How a Professional Outdoor Music Video is Shot

Hey everyone, it’s Rimito.

This time, I would like to ask a friend of mine who works for a filming company about how a full-scale music video is shot. I will not talk about each musician individually and ask about how each music video was shot, but I will explain the general process of making a music video, the equipment used, and anything else pertaining to the process.

Music videos are shot in a variety of locations depending on the concept of the song, whether it is a spectacular music video amidst the towering buildings of a city or a beautiful music video in the great outdoors, but this time I will focus on location shooting in the city.

Obtaining Permission to Film

Music videos filmed in urban areas include sprinting across a pedestrian bridge in Shibuya with a flag lying down in the middle of a wide roadway, or doing parkour in a plaza in front of a train station, among many other things. However, you must follow a complicated process to obtain permission from the government or administrator in order to film.

For example, if you want to film on a public road, you must first go to the police station and apply for a “road use permit” to film on the street because it’s extremely dangerous and may cause inconvenience to passers-by or cause traffic accidents.

The general process is:
Fill out an application form, mark the shooting location on a map, explain the shooting details, and submit a proposal.
The process is as follows.

If, for example, individuals cannot obtain permission to shoot inside JR stations, and even corporations are subject to strict screening standards.

In addition, the application process for filming in parks varies depending on whether the park is managed by the federal or local government.

In all of these cases, you will have to go back to pick up the permit when it is granted, the shooting fee is expensive, and there are time limits and time zone specifications, making it very difficult for individuals to obtain a permit. A video/footage production company can do this for you, so most full-scale music video shootings are done by a filming company.

Photography Equipment

Cameras

Cameras are indispensable for filming. This is where the filming company's particular taste comes into play.
There are three basic types of cameras used for shooting music videos.

・Cinema camera

This is a large, high-performance camera often seen in professional settings. It is easy to perform color grading by manipulating the incoming light using film, and the best part is that it faithfully responds to the photographer's requests for what he or she wants to do. The photo shows a Sony cinema camera that I own. It can produce a variety of effects, including emotional, dynamic, and cold. The price is very high, and many of them easily exceed 1,000,000 yen.

・Single-lens reflex camera

In fact, SLR cameras can shoot not only still images but also video. It is possible to take stylish images with blurred backgrounds. While I mainly use a cinema camera, I occasionally use an SLR camera when I am running or when I want to get an intense performance.

・Video Camera

This is the video camera that pops open to record athletic events and meetings. Although relatively inexpensive, they are packed with useful functions, and we can see the efforts of the manufacturer. In professional workplaces, older models from a few years ago are sometimes used to create an early Heisei era feel, but they are rarely used.

・Drones

A drone is a kind of flying radio-controlled vehicle to which a camera can be attached for aerial photography. I will explain later.

Gimbal

A gimbal compensates for camera shake and is a must-have item unless you are using camera shake as a dramatic effect.
I could not post images, but basically, a cinema camera is attached to a large, angular, donut-shaped, motorized gimbal, and one to two people turn the camera. This is really heavy, and after two hours of use, your arms and back will be screaming. Gimbals made by DJI, which is famous for drones and gimbals, are extremely popular in the photography industry.

There are also gimbals for SLR cameras that you can carry around while running with you.

Cameras attached to drones are also basically equipped with motorized gimbals.

Drones

Drones are used for filming from above and for capturing images of high-speed movement within buildings. A decade ago, helicopters and ultra-compact propeller-driven aircrafts were used, but with the advances in technology, drones are now being used. However, in order to fly a drone with a camera capable of capturing music videos, an application must be filed with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Sprinklers

When it’s a sunny day but you want to create a rainy effect, you can attach a sprinkler to the end of a filming crane to spray water inside the tank evenly, as shown in the image. Then, by darkening the tone and compositing rain clouds in the editing process, a very realistic rainfall can be reproduced. However, the equipment is relatively large and heavy, so the film crew considers it a tedious job. And, you do get wet.

Bubble Machine

Soap bubbles are very useful for creating heartrending and brilliant scenes. Bubble machines are the equipment that constantly creates them. Sound House offers several types of bubble machines.

STAGE EVOLUTION / Bubble Take Bubble Machine

After Filming

Once filming is complete, the data is sent to our in-house editing staff or to an editing company, which then moves on to the editing stage. Advanced video editing is performed by specialists who cut and paste the video, apply effects, create composites, insert lyrics and end rolls, and so on. After this stage, the music video is checked by a director or anyone else who is a part of the filming process, and finally, the music video is complete.

How was it? Now you know how professional music videos are shot.

See you soon. Have a pleasant musical life!

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