressor and the results are excellent.

There are tutorials out there for every situation, so don’t just export at any old setting as poor quality can really suck the life out of your video and all your hard work will go to waste.

Once uploaded, you need to tell the world. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, MySpace - post the video to as many places as you can, using friends of friends is a powerful way of building numbers (Mr Fogg’s video that we featured in part 1 had over 15,000 views in 3 weeks). The ‘embed’ feature on YouTube and Vimeo is such a simple tool that'll help you get your video on multiple websites. Use it.

And that's about it... for now. The beauty of music video making is you can never stop learning. There's no right or wrong, there are so many different approaches and techniques you can utilise, and there is so much inspiration out there; all you have to do is open your eyes. Feel free to dip in and out of these posts whenever you like.

I'll leave you with the most important piece of advice of all: just get out there and do it. You learn from your mistakes, you'll pick up tricks as you go, and you never know, you might just create something a little special. 

Merry music video making. See you in 2011!

Read previous posts in this series.

Choosing the right location to shoot your video can be tricky. It can be extremely expensive to hire a studio, and you might need film permits to film in certain places. Even the London Underground charges over £300 for a two-hour permit, so once again, you need to ask around and be innovative when finding places to film. Filming outside can often be free, but be prepared to deal with the unpredictability of the weather, and even worse, the public. A video camera can do funny things to even the most respecatble of men.

Pick somehwere that means something to you, that is relevant to your music. I recently saw Gummo and Buffalo 66, two outstanding films that were both shot by directors in the places they grew up. They were both deeply connected to their environments, they understood their surroundings, and they could see the odd and subtle beauty in each scene making them extremely personal and moving films. I'm not saying you have to go out there and become the next Harmony Korine, but just think about what you're trying to say in the locations you choose. Resist the temptation to shoot in your dad's garage just because it's easy and free.

Once you have a location, the day of the shoot is surely what it’s all about. This is where your vision is realised, legends are born, and stars shine bright (or self implode). The adrenaline will be pumping, everything will go wrong, nothing will happen on time, but just make the most of it and be ready to react to all the changes.

Last year we joined 1Xtra’s Ras Kwame as he visited 100% Homegrown artist Louise Golbey on the set of the music video shoot for her single, Same Old Same Old. Here's what happened:

You see how the smokey underground room and soft lighting really helps create that 1920s atmosphere? With a couple of vintage effects added in the edit, the final product captures all the things Louise was looking for.

We loved Louise's DIY approach to this video. It's a classic example of roping in friends to do the jobs, and she has obviously thought about the mood of the song when choosing location, costumes etc. Louise has clearly seen the value of creating a music video and giving herself a visual identity. She's actually made four music videos using different directors and different techniques.

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Yesterday, part 2 of our music video series featured some very good cameras and lenses, but before we get stuck into this post on equipment, there is one important announcement I have to make:

You DO NOT need expensive fancy cameras to make an iconic music video.

I repeat, You DO NOT need expensive fancy cameras to make an iconic music video.

You get the point.

So you’ve got the big idea, now how are you going to film it? If you’re starting from scratch, equipment is very likely to be your biggest expense, and there is only one thing to keep costs down – mates! And lots of them. Mates with cameras, mates who are studying media studies and need to do a final year project, mates who insist on filming every embarrassing moment of a night out on their phone; all these people have kit that might be useful, so start scrolling through your Facebook and see if you can start pulling in some favours (if you don’t have any mates you could always go to Radarmusic.com where you can submit a brief and wait for directors to offer treatments, then hey presto! You hook up and make a video)

The camera

There are hundreds of ways to film things these days, the most important thing is you choose the right style of filming that captures the vibe that you are looking for. The nice cinematic look that features in the previous post comes from an HDSLR (High Definition Single Lens Reflex) camera, which is basically a digital camera with proper interchangeable lenses. In the past year or two, various digital SLR cameras capable of recording HD movies have hit the market. These cameras have become increasingly popular beacuse they are small, easy to use, relatively cheap, versatile and the picture quality can be stunning. So much so that some TV programmes have started shooting on them - check out the clips from BBC Two's No Hats, No Trainers, for example. However, HDSLRs don't come without drawbacks.

Having experimented a bit with these cameras, I have come across some limitations: Recording in HD eats up a lot of memory and a lot of battery life very quickly, so you need high performance batteries and memory cards (which can be expensive). Although many record sound via a built-in microphone, it's not really good enough quality to use, so extra sound equipment is also essential (although, when making a music video, it's likely you won't need to record any sound as you will just use the master recording of your song, which is a real bonus).

Image courtesy of spikeymorris on Flickr

The small size of these cameras makes them very good for sneaking into tight spaces and being non-intrusive, but it also makes them hard to hold steady, so the use of a tripod or steadicam is often essential for steady shots.

Recording digitally saves you from the hassle and time constraints of using tape, but you should bear in mind you'll need a large hard drive to store your rushes. The good news is there are a lot of websites out there offering advice about shooting on a DSLR. Just check out the brilliant tips on dslrfilm.com or cinema5d.com or dslrvideoshooter.com for a start (in fact there is a clip showing the ‘making of’ a music video on there right now which is quite amusing!).

Shooting on a budget is really about problem solving. You have to know the limitations of your tools, and play to their strengths. You will come across of lot of barriers on your way to achieving the look you want, you just have to find innovative ways around the problems.

There a quite a few of these cameras on the market now, and there are a lot of nerdy comparison tables out there going into mega detail, but I’m far more interested in how you actually use the camera. It's the lenses, however, that really make the difference, and a number of succesful film directors have told me to invest more in the lenses and less in the camera body. Prime lenses (lenses that can't zoom) are prefered by most film-makers, and lenses like the Canon/Nikon 50mm 1.8 have become popular because they are cheap (under £80 new), lightweight, and have relatively high optical quality, earning the rather affectionate nickname, the 'nifty fifty'. "Zoom lenses are for tourists and paparazzi", one director told me.

The lenses give you the ability to focus on specific areas and blur the background (shallow depth of field), and is one of the most beautifully filmic features of using these cameras (do read this interesting article warning of the impact of going overboard with this effect, though!) You will notice lots of examples of using depth of field in this Pulled Apart by Horses video, which again I think really encompasses the energy and sound of the band:

But what if I don’t own a camera I hear you cry!?

Well, you can hire cameras, lenses and just about anything else from somewhere like hireacamera.com or vmi.tv but be warned, the cameras that initially appear to be quite cheap may not come with any lenses or memory cards, so a full ‘shooting kit’ suddenly makes the price shoot up. Hiring from schools, colleges and universities is probably a better idea, as film/media departments often have kit they lend out (please note: you may need to befriend media studies student)

To make a film you are going to need 1) a camera 2) a lens 3) a battery and 4) a memory card. There are thousands of accesories you can add like tripods, monopods, lighting - you could even add a jib if you've been to Glastonbury and like the look of that crane camera thing flying over your head. Just remember you have to know how to use all this extra equipment and even worse, you have to carry it all! So my advice would be go as light on kit as you possibly can.

It’s at this point I have to emphasise once again how important it is to make friends with people who have their own gear. Forget personality, you have to do whatever it takes to get that camera into bed with you! In all seriousness, there are a lot of wannabe directors out there with cameras, and many will be more than happy to get involved for free as it's good experience for them and will build their portfolio. Go forth and find these people! Your equipment worries and costs will ease and you can really start getting creative, working together, and realising your vision.

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Hopefully, yesterday's first part gave you an idea of what this series of posts is all about, so now let's get down to business

Before getting too fancy, why not have a go at simply filming yourself or your band playing? I don't mean getting your mate to record your next gig on his camera phone. I mean picking a track and really thinking about how you could record this in the best possible way to do it justice. How can you bring it to life? How can you show the viewer what you are all about?

Dry The River show what you can achieve with just one camera and one take in this session, filmed in somebody's living room:

By simply choosing the right lighting and environment, you can really get a feel for what this band are all about. It's not like they've spent mega bucks on lighting; a few fairy lights and Ikea lamps positioned in interesting places and you have some really effective soft lighting. Watch how the camera moves slowly and smoothly between the people and the instruments, and as the music speeds up the movements get a little quicker. Not only do you get a feel for the band, but you also get a feel for the song. It comes to life.

There are lots of beautiful examples of this on You Tube channel watchlistentell, which all feature videos made on one camera, in one take. OK, granted, these were shot on a very good camera, but getting that beautiful cinematic effect may not be as expensive to achieve as you may think, as you will discover in our next post about equipment.

The beauty of filming yourself in this way is that it might end up being half of your first music video! I’m sure you're used to the format: band plays song in interesting location, random story is told in between. Take this video from Chucky’s River for example. Band performs in abandoned house, guy goes crazy smashing things up in between. And the band informed us on Twitter that the budget for this was a chicken burger and chips!

If you manage to film something half decent, then the balance between you performing and the rest of the video is really up to you. If you love how you look and want to get your personality across then feature a lot of performance shots, and a little bit of a story. But if you're shy or reckon you have more of a 'face for radio', you could opt for the complete opposite and go for pure storytelling, like in this Jakwob video. Simple story, told visually with stunning beauty, and fits the music perfectly.

When I first saw this I thought it must have been made by professionals using a pretty hefty wad of cash provided by a record label. But when I got in touch with director Lucy Bridger, I was pleased to discover it was made in a much more DIY fashion, so I asked Lucy to share her experiences of making this video. Here's what Lucy said:

When I first listened to the song, I thought there was definitely something melancholy about it. I liked the idea of having these two characters that could only connect at night, when everybody else was sleeping. I’ve always found the night quite magical, like when you go into 24 hour supermarkets, that eerie silence with just you and two other people in this huge space. I definitely wanted to get that across in some of the scenes.

The characters were based around childhood. Doing things they’re not meant to, like going out by yourself at night and playing with fire. And with the characters having that naivety there wasn’t meant to be a romantic element to their relationship, it was just a friendship. The masks are to do with playing dress up as a child, but more like when you wanted to wear it all time, even out the house.

James (Jakwob) has been a friend of mine for about four years. We both lived really close to each in Lincoln. We were in the same sixth form so I guess we both saw each other’s work quite often. I remember James sending music now and then which I really liked, so I guess since then we've had a mutual understanding of what eachother likes. Before the video, I took a lot of photographs of James, so when it came to the video it was so easy to talk about ideas.



We decided to shoot the video in Lincoln because we grew up here; we know the area and the people. Originally we were going to shoot the video in London, but we worked out that logistically it might cause too many problems. Shooting in Lincoln worked out well though; for a lot of people who watched the video, it’ll seem like any town in the UK and I prefer that the settings were anonymous. We definitely wouldn’t have had that feeling if we'd shot in London. Plus, the morning we shot the final scenes in the field and abandoned house couldn’t have been more perfect.



We had a visit from the police once during the video, but they left us alone when we explained what we were doing.

We kept the whole thing as minimal as possible, I think we all agreed that we wanted to keep it small because the larger the group of people, the less refined ideas become. You also lose a lot of intimacy with more people in the video. I think we were very specific who we let join our project, and that’s why it worked so smoothly. The video wouldn’t have happened had one of us not been there. Ben, who also worked on camera, was great at working out the logistics and editing the whole thing. Our strength lay in our collective knowledge.



We kept the equipment to a minimum. We used a Canon 5d MKII camera with Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L USM and Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM lenses.



The equipment cost us £450to hire for two days. Fred, who was one of the camera men, drove us around in his dad’s pick-up truck. We used the pick-up to do the moving bike scenes, and spent £50 on the petrol. We spent £100 on food, but we were way ahead of schedule and ended up cutting out a day of shooting, which meant we didn’t eat half the food. We spent £50 on props and costume. The wardrobe on the video was a collective wardrobe belonging to me, James and Frankie. I love that the wardrobe is a complete reflection of us at that time.



I think that through working with friends, your personality resonates in your work a lot more naturally. And in some ways it's easier working with friends because you can be a lot more honest.



Jakwob came from a DIY background, he used the resources he had to create something and we did the same. This was our first production of this nature and I feel really happy with what we achieved. I think it goes to show how much excess a production can gather and that something professional can be done efficiently by a small group of people, as long as you have a mutual understanding for each other.

Thank you, Lucy. A wonderful example of what you can achieve when you have an idea that's connected to the music and can gather a close group of creative people together to pull it off.

In the next post, we will be delving deeper into the world of equipment, looking more closely at the type of camera used in this Jakwob video, as well as lighting and editing.

Tomorrow: Part 3 - A Bad Workman Always Blames His Tools

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OK, now before we start, this is not THE guide to making a music video. I’m not here to give you the foolproof plan; I’m not here to create THE rules of filmmaking; I’m not going to make up annoying acronyms telling you all the things you HAVE to do to make a successful video (sure, Mrs Gren can help you remember the processes of life, but making a music video is far more complicated than that).

The idea is, over the next week I'll bring you a series of five posts about things I've encountered and thought would be useful to share. Whether it’s practical examples of how videos have been made, or just examples of videos/films that I find inspiring, I think it’s important this series is more a collection of ideas, a stream of music-video-making consciousness, rather than a ‘guide’.

So to kick things off, just think about some of your favourite music videos. Don't worry, I'm not going to make you stand up in front of the group and explain your decision like a Music Videos Lovers Anonymous session, but I think it's useful to think about why you like that video. It doesn't even have to be a favourite, just memorable. Why did you remember that video, amongst the thousands of others?



When I was thinking about this, The White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button popped into my head.

I watched the video a few times, and tried to figure out a) why I liked it and b) how I think they made it. How many cameras did they use? Where was it shot? How did they make the camera move in a certain way? Give it a go yourself with your video of choice.

Now unless you happen to be Jay-Z’s director, I'm assuming you're reading this thinking you don't have any money to make a music video. You'd be wrong. Thinking costs nothing, and thinking can lead to some magical things. In the really early stages of dreaming up ideas for your music video, try and let go of all practical/financial considerations and let your mind run free. Don’t think about the money (if you'd rather have a slightly cheesy American tell you this, then watch this).

If you think of an idea, write it down. Write loads of ideas down, no matter how loose they might be. Re-visit them at different times, see if you can take them further, change them, make them more interesting. If you can then somehow weave the idea into some sort of script, or rough storyboard, then that may become very useful later on. If you can't think of an idea, don't worry, theres no rush. No-one's going to force you into a a room with a blank piece of paper screaming "COME UP WITH AN IDEA!" I really don't think good ideas happen like that.



I would recommend carrying something you can write on wherever you go, as ideas can often pop in the most unlikely of places (apparantly The Shard, soon to be the tallest building in the UK, started life as a scribble on the back of a napkin)

OK, I promise more practical advice will be on the way, but I just wanted to get the ball rolling by explaining what this is all about and to get people thinking. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow, but until then, I leave you with Mr Fogg’s latest video for Answerphone - set in Trafalgar Square and made for next to nothing.

You can read his inspiring story about the making of the video over on Tom Robinson's blog.

Tomorrow: Part 2 - Shoot Yourself.

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It's the time of year when everybody seems to start obsessing about reflecting on 'the top 10' of everything in 2010. The top 10 films of 2010, the top 10 albums of 2010, the top 10 (most unimportant and ridiculous) celebrity feuds of 2010, there is even the top 10 Twitter moments of 2010!

I guess we can count ourselves lucky we don't get top 100 lists online, and we don't have to sit through 3 hours of z-list celebrities reeling off exhilarating stories about why Buckaroo is the 57th best toy of the decade.

Well my friends, there are no Top 10 Tip of The Weeks here (far too many Ts for a start). This is simply our final tip of 2010, and they go by the name of Rhosyn.

Rhosyn are techincally a 5-piece led by Rose Dagul. They used to be Wap Wap Wow but apparently it's quite a challenge to record a nine-piece band in a shared flat, so they downsized. The sounds you hear in this track Glass, however, are created entireley by Rose, as she played, recorded and wrote this song when she set up her own studio for a month in Rhoscolyn, Anglesey.

You only have to take a glance at a handful of images from Rhoscolyn and you get a sense of how this music came to sound this way, and why Rose confessed 'she got a bit spiritual' whilst she was there.

Rose comes from Oxford and has been supported by BBC Introducing in Oxford, as well as musicians like Yannis Philippakis (Foals) and Hugo Manuel (Jonquil), who have produced tracks for Rhosyn.

Hope you like the track. Stay tuned in 2011 for more brilliant newcomers.

Links

myspace.com/listentorhosyn

facebook.com/pages/Rhosyn/147983241912786

twitter.com/listentorhosyn

The dinosaur: mysterious, diverse, extraordinary, wild. Aside from the characteristic 'blown to smithereens by an asteroid', the powerful qualities of the Jurassic beast are those any band should strive to acquire. So does a dinosaur-related name mean you'll be destined for rock n' roll greatness or one step closer to extinction? It certainly worked for Dinosaur Jr, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and T. Rex, and now there's another monster stomping into this prehistoric playground, and they go by the name of Part Dinosaur.

Only part dinosaur, I hear you say? Maybe strong enough to take on a baby dino, but lacking the strength to take on a mighty Diplodocus? You'll have to be the judge of that.

Part Dinosaur formed whist at Southampton University, and are made up of four people (not sure what happened to the fourth person on this picture they sent us? perhaps he's taking the photo?). They've been supported by BBC Essex Introducing and have just released an EP and some T-shirts featuring a parrot with a dinsoaur tail. Nice combo.

You only have one more chance to catch them live in 2010, and that's December 30th at Vibe Bar, London. They're playing alongside former Tip of the Week starlets Hold Your Horse Is, so you can kill two birds with one stone (I taught this phrase to my Brazilian friend the other day. She told me in Brazil the phrase is killing two rabbits with one stick. How many more animals out there have to suffer just so we humans can multitask?).

Now one thing I've noticed, this track doesn't appear to have a music video. For many new bands, the thought of the cost and effort of making a music video was is quite daunting. Well my friends, starting next week, we'll be publishing a series of blog posts on making music videos on a budget. There will be advice, practical examples, tips, and inspiring stories. So in the future there'll be no excuse for our wonderful Tip of The Week artistes to be video-less.

Promo over, back to the music. Here's Huw to introduce Part Dinsosaur with this week's tip, Numbers:

Links

https://www.myspace.com/partdinosaur

https://partdinosaur.tumblr.com/

https://twitter.com/partdinosaur

Killington Fall are a four-piece alternative post-rock band from South West London. Now I'm not too fussed about trying to name genres and describe sounds, but one thing I would describe this music as is 'mostly instrumental'. As is par for the course in the Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai mould, vocals are sparse.

If you like this band, and can't be bothered with lyrics, then it's your lucky day, as the band have shared their top instrumental bands with Mint Magazine. There are some real gems on that list actually, the sort of songs where you can put some headphones on, walk somewhere, and convince yourself that you are in a film and that every move you make and emotion you feel is significant. Makes a walk to work a little more interesting, trust me.

You can download their album At The Soundless Dawn from their website, which has a very atmospheric, epic opening which compliments the album title. This week's tip, Soft Point, is from that very album, so why not put your headphones on, and go for a little stroll somwhere.

Links

https://www.myspace.com/killingtonfall

https://killingtonfall.bandcamp.com/

This week's DIY Label is Damaged Goods records.

They're a longstanding punk label based in East London.



The label was set up in 1988 - I spoke to Ian, the head honcho at Damaged Goods, who's seen many great bands sign to their books over the years including Atari Teenage Riot, Asian Dub Foundation, Holly Golightly and Manic Street Preachers.

Links

https://www.damagedgoods.co.uk/

https://www.myspace.com/damagedgoodsrecords

The Jane Bradfords are a five piece from Belfast, and rumour has it (on Wikipedia) they are named after the lead character in a 1935 American film called The Pace That Kills.

Our tip of the week, Judicial Duel, is from their second album which will be available in early 2011, but if you can't wait you can download the entire first album for free here which is pretty nice of them (aha! The album's first track is titled The Pace That Killed, which leads me to believe the above is true. Who says you can't trust everything you read on Wikipedia!?)

Now, you may not have heard of them, but ask someone from Qatar and they might well tell you about the time the Jane Bradfords reached number 1 in the Qatar charts! Big in Qatar! That's some claim to fame.

Judicial Duel is a great little song with an interesting title, but there are two things I really love about this track:

1. It has its own cinematic trailer.

2. You can download an accapella version of the track and create your very own remix.

I like this band's way of thinking. Anyway, enjoy!

Links

https://www.myspace.com/thejanebradfords

https://www.thejanebradfords.com/

If you've raved at a club, festival or to the radio recently, chances are that some of the electronic beats you've been enjoying have come from the Cheap Thrills label roster.

With a determination to champion the new, nurture producers and get those clubs rockin' to the new sounds from far out, I spoke to label head honcho Josh aka Herve aka the Count from The Count and Sinden to get the lowdown on this beautifully eclectic label.

Listen again to Huw Stephens on Radio 1 or download this week's podcast, featuring a track from Cheap Thrills

Links

Join the Cheap Thrill mailing list

https://www.myspace.com/hervespace

https://www.mixcloud.com/CheapThrillsRecords/

https://soundcloud.com/hervespace