Band promo

Seany

Hey folks,

Just wondering if I could get a bit of advice from anyone who has experience putting together short promo for bands.

Basically spend a good bit of time recording an album in studio this year and we had use of hd camera, lighting, etc as part of student project. There is a fair amount of footage from studio and some interviews which we would liek to perhaps edit together for a short promo.

Anyone got any experience with something like this? Just wondering how much work has been involved and typical cost of putting it all together.

Cheers,
Seany

TommyGun

you should spec out what exactly you want to do. what is it you want tell? how long. how will it be delivered dvd, web etc.

what's the message ? would a music video do this.

normly you would do this before swiching on the camera, so you film with this in mind.

after it is spec.ed out you should have a good idea how much work is required.

maybe a student could do it for you as a project.

normaly if I am editing 4 hours of footage down to say 15 mins it would take me about 12-14 hours.

Splinters

Im not entirely sure whats being asked here. You have the footage so are you looking to get an editor to make a promo video for you? or just some general advice? When you say promo do you specifically mean a music video or a promotional video for your website/youtube etc etc?

Seany

Thanks for the replies guys...

Maybe I could ahve been a bit clearer. We have some footage (in the region of 1-2 hours). This is a mix of studio footage, messing around, interviews, etc.

I was thinking it would be nice to have a short promo of the making of the album (somewhere between 5-20 mins) which could be put on website or cd-rom as additonal feature.

This could comprise of existing studio footage with song by song breakdown and containing music from album and mix of new interviews with people involved in it coming together. (band members, engineeer, producer, graphic designer, etc).

I love seeing things like this done with more established bands and was just wondering how difficult it would be to structure together or if anyone with experience of doing something like this had any advice.

Splinters

Ok grand, yep its easy enough to put together if you're familiar enough with editing software and quite difficult if you're not, sorry if Im pointing out the obvious but thats really what it comes down to. Maybe download a demo of something like Sony Vegas Platinum or Adobe Premiere Pro and see how you get on with it.

As for tips Id say dont make it too self indulgent (i.e 5 minute cuts of one of your band members tracking a song), keep the cuts pretty quick and you'll keep it interesting, dont just use all the audio from the footage (using some studio audio and creating a montage of footage with it works really well for these kinds of things) and finally keep it interesting for the non muso i.e not just studio geekery and footage of recording takes, use outakes, footage of the band goofing off around the studio and just generally having a laugh.

Hope thats of some help, Im going by my experience of seeing these kinds of things and what appeals to me. See how you get on with the editing software too, if you decide to get somebody to do this for you Ill gladly do it for a lot less then industry rates. Ive actually heard The Chapman Society a good few times and quite like what Ive heard so its definately something Id enjoy putting together. Sure see how you get on yourself first anyway, always the best route imho.

marksass

I could do up something pretty cool for you guys for a tiny fee, like €100 or something, I'm a professional video editor and to be honest I don't get alot of projects where I can really expand on footage with graphics etc so it'd be interesting, think about it and pm me if you're interested. If not then you'd probably be best off with a trial of sony vegas/avid xpress to get you started, alternatively if you have a mac you could use imovie or even try out final cut pro and see what you think. Cutting music to video is a very simple process, but adding a whole world of effects/grading/graphics is another level altogether. If you need any further advice give me a shout.