Need some advice please.

[flvideo50]

I got a job today that I have never done before. Its a music video. Our plan is to shot the artist and band at several locations. Panama City, Key west, Okechobee and Tampa. Our plan is to shoot those locations and switch between locations and stills. I plan to lay down the song from a cd that was produced in a studio and insert my video and stills on the Audio. My question is whats the best way to sync the lips with the music track? Another question should I shoot the whole song in each location.? I plan on the camera shot being at in a different position when I switch back to that location.
I plan on using 2 cameras on each location also.
I know I have seen a bunch of music videos some of you have shot over the years and shared. Now share your technics... Thanks Bob...

[stonepatterson]

Here are three different music videos -- they are kept in a low file for easy download. Watch and ask whatever.

http://www.hauntedmovie.com/the%20Journey.mov The Journey won me a Telly and a Jade (Filmmakers Award) in 2002.

http://www.hauntedmovie.com/Fell%20Out.mov Fell Out has been seen by thousands with thumbs up, small bar band makes good...

http://www.hauntedmovie.com/nightlight.mov The band I did Nightlight for (Monster In Your Closet) wanted a music video -- narrative style. I did several -- this is one of those.

These music videos were made back in 2001 - 2002 with three or four DVcam cameras, tripods and great mics. Edited on Cassie Classsic !!!!! Thinking about doing more music video work today using the S6000 with Canon XF300s and crane/dolly systems...

[IanPearson]

Bob
One of the first members of this forum, back in the mid 90’s, once told me, the 5 basic steps of successfully making a film of this type is 1. Planning, 2. Planning, 3. Planning, 4. Shooting and 5. Editing. Whilst in those days of early NLE the technicalities were different, I still think this is great advice.

To answer your first question, one method is as follows:-.

Firstly you are unlikely to get lip sync at each location, unless each performance follows the original CD, i.e. miming or playing along to the CD sound track.

Where the planning comes in is deciding at each location what shots you will be taking and from what angles. Knowing where you want the lip sync shots is important.

When all the shooting is complete, import to your Renommee, your CD track. Still in the audio “Record/Edit” screen, highlight the CD track and from “Special” select “Sample -> Scene” and “OK”. After the “creating video” is complete, go to the main “Edit” screen and there will be a black scene with a music note and TV screen symbol, which will be exactly the same length as the audio track. Although at this point there is no video, the CD audio is on this scene. This is your base music scene.

“Add” this scene to the story board.

Starting with your lip sync scenes split and trim these scenes as necessary, lets assume each will be about 10secs long and at various locations. Select the first video scene and click the “Insert” button. In the story board you will now see this video scene, with an insert symbol, followed by the rest of the base music scene. With the inserted video scene active in the story board, click the “Range” button, on the dropdown box change the action from “Trim” to “Position”, make sure the audio scrub button is active, so you can hear the audio from the CD, click “Start” and scroll to the point where the video and audio are matched and in sync. This may take a little adjusting, but is relatively simple.

After clicking “OK”, play the storyboard to see if it needs further adjustment.

What you will now see in the story board is the first part of the base music scene, the inserted video, followed by the rest of the base music scene. With the last section of the base music scene active, select the next lip sync video clip and repeat the insert function.

When you have all the lip sync sections inserted, prepare the other shots and insert them into the relevant base audio scene, until all of the base audio scene is covered. If required transitions can be added between scenes without affecting the audio or overall storyboard length.

Where the planning comes in is knowing what shots need to go in where. You don’t want to end up with odd short gaps to fill, each video clip should be roughly the same length.

I’m sure others will help with advice on the actual shoot, but planning is the real key to this process.
Best of luck
Ian