Assignment 1: Task 4 Lip syncing

For this post I will writing about how I made my Elton John music video that we lip synced too. This task was designed to practice editing, lip syncing and help me learn one of the key techniques used when making a music video. It is really important that that the artist looks like they are singing live so you have to be careful to match up the video footage with thee recorded sound.

The first thing i did was i imported the sound track i was working with and locked it on the time line. I then used the marker tool to mark on the track exactly when elton john started singing this made it much easier to sycn the music. I then used the marker to mark when my actor sang the first word of the song. This meant i was able to match up the two points and get my first whole layer of video footage in time with the music. I then repeated this progress two more times with the second and third layer of video footage.

It is important to have a variety of shot types in a music video so i used three different shots, one of both the performers two shots of each actor on there own. I layered thee video footage on top of each other so i could easily cut from one shot to another with out having to worry about matching up the lip syncing every time.

I used tools in Final Cut Express called toggle clip overlays and the pen tool to allow me to edit between the three layers of footage really easily. I was able to create straight cuts and dissolves without having to cut or move any footage on the timeline.

Overall I have been able to practice a range of techniques such as editing on multiple layers, using the marker tools, and using toggle clip overlays too create a short sequence of lip-syncing. As lipsyncing is one of the key convention of most music videos it is important to practice it before i make my own music video.



The Pretender - Editing a band sequence.
What we had to is that we watched the Foo Fighters music video for the song "The Prentender". We then carefully storyboarded the first fourty-five seconds. This allowed me to understand how many different shot types are used in a real band sequence from a music video. It also made sure i realised how many edits there are in a real band sequence and how fast the editing needs to be.
I photograph each of the shot on my storyboard and imported them into Adobe Premier. I then imported the real video for the Foo Fighters song and resized it so it would appear in the corner of the screen. I then edited my images in time with the real video so that I was able to practice the style and speed of editing i would need to use in my own music video. Being able to edit the pace of the song is a key convention of almost all music videos and so is a technique I wanted to practice.

Sequence 01 2 from Daniel Merritt on Vimeo.