Making Your Videos POP!

By Barry Britt

How would you like it if I told you that with one single concept, you could revolutionize your video production while captivating your audience?  You would say “yes” of course, that is unless you simply want to make people laugh with a video like – “Dog plays harmonica” or “guy falls off roof”.  True, these things can be funny and entertaining, but something tells me that at the end of the day (or hopefully the beginning!), you have far more important productions to complete as a student or teacher videographer.

The concept of which I speak is the ability to take your videos from amateur to professional, and produce a video with the impact of a major motion film or television producer in a film or video that is – slick!

Now you may be thinking of the obvious elements which focus on the visual aspects, such as equipment, lighting and content.  But the application of which I speak is more subtle.  It’s like a fault-line to an earthquake: you can’t see it but the effects of it are enormous, and that is the audio portion of your video.

You may know the importance of using sound effects and other transition pieces, and, you may also be knowledgeable about using music to support and enhance your visuals.  But what I would like to discuss is the psychology behind music selection.

You probably realize that film makers, TV producers, jingle writers and advertisers all understand the power of audio to support the visual.  But did you know that there is a psychology to music selection and application?  Think of how young kids scramble to the front of the television when they hear the music from a toy commercial, and even as an adult or teenager how you cry like a baby during your movie when that character with whom you’ve fallen in love dies in the final scene – you know what I mean.

It’s the ability to move and captivate your audience with these fault lines of audio that makes you an emotional earthquake.

Video games would be nothing without the hyped up rock and techno music.  Horror films would just be images of comedy without the dark essence of the music and association that when you hear THAT particular piece of music again, someone else will surely meet his or her death in the hands of our pathological main character.

When I was a senior in high school, we had an experiment in my psychology class.  Two test groups watched a horror film with and without the music to measure the psychological responses of the viewers.  Those viewing with the music had a large percentage of increase in heart rate, anxiety, dry mouth and tension.

You may be thinking at this point, ok, I get it – choose scary music if you want to frighten your audience and energetic music if you want to get them excited.  But, having worked with some of the best film and TV producers in the business, I can tell you that these mood makers scratch far beneath the surface of scary and energetic when it comes to getting your attention and making you respond emotionally or attentively to video.

I asked you if you wanted to know their secrets, so are you ready to take your video to the next level?  Here is how:

1) Know your audience. 

A famous rock artist said something to the effect that a band will continue to exist so long as they see themselves in the audience.  This is profound, and we see that it is so true otherwise, groups like U2 and the Rolling Stones would not still be touring after all these years, and the secret is – empathy.  You must consider who your viewers are and who you want to become as your viewers.  The best writers and producers of film, video and audio take an unselfish approach to their art, in that they see it through the eyes of their audience and forfeit their own self-serving perspective.  So, when choosing music for your video don’t just pick what you like, consider your viewers and that to what they can relate. 

2) Association

Music has the ability to transport us in time and place back to the days of childhood, high school and good times.  It’s so powerful that when you hear THAT SONG, you are mentally taken back to your senior trip where you can almost smell the ocean and feel the wind in your hair as you and your friends rode in freedom down the strip along the beach.  If you know your audience, you will know the time frame of music that gets them going – and remembering, so use association to make them respond psychologically to your video.

3) Beats Per Minute (BPM)

This is the number ¼ notes beats that occur in 60 seconds and are measured with a number.  As song that shows 120 BPM indicates that there are 120 beats per minute in that song.  Even musicians who do not know how to read music, and certainly those who record in the studio understand BPM and must synch with the drummer according what you may have also heard referred to as meter.

Much classical and new age music can occur at 60-80 BPM, and can be used to relax and steady the mind – such as yoga instruction, meditation, and study concentration.  It is proven with high school and college students, that though the recreational use of ADD drugs may stimulate short-term attention to cram for an exam, the foundation is not established, and much information is lost shortly thereafter.  Whereas, using classical music and music which is between 60-70 BPM’s relaxes the mind and improves short term concentration because the information has time to settle (as does cement).  The foundation created makes for life-long retention and application.  So if you are producing a video that needs to create a calming effect, you may want to look toward classical, new age, or the more modern genre referred to as “trans” , or “transcendental” music.

However, if you want to energize your viewers when doing an action video or dynamic intro, consider using techno and modern rock which can go up to approximately 160 BPM’s.

But don’t let style fool you.  There are some forms of hip-hop that are recorded at around 80 BPM’s which make for extremely dramatic background audio for intense subject matter.  (Refer to Royalty Free Music by Soundzabound, www.soundzabound.com Vol.5, Disc 1, “Urban Drama”).

4) Instrumentation

There should be another category to my list called gender specifics, but I would like to combine this with instrumentation because that seems to be one of the key elements in the correlation.  I’m going to stereotype just a little, so if I misread your personality, I apologize, but generally speaking, guys like guitars and girls prefer vocals and lyrics.  Let’s take the video game software Guitar Hero by Red Octane™ and Activision™, the major player are males. 

When we released our Vintage collection of music at www.soundzabound.com/Volume_5, we thought it would be the teachers who caught the comparisons to Black Sabbath and ACDC, but because of Guitar Hero, many of our users of the Soundzabound Vintage collections are middle and high school males.

By comparison, most “American Idol” fans are female, and the males are viewing (yet interested I might add) because their wife or girlfriend has gotten them hooked!

So if you want to captivate a predominantly male viewing audience of your video, use rock guitar music.  If your viewers are mostly female, consider using some music with lyrics when there is no dialogue or narration to your video.

Other forms of instrumentation might include using a classical string sounds, or classical music if you want to ensue a mood of wealthy, formality or even snobbery.  And, if you listen to any soundtrack of a major motion film that has a part which is meant to be sentimental and moving, the instrument being used is….can you guess?  It’s the oboe.  If you don’t believe me, just listen to the sound of an oboe or oboe recording.

5) Current Styles, Novelties and Pop Culture

Sometimes we try to use references that a middle or high school student just doesn’t get, and, that works the other way around as well.  So always try to consider, number one, who your audience is, and number two, what current styles are they currently into listening.  This will help to nail the association aspect of which we spoke in item # 2.

Novelties would include things such as the “tah-dah” approach, or perhaps even the comedy snare (buh-duh) when someone cracks a funny joke.  Another one might be when the muted trumpet plays a descending (wah-wah-wah) to indicate, “too bad, you lose.”  These are all copyright safe items that you could even make yourself with a keyboard sound to get your point across.  (Make what you want about bow-chucka-wow-wow!)

And now for pop culture, have you watched NBC’s “The Apprentice”, and noticed how when they come back after commercial, they play the marching type music that says “I’m bold”, “I’m strong”, “I’m a successful entrepreneur!”  When I hear it, I’m ready to go to work on Wall Street! 

Also consider the reality shows during elimination time.  The music is usually low electronics which sustains and provides a sense of mystery and suspense.  Without this effect of audio, these elimination segments would be quite boring, but with it are intense. 

6) Moments of silence

Don’t use music in every spot of your video.  The timing and placement in critical areas are everything, and, silence creates tension.  I heard it said once that music is what happens when no sound occurs.  So use much variation according to mood, and remember that silence is golden.

7) Level and Volume

Most video editing software has easy to use faders.  Don’t be afraid to automate these to increase and decrease volume for key parts.  I’ve noticed especially for music videos that producers really boost the choruses of the song and it really lifts the visual content to a new height.  Increasing the volume during segments of drama will also create great emphasis and a movement in the viewers’ emotion.  In documentary or instruction types of film or video, volume levels should sometimes be more felt than heard so as not to draw the attention way from less dramatic subject matter.

8) Subtle Impact and Mood Setting

The latter brings us to the ever so important aspect of simply setting a mood whereby the musical choice should be extremely simple.  In this case, the music and audio for the most part can be uneventful in rhythm and melody, while the actual sound and ambience take precedence.  By comparison, it’s the equivalent of having one really great guitar sound and striking just one power chord and letting it ring out.  If the sound is right, viewers will get the impact, feeling and emotion.

There are so many aspects to consider other than a theme, category or style.  And the best part is, whether you’re a beginner or an expert, it’s as easy to make a quick decision based on the mentioned concepts when reaching for a convenient list of the right audio tracks.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some great producers of film, video, reality TV shows, commercials and pop music.  So, we hired many of them to provide for the educational market.  Feel free to check out their work in Volumes 4, 5 and various other selections at Royalty Free Music by Soundzabound, www.soundzabound.com.

Remember, there’s a psychology to the technology, and feel free to explore a whole new world of sound and editing to make your videos POP with music.

Happy filming and shooting!

Barry S. Britt is a creative and executive producer of music for film and video and procurer of content for the educational market at Soundzabound Royalty Free Music.  Having studied film scoring and professional music at Berklee College of Music in Boston and producing current hits released on iTunes, Barry continues to bring his musical expertise to teachers and students around the world.

 

 

 

 

  May, 2008