How to Make a Great Music Video

Learn the fine art of making a great music video.

Making a great music video is all about finding the right combination of visual elements to perfectly complement the song, and editing them together in synchronous time with the music. This is a technique anyone can develop with practice, and the end result could be something really amazing. All great music videos seem like a natural extension of the song, and the best music videos will stay in memory even when the song is played by itself.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Video editing software
• digital music file
• digital video files

1. Choosing the best song is key to making a great music video. guitar guitarist music musical instrument image by david hughes from Fotolia.com

   Choose the best possible song to make your video. It should be well-crafted, well-recorded and have universal elements that will evoke emotional responses from a wide variety of people, not just your friends and family. If you don't start with a great song, it's much harder to make a great video.

2. Collect video assets that best complement the song you've chosen. Live concert Gig image by Frenk_Danielle Kaufmann from Fotolia.com

   Collect your visual assets. These can be photographs, digital video or a combination of the two. The song you've chosen to make a great music video for will elicit emotional responses from listeners, and it is important to choose imagery that will complement and even enhance that response. If you are cutting a video for a sad song, don't use happy visuals.

3. Match your video edits to the rhythm of the music. wave form image by Jesse-lee Lang from Fotolia.com

   Add your images to the beat of the music. Just about every song has a defined tempo, a recognizable rhythm to it that you can identify. Maybe you tap your foot to the snare drum, or tap your fingers with the recurring bass line. Listen to the music, identify this rhythm and cut your footage to match it. The tempo of the visuals should match the tempo of the song - if you're making a great video for a slow song, you won't have any fast, choppy edits.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not use any copyrighted material in your project. Not only will you not be able to promote the final work as your own creation, you can also suffer severe infringement penalties, including fines and possible incarceration.

References

• Haitian Beats: Make A Good Music Video

Resources

• Sourceforge: Free, Open-Source Video Editing Software