When we were first told we had to do a lip sync video back in June, I had always wondered how in music videos, they actually made the lips match the artist in the video. This is because I knew they firstly recorded the song in a studio, but I was unaware how they matched the lips with the lyrics in a video. We were given a quick brief on how this was done using Final Cut Pro. Firstly we were shown how to import the just the music track onto Final Cut Pro. With practice shots already on there, we were then told how lip syncing is actually done. This involved placing markers at every certain point (e.g the beginning of every line in the lyrics) on the music track. We then had to place the same markers on each base track video we were given to the same words we marked out on the song. This allowed us to match up the words with the video allowing the lips to sync together.
Before we had been told this, I did not know the process or methods to lip sync music to an individually recorded video. I learnt the processes involved, what has to be done and the amount of effort required to get the finished piece looking professional.
We then went out and recorded our own music videos. But before we were told to do so, we were told how it is done. We learnt that when recording a music video, the piece recorded has to be the full length of the song and the person on screen has to actually sing. This is known as a base track. We learnt this is done because when editing, we can pick out any piece we want from the base track and mix it with other shots. Also, we learnt that the person has to actually sing the song due to the fact that miming the words does not look like you are saying anything, therefore it looks effortless and poor. Actually saying the words makes it look like the person is really singing when it comes to editing and matching the music with the lips.
When it came to editing, I thought I would save time and use my own technique which involved individually cutting sections of each base track, marking the points then placing the clips next to each other on the time line. However, I learnt that doing this caused me many problems. If I slightly edited a clip, all the clips after that would have moved out of position and the music would be out of sync with the lips. After realising that this would be a continued problem, we reverted back to the technique we were shown and understood why putting markers on every base track then cutting the clips was the method used. This is because if the clip before was edited in some way, it would not affect the whole synchronisation of the music and lips.
We marked each base track to the same markings we put on the music track. We placed all the base tracked on each individual video timeline. We then muted the sound on all the videos as we didn't need it. Next, all we had to do was line them up and then we could choose which base track to show and when by cutting with the razor tool. We cut each base track when we wanted the shot to change; this allowed the over lapping video to play which was the other base track. This allowed us to show various camera angles in the videos with all perfectly synchronised signing matching the lips of the video. We learnt that precision had to be used in order to get the lips matching the lyrics on point; the more precision used, the better it would look in the finished product and we took this into great consideration when marking each base track and the song. We had under-estimated how long it would take to place markers on each individual section of the song and the base track, but we realised once this had all been done, the rest was easy (e.g. choosing the shots we want to show on screen).
Note: Currently my group's lip-syncing work from AS has been mis-placed due to the changes of the MAC systems over the holidays. I will upload the video when I retrieve it from the old hard-drives.
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