Music Video Procedures

[Godchoo]

Hey Guys,

So I'm about to film my first official music video and I thought it would was good idea to
ask all of you amazing film-makers out there for some advice.
I realize that a music video set operates a bit different than a regular set.
For one, there needs to be a way to marry the image to the recorded song later.

I'm just wondering how that operates on set.
When does the Director yell action?
When is the song cued for the band to play to when the camera is rolling?
Any more quick tips?

Thanks in advanced.

-T

 

[directorik]

I roll the camera.
Then yell "playback" - the song plays - the performers do
their thing.

Play at least 30 seconds of the audio before the "action"
starts to give the performers time to get up to speed. Make
sure the audio is loud enough - kind of an obvious thing
but sometimes overlooked. Record the on set audio to the
camera to create a temp track which will help in syncing.
Or use a smart slate if you have one and use the timecode
for editing.

If shooting and editing digitally syncing will be easy even if
don't use the SEMPTE code - takes a little longer, that's all.

 

[chilipie]

Play at least 30 seconds of the audio before the "action"
starts to give the performers time to get up to speed. Make
sure the audio is loud enough - kind of an obvious thing
but sometimes overlooked. Record the on set audio to the
camera to create a temp track which will help in syncing.
Or use a smart slate if you have one and use the timecode
for editing.

And iPod/iPhone stuck to a normal clapperboard is brilliant, and free for a lot of people. You can even get apps to output audio on one channel and timecode on another, and then plug it into the camera.

 

[Godchoo]

Directorik as always you give the best advice. Thanks a bunch!
Chilipie, the iphone idea sounds amazing, I'll be sure to test it out.

 

[charles827]

how do you do a slowmo shot that syncs with the music? that has always intrigued me.

 

[Cracker Funk]

how do you do a slowmo shot that syncs with the music? that has always intrigued me.

You speed the music up. Have the talent sing along at the faster pace. That allows you to slow it down in post. Also, it's gonna look a lot better if you can shoot at a faster frame rate, say 60 fps, and then slow it down to 30 fps. If you did that, then of course you'd want to record with the song playing twice it's normal speed.