THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Making Movies For Musicians
Like recording a CD, creating Movies for Musicians to promote your music career is an exciting and creative process, especially when you are collaborating with the professionals at AMP who are as passionate about your music as they are about telling your story.
Also like recording a CD, producing an online movie has pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution workflows.
Pre-production begins at AMP when we get to know you as a musician; we visit your web site, listen to your music, and learn more about your career.
Next, we talk to you about your promotional goals: do you want to increase your fan base; are you releasing new music or reconnecting fans with your back catalog; are you promoting a tour and want to sell more tickets; are you reaching out to promoters or booking agents? This information let’s us know about your main audience.
Another important step is to know how you intend to use your online movie. You may want to put it on your web site, upload to social networking and video sites, or embed your movie in email blasts. This information informs us for our post-production process so that we can provide you with a finished movie that meets your needs.
The collaboration continues when we ask you to hone your message. We can assist of course, that’s part of what we do, but you likely have some clear ideas and that’s what we are hoping for. The more you take ownership of your message the more honest it is for your audience.
We want to ensure your message comes from you. Your movie usually includes an interview with you and/or other band members. Start by creating an outline of what you want to get across in this interview then create a number of questions. Be succinct. It’s kind of like selecting songs for your CD, you have many, but you only select a limited number.
Your movie needs to be long enough to get your message across, but short enough to be entertaining, and not too time consuming for your fans to watch. We suggest somewhere in the range of 2-5 minutes. For our part, we assist in keeping you on point and help you focus your message so it gets across clearly and concisely to your audience.
The production process is not complicated; it’s like laying down the basic tracks at a recording session.
AMP shoots in high definition using a solid-state recording process assuring highest quality. There are two main parts to your movie: the interview and the cutaways.
We will shoot a live show, or a studio recording session. We might shoot you at a rehearsal or just paling around with your band mates. This footage is used as cutaway material for your interview and reinforces your message. We shoot the interview either at the same location or at another time and place more appropriate or convenient.
Post-production is the process of crafting your story in the edit suite, just like the mix down process you go through with your CD.
Using Apples Final Cut Pro, AMP creates a rough cut based on conversations we have about how your finished movie might look. We also include graphics and title information you supply. As part of our continued collaboration, you provide feedback so we can fine-tune your movie.
What we do after you approve your movie and we lock picture is similar to the mastering process your CD goes through; AMP creates your finished movie in the appropriate size for upload to the Internet or burns it on a DVD.
AMP also assists in distributing your online movie. Depending on your needs, we offer services to place your movie on Internet video sites and can even assist with creating a more invasive online presence to boost your search engine ranking and drive traffic to your website.
There are many similarities between recording a CD a creating Movies for Musicians.
Both involve creative collaboration, similar workflows, and result in a product you can be proud of. When your fans view and share your online movie, it creates buzz, drives fans to your website, and is ultimately a powerful tool in generating income for you through increased sales of your music, merchandise, and show tickets.
Call AMP now at 408.429.8500 for a free consultation; find out how you can…Turn Up Your Online Promotions.
