Ideas for cutting a music video

[Bob Zelin]

yes, fish eye effect, and old school linear key effects – that should get you fired pretty quickly –
perhaps you should watch MTV and VH1 for a while –
Bob Zelin

[Scotty Pupkin]

I’d watch MTV but they don’t play music videos anymore.

thanks

[Oakmozart]

Yeah they do…they just don’t play them as much anymore, and they play them at fairly weird times. I guess people got sick of watching videos, so MTV had to come up with other mind-stimulating programs to keep their viewer numbers high. You know what I mean, awesome shows like “The Real World,” “Pimp My Ride,” “Beavis and Butthead,” and others. (Note the sarcasm.)

[Michael W. towe]

Well, if you can work some type of story line into the footage you have that would be step one. If not, which is probably the case, I would start by thinking minimally when it comes to effects. Fish eyes, cube transitions, page turns and all the rest of that kind of video regurgitation can draw away from your messaging. And as Bob said, may get you fired.

Speaking of messaging that would be another good place to start. Does your client have any messaging they want to tie into this? Maybe some one word copy that can be CG’ed in an interesting way. Things like Elegance, Comfort, Style etc… Try to move them away from the lines of corporate speak that many client will try to hand you. There is no way to put CG that talks about “Positive proof points” and “Good value propositions” into a piece and make it work.

I would look at the pacing of the footage and see if it works in different sections of the music that are higher or lower energy. Maybe some motion effects to slow the footage down during lower paced sections of the tune.

Color effects… maybe a color wash or a drop in the chroma for some of it.

Graphic elements… can you tie in logos to the footage? Maybe a graphic overlay that works with the color pallet of the clients logo?

Again I think the key here is to think minimal. Let the footage sell the product, you are just enhancing it a small amount to make it more interesting.

Good luck with the cut,

Mike

Michael W. Towe
President M2 Digital Post
http://www.m2digitalpost.com

[Scotty Pupkin]

Yeah….

I started cutting the piece…just going to “go with the music” and mix it up w/ still images over running footage, letter boxes and grids, funky backgrounds, white flashes and flutters. I’m sure they’ll love it.

thanks

[Scotty Pupkin]

thanks Mike!

I started cutting it…I’m usuing runing footage of cars, still images and funky backgrounds…with letter boxes of various types here & there….also colorizing footage (B&W, hue’s, contrasts)

I decided to take some dialouge from radio commercials (provided by the client) and use it as a “rap” so to speak over the hiphop/disco music. It’s pretty interesting.

thanks again

-scotty