Using D90 for Music Video

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DVX100Shooter

Veteran
I am going to be shooting a music video for a local artist sometime next month and i want to shoot it with my D90 (I am planning on getting the D7000) but it will be after I shoot that video. Anyway, is there anything I need to know (those of you that have shot music videos with your D90's)? Can you run video out to an external monitor while your shooting so an assistant can be off set looking at your shot? Is there a particular lens I should consider using or will the stock 18-105 be okay?

Thanks!
 
make sure you run the playback 0.1% faster since you'll probably be mastering at 23.976. not really necessary if you will be syncing shot by shot, but if you like to do takes of the whole song it will drift.
 
Yea i noticed that when I did a recent shoot in August. I used Pluraleyes to sync my audio but even with that it was still off by about 6 or 7 frames in some spots. In other areas, I noticed the drift was more evident.

Just for knowledge purposes, how do I speed up the playback? Do you mean speed it up first then use that version for use when I am shooting on location?
 
yes, that way you can use the right audio in editing, not a good idea to manipulate the music for a promo imo.
 
DVX100Shooter said:
Yea i noticed that when I did a recent shoot in August. I used Pluraleyes to sync my audio but even with that it was still off by about 6 or 7 frames in some spots. In other areas, I noticed the drift was more evident.

Just for knowledge purposes, how do I speed up the playback? Do you mean speed it up first then use that version for use when I am shooting on location?
Click to expand...

Remember as well the D90 drops 1 frame and sometimes 2 every 18 seconds ( so at 18 and then 36 and so on ). Why?... nobody is sure but it's a fact so just be aware.
 
i think it does to stay in sync, because it holds fine for many minutes and i guess with those extra frames it wouldn't. the sensor and the camera probably run on different clocks, there was no need to sync them just for live view, which existed before video.
 
I apologize if you already answered this question but now I have a workflow question with shooting a music video. Say im on location shooting the video. Playback audio would be coming from some sort of sound system. The Nikon will record ambient sound (we all know this audio is not good). Now I do own a Zoom H4N audio recorder that I could use instead. Do I need to have that hooked into the sound system for playback audio? Technically I would not be using any audio from the Zoom in the final edit. The master track would be a MP3 file or come from a CD to be imported into FCP. I only mentioned that because I do have Pluraleyes for syncing audio with video in FCP. I plan to have someone use the slate clapper so I can easily find the peaks in the audio. The only problem that I now see is that the clean audio will not have any CLAP sounds in it so Pluraleyes wouldn't have anything to reference in terms of syncing.

With this said, I am a little confused on how to correctly sync up the audio to match the talent's mouth unless it has to do with what was said earlier about speeding up the audio some.

Thanks
 
i just playback (0.1% faster, or actually 4% slower in most cases since we're finishing in pal) and record it on the camera, then it's usually no problem to sync it up based on that. in fact most videos i've made were shot on film with no timecode and obviously no audio, and it's usually not very hard to sync that up either if you develop an eye for it.
 
I just finished up synching about 50 music video shots in FCP a minute ago; T2i footage with the playback picked up from the built-in mic, with a WAV file of the studio song on the timeline.

I find it really easy to sync this stuff without pluraleyes. I park the playhead on a beat, and then trim the clips' in points to a beat (it truly helps to tap your foot...). Drop the clip on the timeline - if the T2i (or D90 or whatever) audio sounds a little "echo-ish" when mixed with the studio WAV, slide the clip forward or back by a few frames until it's right; for things like drum hits you need to be within a couple frames; for vocals, you can be off by a hair and it still looks perfect. (if you're off by only a frame or two, the audio will sound kind of phase-shifted, the "jet flying over" sound - at that point your synch is probably fine, but feel free to synch it perfectly - you're just sliding things frame by frame). When you're done, mute the audio track from the footage and leave the WAV on.

The hardest thing really - getting 2-4 bars of click track before the song starts (on the playback version for the shoot), so the musician/band will start on time and in synch. I do this in ProTools, but if you don't know how to figure out the BPM and add a click intro, have the band get a version of the song from their recording engineer with a couple bars of click before the music begins. An engineer will understand this request.

I don't think you need to worry about the frame-rate drift on set - you'll never be doing footage playback at the same time as you play your backing track for filming. And you don't need a pristine version of the song coming into your camera - just enough to synch it later. I've done all kinds of bluetooth/wireless stuff to feed playback to the cam, but the built in mic is fine (unless maybe it's raging, blasting metal or really delicate classical). In some cases, having a click track through the entire playback version of the song may be desirable.

The thing you REALLY REALLY need? Something where you can select in and out points of the playback and loop it - its' like doing ADR - have, say, the first line of the first verse (with some in and out space) repeating; the singer/player will get better at sycnhing it each time, while you work out a camera move. You need a playback guy who can manage that and is familiar with the song - so when you say "pick it up from "baby I wanna loooove you" and loop it" he'll get it.

If this is a full-band deal, have them bring their practice PA and have a proper adapter for your playback. Don't try to do this from a CD unless it's all one-take for the whole song -playback can be frustrating without someone taking it really seriously. And you can't manage playback yourself.

I use Quicktime Pro on an old G4 laptop for playback, as you can set in & out points, hit "loop" and "play selected area only", and roll.

And finally... shooting a music video with a D90? I own one. Bone up on all those "kinda manual" tricks - it's a phenomenal still camera, but you can tear your hair out video-wise. I'd really suggest you explore a t2i/lens adapter or get the D7000; the D90 wobble is rough - just move the camera a hair and it's like you're shooting through a jello mold.
 
And a final thought, if this applies to your video: make sure the band brings guitar cables and plugs them in... pilot lights glowing on the amps... and microphones with microphone cables. Nothing like the unplugged-guitar look in a rock video...
 
i use audacity. easy to add clicks as well as do high quality speed changes. and it works on most platforms. and it's free.
 
Yep, audacity is a good utility tool - kinda funky for editing, I like having the grid in ProTools. I've added click tracks in audacity, not quite as fast as using logic or PT with a click plugin but gets it done.
 
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