When making a music video, whether on location or within a studio, lighting is a vital part and should always be considered carefully when planning the music video and the budget. Here at budget music videos, we have managed to gather a variety of simple lighting that is both effective and creates the right effects. As our low budget music videos are normally quite small, we keep everything small. First of all, if we are using a studio, the studio we use come inclusive of lights, for example soft boxes and UV lights. This helps when keeping the budget low. We find unless we are doing something specific these are all the lights we need. However if we are being really creative on a budget, we try to think outside the box. For example, for a coloured light effect or a spotlight effect, we have used basic small 9 LED lights purchased from EBay, attach them to tripods, and cover them with coloured gels to create different colours. This is a simple lighting trick that would cost no more than £15 per light. Another creative coloured light we have used to create flashing lights or solid lights are an ambient mood lighting strips that are normally used behind TV’s or under counters. These can be bought for approx. £25 for two and can flash and change to the beat of the music as well.
If you only want a white light on a budget, a simple LED light is best, and you can get different gels to soften them and create different colour schemes. These are the most cost effective on a budget.
If however, you are on location, the use of natural light is a science and can be very difficult to master. If you are planning to use the natural light, be sure your subject is pointed away from the sun, as this can be too bright on most occasions and make sure the exposure is set appropriately on your camera. If all you need is a small amount of light to show up a face, a small LED light on top of your camera should be suffice. These are cheap on EBay and can come battery powered, which is perfect for on location. There are a variety of sizes you can buy, from 9 LED to 120 LED lights ranging from £10 to £65. When searching on EBay type LED video lights and this should brig up sufficient results.