Lip sync exercise

The other day we spend a whole morning into the studio working around the idea of making a music video, especially the lip sync, as it is one of the main features.

In the studio we had three different sets up, so that we could work around in groups and have lots of takes by the end of the day.

We worked with three different cameras (we looked at them in our previous tasks for the thrillers) to be more familiar with. We learnt how to use a Lolly to increate the idea of movement into the music video.

However as the working environment can become a bit overwhelming and loud, to keep everything under control we had a person checking all the camera men and actors where in place at the right time and all the takes were well conduced. Another new role it was introduced was the clapper (it indicates the time of the lip sync starting, giving a base to everyone’s work), important later on for the editing session.

The camera wok is different than from a TV show, for example we completely broke the fourth wall, making direct contact with the audience to engage them more. The main shots use are mid shots and close up to illustrate details of the character, understanding of their personality, fashion style and beauty style.

Editing was more challenging as we needed to layer different takes to track, matching the lip sync and length them all up to the same time, renamed them and grouped them by model and set used, all to present organisation and make the editing process quicker and more efficient.

We used Adobe Premier, the same software previously used to make our thrillers.

For a music video the style of editing depends of the genre of music we are looking for, in this case pop music. You decide your editing style in different ways, for example based from the pase of the music, the drops of the song or the lyrics. Music videos don’t present the idea of continuity as you can cut, change a scene and come back to it whenever you have as soon as you don’t want to tell a narrative, or show a story with a beginning and an end.

Because of this a music video needs to present the right amount of element other wise it be see as boring or chaotic, the right balance of elements it’s one of the biggest challenge.

Lip sync is shown as a live performance of the artist.

Music video is done to promote the artist and to sell them selves as a talented artist and to create an idea of positive connection, making the want and need to buy album, concert tickets, etc. It is not done to make money for the artist as the audience is free to watch them, however the artist could make profit from advertisement and sponsors, included within the video.

Making a video isn’t easy as you need to be updated with the upcoming and current trends, plus what the audience is looking for, grouping them and deciding specifically what the artist will be best for (teenagers, adults, children, etc), the genre it self will change the appeal of the artist as well as the typology of video, the lip sync could be affected depending of the message they want to transmit and the performance style.

It was great to get us started with such a small project to be able to experiment and play around with the roles, I hope once will be actually working with those things the process will become easier and quicker.