Timecode in Music Videos

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oneinfiniteloop

Veteran
I'm not sure if this is the right thread to put this in, but I'm sure someone here can help.

I am going to shoot a music video soon, and I need to find a way to sync my footage with my audio. Unfortunately, I cannot afford a smart slate, and I don't think anywhere around my area rents them. So, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to use a traditional slate to sync the audio and video. I know how to do it in the traditional double system method, but what is stumping me is how to start the playback and use the clappers to get the performances in sync. Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Just have a boom box playing thier song they can lip sync to and record the audio so you can sync it in the NLE later. When editing, lay the high quality song down first and then lay the video down with the tape audio, line it up so there is no echo and delete the audio from the tape leaving the high quality audio in place. You will have perfectly synced audio and video.
 
Aram Bauman said:
Just have a boom box playing thier song they can lip sync to and record the audio so you can sync it in the NLE later. When editing, lay the high quality song down first and then lay the video down with the tape audio, line it up so there is no echo and delete the audio from the tape leaving the high quality audio in place. You will have perfectly synced audio and video.
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Hi, the above is the way I've always lined everything up....

but recently I purchased a DVX 100A.

I did my first music shots the other night with the DVX... 24PA, imported into FCP and lined up the camera audio with the high quality audio. I noticed the video looked a little behind. THe audio was lined up as close as I could get... so I ended up shifting the video a little forward to make it look right.

I remember reading somewhere about a slight shift when using 24PA. Is this true?
I'm pretty new at this. Music background... new at video..... and what a great camera!

Any suggestions would be appreciated... Thanks:laugh: http://www.acousticon.net
 
Well, when you shoot 24 fps you have to usually slow the audio down by a percentage of 94.976 or something like that to compensate in the difference in frame rates, but I don't know if this applies to music videos or just in camera audio.
 
Timecode, although useful, is not as necessary for video as it is for film. Film records no sound, so you have no reference track to sync from. With video, just make sure you have a decent audio level, and line up the waveforms in post. I like to have a click track, or 3 or 4 beeps in rythm just before the music starts. When editing on a timeline, it's easy to line up the waveforms of the beeps, but as mentioned above, it takes very little time to just use the first beat of the song. I just finished the feature film Siren (www.sirenthemovie.com), and to start with, we transfered all of the songs in the movie to timecode dat tape for playback (23.98 playback). We ended up having problems with that system, and had to do several playbacks off of a CD player. I was still able to sync everything up without too much trouble by lining up the waveforms. Timecode however, can still be useful when, during shooting of a music video, you only play part of the song. Sometimes they want a specific shot for a specific part of the song, and it wastes a lot of time if you have to play back the whole song for those types of shots just to get a good sync point.
I've seen people use timecode without a smart slate by transfering the song to video tape. Use a seperate deck to play back the tape, and feeding the video signal into a monitor with time code. They just shoot the monitor with the record camera before turning it to the talent. A lot of trouble to emulate a smart slate.
 
oneinfiniteloop said:
Well, when you shoot 24 fps you have to usually slow the audio down by a percentage of 94.976 or something like that to compensate in the difference in frame rates, but I don't know if this applies to music videos or just in camera audio.
Click to expand...

This doesn't apply to the DVX.

Shooting 24PA, then syncing to any audio, be it pre-recorded or recorded with a separate audio system will work on a very long timeline.

I've made about 11 45 to 130 minute multicamera concert videos with audio recorded on portable Pro-Tools rigs, all in 24pa mode. No sync magic needed.
 
Slowing down the audio by that percentage is really only for Magic Bullet type situations when you change frame rates from 29.97 to 24fps...I don't own a DVX and I wasn't thinking about it when I wrote it. I'm used to bulleting everything to 24fps.
 
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