SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

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I don't feel as though I am 100% ready to take on a project as large as a music video just yet, but I may have to.(helping out a friend)

The one thing that's causing me to lose the most sleep is the audio/video synch. What must be done while shooting that will allow for me to edit and synch the audio and video together? Timecodes? Playback devices?

In my head I thought I could just play back the song on a radio while the artist lip synchs, but I have a feeling it's more complicated than that.

I plan to edit on final cut express. I recall accidently putting the audio and video out of sych on a clip once and never being able to get it back into line.

Everyone here seems so knowledgeable and any guidance would be most appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

youll probably be taking a studio recorded version of their song, and synch the video to it. so you'll be lining it all up in post.. just do whateva looks good. but yeah, you can have them listen to a CD of it on a boombox, and lipsynch and air guitar away while its playing. . or you can have them actually play , but  just make sure they are playing the same as the original recording.    modern NLES make it very easy to slip and slide the video to match the soundtrack. should be a peice of cake. ..if its live then youve got to work with what you get, but just have them play it a trillin times so your sure you get the good shots you want. if tis not live, you can even storyboard out the shots you want in advance to make it easier, and come together nicely.
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

Agreed.

For sync, as long as you're using a crystal-locked playback device, like a CD player, you'll be fine. If you try doing it off a cassette player you'd be hosed, but a CD or MD will give perfectly sync'd playback.
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

Great..thanks guys. My worries about the shoot were unfounded.

Now as far as post, do I have one audio track (a download of the cd) then a bunch of different video clips that I sycnd up at the begining then cut in and out of?

Horrible phrasing of the question, but do you know what I mean?

First is there a way to move the clip without clicking and dragging it to a new location in the timeline?

Could you move it with the cursor? It seems imprecise dragging it in the timeline.
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

you can match up the video however you want..I would personally just storyboard it out n advance, and then just take the takes, and match them up with their appropriate places on the timeline during the song. I would just match the lips up or the hands or whatever. it doesnt need to be frame accurate,, it just needs to look accurate. the amount of control, and how its done will pend you NLE you use, but i would assume all of them have slip and slide editing, .
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

[quote author=NEW GUY link=board=Events;num=1087837795;start=0#3 date=06/21/04 at 11:12:05]Great..thanks guys. My worries about the shoot were unfounded.

Now as far as post, do I have one audio track (a download of the cd) then a bunch of different video clips that I sycnd up at the begining then cut in and out of?
[/quote]

Unfounded? No... to do a really good job, I'd say it's more complicated than what this thread makes it look like. "Just get 'em to play exactly the same" is not trivial. Depending on how long you hold a shot, and the visual style, it can be close to impossible. With very frequent cuts, shaky cameras, certain effects, it can be easier... but requires more hand-syncing of the many sub-clips.

Given this, I'd suggest that just syncing up the beginning of long clips will not work. You'll want to syncronize at each cut, since there WILL be variation from the CD audio recording. If you're recording a SINGLE performance with multiple cameras, you might want to sync all the video together, and cut and sync subclips in a group with CD audio. Although, again, even changes in visual perspective may require different syncing for different subclips.
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

it aint easy.. tap your foot and finger on desk to the song.. get into it.. cut to the beat.. adjust and then adjust and adjust some more... damn its hard.. But if you take some time you can put out a good product.. ullanta has some good advice.. It isnt really as easy as just sitting down and edit away.. lots of well thought out field production can save you a month or more in post..
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

I've shot a couple of music videos with my DVX 100 (the last one was Memorial Day weekend) and all the posts on this thread are correct. Yes, you can use a good boombox for playback and then rip the track off the CD and import it into your NLE and synch it up hand (I use Vegas and the arrow keys move an event (clip) left or right one frame at a time BTW). Audio recorded "live" while your artist lip-syncs is your reference track. And yes, as ullanta points out you may still have trouble syncing up long takes - mostly because artists have a hard time accurately lip-syncing over time. My first music video the artist was actually singing along to her own harmonies rather than the lead vocal and it was a nightmare trying to get it all to sync up. Shoot lots and lots of takes - for my most recent video I shot 90 mins of video (over the course of about 5 hrs) for a 3 1/2 min song and it was barely enough to make a good video. If it's a straight performance piece, at a minimum, mix up locations and wardrobe to keep it visually interesting. If there is a concept component you'll need to treat that like a regular short film (except for dialogue of course.) And if you were thinking of recording a live performance, well that's a whole other ball of wax... ;D
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

If youre shooting 24p make sure your playback and recording on the edit system is 24fps as well. You've got to make sure everything matches up in the edit. You'll probably need to transfer the recording to DAT using the 24fps frame rate. Plus that way you can have a playback with timecode and you can use a timecode display slate for playback and use that to match up all your shots. But then again it sounds like you may not have a budget for that...
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

If you shoot a live performance piece it would be wise to use more than one camera. Use one as a static wide shot the other could be medium, close up, or xtreme close ups. If you have a 3rd camera that could be a floater which you will need those shots for editing purposes. As for editing, you could lay the footage from the static wide shot camera down in its entirety (the song that is) then you can go back and intercut shots used by the other cameras. I did this for a Usher concert a couple of years ago.

My first MV, I used a boombox for playback audio. We shot in over 5 locations and had several wardrobe changes. I was one man banded it back then so I had to do it all from writing the treatment, to scheduling the shoot, to telling the group what I wanted them to wear!
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

Here's a book that has some good information on making a music video:

Make Your Own Music Videos with Adobe Premiere
by Pete Kennedy, Maura Kennedy, Pete Kennedy, Maura Kennedy

You can find it on Amazon, etc..

They use Premiere for the examples but the steps could easily be done in most NLEs.
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

[quote author=NEW GUY link=board=Events;num=1087837795;start=0#0 date=06/21/04 at 10:09:55]The one thing that's causing me to lose the most sleep is the audio/video synch. What must be done while shooting that will allow for me to edit and synch the audio and video together?  Timecodes? Playback devices?

In my head I thought I could just play back the song on a radio while the artist lip synchs, but I have a feeling it's more complicated than that.
[/quote]

You don't mention whether this is a multiple camera shoot or not. One assumes it is (or at least hopes it is).

1) Put all the cameras in free-run mode.

2) once you start a song, don't stop recording on any of the cameras (let them shoot their feet while they are changing position).

3) I like each camera to get a wireless feed from either the board (live performance) or the CD player (staged performance). This helps in syncing things on the timeline. A far away camera has slightly different timed audio than a closeup camera with o/c mics. It introduces unnecessary effort in post.

4) Do it several times for your own piece of mind.

5) review footage along the way to make sure your camera people are giving you what you need.

6) Have them sing it for real... I find very few people are as good at lip syncing as the are when actaully singing.

I've done these in arabic with several locations in several states, all synced to the CD, as well as several nights live performances edited to a single nights audio tracks. It can be done... as for it being a "piece of cake", I'd stop short of saying that...
 
Re: SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO

With the music video i shot i filmed the band several times live. I synced it up pretty well with the cd recording in post. If there were any times none of my footage synced up i merely used footage of the video storyline in place of it. then i'd cut back to places that were synced up really well.
 
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