I intern at production studio... That's where I have learned everything. If you don't have opportunities to learn from someone experienced I suggest doing what a lot of directors did to learn - watch. Watch a lot of music videos and pay attention to the different cutaways, angles, and techniques.
I don't do music videos but here are the three production steps:
Pre-Production: Find your locations, write your script, make a budget if needed. Write a shot-list that has all of the materials you will need and the locations for each different shot.
Mid-Production: Call up actors, or the artist the video is for. Have your shotlist ready by order of location so you don't need to go back and forth. Go to each location and shoot each of your shots.
Post-Production: Put a rough cut together - it won't have any sound or transitions edited yet. It is just a rough video of the story being told. Then, go through and cut clips to make transitions smoother, add effects, use sound for cutaways, etc.
I hope this helps at all. I'm sure there are more in depth tutorials on the net. Good luck.
For a normal film you usually lay out all your video and then do your audio, but it would make more sense in this case to lay your audio out first.
Lay down the song on the editing timeline, thats called your master track. Wait... Before I explain this, do you mind telling me what you have for editing software, and if you already have the footage or not? I can show you how to do it but it would be pointless if you have never used the software before. Let me know.
Thanks,
QoS
Alright. For pre production you decide all of your locations. Yeah, most music videos the MC's change locations frequently.
After pre production go out and shoot all your footage at your multiple locations. Then, import all of your clips into adobe premiere. Maybe each clip will have one line from the verse.
Let's say you have a verse of 5 lines at 5 different locations:
AUDIO (the master mp3 of the song): -----Line 1-----Line2------Line3------Line4------Line5------
VIDEO (several different clips filmed): -----Line 1-----Line2------Line3------Line4------Line5------
You match them up one by one. Just cut and lay em down over the audio to match them with the vocals. I think you are over-thinking it. The only difference between the video and audio is that the audio stays the same while the video is a bunch of cut up clips. There is no reason to overlay your video tracks and then cut them like in your diagram. If it still doesn't make sense let me know.
Oh ok I got you. Yeah I was just wondering if just cutting clips and stuff or am i just over thinking the whole process! Thanks a lot for the help.
You're not over thinking it, you are right on track. I wouldn't say it's completely random, you have to have a feel for what works but I'm not going to lie and say every shot and cut is preplanned. Your system would work however you have to be careful not to break a basic rule. If you are cutting between shots and different locations then you need to make sure to not create a jump cut. A jump cut occurs when you switch between two similar shots. Meaning, two shots that are framed in similar ways. Don't have two close up back to back, two mediums, extreme wides etc... Camera Shots Is a good list of all the basic shots.
yes adobe premiere is not as bad as it looks.. its really pretty easy.. just sit down study the look of the program.. learn your basics of cutting and sliding your clips to match your track.. very easy..