In music videos, do you just blast the song on a stereo to synch the song?

[stateofmind]

I would assume yes, but is this what most people do? I assume, the more professional shoots have a PA system and all...but what do you guys use.

Also, for each scene, do you record the talent performing the whole song? Coming from a short films background, a well thought out storyboard can still fail you at times.

Sorry for the noob questions, but I have also found music videos very interesting.

 

[kennethhurd]

That's what I do. I'll get the band to perform the song all the way through while it plays on a stereo for each angle. That way I can sync it in post. I've had to edit one video where the band only played portions of the song and it was a pain to sync up.

 

[robotsound]

Consider adding a 2-pop to the beginning of your playback track.

1) Take the original song from the CD (or whatever), and create a playback master.

2) On the playback master, add a one frame 1kHz tone two seconds before the song starts. You might also want to add a count in after the 2-pop if the song starts off with a bang. When musicians record in the studio they usually use a click track and have at least a measure or two of click track before the recording starts so that they're already in time with the song.

3) The playback master will be both the master track for your final edit, and also for playback on set. The bigger and louder and better your sound system is, the more the band will react to it, but just use the best thing you can get your hands on.

4) Your video will likely end up at 48kHz, but if you're playing back a CD it will be at 44.1kHz. Make sure the sample rate conversion doesn't change the run time. It really shouldn't, but do an end to end test to confirm.