How Eli Lev Created A Fan-Generated Music Video (For Less Than $300)

Ariel here from Cyber PR. For the past year, we have been working on artist development and PR for Washington D.C. based singer-songwriter Eli Lev. Eli has just released a video that makes me so happy when I watch it. It so wonderfully expresses who he is in the world and who he is to his fans, so I wanted  to share it here. Eli and I hope that this video inspires other artists to create crowd sourced videos and social moments to share.

In approx 16 months into his career as a F/T musician, Eli has just passed 103 fans on Patreon, will be releasing his 2nd EP, Way Out West. and will be embarking on his first national tour ever. I love this man and I love his can-do spirit - he doesn’t make fans he makes BELIEVERS. 
Eli creates inspirational music by infusing a message of unity through his heartfelt lyrics. His uplifting songs and emotionally resonant melodies captivate fans across the country, as he plays to diverse crowds at venues from coast-to-coast. 

“When I’ve been on the road, and I can’t speak the language, I’ve always been able to play a song and suddenly everyone’s singing and dancing. There’s a connection there, and, in that instant, there is a community.” 
When Eli Lev set out to make his latest music video for his recent single “Chasing Daylight,” he wanted to do something different. Instead of being the main focus of the camera, he wanted to shine the spotlight on his fans from around the world. Working with Zuke creative, he came up with a concept: have fans send in a short 30-second video singing along to the song, and then edit the videos together in one continuous cut to the recorded track.
The response was overwhelming-  an outpouring of videos came from South Africa, France, Lebanon, Canada, and across the USA. So many videos were sent in, that Eli made a second video of the fans actually singing the audio. Fans, friends, family members all connected to each other through music in one video.
I asked Eli a few questions about his experience:
Ariel Hyatt: What inspired you to do a crowdsourced video?
Eli Lev: One of the main messages in my music is connection and creating community, so it just felt natural to make a video highlighting the people that have been supporting me and listening to my music and lifting me up with their appreciation of my songs. Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir was definitely an influence as was the One Frame of Fame video. I think our own concept just made things really simple and accessible to folks who wanted to participate!
 
AH: How did you ask your fans to participate and how often did you ask?
EL: First I created a google drive folder for each section of the song. A folder for Verse 1, Chorus 1, Verse 2, Bridge, and so on so that each 30-second section of the 3-minute video had a folder. I then put out a post asking for participants on my Facebook music page, my Facebook personal page, my email newsletter, my Instagram, and a few Facebook Groups I’m a part of. Whoever responded to the posts on each platform, I made a group chat or group email and sent out instructions on how to upload their video to Google Drive. Each group chat had a dedicated link and folder to make sure that we got an even amount of videos for each part of the song.
 
AH: Who edited the video for you- how many people did you hire in total?
EL: I worked with Zach Fox from Zuke Creative. I met him while traveling in Granada, Spain and we both have a similar enthusiasm for creative projects.He edited the first video where friends are essentially lip-synching to the song audio, and then I edited the second video of people’s actual audio as they sing along to the song.
 
AH: How did you edit this video?
EL: I used iMovie to edit the video. It took us a week to get all the clips in order.
 
AH: How many submissions did you get?  Did you use everyone’s videos?
EL: We got over 50 submissions and we used every single video.
 
AH: What was the total cost of making the video?
EL: The total cost was under $300 mostly for video editing and creative direction with Zuke Creative.
 
AH: What will you do to market and promote “Chasing Daylight?”
EL: We have had a great campaign so far! First came the post on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter about the opportunity to participate in the form of a lyric video on YouTube.
Then we created the group chats and had folks post stories with their video submission on Facebook and Instagram.
 
We posted the final video on YouTube. We did one post on IG of the first video in 3 one minute sections. We had folks comment and like and share the video from Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. I also sent out the video link to my newsletter list of approx.1,000 subscribers. This week I’ll be putting out ads on all platforms to increase views, but the cool thing about this is that everyone who participated WANTED to share the video to their friends on their socials, so we got some amazing organic pickup.
 
Watch Chasing Daylight here: https://youtu.be/ol_RWwlSW7o  
Check out Eli’s website here: https://eli-lev.com
Connect with Eli on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube: @elilevmusic