Production Process

                                    Pre-Production:

In order to make a successful music video planning is crucial. A thorough plan should identify; production aims, target audience, key messages and style. Summarizing a music video should be the starting point. This allows the production company to communicate idea to the artist and allows the artist to regard the direction the music video will take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storyboards:

After a music video summary is approved by either the record company or the artist, the next step is crating the storyboards. Storyboards are essential as they act as a great medium to help everyone involved gain a visual understanding of the summary.

Storyboards also serve as a communication tool between the artist and the production company where either party can feedback in a contextual way and suggest input.

An advantage of using storyboards would be that they act as a time saving tool which in the long run saves money. This is because storyboards keep to the process of filming and continue to stay focused on pre-planned and pre-determined angles and takes.

Casting:

If casting is necessary, a casting director has full control, but with some input from, director, producer or studio. Music videos do not usually require actors, as the only people present on screen are the artist or band members. However this does depend on the genre and narrative of the song, because storytelling-based treatments will require hiring of actors.

Location Scouting:

When filming on-location, in comparison to a controlled filming studio, there is a pre-production step that needs to be taken - location scouting. This process is usually done by directors in conjunction with the director of photography and occasionally the lighting technicians.

Licensing:

If an artist or group pay dues to ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers) or BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.), a synchronization license needs to be obtained, which allows the producer of the video to use copyrighted music in timed relation with a visual image. An

Production:

When filming action using digital video, (in most cases) its important to treat captured footage in order to make it compatible with TV broadcast standards. For example, there are a certain amount of limitations in the amount of colour luminosity that need to be respected. Its important to do a proper treatment of footage through colour correction to ensure that the final product will be broadcast-friendly and therefore considered for broadcast by TV stations.

 

Production Insurance:

With every video production, there is risk of loses, accidents or inconveniences that may ruin assets that are expensive or irreplaceable. In these situations it is very important that the production company provides insurance. The cost of production insurance depends on the conditions the production takes place from; weather conditions, stunts, third party liability and cost of equipment.

Post-Production:

Editing and Colouring:

Editing is the most important step of post-production. Without editing there wouldn't be any continuity. After all the footage has been captured and loaded up onto a system, the edited will layer out the shots onto a timeline and carefully select shots needed.The process can be very time consuming and its directly proportional to the amount of offstage captured, known as the principal photography stage.

Colour correction is the process which occurs after all the shots have been laid out on the timeline. Colour correction brings benefits to the final cut; ensure colour found in selected shots don't exceed limits by broadcasting standards and increases the consistency of colour throughout the video, and also creates a specific look for some or all clips on the timeline.

Transitions are used to join two clips together. Commonly used transitions are cross dissolve, fade-in, fade-out and dip to colour. In filmmaking, different transitions have different meaning. Fade can be used to express that a long period of time has passed between situations. On the other hand, cross dissolve can be used to cut between present time and a flashback scene.

Mastering:

Mastering is the process of flattening all the effects, transitions, colour correction and other effects into a format that can be distributed for broadcast. Mastering also involves making sure that audio levels are in the right place and that the final version is technically compliant with the rules of broadcasting.