Youth Information

How Do We Make a Music Video

1. Listen to your wards SYLC selected song for the general message being conveyed.

2. Council together on how your ward might visually represent that message. (In the example music video this general message was to depict a descent and ascent remembering that Christ descending below all things.)

3. Storyboard this general message into several smaller stories that can be combined together. Consider if the song alone is enough to prop up the video or imagery depicted. If not, determine if secondary audio will be needed. (In the example video I knew I could visually depict preparation to enter a dark place, show descent through filth, living water, and ascent back into the light. I knew I could depict cleaning and a return to darkness to rescue my fellow man but I didn’t feel like the video alone related the story.)

4. Shoot video to relay the elements of your story, or search through previously recorded video or imagery which does the same. (In the example video I deliberately shot the sun rising, scripture study, prayer, going through filth, touching the living water, and ascent. These scenes were not shot in order. A secondary recording was needed to demonstrate the cleansing of equipment. Finally images from my life and from the internet were selected to show the covenant path including baptism, sacrament, scripture study, temples, the tree of life, the garden and Atonement, the cross and resurrection.)

5. Acquire secondary audio to overlay during the music video. This can come in many forms, such as youth Q&A, recording or downloading the words of church leaders. (In the example video I knew I wanted to show preparation to descend by scripture study, prayer and “gearing up” or putting on the armor of God. I used AI to search for conference talks where general authorities spoke on these topics, downloaded their audio and snipped and inserted as needed. This process was repeated for each video segment that I felt a stronger explanation was needed.)

6. Place the video and audio in a preferred video editing software and create a rough draft. Council together on how to strengthen your final product and edit and reshoot as needed. Watch the video as a ward youth group and refine as needed. (It is my experience that an initial music video will end up being 15 minutes of footage and will require very purposeful editing of what’s being shown to get down to the 3-4 minute mark.)

7. Lastly, remember that much video and photos already exist from camps, FSY, stake and ward activities. Pull on these resources to maximize the amount and variety of youth depicted in your message. This will be the difference between the example video and yours. Wards should strive to have as many youth featured as possible. I purposefully didn’t depict myself because my video was about the message and not the participant. A second example video is available above. This one was from the stake YM spring campout of 2025. It’s a single event showing many YM.