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.

So you've seen what it looks like on set - now get out there and start shooting! If you want to be nice and organised I found this lovely checklist for you to tick off as you go, and I would definitely recommend writing a shot list to make sure you get all the shots you want. People love writing in code in TV, just make sure you write your shot list in a language you and your crew can understand. Alternatively you could use the universal language of pictures by using a storyboard to visualise your idea, something like this one below.

Image courtesy of adactio on Flickr

For complicated shoots involving a few people, rope in your most organised friend to make a schedule, and factor in breaks to thank your crew for giving up their precious Sunday morning for free. This organised friend can also be sent out to collect food and energy drinks when you discover everything is behind schedule and everybody is tired and fed up and hungry. When you reach this point, hang in there! You'll all look back and laugh at this one day (or never speak to eachother ever again).

Get Animated

If you don’t fancy going out there in the cold, what if I told you you could make a highly creative, inspiring, unique music video, where anything is possible, from the comfort of your own home? And it wouldn’t cost you any more than a few quid for some arts and crafts materials? I’m talking about animation, and whilst you may not need many pounds, you will need time. Loads and loads and loads of time. If you have the patience and an imagination, you really can do some beautiful things with animation.

Stop motion animation is a wonderful technique which allows you to build entire new worlds in small places like your kitchen table. Pocket Satellite sent us this example via Twitter, which took 18 months to create.

If you would prefer to pain stakingly hand paint every single frame of your music video, then I would look at this for inspiration. Simply stunning.

Now I may have just scared you away from animation with these examples, but really simple animations can be just as effective, as long as the idea is there, and the style fits with the story you are trying to tell. musicANDmuffins has created lots of simple but effective examples on YouTube, like this one for Laura Marling.

We have another example of stop motion animation in part 5 tomorrow, our last post in this series. There will be some real life examples, and tips on uploading so be sure to come back!

Tomorrow: Part 5 - And finally...

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