---
name: "music_video_low_budget"
description: "Shoot a convincing music video on a micro budget: one-location concept, performance coverage math, a shoot day that fits, beat-synced edit, and permit basics. Use when planning, shooting, or editing a low-budget music video."
---

# Music Video, Low Budget

## Purpose
Turn one song, one location, and almost no money into a finished music video. This covers the pre-production decisions that decide whether the shoot works, the coverage formula that keeps the edit alive, the beat-sync rules for cutting, and the permit realities of guerrilla shooting. It does not cover casting, choreography, or color pipelines in depth; those are their own jobs.

## Workflow

1. **Lock the song facts first.** Get BPM, time signature, track length, and a section map (intro / verse / chorus / bridge / outro with start timecodes) from the artist. If BPM is unknown, tap it out by hand or ask; never guess, the whole cut grid depends on it.
2. **Commit to one concept.** One location, one visual idea, fully committed. Three half-ideas in one video is the classic failure. Pick the concept from the song's central image (see `references/concepts.md` for the playbook).
3. **Build the beat grid.** Run `bin/bpm_cut_plan.py` with BPM, time signature, and sections to get a bar-by-bar cut grid (seconds per bar, section timecodes, suggested shot lengths). Mark the first chorus downbeat: that is where the biggest visual change lands.
4. **Write the shot list grouped by setup.** List every needed shot, then reorder by location zone and lighting setup, not song order. Minimum coverage: three full-song performance passes (wide, medium, close) plus one b-roll pass (hands, feet, details, the location). Plus one static full-song wide: the edit's safety spine. Template in `assets/shotlist-template.md`.
5. **Scout at shoot time-of-day.** Visit the location at the exact hour you will shoot. Light is the production value at this tier. Confirm permission to be there (see permit section below).
6. **Shoot one day, playback loud.** Play the actual track on a speaker and have the artist perform at full energy every take. Shoot a little wider than feels right; you can punch in, never out. Lock exposure and focus across passes so cuts match. Static tripod for cinematic sections, handheld (with a faster shutter) for high-energy sections.
7. **Cut to the grid.** Drop the master track on the timeline first; it never moves. Sync takes by waveform and mute them. Cut lengths in whole bars (1, 2, or 4), landing cuts on beat 1 or consistently on the same beat. Verse: longer holds. Chorus: cut faster. Final chorus: your best angle. Break rhythm once before the final chorus on purpose.
8. **Finish and deliver.** Match shots to each other before chasing a look. Deliver 16:9 first, then cut verticals from the close pass for Shorts/Reels.

## Output Contract
Given a song, produce: a one-page treatment (concept + section-by-section visual plan), a setup-grouped shot list from the template, a beat grid from the CLI, a shoot-day schedule (load-in, setups in order, load-out), and a finished edit following the rhythm rules. Quality bar: an agent handed this package can shoot the video with no creative decisions left to make.

## Operating Rules
1. **Coverage over coverage.** Never start editing before the three performance passes plus the safety wide exist. The edit can only cut to footage you actually shot.
2. **Restraint reads as confidence.** The classic DIY mistake is cutting every beat because you can. Match cut density to section energy, never exceed it.
3. **Cut 1-2 frames early.** Human eyes are faster than ears; a cut landing exactly on the beat waveform reads as late.
4. **Never shoot two concept ideas.** If a shot does not serve the one committed concept, cut it from the shot list before the shoot.
5. **Permits are local.** Permit rules change city to city; check the actual local rule before the shoot, not after. Guerrilla shooting means the production can be shut down and gear confiscated, and insurance typically will not cover a permitless shoot.
6. **No invented facts.** Any numbers, prices, or permit claims in the treatment must come from the location's real paperwork or a primary source. If it cannot be verified, cut it or frame it as an assumption.
7. **Style.** No em dashes ever; no ChatGPT-speak ("delve", "elevate", "supercharge", "moreover", "game-changer", etc.). Plain, direct language.