Music videos can be expensive items. It hurts to spend thirty, fifty, or even a hundred of your hard-earned money grand on something you basically give away for free!
So it can be very tempting to save some money by shooting your own music video. I mean, video cameras come in cell phones today, and HDTV is getting less expensive. Cameras are everywhere. They are ubiquitous. And deep down, everyone imagines himself as a director, sorry, an author, doesn’t he? …
So should you consider doing it alone and shooting your own music video?
The short answer: NO.
Directors, producers, cinematographers, and production designers are all artisans. It takes years of study and work experience to become a decent filmmaker. You wouldn’t leave the design of your CD to a guy you ran into on the street, right? So why even consider making something as important as your first music video on your own? It may seem like a simple job, but trust me, producing and directing is not easy!
Can you tell the difference between a low-budget indie movie and a Hollywood summer blockbuster? Of course he can! That is exactly the difference between recording the video yourself and hiring a professional. You don’t know how to make the movie look so brilliant and perfect, but the pros do! The best you can hope for is a decent indie movie. Sure, every once in a while a home music video comes out and it does just fine. But can you even think of one (and, no, Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” was NOT a standalone video, the budget was really huge). So stick with the pros. Let them do it all for you.
However, the biggest reason it would discourage you from shooting your own music video is probably not one you would have guessed:
Sure!
Film crews are usually made up of twenty, thirty, or even hundreds of people. Typically massive amounts of power are run through thick cables (often dipped in puddles) to precariously hung lights with a virtual windmill of large, exposed, sharp metal edges (and all of this at about 600 degrees Celsius) . A film set is literally an accident waiting to happen.
Plus, in addition to the inherent dangers of a film set, music video recordings tend to be even more dangerous (music video productions usually don’t have a lot of money for things like security experts and safety harnesses). Maverick directors love to put their subjects in jeopardy. And, in low-budget shots, you can often hear things like: “We don’t need an expensive car mount, let’s throw the cameraman on the hood! Don’t worry, we’ll tie it up …”
So if you decide to record your video yourself, make sure no one trips over a light stand! It could cost you your life savings.
Legitimate production companies will have production insurance that covers the workplace (this insurance would cost you around a thousand or two thousand dollars, just for a music video).
Professional producers and production managers will have access to better team members than you. If you only have a thousand bucks to hire a cinematographer (cinematographer), I guarantee that I’ll be able to hire a cinematographer MUCH better than you! So unless you have industry contacts, you should probably consider hiring a production company to do all the production for you. That way you will get a much higher quality crew.
And, one final note …
If you’re shooting 35mm film (which I highly recommend, unless there’s a VERY good reason not to), you’ll need to rent a camera that’s worth around half a million dollars! And that camera doesn’t come with lenses (no tripods, no dollies, no movie magazines, etc.). You will have to rent all of that separately. Therefore, unless you have a VERY high limit on your credit card, the camera may not even be willing to rent to you. You may even have to mortgage your home to cover the deposit!
Established production companies rent camera packages all the time (a decent music video package will cost at least a thousand or two thousand dollars a day) and often receive significant discounts on the rental house that you could not get. So by going with an established production company, you are actually getting a considerably better kit of equipment than if you had made it yourself (producers also know how to get movies for about a quarter of the price you could get).
So overall, you will get a better investment by hiring a professional producer or production company to shoot your music video. It will also save you an incredible amount of time and effort. And in the end, isn’t that what you want for your first video – the best music video absolutely possible?
Robert D. Brooks