Tag Archives: video production

How to interview a musical artist

 

OKGO with JEff filming

Interview with OK GO in West Palm Beach Florida

Wow we get asked all the time about how to actually shoot an interview with band members.  There is no exact formula but if you try to shoot everything in the guide below you will have choices when it comes to editing.

  1.  First shoot 3 seconds of an establishing shot of your location;  the venue, the band set up on stage, or another shot that sets the place of the interview.
  2. The interviewer does an introduction and that is used as the establishing shot for the interview segment.  The interviewer can first be a voiceover on top of the establishing shot.  Make sure that your transition doesn’t cut off the interviewer talking because if you don’t leave extra space on your clip this will happen.  COMMON MISTAKE.
  3. First part of interview questions.  Listen to your subject and don’t be caught being too eager to cut the subject off and go to the next question.  LISTEN.
  4. In an interview we let the subjects tell the story what ever it is.
  5. The bridge moves the interview to either:  a cut from the artist performance or the interviewer using transitional words like “Looking forward to your new album or Everyone catch these guys on their tour starting…..”  This should provide information that moves to the closing.
  6. Closing:  Thanks for sharing your stories about Asia, spending time with us, etc.  If the interviewer has not identified themselves at the start of the interview then he/she should say this is __________ from  Swept Away Media.
  7. Have the band shoot a short tag that can be used to “tease” the interview.  “This is the Sandband and you are watching Swept Away Media.”  This is used before the interview but shot last.
  8. Do not use your camcorder zoom during an interview.  Pan slowly, very slowly to move the shot.  Use a tripod or a monopod to avoid shaky video.
  9. Have something to add or share we’d love to add it!

6 Steps to Youtuber Success Stories

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Everyone wants to be a successful youtuber star.  When SweptAway Tv started there were no YouTube stars.  The first videos were short and very low quality.  The key words and tags were still important but the total number of videos uploaded were small compared to now.  Now you really have to break through the clutter so following these 6 steps will help you get started

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  1. Don’t follow everyone else.  You’ve got the make your own TREND or unique idea.  Following will just bury you in the pile with everyone else.  The open boxing videos are saturated.  No more junk in the blender videos.  What can you do that is unique and different?1
  2. Video production tools are easy to find and relatively affordable versus 10 years ago.  3 point lighting will always help to make your videos look more professional.  Consider the background that you are shooting against.  Plain colors work better than busy prints.   You can always start with your smartphone and work your way up to a better camcorder or SLR that shoots video.3
  3. SOUND I can not emphasize how important sound is.  Whatever you use to shoot should have a mic  and  headphone jack.  If  the video is great but there’s no sound you are out of luck.  Canon makes a very inexpensive camcorder for under $200 that has both a mic and headphone jack.
  4. Be patient.  You should promote your channel on all of your social medias, add it to your email signature and tweet regular messages about your content with links to your channel.  It takes time to build a following.  See if you can get a return tweet from a celebrity with many followers.
  5. Add more channels as you grow.  Keep the same theme but add other viewpoints, opinions, variation to additional channels.6
  6. Add crew members as needed but with some ingenuity you can start alone.  Grab a friend to run the camera and listen to the sound for you.  Work together but you remain the focus of the channel and draw viewers in. SATV brittany koval and  fashion segment at Teen Angel_jpg

Hope these tips get you started on your way to YouTube success.  Be sure to check out the archives of the Swept Away TV videos.

Interns Fall 2010-Read Carefully

To be an intern for Fall 2010 you must meet the following requirements:  These apply to new interns only.

1.  Be enrolled in tv production and be able to access equipment at school or have your own.

2.  Be 16 and up and be able to drive.

3.  Be able to shoot and edit your own stories.

We have no one to edit interviews these season so you must able to do it yourself.    Please do not apply unless you meet these qualifications.  If this sounds like you, send an email to info@therockstarstories.com.    We can use writers who want to write reviews but they will not be the ones doing interviews.  Interviews must be done by experienced students who are taking video production classes in school.

Season 9

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We’re about to start producing Season 9 in August and we are looking for students who want to produce their own 5 minute segment each week for The Rock Star Stories and also for LoonaticTV.

Some ideas are The Weekly Video Countdown Show, Everything about Pets Show, Fashion and Beauty Show segments, Spotlight on Nightspots and Sketch comedy Shows.  We will also be producing our own reality show “The Network”.

Staff Meetings will begin on Wed August 20th at 7pm in Boca Raton.  We’ll put out the address and directions as the time gets closer.

If you have an idea and want to talk about it, contact Zac at info (at) the rock star stories.com.