I felt my lip syncing Task was extremely useful in developing my skills with the equipment, I also learnt from the mistakes that were made:
CameraworkI have used the school equipment numerous times prior to this, for example last years AS work. In addition, I was allowed to take the camera equipment out over the holidays to do some independent filming for my university showreel (I hope to study film/TV production at university next year). Therefore, I knew the camera equipment well and it was simply procedure to put the charged battery and the blacked out tape into the camera. Then, attach the camera to a tripod and dolly. However, I have never been very confident in white balancing the camera, I feel the lip syncing task helped me fine tune this using the piece of white blank paper as I was not rushed. Using the tripod and dolly I filmed still and moving/tracking shots. I was able to view the footage I was filming on the camera screen. When necessary I used the rewind and play buttons to skim through the footage to find the exact shot to check. I made sure they were in focus and not shaky. The element I had to check most however was the lip syncing, in some cases my actor/singer hardly moved his mouth therefore for I had to check the rushes and if necessary film it again after asking the singer/actor to move his mouth more. I found this aspect of the filming rather repetitive and challenging. While this was the case I know this will prepare me well for when I film my final music video because it is vital I direct the actors well while filming.
Editing - Adobe Premiere Pro 2 While editing my lip syncing task I had to learn how to match up the actors/singers mouth with the song (mp3 file). I decided to work logically and keep within certain boundaries. First, I added the song file into the timeline - this gave me a structure to work around (something I have never been limited by before). It was then simply a case of finding the best shots I had filmed to match the song lyrics. I found the further on into my footage the better the footage/lip syncing was due to my confidence in directing and the confidence of the actor/singer. Throughout the shoot he progresses as did I, resulting in better footage to use. I did this using the cut/razor tool and the mute button allowing me to completely mute any sound the microphone may have picked up during the recording. This resulted in the song being the only audible track.
SoundRecording the music from the speakers during the filming proved to be incredibly useful as it pointed out what part of the song the actor/singer was lip syncing to. Without this knowledge I feel it would have been far harder to find the correct parts of the song and match the actors/singers mouth with the song on the timeline. As discussed above, after muting all recorded audio the only track audible was the song.
Overall lessons learnt from Preliminary TaskThe lip syncing task has reminded me that filming and editing take much longer than you would expect it to. Furthermore, I have learnt it takes time to get the actor/singer to lip sync properly therefore a run through of the song may need to be filmed numerous times so the I have a wide range of shots to chose from and is not restricted to one. If I were to do this task again, I would brief the actor/singer before hand and perhaps have a practice with him encouraging him to actually sing the song so his jaw/mouth looks like it is actually singing - because it is! Thus giving a more realistic performance. I also was able to experiment with lighting which I may use in my final music video. On a positive note, I am very glad that I left a few seconds at the beginning and end of each shot as it gave me much more flexibility in the editing suite to make cuts for when there is only musical instruments with no singing.
I made/generated a diagram to show the layout I used when filming my Lip Syncing Task - from a birds eye view/high angle shot:
CameraworkI have used the school equipment numerous times prior to this, for example last years AS work. In addition, I was allowed to take the camera equipment out over the holidays to do some independent filming for my university showreel (I hope to study film/TV production at university next year). Therefore, I knew the camera equipment well and it was simply procedure to put the charged battery and the blacked out tape into the camera. Then, attach the camera to a tripod and dolly. However, I have never been very confident in white balancing the camera, I feel the lip syncing task helped me fine tune this using the piece of white blank paper as I was not rushed. Using the tripod and dolly I filmed still and moving/tracking shots. I was able to view the footage I was filming on the camera screen. When necessary I used the rewind and play buttons to skim through the footage to find the exact shot to check. I made sure they were in focus and not shaky. The element I had to check most however was the lip syncing, in some cases my actor/singer hardly moved his mouth therefore for I had to check the rushes and if necessary film it again after asking the singer/actor to move his mouth more. I found this aspect of the filming rather repetitive and challenging. While this was the case I know this will prepare me well for when I film my final music video because it is vital I direct the actors well while filming.
Editing - Adobe Premiere Pro 2 While editing my lip syncing task I had to learn how to match up the actors/singers mouth with the song (mp3 file). I decided to work logically and keep within certain boundaries. First, I added the song file into the timeline - this gave me a structure to work around (something I have never been limited by before). It was then simply a case of finding the best shots I had filmed to match the song lyrics. I found the further on into my footage the better the footage/lip syncing was due to my confidence in directing and the confidence of the actor/singer. Throughout the shoot he progresses as did I, resulting in better footage to use. I did this using the cut/razor tool and the mute button allowing me to completely mute any sound the microphone may have picked up during the recording. This resulted in the song being the only audible track.
SoundRecording the music from the speakers during the filming proved to be incredibly useful as it pointed out what part of the song the actor/singer was lip syncing to. Without this knowledge I feel it would have been far harder to find the correct parts of the song and match the actors/singers mouth with the song on the timeline. As discussed above, after muting all recorded audio the only track audible was the song.
Overall lessons learnt from Preliminary TaskThe lip syncing task has reminded me that filming and editing take much longer than you would expect it to. Furthermore, I have learnt it takes time to get the actor/singer to lip sync properly therefore a run through of the song may need to be filmed numerous times so the I have a wide range of shots to chose from and is not restricted to one. If I were to do this task again, I would brief the actor/singer before hand and perhaps have a practice with him encouraging him to actually sing the song so his jaw/mouth looks like it is actually singing - because it is! Thus giving a more realistic performance. I also was able to experiment with lighting which I may use in my final music video. On a positive note, I am very glad that I left a few seconds at the beginning and end of each shot as it gave me much more flexibility in the editing suite to make cuts for when there is only musical instruments with no singing.
I made/generated a diagram to show the layout I used when filming my Lip Syncing Task - from a birds eye view/high angle shot:
Outstanding thinking here. Well dones. SG
ReplyDeletePlease will you erase the technique that I have to copy letters and numbers before my comments are published on your blog. I will return to your blog when you have done this as the process is too time consuming.SG
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