Lip Sync Task

Our lip sync task was to film in groups, people lip singing along to ‘All About that Bass’ by Meghan Trainor. Most people new the words, and those who were not familiar with the lyrics managed to learn them after a few runs of the song. 

When we entered the studio we were shown the set, there were 3 separate sets; one which was a sofa in front of a green screen; the other was a wall with a fireplace and the last one was a blue background with fluorescent tube bulbs and the camera on the set was mounted on a dolly.  The sets were different in style and colours which provided a contrast from set to set, and it also made it look as if they were in different places which will visually, be more interesting for an audience when they watch the final video.

Fireplace set

   

                    Green Screen Sofa Set                                      Blue Background Fluorescent Light Set

We were shown the cameras we would be using. There were three cameras in total, one for each set:

• Sony NX5

• Sony FS100 

• Canon 5D

We used these cameras because of their high image quality and powerful lens, which would give our lip sync music videos a professional standard. There was also the dolly, which enabled us to track shots along a set.

Dolly 

We were then told of the different duties, such as the actors (people being filmed), the director, the camera operator, the floor manager (oversees production and makes sure everyone films at the same time) and then the clapper (the person that play backs the track).

    

                Camera Operator                                                              Clapper

Canon 5D

When filming I learnt that when people actually sing along to the track, the movement of the mouth and facial expressions are much more realistic and look natural, instead of mouthing the lyrics. The sound from the filmed clip can always be removed in editing, so it is not a problem if you hear the actors sing in the clips. Additionally, I gained more awareness of the amount of accuracy needed when syncing a song track to a person lip singing, because a fraction of a second to fast or to slow can be clearly seen and ruins the entire illusion.

 

After filming the clips, we went to the editing suite where we were given our clips and we had to edit them on Adobe Premier Pro. 

We spent a good 5 -10 minutes watching all the clips of each group to see how the filming looked and if any clips stood out as really good. We then were asked to sync the clips and layer them. We synced up the clips by looking at the playback time reel and syncing it with the music. For example if the clapper said (00:05:36) then we would sync that point in the video with the time in the music track; so both video and music track would start at (00:05:36). 

We chose the clips we wanted and layered them above each other using the same method of matching the number on the clapper (playback track) with the time on the music video. This method was done because it makes the editing process much faster and easier. 

By having all the videos synced to the music track that meant that you could cut the clips using the laser tool in whatever order and the singing and music will sync up as you move from clip to clip.  We then made sure all the clips matched correctly so that our final product would be much more refined.

However, because this was an initial lip sync task, the shots and editing were not perfect. When my group edited we went straight to choosing the clips, cutting and putting them together, this took us longer to edit as we had to sync each clip with the music, whilst cutting it. This made some shots in the final video slightly of tempo. I would have instead followed the method mentioned above, of collecting all the clips and layering them; and then I would sync them using the playback track, and leaving them in their original length, this would make all the clips in sync and then I would trim the length of each clip to the parts I wanted. This would have cut editing time and made the shots move slicker into each other. I also thought that some of the singers did not know the lyrics, therefore when watching the clip it would ruin the illusion that they are singing the song. To improve this, I would have given the lyrics to the singers before filming and worked with them to have their movements and choreography in sync. This would have made the final video look more professional as the actors would have known what they were all doing.

Below are pictures of different groups planning of what they will do on camera. E.g. choreography 

In conclusion, I thought that for a prelim lip sync task it went very well. Our groups worked well under time constraints and managed to capture some good shots in the studio. Furthermore, we were very detailed and analytical of our work in the editing suite which meant our final product was completed to a high quality. In future, especially for our A2 music videos we will use all the techniques and lessons we learnt from this process so that they are made to a professional standard.

This is our finished lip sync music video

Enjoy!!!