Professional Videoclip Question

Hey,

I have a quick question regarding music video-clips: Whenever the artist/singer is moving his mouth to mimic the song’s lyrics, he must have some source of audio to follow along, correct? In some clips, for instance, the singer is acting; hence, he cannot think about the lyrics and the beat and all of that at the same time.

I first thought they must use some sort of hidden earphone-device to hear the whole song, and just move their mouths with the lyrics. However, somebody then told me that in some hip hop-reggaeton clips they actually put a cassette recorder ‘on stage’ and blend it in with the scene’s environment—and then, they must somehow remove that audio and put the original mastered one above.. Personally I considered the hidden earphones idea better.

So that’s basically my question. How is it really done? Or what would you recommend? Kind regards,
Chris

NOTE : Because the artist I am working with is male, I have refrained from using she.

You actually dont need tu put audio player “on stage”. You can put it behind the camera. The singer would then sing the part of the song you wish to record. Later, in the post, you remove the original audio from the clip, and sync your singer to the real track.

Hope you understand what i’m saying.

/e/

eMotionStudio said
You actually dont need tu put audio player “on stage”. You can put it behind the camera. The singer would then sing the part of the song you wish to record. Later, in the post, you remove the original audio from the clip, and sync your singer to the real track.

Hope you understand what i’m saying.

/e/

Hey, exactly! That’s what I was thinking.. I just thought, since the video-clip is kind of urban and rap-oriented, some sort of boombox could lie around… and also work as the audio input.

Great, thanks!
Chris

Any kind of stereo will do. Its just a reference track for the artist or talent and a reference for you to sync to in post.

We release 2 video clip reggae-ton style and we had a cd playing the songs during the recording.Also we make sure to record a long bip before the song staring,this will help in sync (like a claquette).Also I try to avoid soothing close up of the the mouth (if storyboard allow).I use to shoot a lot of B roll,without the singer singing,just walking,close up to eyes,models,details,shoes,clocks,glasses,depending on the style….
Also i try to record the entire song on a shot this will be more easy sync all you shots.In this 2 opportunity the ref music was behind the cam.The singer was really singing,moving mouth have not the same filling I guess
Also you may know about twixtor and his capability to help sync.
B roll shots/cam will be your true salvation .Those are the small things i learned on my own,there are author here with professional experience,i m sure they will add some cool tips for you and me.,
those are my 2 cents
Cheers,Arthur

Professionally speaking, you have a small but loud playback speaker attatched to a digital playback device. The digital playback device is also linked to a thing called a digi-slate. This shows the timecode of the track and the digislate is held in front of the camera for a couple of seconds at the beginning of each take. That way, there is a visual reference on the film or video that allows you to synch the audio track afterwards.

Live sound is rarely recorded on music video shoots (or if it is, rarely used). If you are hearing ambient sound, then it’s usually assembled afterwards from separately recorded atmosphere tracks and foley.

That said, you can use anything to do playback with. Put a couple of beeps at the start of the track (in time with the beats if there’s a hard start…otherwise you’ll never get that first line of lip-synch). This way, you’ll have much more work to do matching everything up, but it still works.

-f.