The £18 Music Video
Last week my band Escape Fails packed up and headed off to shoot a music video for ‘In The Arms of the Storm’, a track from our debut album that we released last year.
I had talked with my nephew, Matt several months back after being impressed with a video he made for a university project and asked if he would be kind enough to film it for us.
Armed with only a pink HD Mini-Cam, a tripod from the 70’s and the hope of good weather we drove to our scenic location and set up. Ignoring many confused looks from by passers as to why we were mimicking a full scale onslaught of rock at a popular tourist location, we began shooting the video. At this stage I should point out that we had no budget, no storyboard other than the thoughts in my head and the direction from Matt, no professional equipment and acting skills were on stand by.
This weekend Matt and I made a start on the editing. I have worked on a few video projects in the
past, but we are talking 4 years ago when I myself was at university and it is a daunting experience for us both. We are using a trial version of Sony Vegas 9.0 Pro to put together the raw cut and we are basically learning as we go. I have learned a lot after my first day of editing, mainly:
- HD is a resource sucking bugger to edit on a mid range PC
- Storyboards are a valuable aid even on a shoe string production and in hindsight we should have developed one.
- Sony Vegas is frustrating when trying to preview cuts
- It takes a little more pepper than salt to make good scrambled eggs
So how much did it actually cost? Well it was around £18 and the break down is as follows:
- 2 Stroke motor oil to power the generator
- 8 Bottle’s of Water for Band & Crew
- 2 Subway Sandwiches for the editors
- Petrol used for transport there and back
It is now 8:43 on a fine Sunday morning in Belfast and I’m up reviewing yesterdays cut. Below are some stills from the first 80 seconds.
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