Creative Commons Music Video

Today I have a nice guest post from Matt Rod of Changing Clocks from South Africa. Matt reached out to me about his latest video made entirely from Creative Commons photos on Flickr. I then asked him to write about the experience to help you guys get some ideas on the process. Enjoy the post and leave your comments and feedback below!

A Music Video Created Entirely of Images Sourced from Flickr and License Under Creative Commons

Because the web is so visual-based, I realised the importance of visually capturing a song’s sound. And so after Changing Clocks released our EP this time last year, I began actively seeking out someone to create a music video with. The DIY music crowd kept telling me, “you don’t need money, just ask a film-student, look around!“. And so I did, I reached out to half the East-Coast. After about 6 months of asking countless film-students, bloggers apparently interested in making videos with point-and-shoot cameras and old friends without any success, I decided my energies would be better spent elsewhere. It seemed people weren’t as enthusiastic as everyone made them out to be (unfortunately!)

But it kept nagging at me. I knew that if we could create something that would visually capture the essence of “I’ll Be Back This Summer” people would be far more likely to listen to the whole song and give it a chance.

I wanted something simple, catchy, fun and humourous – hopefully a reflection of the song. I eventually decided I just needed to do something myself, and brain-stormed a of couple ideas. I settled on the following: A Music Video created entirely with Images sourced from Flickr.com licensed under Creative Commons.

I spent a week sourcing hundreds (around 400!) of photos that I felt reflected the sentiment being expressed in the song at the time. Because I wrote the music and lyrics, it was easy for me to do as I naturally had an idea in my head as to what things should look like. And honestly, it was really quite fun: many of the emotions I felt were just captured brilliantly by hundreds of photographers I have never met!

I then used iMovie on my Mac and painfully added every slide to the video, and then trimmed each slide duration to match the song rhythm. It took time to get it to work, but overall it was just marvellously fun. I was genuinely excited by the visuals and how they really fitted with what I wished to express. Overall there were 116 photos used in the 2 minute 20 second song.

The video, lyrics and all wonderful photographers’ names & original images can be seen at http://changingclocks.com/summer-video/

Of course, the song is available there for free too if you sign up for the emailing list. Or if you’d rather like, iTunes.

Changing Clocks is a young Boston-based band playing highly original Pop/Rock music. A combination of male and female vocals, catchy songs and clever lyrics make Changing Clocks worth a listen. The band is headed by Matt Rod, born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. Check out their EP at http://changingclocks.com or their latest single “Chance” at http://changingclocks.com/chance-free-download.

Tags: changing clocks, guest post, Music Marketing, music video