How To Make a DIY Music Video with No Money
Many people think that you need a lot of money or resources to create music videos.
That’s really not true at all.
In fact, you may have all the tools you need to create a music video in your pocket.
For the last video I did I actually just used my cell phone.
It’s important that you think of all of things you have access to now to create the best work that you can.
No one says music videos have to be perfect, they just have to get DONE.
Shooting music videos yourself can actually have major advantages over super polished music videos; it saves you money, helps you be ore creative and creates something that your audience will think it’s cool to look at.
How to Make a DIY Music Video:
Pick a theme and Location(s)
You want your music video to have some theme that your audience can follow… even if it’s seemingly random.
For my video to cover “Lovely Day”, my husband and I got to visit St. Louis and a few landmarks. We thought it’s make sense to record the video during an actual Lovely Day out as tourists.
Our theme was “Instagram Stories”. A lot of the shots were recorded as Instagram Boomerangs, Videos of me singing into my camera phone and my husband taking short shots of me.
Use what you already have access to
I didn’t have the budget, nor was I in close proximity to someone with resources to shoot a music video for me.
So, the next best thing I had was a Cell Phone.
We live in a time where everyone has access to a camera. If you have a cell phone, you have a camera.
One of my friends actually shot a short video all on his iPhone and it turned out amazing!
Ask your friends for help
Luckily, I had my husband help me out on this project. He directed me (because I’m awkward), recorded me and even encouraged me when I started to think it was stupid.
If you have good friends, I’m sure they’d be down to help you out.
Just don’t take all day and make sure you reward them. I’m sure they’d be excited just to hang out with you, but maybe buy them some pizza!
…Or Don’t
If you’re running solo, or just uncomfortable with the idea of asking someone to help you out, shoot it yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that.
As I mentioned before, there were shots of me singing into my phone. You can set a camera up on a tripod, desk, dresser, and put together your own music video
Sing/Rap/Play/Perform to the actual music
Have your music playing in your background as you’re recording your music video so you know what pace to sing or perform. This may seem silly, but it’s much easier to put together a music video already synced to the music than to try to piece it together and guess.
Add Music to Clips and Edit
To add the music and edit your music video, you can actually just use what’s available to you.
I have a PC and you can actually download Windows Movie Maker for Free!
I used Movie Maker for a LOT of my earlier cover videos I shared before and loved it.
Now, it has its limitations, but it got the job done when I needed it.
Most phones also come with some sort of video editing software.
My Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge (dated) came with it and I’m sure the newer phones have better software.
If you’d like, you can also get Adobe Clip on your phone as well. I’ve used that for light video editing.
Share Your Masterpiece!
Now that you have edited your music video, it’s time to share your art with the masses!
Post it everywhere; Instagram, Facebook, YouTube…Anywhere you can think of.
When posting, make sure you consider the dimensions and length of your music videos.
For example, if you post on IGTV, you may want to orient your videos to be portrait instead of landcape. If you post on YouTube, it’s best to post Landscape to utilize all of the space they give you.
If you post on Instagram stories, your clip needs to be 15 seconds or less in order to post correctly.
So make sure that you’re saving multiple versions of the same video to share with your audiences.
So, I hope this was helpful in your quest to create beautiful music and great art!
Keep Creating!
Love,
Alecia Renece