Editing a music video

[Bradley Hobday]

What's the best way to get lip sinc footage from a musician for editing a music video that I can get the video track lined up with the audio and not have to keep cutting individual 3-5 sec shots? Was thinking of 2 methods, but maybe there's a better way.

 

1- have the musician play out 10 full tracks and set-up each track w a lens, lighting, background, etc. and take footage without cutting for the whole song. Then drop each track into the timeline at the same start point and pull shots from each of the 10 tracks so each shot is already in sinc

2- set-up each shot individually and record approx location of the shot for general audio sinc and final sinc by aligning by hand w audio.

Sorry if this is not a question for the General forum but couldn't find the editing forum I thought used to be here

Brad H

[Paul Bartok]

Theres a few ways to go about it, Play out the full song several times for each angle and take you do, do not cut and make sure the talents sing properly the whole time.

If you can afford it get a Timecode slate/Machine to jam to all the cameras, this is great if you have multiple cameras, save you time having to scrub through each angle/take to find the same part of the song.

[Freya Black]

 

2- set-up each shot individually and record approx location of the shot for general audio sinc and final sinc by aligning by hand w audio.

Sorry if this is not a question for the General forum but couldn't find the editing forum I thought used to be here

Brad H

 

2 will be a total nightmare. Somebody did this to me once on a multicam shoot. You need to keep the camera running throughout for sync footage.

 

So the answer is 1!

 

love

 

Freya

[Phil Connolly]

Either way works, normally you go for whole takes and put them on individual tracks - but once you get into lots of takes and angles, you might find that you have too many video tracks to be manageable in the edit.

 

Sometimes you don't want to do a full take of the track for a shot you know your only going to use at a certain time. So I normally go for a combination of the 2, full takes and shorter bits where appropriate. I just record atmos sound on the camera mic, so it can hear the playback and usually thats sufficient for sync.

 

One option is to make a mini-timecode slate using an ipad or similar, create a video quicktime of the song with burnt in timecode and use that quicktime as the playback for the shoot. Then you have a sync timecode ref on the ipad screen. Some people swear by this method, I tried it but found it to be a bit clunky in the edit and not really a bit time saver.

 

In the end its not that huge of a chore, eye matching the thing in the edit, so don't worry if you have to resort to shorter takes of sections of the track. Sometimes a good idea if you don't want to over tire the band.... Also if the performance isn't totally on it, your going to be nudging shots into sync to tighten it...Plus maybe robbing shots from different sections of the song and cheating sync. For instance a close up cymbal hit could come from any section of the 'take' and be cheated into position.

 

Also if your doing any motion effects such as shooting at 50fps and playing back at 25fps, your probably going to have to eye match to nail the sync.

 

Or investigate Pluraleyes - that should do a lot of the hardwork for you.

 

One thing make sure the artist is miming to the final final version. One video I worked on wasn't, mid edit the final masted version of the track was delivered and somehow it was about 2 seconds shorter then the version I was working with. Nearly every shot needed to be adjusted to sync. I think I got away with it:

Also some shots were 30fps, played back at 25 and a lot of the close ups were cheated, just matching to drumming or strumming speed, but taken for different sections to patch holes in the coverage...

 

All of this is academic, since if you get your vimeo settings wrong that can through everything out and ruin your carefully produced sync...

[Bradley Hobday]

Thanks guys...that helps a lot! Wasn't even considering the off sync cuts that I can fill with in needed spots. I was planning on playing the same audio through the same device on all takes so I have it to sync to. Was hoping to get all takes dead-on (audio) so I don't have to manually move a lot that tiny amount that will make it a nightmare since the song is 6 minutes long

Plural Eyes is my next nice-to-have as you mentioned Phil (nice video by the way!), but saving for a few must-haves right now. It wil be a must-have when I'm micing seperate audio for a short (a long short that is).

Brad