Want to make own music (dslr) video

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Neil
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Hope this is in the right place. I am below average at best with digital photography and computor skills, so this is from a perspective as a inept enthusiast - i want to film my own music video. My current eos doesnt have vid capability so im giong for a second hand eos 650 as reviews vs budget seem ok.
I have some ok lenses including L series.
My thoughts on a laptop are i5 processor - again to do with budget and what ive learnt about the use of making a film like mini production on a laptop of approx £600.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Neil,
 
I'm not sure an SLR is the best choice at all for this unless you already owned it - far too much to get wrong and set manually if you don't know the ins and outs.
Not to say results can't be very good but there are easier ways to get video more than good enough for a music video at 1080p presumably.
 
It might be worth your while doing a search for a film makers forum. Huge numbers of people are doing lots of clever stuff using DSLRs as video cameras. I would guess the knowledge on this site (mostly stills based rather than moving image) might be fairly limited.

There are also lots of helpful film makers videos on youtube.

Hope your video works out well.
 
Are you talking about a band video, in which case you will need multiple cameras to be able to cut to different angles, eg wide shot close of guitarist solo, the singer, bass, drummer, also another shooter to operate the other camera, sound plays an important part in video, particulalrly music ones so a separate recording method, plus you will have to synchronise it all. Shooting road scenes, crashing waves, beach sort of stuff with a backing track is a different matter, but some of the afore mentioned comments still apply. It ain't nothing like shooting stills!
 
Do you own a smart phone with video capability. The iPhone 6 does very good video, the 7 is even better. Don't knock it 'cos it's a phone. Not used Samsungs but they may be OK as well. A simple tripod adapter costs around £30. Could be an inexpensive option. Any idea what software you'll be using?
 
Make sure the lighting is great.

You need to create a 'story' with a beginning, middle, end and a hero - so if it is a band, for example, make sure the hero is the frontman and give him maximum screen time.

Don't have any shots longer than 10 seconds max, so for a music video maybe even less.

Don't use and crazy wipes or transitions, so keep the cuts simple.

Don't try to be too clever, remember it's a video to enhance the music, not the other way round.
 
Or you could do it all in a single take with one camera as many excellent music videos in the past have been done. And of course, the band don't need to be in it at all.

Sounds like you're asking more about equipment than content or shooting techniques though. As alluded to by John above, your starting point should be 'any camera with video capability', then only look elsewhere when that prevents you from executing what you want done. The content is the important bit worthy of your time and effort.
 
Or you could do it all in a single take with one camera as many excellent music videos in the past have been done.

I can remember video like The Verve or Massive attack - vindaloo but that was a parody of The Verve - but they were all walking in the street type shots so plenty of movement to keep the audience interested. This of course would require setting the single shot up pretty well.

What others were you thinking about?
 
What others were you thinking about?

Radiohead had a very simple but pretty powerful one for No Surprises (Thom Yorke in an astronaut helmet).
OK GO of course - though theirs are usually next level production, particularly the latest one.
Feist - 1234
Lorde has done a very simple one.
Gary Jules - Mad World

Lots out there on the old Googlemachine.

You could look to long takes in film for inspiration as well. Many of which are far longer than most music videos. e.g. http://www.indiewire.com/2014/03/ranking-the-20-greatest-most-celebrated-long-takes-87699/
 
Radiohead had a very simple but pretty powerful one for No Surprises (Thom Yorke in an astronaut helmet).
OK GO of course - though theirs are usually next level production, particularly the latest one.
Feist - 1234
Lorde has done a very simple one.
Gary Jules - Mad World

Lots out there on the old Googlemachine.

You could look to long takes in film for inspiration as well. Many of which are far longer than most music videos. e.g. http://www.indiewire.com/2014/03/ranking-the-20-greatest-most-celebrated-long-takes-87699/


Great I'll check them out.

OK go are my favourites, the one with the running machines - love the song as well.

Have you seen their latest one with the slow motion shot? Realtime it's over in seconds but it's amazing to watch slowed down.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QvW61K2s0tA
 
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You don't need numerous cameras, just shoot multiple takes.

Make sure the lighting is good.

If you're using mains lighting, shoot at 25 or 50 fps. (In UK/EU)

Get one long wide shot with the full track. Put that on the time line. Overlay close ups, different angles etc. If mouth is in shot, needs to synch, other shots it matters less.

Cut on the beat.

If doing movement practice before hand.
 
Neil,
The eos650 will do fine for video. If you have a wide angle lens like the 18-55 kit lens, that should be all you need for camera and lens. You haven't specifically said what type of music video you want to do. Is it just setting up a camera on a tripod to record a performance of one or more people, and put it on youtube? That is fairly simple but you will still need to edit the audio and video, add titles and credits.
Generally for music it would be best to have a stand alone recorder and mic to record high quality audio. I use a Zoom R16 8 track as a stand alone recorder which has a very nice clean sound, though you might be able to use your computer as a recorder. In a music video, the audio is probably more important than the vdeo.You can get a decent condenser mic and mic stand used for about $75. You can EQ the audio, add echo, etc in an audio editor, and mix it down to a stereo track. Then you can sync it with the camera audio and mute the camera audio in the editor. You may not need multiple takes. In the video editor I use, I use a 2 to 3 second film dissolve transition before and after the closeups. Using Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, you can alter the lighting, simulate a spotlight, change the scene lighting, tint and color saturation, and zoom in and around the video frame (like cropping a still pic) on the vdeo to do close ups in the editor. As long as you record the video in 1080P (1920x1080 resolution) there's lots of ability to change what is in the frame by zooming in and around the frame. The Adobe Premiere Pro video editor links with Adobe Audition, their audio editor, so you can edit audio and video on the video timeline. Lights may not be necessary either. You can use room light and raise the iso to shoot in room light. I always shoot video with a tripod. I have a nice tripod I got for about $40 a couple of years ago that works fine. Your budget is plenty to work with. If you can do your video in 30 days, you can get a full version 30 day free trial of Premiere Pro and Audition on the Adobe website. Your i5 computer with 16GB of RAM will work fine, though rendering a 4 minute video after you have done all your edits may take an hour or two. I've done a number of videos of me and a friend playing and singing music to put on youtube, just for fun. I just did a 2 min 30 sec video this week. It took about an hour to set up the equipment and do a video and audio check, 5 minutes to record it, a couple of hours to edit it, and about an hour to render it.
Here's a link of one I did a few years ago. All the different camera angles were done in the editor from a single wide angle video taken in room light in a single take with a Nikon D3100. You can also see the film dissolve transitions. The instrument amps were mic'ed and the amp mics plugged into the recorder, and there is one audio mic. If I am recording just myself, I'll plug the instrument directly into the recorder and use a mic for the vocal, and use headphones to hear the instrument and vocal going into the recorder.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGtxpVLxCf4
 
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Crikey. Thanks so much for the replies. Will work my way through them asap.
I got a 750d in the end.
I also got a few songs finished so will try to link them here soon - they are fast beat so I'm thinking lots of cuts in the story board, but now they are finished I can work / mime in synch to them.
I'd given up hoping for responses so it's a real joy to find they were here all the time

Thanks so much
 
Do you own a smart phone with video capability. The iPhone 6 does very good video, the 7 is even better. Don't knock it 'cos it's a phone. Not used Samsungs but they may be OK as well. A simple tripod adapter costs around £30. Could be an inexpensive option. Any idea what software you'll be using?

It will almost definitely be iMovie as I now have a (2nd hand) iMac to hopefully help me along.
 
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. There are very few amateur videos posted here and even less comments. It would be a plus if more people posted their videos here and other amateurs felt free to provide feedback and comments. Even with the Richard Ashcroft video you posted, the responses on youtube were about 1 response for a thousand viewers.


Crikey. Thanks so much for the replies. Will work my way through them asap.
I got a 750d in the end.
I also got a few songs finished so will try to link them here soon - they are fast beat so I'm thinking lots of cuts in the story board, but now they are finished I can work / mime in synch to them.
I'd given up hoping for responses so it's a real joy to find they were here all the time

Thanks so much
 
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