Slow Motion

[Guest Relentless Filmaker]

Hey all,

 

We are shooting a music video next week on super 35, I want to shoot some slow motion. Whats a good speed to give the feeling of something different..But not to make it to slow so that it looks dumb. I also want to do some slow mo of the band performance so if I shoot 36 frames per second that means I have to speed the song up 150 percent so when it plays back they will be in sync. What are the best speeds for a good slow motion just for aesthitics, I dont want to see a drop of water splash.

[David Mullen ASC]

Isn't that like asking how much salt to put in your soup? It's a matter of taste.

 

Personally, unless I have time to test, I stick to 48 fps for slow-motion because it's simple to calculate and guess the effect. Unless I am shooting under 60 hz flos or something, in which case I try and use 60 fps.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

You could always previz it on video. And depending on the nature of the track, you may find that dictates what is an isn't possible - I recently shot a promo where the lyric was just-barely singable at twice normal speed, but it was impossible for the guitarist to play. Some lyrics wouldn't even allow that much.

 

Phil

[Robert Hughes]

The nice thing about shooting 48fps on a music video is that, being half speed, you don't need to adjust the music speed any, you can still line the hits up to the beat, you'll only have 1/2 as many beats.

[Guest Relentless Filmaker]

Isn't that like asking how much salt to put in your soup? It's a matter of taste.

 

David the reason I am asking is because I figured someone has already experimented and has a good general idea of slow motion for a music video. I dont have time or the money to test so I was hoping for some feedback. I agree that is a matter of taste, but Im curious to see what other people have found that works for them to help give me a better idea of what I want to go for. Also the camera Im using doesnt go to 48fps the highest I can go is 42 wich would be 175% of the song. In any case the band has a hard time playing that fast. So Im curious to see whats been done and worked well for other people. I appreciate all your feedback.

 

Thank you all for any info you can give me.

[Guest matthew david burton]

I'd say shoot at your highest shutter speed and use something like twixtor or retimer to manage it in digital post.

With twixtor's help you could turn 42 fps into 1000 fps of fantastic quality.

It's so interesting to see things moving as slow as 0.5 of a second. Almost motionless but ever so slightly moving.

 

-matt

[Stuart Brereton]

32 - 36 fps is pretty common in promos if you still need to lipsync. It's got a unusual look to it, but it doesn't scream slow-motion at you. It's also not too difficult to mime to the track. If you just want slow motion of the band in action then half speed is probably enough (48-50fps)

[Rolfe Klement]

for me in the UK

 

25fps normal

50fps half speed

120fps or 150fps on Arri 435 - for those 2 macro close up of things falling :)

 

Anything higher than that and you hit huge equipment, film stock and lighting bills

 

thanks

 

Rolfe

[BritLoader]

relentless,

 

Can I suggest as a point of reference that you get your hands on the smashing pumpkins DVD ('singles' I think it's called) and look at the video for 'Adore', where the tracking, playback, f.p.s, (and presumably shutter compensation) are all worked in together and constantly changing. The result is a single tracking shot (one shot for whole video) that maintains a constant speed, following the lead singer, who maintains sync but whose movements move through the whole spectrum from jagged and erratic to beautiful and smooth. There is also a pretty good comm entry that talks through some of the technicalities, though of course it is not really aimed at filmamkers so I dare say it is pretty dumbed down.

 

I dare say that others have done similar in the past, but for me it is a really stand out video.

 

hope that helps

 

:)

[Robert Edge]

If you haven't already seen the current Coldplay video Fix You, you may find it useful to do so.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Syncing is hard to do at 50fps (48 in the US) except for very slow songs. So 37.5fps is a common speed to lipsync to, and probably the upper limit of what an average artist can manage to pull of convincingly. That said, I just filmed a 10 year old boy who easily pulled off 50fps on a pretty uptempo song...