How to do promo videos?

[PaulFenderJazz]

My band has been regularly gigging for a couple of years now. I’ve been trying to get some reasonable video of live performances to put on our FB page, and the only way I’ve done it till now has been to put a camera in a corner and press record, and then cut what comes out into individual songs. You can see the kind of thing on our page: www.facebook.com/wearemovingtargets. This is “OK” as at least potential bookers and punters can get an idea of what we sound like; but it’s not really any kind of professional presentation. 

Does anyone have any experience of making a more sophisticated video, with actual cuts between different shots, over a song? I’m struggling with how to keep one audio track underneath and to ensure the video keeps in sync with the audio. I’ve been using apps to cut and paste stuff together, but the basic ones don’t have the exactness of editing accuracy needed, and before I look at spending cash on something more sophisticated I thought I’d throw it out there to see who’s had any experience that can help.

[BigRedX]

The easiest way is to get someone else to do it for you. There are plenty of budding film-makers around who will do the job for £100-200.

This Terrortones "performance" video was done for about £150 which included hiring the venue where it was shot, took a couple of hours to film and the approved edit was completed by the end of the week.

 

[roman_sub]

I would agree with above, if you are looking for one-off video, you'd probably spend less time/money/hassle and achieve a better result if you hire someone to do it. 

As a shameless plug - let me know if you want any location recording of audio. I have just finished setting a full, pro level location recording set up to record anywhere.

[Al Krow]

On 02/07/2018 at 07:37, PaulFenderJazz said:

Does anyone have any experience of making a more sophisticated video, with actual cuts between different shots, over a song? I’m struggling with how to keep one audio track underneath and to ensure the video keeps in sync with the audio. I’ve been using apps to cut and paste stuff together, but the basic ones don’t have the exactness of editing accuracy needed, and before I look at spending cash on something more sophisticated I thought I’d throw it out there to see who’s had any experience that can help.

I'm heading down a similar path in terms of video editing, so I read your post with interest. I got hold of a copy of Power Director a while back (I've got version 15 but I think 16 is just out) but have only just started to get to grips with it. I'll have to admit it's making movie editing both very do-able and fun! It's in a completely different league to basic editing software such as Windows Movie Maker, but there are a bunch of alternatives out there - this one seemed to be well regarded and was reasonably priced.

The other thing I've managed to do is to get a relatively good audio from using a Rode Stereo mic attached to my video camera, by simply cutting the input by -10dB (which is an option on the mic) - that simplifies things a fair bit in terms of having audio and video sync'd (although I suspect decent editing software makes this fairly straight-forward too). This won't, however, be in the same league as what roman_sub would be able to provide in terms of sound, I am sure.

The final piece of the jigsaw for us will be to get a mate to come along to gigs and record video from different / close up camera angle and then combine the footage from the two sources using just the audio track from the "main" video cam / Rode Stereo mic.

I'm going to be "brave" and share my first effort at video editing which I did in couple of hours last night with Power Director, so you can see for yourself what I'm talking about and whether with additional camera footage this could provide you with a half decent recording:

I think this approach could be useful if you're looking to do multiple promo videos to keep things fresh.

Obviously if you're getting just one professionally looking promo video done then, as mentioned by the guys above, it's worth thinking about getting someone more expert involved - which is what we did with my other band in pulling together a Showreel:

 

Edited July 4, 2018 by Al Krow

[wateroftyne]

You can do some OK 'on the fly and on the cheap' recordings with a couple of well-placed Zoom recorders, and some edits to face more cameras. The effect can be kinda grungy, but it gets the job done. Here's a couple I made:

..of course these are no replacement for a good pro shoot.

[PaulFenderJazz]

Hi everyone: thanks for all your advice. I think we’ll try a bit more diy first of all, but bearing in mind that getting in a pro is actually a lot less than I thought it would be!

[BigRedX]

If you really are going to go the DIY route there are a number of things to consider.

1. Make sure that your band are behaving in a photogenic way when you do the shoot. Get them all to dress appropriately and actually put on a performance. It is a video after all. If you can't look entertaining then your video is going to do more harm than good. Make sure there's nothing distracting happening off-stage, in the audience, or in the background. It's about your band not anything else.

2. You'll need several camera angles that you can cut between in order to make the video interesting. That means either more than one camera person filming the gig; playing the song more than once to capture a few different angles; or knowing that you can cut in bits from other songs with a different angle. On the actual song concentrate on the singer, and get the rest of the shots from other songs. Trust me no-one will notice that the musicians aren't actually playing what is on the soundtrack. Good hand-held moving shots always add interest.

3. You'll need good quality audio to go with your visuals. That means something better than what the camera mic is capturing. Personally I'd go into a recording studio and get a good live take of your band so that it sounds like it would a gig but a proper mix and no mistakes, and then cut the video to match this. If you are going add some audience reaction make sure that it is all very enthusiastic but in relation to size of the gig.

4. Keep it short and snappy. No-one is going to spend ages watching your video. Unless it is brilliantly put together and entertaining most bookers will give it a minute, tops. Either pick your best short snappy song, or if you are going for a compilation to show your range, then a great intro followed by the just the choruses of 4 or so exceptionally catchy songs.

As you can see, a single static camera in the corner isn't really going to cut it. And unless you have a friend with a good eye for visual composition who will act as your camera person, you are probably going to have to hire someone to film your band you might as well get them to edit it too.

But if you really want to edit it yourself, then you'll need some decent software. If you have a Mac then you already have iMovie. If you are a Creative Cloud subscriber access to Premier and After Effects is included in your plan. DaVinci Resolve is cross platform, there's a free version, and it's pretty good, but you may find that you'll need to upgrade to the paid for version in order to get some of the more interesting features.

Edited July 5, 2018 by BigRedX

[pete.young]

On 04/07/2018 at 00:09, Al Krow said:

 

 

Also a good move to put the least photogenic member of the band out of camera shot. Give Andy my regards when you see him, we go way back.

[PaulFenderJazz]

10 hours ago, pete.young said:

Also a good move to put the least photogenic member of the band out of camera shot. Give Andy my regards when you see him, we go way back.

Haha, that’s makes me the cameraman, then!

[PaulFenderJazz]

18 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

+1 BRX

I’d even go as far to say that at least half the battle is a very good standard of audio.

I can’t remember how many videos I’ve ended after a couple of seconds because the audio was severely underwhelming.

Very good point, the sound is where it all starts, right?

[PaulFenderJazz]

18 hours ago, BigRedX said:

If you really are going to go the DIY route there are a number of things to consider.

1. Make sure that your band are behaving in a photogenic way when you do the shoot. Get them all to dress appropriately and actually put on a performance. It is a video after all. If you can't look entertaining then your video is going to do more harm than good. Make sure there's nothing distracting happening off-stage, in the audience, or in the background. It's about your band not anything else.

2. You'll need several camera angles that you can cut between in order to make the video interesting. That means either more than one camera person filming the gig; playing the song more than once to capture a few different angles; or knowing that you can cut in bits from other songs with a different angle. On the actual song concentrate on the singer, and get the rest of the shots from other songs. Trust me no-one will notice that the musicians aren't actually playing what is on the soundtrack. Good hand-held moving shots always add interest.

3. You'll need good quality audio to go with your visuals. That means something better than what the camera mic is capturing. Personally I'd go into a recording studio and get a good live take of your band so that it sounds like it would a gig but a proper mix and no mistakes, and then cut the video to match this. If you are going add some audience reaction make sure that it is all very enthusiastic but in relation to size of the gig.

4. Keep it short and snappy. No-one is going to spend ages watching your video. Unless it is brilliantly put together and entertaining most bookers will give it a minute, tops. Either pick your best short snappy song, or if you are going for a compilation to show your range, then a great intro followed by the just the choruses of 4 or so exceptionally catchy songs.

As you can see, a single static camera in the corner isn't really going to cut it. And unless you have a friend with a good eye for visual composition who will act as your camera person, you are probably going to have to hire someone to film your band you might as well get them to edit it too.

But if you really want to edit it yourself, then you'll need some decent software. If you have a Mac then you already have iMovie. If you are a Creative Cloud subscriber access to Premier and After Effects is included in your plan. DaVinci Resolve is cross platform, there's a free version, and it's pretty good, but you may find that you'll need to upgrade to the paid for version in order to get some of the more interesting features.

Really good points, thanks, especially about making sure the performers are performing!

[Al Krow]

On 05/07/2018 at 15:22, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

+1 BRX

I’d even go as far to say that at least half the battle is a very good standard of audio.

I can’t remember how many videos I’ve ended after a couple of seconds because the audio was severely underwhelming.

Totally agree that great sound is key!

On 05/07/2018 at 14:57, BigRedX said:

3. You'll need good quality audio to go with your visuals. That means something better than what the camera mic is capturing. Personally I'd go into a recording studio and get a good live take of your band so that it sounds like it would a gig but a proper mix and no mistakes, and then cut the video to match this. If you are going add some audience reaction make sure that it is all very enthusiastic but in relation to size of the gig.

Agreed with BRX that the built-in camera mic is never likely to be that good, and a lot of folk have also recommended using a separate sound recording mic in order to by-pass the limitations of cameras' pre-amp which, except in high-end gear, is often going to be a limitation.

I have however been pleasantly surprised that, after experimenting with different input settings and distances from the PA speakers, I've now managed to get (IMHO!) a pretty decent sound with a fixed Rode Stereo Video mic, with the input cut by -10dB to avoid distortion. 

Ignoring the video element, I'd be interested to hear what folk think of the sound in the two clips in my post above? (Please have a listen through headphones). The first clip is very much "diy" i.e. Rode Stereo Video Mic via 3.5mm jack into a Panasonic V750 videocam. The second clip is "semi pro" produced with the instruments and vocals separately recorded and then over-layed onto a video of us playing live with drummer keeping the band to time via an in ear click beat, to facilitate syncing the sound and video.

I'd be really interested in your thoughts as to whether you feel there is a big difference in sound quality between the two?