By: Jason Cole

With the falling price of digital video cameras and the rise of PC video editing software, producing your own music video is definitely something most every musician can afford to do these days. All you need is a DV (Digital Video) camera, DV tapes, a location to shoot at, a PC, editing software (ala Adobe Premiere), and well, a band! Here’s some info and tips regarding the important pieces of equipment you’ll need.

1. Camera – You’ll be better off buying a DV (Digital Video) camera, they’re best for digital editing, later on. Decent DV cameras go for anything between $400 and $1200, and the tapes are around $8 a piece. One camera that I have used personally is the Canon GL2 MiniDV Digital Camcorder. I had nothing but good experiences with this camera. There are preset settings for the novice user, and at the same time it was very fine tuneable, for the experts out there. Make sure that your camera will shoot in progressive scan mode. Progressive scan is a particular method for displaying images, in which the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence. This will reduce the amount of flickering and increases resolution of the video you are recording. Most cameras come with microphones attached to them, but you probably don’t want to use the audio that will be recorded by the on-board mic as it will be pretty low quality. I suggest picking up a minidisc recorder, run all your instruments into a mixer that is plugged into said mindisc recorder.

2. Shooting – You can shoot your video anywhere, and hopefully you will take advantage of that fact! When editing your video, you will be telling a story. So varied locations would be excellent. If you can, storyboard your video out before you begin scouting locations or shooting. It makes thing 1,000,000 times easier, trust me. One other thing I would recommend would be to make sure that you have adequate lighting. Normal indoor lighting is not picked up by the camera the same way your eye picks it up. I would suggest picking up a book about the basics of video lighting, if you can. But if that is not a possibility, remember one thing, more is better.

3. Editing – You’re going to need to pull your video footage off of your camera onto your computer. Most DV cameras come with a USB cord which will allow you to do just that. You can use the proprietary software that comes with your computer to do that, or you can buy editing software which will do the same thing. Most PCs that have Window XP installed come with Windows Movie Maker. This is a great program for beginners, it allows you to pull footage off of your camera, and then edit said footage. But it doesn’t come with very many editing features. So the more advanced editors might want to plunk down some cash and buy Adobe Premiere, which is a super flexible video editing program with a very steep learning curve. The advanced Mac users out there might want to check out Final Cut Pro.

Now that you have your edited footage, you’ll want to output it onto tape or disc. The easiest thing to do is to burn it to DVD, which most editing programs will have a feature to do this. Once you have your video on DVD, the possibilities are limitless! I hope this article helped understand that music videos are now not just for the pros, anyone can do it yourself!

Jason Cole and DiskFaktory Jams offer free MP3 downloads and music lyrics. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting DFJams.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Cole

Yah, Yah, Yah, it’s old news. I know it’s been a while since TechTV went to the waste side, but I think about them all the time. For those of you that do not know what TechTV was, they featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and yes, Chris Pirillo (my little buddy geek Lockergnome) were my favorites on the cable network. Thank God the Corporate hacks that made the decision to eliminate these personalities could not keep these people down.

As per Wikipedia “Many former hosts of TechTV programs have gone on to create new programs distributed online. This Week in Tech, Systm, thebroken, From The Shadows, commandN, Diggnation, Hak.5, Infected with Martin Sargent, DL.TV, CrankyGeeks and InDigital are some of the current shows being produced.”

So, to pay respects to the death of The Screensavers, Call For Help, and others, I choose to participate in the continued viral spread of one of G4′s discarded baggage items, Kevin Rose.

The Broken – #3 “Return of The Broken”

When is G4TV going to fail?

Digital shorts available through sites such as http://video.ez-tracks.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/ are increasing in popularity as more and more internet users are seeking out homemade, music and other types of video files for entertainment.

As the user driven format has grown over the years, internet savvy individuals have taken note of the entertainment value inherent in homemade videos. The result has been a selection of popular titles that have spread like wildfire over the internet. From rapping and lip-syncing teenagers to stunts and caught-on-camera buffoonery, these often hilarious clips have found a home in the collective conscience of internet users. Likewise, music videos from various artists, once a mainstay of MTV, are now finding an audience online. Many cite MTV’s move toward regular programming as one of the reasons for the increased availability of video content produced by musical artists. According to Matt Bradley, director of videos for up and coming recording artists from labels such as YepRock and Liberty and Lament, “From the artists perspective, the internet offers the opportunity to produce something and immediately find an appreciative audience. From a consumer standpoint, people are still very much into music videos, and the television outlets available such as MTV2, MuchMusic and Fuse aren’t able to deliver because of the commercial element that dictates what is seen and heard. Artists and fans have found the internet to be a medium where they can subvert the powers that be and match the audience with the art.” In addition to homemade and music videos, clips from the television and motion picture industries are also invading the World Wide Web. Studios and networks are beginning to realize that the internet is a medium that has the potential to reach an audience that only a decade ago might have been in front of the TV set. For movies and shows aimed primarily at youth culture, advertising on the internet is becoming less of a novelty and more of an essential marketing tool. That’s not to say that traditional advertising methods don’t still hold water. In fact, revenues for television advertising are at an all time high, even for cable networks. The issue at hand, however, is not if, but when television advertising will be eclipsed by internet advertising. With recent market studies indicating that many people now spend an equal or greater amount of time online than watching television, video shorts that feature trailers for upcoming releases in all mediums may be the future of advertising for the entertainment industry.To view and download free video clips visit our site. You can also find free mp3 music downloads our sister site