Here are some top tips for you, the independent musician, looking to create your own piece of visual art for your fans to feast upon. Take this as absolute gospel, and you will be on the road to music video success. YACK! are never wrong.
DO- Keep it simple

Artic Monkeys- Cornerstone, the definition of music video simplicity
Keep the visual stimulation simple and really use post-production to give the mood of the video. Colouring the right shots properly will more than likely give you a much better end result than trying to incorporate fancy story lines.
DON’T- have any shots of a girl running through a forest.

Okay, so this isn’t the type of runnnig I mean. Just don’t do it.
It seems to be the go to idea for unsigned bands that want a music video that looks deep, and ambiguous, when in reality it looks shit and is real turn off to any body watching.
DON’T- try to have a funny or dramatic narrative

Want to know why Blink 182 could get away with this… because they are fucking Blink 182.
I cannot stress the importance of my first point, to just keep things simple.
DON’T- try to be OK GO
These guys are fucking pro’s at what they do. If you and your bandmates start pissing around on treadmills you’re going to break your damn neck, and I haven’t seen too many people play an instrument with a broken neck.
Also you don’t want to look like a cheap rip-off or a copycat. With any pioneer there are always the less successful imitations trying to jump on the bandwagon of a viral hype. Stay away and be original, and if originalilty is hard for you to come by perhaps you should re-evaluate your place in an independant band. Unless you’re a cover band then it’s cool.
DO- have a budget

Money isn’t everything, but it will certainly help.
Call in favours if you need to keep it cheap, just make sure you have some cash floating around you’ll need it to create your piece of audio/visual art.