Video making and film making can be an expensive project. The cost of recording, mixing, duplicating, buying copyrights, distribution, etc. can be very high. But if you plan effectively and utilize all your resources correctly, you can create an impressively low budget music video.
There have been a lot of low budget passion projects which turned out to be the most artistically impressive and influential videos. Mentioned below is a beginner’s guide to making music videos with cost-effective tricks.
Low Budget Actors
Find actors who are ready to work for free or with a minimal fee. Your friends can help you by playing the different characters you want in your video. Try to designate roles that suit their personality the best.
If you want a crowd, you can shoot at a public place, someplace where other logistics can also be easily managed. You can also ask your actor friends to bring along their friends to help you with the video.
To make things simpler and organized, you can make the team. Make sure everyone on the team is clear on what their responsibilities are. Some of the important roles you will require to be done apart from the actors are camera person, lighting person, director, etc.
One Location
You might dream about an elaborate set and picturesque long angle shots to make your video aesthetically appealing. But in a low budget movie, you cannot afford that. Try to make the production as simple as possible.
Invest your resources in working your best with a primary location rather than wasting time trying to find a place far away, coordinating the arrival of your team, etc. The place you least expect to be worthy, like the terrace of your apartment, the park you go for jogging, etc. can be exciting locations.
Plan a Detailed Storyboard
When you start filming your video, a lot of new problems will resurface of which you might not have thought of before. An efficiently planned storyboard will help you take into consideration the smallest details like the color of the costumes, the time of the day you will shoot, weather conditions, background noises, etc. Thinking of this ahead of the shoot will save you both time and money.
If it is a music video, remember details like phonetic dictation of the lyrics, mouth sounds, reversing the audio of the track. Decide on the mechanism you will use to achieve all these tasks. On the spot planning can rattle you and force you to make sudden decisions that can be heavy on your pocket.
Choose Your Equipment
Do not worry about the lack of a professional shooting camera. There have been plenty of advertisements, commercials, music videos that were shot on the phone, and they made it big. Moreover, technology is advancing rapidly now and less expensive HD camcorders, GoPro’s are available in the market.
Rather than investing your money and energy in finding the right equipment, focus on the right lighting and angle when shooting your video. Bad lighting can ruin a video shot from a professional camera as well. You can also borrow a camera and other types of equipment needed by close friends and family.
Edit it Yourself
The real storytelling is through the editing you do. Your shoot can go exceptionally well, you might have high-quality footage, but if the editing is not done right, your video can fail to be impactful. You do not have to invest money in getting your video edited from someone else; you can easily do it yourself.
There are numerous editing software such as outro maker with no watermark, and video intro maker free, available both online and offline, which will allow you to do a decent video editing job.
Almost all computers and digital devices are capable of running video editing software. However, they take up a lot of hard drive space; hence remember to keep your hard drive empty before beginning to download the software.
Understand Your Video
Take time to watch the video multiple times, identify the essential parts, parts that can be cut, understand the overall appeal of your video, etc. Try to think about why do you want to keep certain parts and why. Answering these questions will allow you to balance the tone of the video and its visual appeal.
Do Not Undercut
You might feel attached to the whole video because you would have invested in shooting the entire video. However, it is essential to cut and keep only the necessary parts to keep the video short and crisp. A long video loses its appeal and impacts quickly.
Keep Saving the Original
Keep saving the original as you move forward with editing your movie. You might need to retrieve the cut parts later due to sudden changes in the theme of the video, tone of the video, etc. Save the cut clips in a sequential order to avoid confusion later.
Ask Friends and Family for Feedback
Before you start promoting the video for its release, ask your friends and family to give you candid feedback. Video making experts hire professionals to review their videos. To cut the cost of that, you can show it to your friends and family.
Make notes of how they react to your video and think of how you want your audience to react. This will help you strike a correct balance between your vision and what the audience wants.
Promote it the right way
People these days are heavily dependent on social media. Use this to your advantage and promote your video there rather than spending big bucks on elaborate promotional advertising. While shooting the video, remember to take still shots and behind the scene videos which can be used for promotions.
The majority of the video editing platforms now offer video templates for social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Promote your video and do the other usual things like emailing links to fans, Instagram stories, tagging contests, etc.
Conclusion
Ultimately, remember that the video making experience should be rewarding for you. You are not just putting effort into your audience but also yourself. Do not stress over it unnecessarily, and remember to relax, strategize, take risks, and enjoy the overall process.
