I am making a music video mainly for youtube and online. I though about adding credits with some outtake footage on the left while credits go by. I know most music videos dont have any. would that be weird or bad to do that?

Why not, especially since you don't have to answer to anybody...?!

Even on major label videos, credits are not completely unheard of--we had a full brace of them on this one:

Social Disortion: "Machine Gun Blues" on Vimeo

I didn't object to the end credits as no-one has to sit through them if they don't want to, but I wasn't in love with the opening ones, especially the freeze frames--takes too long to get to the song, in my opinion.

Since the Internet is the distribution, I think the credits should be there. At the end of course so the viewers don't get upset. I've done a few "lower budget" music vids and I tell the bands I'm going to do it so I can get some exposure. None have objected.

Charles Papert,
How much did it cost to produce that video?

Charles: You did the SD video?

Thank you! Been a fan of Mike Ness and the boys for MANY years!

As a long time fan of the band, I can tell you that I PERSONALLY love the length of time it takes to get into the song, but there is a certain MYTHOS around Social Distortion amongst us aging Second Wave punks... This song and video are as culturally relevant to me as I'm sure the epic Michael Jackson short film/videos of the early/mid 80's were to people that more readily identified with that music than I did.

Ron: under $25K, which is a lot of money for some people but I think it's safe to agree it's not much for a video of that scope! A LOT of favors were pulled...probably the reason for the credits!

Shaun: yes, throughout the course of the shoot and at the premiere (screening of video followed by live show in Hollywood) I became pretty aware of the mythos of which you speak. Half of the extras were diehard fans who were thrilled to take part, some traveling from across the country, and all providing their own period garb (the other half were members of a "living historians" group that like to dress in that period clothing and do whatever it is that they do. You can see the creative producing behind this--50 extras in '30's clothing=$0).

I just recalled I had posted about this a while back, including technical info--don't want to repeat myself so here is the appropriate thread (and please post any follow up questions there so this thread doesn't get hijacked further).

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/show-your-work/494992-social-distortion-machine-gun-blues.html