How music affects your camerawork

How do you edit a video? Do you just cut and slice? Or do you seek a song on which you can make your edit on? Well, it could make things easier. Music has a certain rhythm, a beat on which you can cut. Different parts that fit certain shots or video effects. But can we always find the shots we need? Possible not as we didn't knew which song we where using when filming.

This idea got me thinking and I started experimenting with music prior to the editing. I would first find a song, then film and then edit. In the final stage I noticed a big difference in my camerawork. The shots where more inline with what I needed. The right vibe was there.

During filming I stuck earbuds in my ears and put up the song in a loop that I was going to use. This put me in the correct mood and affected my camerawork.

We even took this further when we where going to produce our own corporate film. We decided to first find a song and then start on the scenario. The whole story was written on the rhythm of the music, the different parts and the feeling of the sound. This made things easier during filming as well and especially during the editing. Everything fitted nicely in place and every shot had the right feeling to it.

Sigur Ros

One of my big inspirations comes from Sigur Ros. In 2012, the year I was graduated from filmschool, they gave the music form their new album Valtari to a bunch of amazing filmmakers. They had no specific task, limitations of boundaries. The only thing what was asked was to put their music in a visual story. And what came out is truly amazing!

Watch the 16 film from the Valtari Film Experiment