If you are an unsigned artist and are trying to make the right impression on a low budget, here are Budget Music Videos our best piece of advice is ‘Keep it Simple’. Sometimes trying to do too much can start to look tacky and cheap and its better to have quantity over quality. When you are planning a music video for the first time is can be very exciting and you will want to represent every lyric within the song, which can become long winded and over the top. As long as you can capture the main message about the song, that is the most important part of a music video, for example, love, hate, dance, drama etc. At the end of the day the song is the critical part and the music video is just used to compliment it, 9 times out of 10 most people wont see your video, although it is the most powerful form of marketing online.
If you are starting out and only want to show off your music, keep it small and simple. After you have built some experience about making music videos, then you can elaborate and experiment.
Generating a good low budget idea for a music video can come from the simplest thing, like a good prop, good lighting, or use of sexy dancer. When analyzing your song, think about how you want people to feel when they watch it. If it’s a dance song, you want them to dance, so dancers in your video would work. If it’s a love song, some actors playing out a love scene would work. Just remember less is always more.
The basics of a music video should first of all start with the idea, and then follow through with a minimum of 5 different scenes. Plan at least 5 scenes, so if one doesn’t work, you still have other to use. For example, in a dance song video you may plan the following:
1. Shot of singer with flashing lights
2. Shot of dancer with flashing lights
3. Shot of singer and dancer together
4. Shot of singer is throne while drinking champagne
5. Shot of singer, singing on a retro TV
Obviously this is just a basic idea, when you break each scene down, you will have a variety of shots for each scene including: angled shots, full length shots, close up shots, object/prop shots, CLOTHING/accessories shots, singing shots, no singing shots etc. This is good guideline to follow. This will also make more than enough footage for a simple low budget music video.
Think about simple props that you would use everyday that will cost you nothing and create a great scene. E.g. flowers from your garden, grapes and fruit, champagne/wine glasses, candles, sheets, lipstick, mirrors etc.
Sometimes just using the props that are available and using your initiative during filming can work, for example when on location, props like street lights, flowers, cars, brick walls etc. If you are in the studio there are always ample props available that maybe you hadn’t thought about during the planning stage, for example chairs, stereos, magazines, other areas etc.