How To Do Music Videos

From Fanlore
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Video Essay
Title: How To Do Music Videos
Creator: Stacy Doyle
Date(s): 1995 or earlier; last version has a 2000 date
Medium: printed handout
Length:
Footage:
Fandom:
Topic:
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

How To Do Music Videos is a how to guide handout created by Stacy Doyle in the mid 1990s. A copy of the original was retrieved from her CD data collection dated 1995 and it is posted here with permission. Two later versions dated 1999 and 2000 are posted below, showing how changes in tech progressed over time.

1995-1996 Version

"How To Do Music Videos"

What you need:

1) two VCR's

2) a tape deck or cd

3) RCA connecter cables (gold tipped would be nice-not required tho)

4) Source video tapes (you can make a music video with only a few tapes)

[All the visuals in I'm The Only One were from I Love You Rosie Malone]


5) Source audio tape/cd - the song you want

6) Stopwatch (you can use a digital watch w/seconds, but it's harder)

7) Binder (or "lined") paper

8) VHS tape - HiFi or preimum grade


"luxuries to do music videos" in order of importance...

VCR with a flying erase head [you lose the red/blue streaks]

VCR with "video dub" or "audio dub" (or both) [video -allows you to record

the visuals on the same tape as the audio track - easier playback to make

sure the words and the visuals fit. audio -allows you to put the audio on

the tape that the visuals have been recorded. Either of them allow you to

use the original visuals as the master tape. Every generation of video tape

from the original recording brings the visual and audio quality down.. closer

to the original the better]

VCR with good "pause" strobe or solorization (not on VCR w/flying erase head)

[allows you to use special effects to liven up a video.. or a good pause

allows you to end a video on a specific frame - a smile, a look or whatever]


Ok... now you have the music.

1) Write down all the words to the song on binder paper, skipping two lines

on the page for every line of the song.


2) Time out the song with the stopwatch how many seconds is each line (i've

been told that I don't have to do this, but I always have).


3) Write the visuals you want to use on the line under the song line...

indicate which tape it's on (helpful when you use something like 'standing in

Dobey's office as the cue)


4) Cue up the first three or four scenes (assuming they are on different

tapes)


5) Start at the beginning and put your first two or three visuals down and

go back and play the music with the visuals (turn the sound off on the tv and

listen to the music thru headphones... Make sure the visuals line up the way

you want them too.. You will find that there is a 'lag time' from the point

you unpause the VCR to the time it starts to record the imput. Every machine

has it - you just have to figure out how long it is and release the pause

button accordingly...


6) Repeat the process as long as it takes to put all the scenes together.


Before I start a video, I have listened to the music for (probably) about

3 hours - trying to figure out the visuals, memorizing the tempo, listening

to the words and generally working out how I want the finished video to look.

My first video took 17 hours to do. I did "I'm The Only One" over a two day

period and it took less than 4 hours... I am a perfectionist and I want what

I want.

1999

Note: this is retrieved from an early version and there may be typos and other errors. Note that this still focuses on analog vidding with VCRs.

First, some basic terminology:

Clip: one scene or piece of video in a vid. Each clip should be at least 15 frames, unless you are doing a montage of very short clips.

Flash:one or two frames of the wrong clip between two correct clips

Frame:when you pause a tape, you are looking at one frame of video. There are 30 frames of video a second.

Input : usually 3 states on a editing deck: broadcast, L1 or L2

Insert editing:dubbing

Source machine: the other machine, the one you have eps of the show in.

RCA cables:as opposed to Coaxial cable. You should use these to connect your two machines. Don't get the cheapest possible, and get the shortest ones that work on your system. You will need two or three: one video, 1 or 2 audio.

Sync machine:editing deck; the one that has video dubbing capabilities—the one you have the master tape in; generally your better machine.

Pause for as short a time as possible; it stretches tape

Hardware

Look for a deck that does Insert Editing (sometimes called Video Dub), flying erase head and a jog shuttle: preferably with the jog shuttle *on the deck* rather than the remote. We found about 4 last year (price limit <$500) and for various reasons settled on the Mitsubishi. It still has some problems, but does have the jog shuttle, and it's the same brand as the one we already had (which has the advantage that the remote that came with it can control both VCRs). When buying an editing deck, buy the one that has the most buttons on the VCR. Having all of the commands accessible only from the remote is fine for most users who rarely if ever change their settings. For vidders, it is annoying and stupid.

For the best signal transfer, we use gold-tipped RCA cables (not coaxial). At RadioShack last weekend, they seemed to be the most common, and not outrageously priced.

Do not save money on your master tape. Buy the most expensive tape you can find (usually called "pro quality" tape); it's thicker and will tend to resist the inevitable stretching better.

Hooking up your decks

Carefully set up the equipment: at least your sync (or edit) VCR will have three input settings: a broadcast signal (or channel), and signals from 'L1' and 'L2'. The edit deck will have a second set of input jacks, usually in front, where you will hook the cables from the source deck. We have the edit deck cabled to the TV. This part is usually really frustrating till you get it figured out.

Source (set to a channel)-----> Sync (set to L2) ----> TV

Laying down the music:

Put your master tape in your editing machine. Take a RCA cable from (out) your audio source (tape or CD player) to your editing VCR (in) into the front inputs if you have them. Set the input of the editing deck to L2. Set the source deck input to broadcast, and find a good, strong broadcast signal with lots of action (no talking heads).

Background note: To do the 'insert edit' or video dub, you have to insert over something. It's like the electrons on the tape are in a miscellaneous order before you record anything, and recording the video signal orders them and makes it possible to 'insert' over. Insert editing onto blank tape doesn't work.

Some vidders lay down a black background, but we find that it's easier to determine where to insert clips at first if you have some action to clue you when to start dubbing. (And if it's annoying, it's fun to cover the source up.)

Press record. If you have set everything up correctly, you should see video from whatever channel your source deck is set to, and no audio.

Record at least 20 seconds of video before you start the audio, (and about the same amount of silent video at the end). Start your audio source. You should hear the audio as if it is coming through your TV, and if you have audio channel displays on your VCR, you should see movement on them. (Make sure to stop the audio source at the end of the song.) Wait another 20 seconds and stop recording.

Go back to the beginning of the tape. Did the audio start cleanly? If you did any editing to the song, (fading in, fading out, etc) does it sound all right? (Right now, write down the song name and starting time on the tape itself—you'll thank yourself later.)

Now you're ready to start vidding.

The actual insert process

Note: this is how it works on our Mitsubishis, YMMV.

First, set your audio.

  • On your edit deck, set the audio mix to off, and your audio monitor to MONO.
  • Remove all audio input cables from the Edit machine. Otherwise, you'll be putting dialog from each clip on your master tape (you may want to do this as an effect, but there's no reason to do it otherwise).

Then insert your video

On the source tape, find the scene you wish to insert onto the tape in the edit deck (the synch or master tape). Pause or stop this deck before the part of the clip you want to copy.

Listen to the song on the synch tape, and decide *exactly* where to stop, and where to end. (This is especially hard for the first clip.

Generally, listen to the song, hit pause as soon as you come to the place you want the clip to go, and then use the jog shuttle to go back 8-12 clicks to compensate for the slowness of human response.) If you are putting a clip just after a clip you've already laid down, again press pause at the end, then use the jog shuttle to find the *exact* frame you wish the insert to start dubbing over. (What you do now depends on how much 'roll' your machine has—this varies from machine to machine, and you'll have to experiment on your own machine to figure it out.) Move forward or back the number of clicks you need for your own machines rollback or rollforward.

Press "Video Dub" or "Insert Edit"

Now you can see the image from the source tape. Start the source taping playing. When you get to the right part of the scene, press Pause on the edit deck. This starts the dubbing. At the end of the musical phrase on the edit deck, press Pause or Stop to stop the dubbing. (To stop the dubbing 'automatically', you can "set a stop bit." That is, using the jog shuttle, go to the exact place you'd like the clip to end. Set the display to 00:00 at this point (on our remote, the command is Cancel.) This can be more precise that you could be (especially if you want the clip to stop "off' the beat, which can be hard to hear), but some machines don't have a very precise stop bit, and setting the bit can be very time consuming.

2000

By 2000, digital/computer editing was becoming more widespread so the handout was edited to reflect the additional option

What you need:

  • Two VCR’s – one with Video Dub (also called insert)
  • A TV
  • 3 RCA cables and one coax cable
  • Audio source (audio tape player or CD)
  • Best (most expensive) quality tape (to make the video on)
  • Source material (the show or clips you want to make the video of)

What you might want:

  • A tape of black (also referred to as “black back”)
  • Words/lyrics of song

The actual Set Up (for VCR’s with insert capabilities aka video dub)

  1. Decide which is your play and which is your record VCR.
  2. Connect the RCA cables to the “video out” from the play VCR to the “video in” of the record VCR.
  3. Connect the left and right audio out from your music source to the left and right audio in on the record VCR
  4. Connect the Coax cable from the back of the record VCR to a TV.
  5. The basic set up is complete……

Starting to Make a Music Video:

Fast forward and rewind the tape before you begin (takes up tape slack)

  1. You need to get the music set on the video. To record music on a tape, you have to have a video signal. You can record “black back” (a black background) as your starting point or any video signal or junk video will do.
  2. Set the Record VCR to record and have it paused.
  3. Start recording the background BEFORE you start the music (if you don’t, you might end up with a white flash at the beginning of the video)
  4. Record the music and press pause or stop at the end of the song but let the VCR record several seconds after the end of the song.
  5. Play it back from beginning to end to make sure that the tape is in good condition, that the sound is clear (no warbles), and that there are no flashes in the recording.
  6. Once the music is down, set the recording VCR to MONO (not HiFi or Mix). When you video dub your clips in, it records over the hifi track… if it is in mono, it will allow you to hear how the clips look as they are added to the tape. (Do not attach the audio of the play machine to the recording VCR because it will record the dialoge, music or whatever from the original source…. Not usually a good thing)
  7. You are set to start. Go to the beginning of the song.
  8. Cue up the first clip ( or two) for your video in the play VCR.
  9. Once you have some clips ready, set your record VCR to the spot you want to start, pause the tape and press the insert button (this usually lights up a red display on the VCR that says ‘V Dub’.
  10. On the play VCR, rewind to before the scene/clip you want and press the play button…..
  11. Now comes the tricky part, you will learn how fast your record VCR ‘picks up’ and starts to record. Every VCR is different…. When you press the pause button, the record VCR will kick in and start recording.
  12. When the clip is done, press pause again before pressing stop.
  13. Review the clip to see a) where the VCR picked up the clip, b) to see if the clip is what you want, c) to see if the clip was long enough for the line
  14. Repeat the process until the video is done……

Some basic terminology:

Clip—one scene or piece of video in a vid. Each clip should be at least 15 frames, unless you are doing a montage of very short clips.

Flash—one or two frames of the wrong clip between two correct clips

Frame—when you pause a tape, you are looking at one frame of video. There are 30 frames of video a second.

Input - usually 3 states on a editing deck: broadcast, L1 or L2

Insert editing—dubbing

Source machine- the other machine, the one you have eps of the show in.

RCA cables—as opposed to Coaxial cable. You should use these to connect your two machines. Don't get the cheapest possible, and get the shortest ones that work on your system. You will need two or three: one video, 1 or 2 audio.

Gold tipped are (usually) better quality and hold the video signal better

Sync machine—editing deck; the one that has video dubbing capabilities—the one you have the master tape in; generally your better machine. It is

Pause for as short a time as possible; it stretches tape

Hardware

Look for a deck that does Insert Editing (sometimes called Video Dub), flying erase head and a jog shuttle: preferably with the jog shuttle *on the deck* rather than the remote. We found about 4 last year (price limit <$500) and for various reasons settled on the Mitsubishi. It still has some problems, but does have the jog shuttle, and it's the same brand as the one we already had (which has the advantage that the remote that came with it can control both VCRs). When buying an editing deck, buy the one that has the most buttons on the VCR. Having all of the commands accessible only from the remote is fine for most users who rarely if ever change their settings. For vidders, it is annoying and stupid.

For the best signal transfer, we use gold-tipped RCA cables (not coaxial). At RadioShack last weekend, they seemed to be the most common, and not outrageously priced.

Do not save money on your master tape. Buy the most expensive tape you can find (usually called "pro quality" tape); it's thicker and will tend to resist the inevitable stretching better.

Ways to assemble a vid:

1. “low tech” (connecting two VCR’s with basic features)

Advantages: Inexpensive: If you can dupe tapes and have a way to feed music into your VCR you have all that you need to do this.

Disadvantages:

  • Everything must be assembled in order.
  • Hard to make clips line up with music.
  • “Rainbow Noise” distortions to image due to lack of flying erase heads disturbing the tape particles.
  • Loss of image/audio quality due to extra generation required.
  • No special effects other than what is in source material available.
  • Only mono sound available.

2. Insert Edit (connecting two VCR’s with advanced features)

Advantages:

  • Getting to be reasonably priced: JVC now has S-VHS editing decks starting at around $400. You can use an older VHS deck as a source deck to help keep initial costs down.
  • Can assemble clips in any order.
  • Relatively easy to place clips relative to music although many consumer level decks do not always start or stop exactly where instructed.

Disadvantages:

  • Only mono sound available. Inserting clips also covers up the stereo track on the tapes. (Note: this can sometimes be used to interesting effect to combine source dialog or sounds and music).
  • Still on tape so there is image loss in duplicates, but dupes are one level up from “low tech version”


3. Pro-Level Analog Editing (with editing board or other add on equipment)

Advantages:

  • Special effects
  • Stereo sound

Disadvantages:

  • Cost
  • Still analog (not digital)

4. Digital Editing (with a computer)

Advantages:

  • Lossless once created.
  • Stereo sound
  • Visual effects (fades, etc)

Disadvantages:

  • Cost (if one has a new enough system this is mitigated) for fast storage and a good capture board
  • Pixelization if compression is too high. Need board with low compression rates and enough fast storage.


Other Considerations:

Aesthetic Considerations:

1. Choosing a song

  • Mood of the show
  • Mood of song
  • What do you want to say?

2. Choosing clips* "POV – who is the song talking about and ‘how’

  • (are the lines “I” or are they “He”?)
  • Make your POV clear


Speed of song to clip 3. Is it a fast paced song? And do the clips have motion?

4. Distributing Vids:

  • Duping Masters
  • Organizing A Master Tape, or what song comes next
  • Pro Duping

On the web: some Caveats

  • Visibility to TPTB
  • Poor image quality

Resources:

  • Vidder-L – a one list community
  • Randy’s digital vidding page
  • Is MVD’s page still up?
  • Electronic mailbox – www.videoguys.com copy breakers and digital vidding
Pro Duping - Cheap, fast and don’t seem to mind vids. Western Media www.westernmedia.com

Retrieved from "https://fanlore.org/w/index.php?title=How_To_Do_Music_Videos&oldid=2060632"