Music Video/Audio syncronization

[David S. Prysock]

What device do I need at the video shoot, that will help me lip sync the music with timecode, so I can accurately edit it during post production?

[Bill Davis]

Originally Posted by David S. Prysock

What device do I need at the video shoot, that will help me lip sync the music with timecode, so I can accurately edit it during post production?

I'm presuming you're talking about typical music video production style...

If so, timecode to tape is OPTIONAL and nice. Not really necessary.

Honestly, you can play the music track from a CD on a boom-box and do just fine.

Even cheap CD playback units have reasonably decent CD playback speeds - typically more than good enough to sync over the few minutes a song takes to complete. Especially since most music videos are composed of short scenes. So you just need to be able to sync up the different takes of each song line.

One nice strategy - whether you're shooting single or multiple cameras is to shoot the whole song wide from many angles. Then shoot the whole song again in medium shots. Then the whole song again concentrating on general close ups and extreme close ups.

Then go back and run the song AGAIN, concentrating on solos and the singers and key lyrics and anything song-specific that's important so you have a library of shots to select from.

Then go through it yet another time letting your camera ops go nuts trying to invent the coolest shots they can.

Then sync up all the tracks in your NLE against the same audio track, and pick and choose where you have the best angles and shots.

Then when you get your "sync" timeline built - go through and consider stuff that would work well OUT OF SYNC. The drummers grin doesn't have to go where he actually grinned, perhaps it's better after the bass player screws up on another take.

Lots of work. But than good music videos typically are!

Timecode display is a convenience on a shoot. Not really so much a necessity.

Then again, if you really need to SEE timecode references on the set and shoot them so you refer to them on the video tapes, then you'll need a Timecode Slate and something generating timecode to feed it. That can be any pro camera with a BNC timecode "out" port.

Good luck!