Lip Sync Tutorial (planning)

Through our activity of 'Lip Syncing,' I learnt the key steps to make a music video which consist of :
- Singing rather than miming as this is easier to edit the mouth movement
- Using at least four different types of camerwork e.g. Extreme close up, Mid Shot, Pan & Track

With Final Cut Pro of which I used to edit our camerawork, I learnt an easier way to create cuts creating an effective music video. This is simply by taking a word from the song e.g. 'My' and editing the amplitudes where you then mark and drag this down to the timeline. Cutting your recorded piece of Lip Sync at the same point and placing on the timeline makes it effective and leaves you almost with a music video in sync. This was quite easy to me since I use these types of programmes to make music mixes where I have to cut music at a specific point.

On the other hand, learning the new technique was a challenge as I was tempted to do things my own way. But I learnt it in the end and it paid off since we made quite a satisfying video clip for a preliminary task. Also using a handheld camera was difficult since we were not allowed to use tripods. However this did help us use the oppurtunity to get used to hand-held cameras. My last difficulty would be cutting my camerawork at the specific point to align with the soundtrack as our actual camerawork sound was not as clear as the original song soundtrack.

I would say the newest tools I learnt to use on Final Cut Pro was firstly the razor tool of which you use to cut up your work making different edits. I found this tool quite fascinating as you could cut anywhere you wanted, have fun with it and still make an effective video. The other tool would be the mark tool which helps you select a specific point of the soundtrack to put in sync with the recorded piece on camera.

In comparison to my thriller movie, this was way easier. I used many quick cut edits and fast panning in my thriller to suit the genre which was expected. In contrast, since my lip sync task was to a 70's Disco song, longer length edit cuts were appropriate to the genre and mood. The whole technique to a music video could take you a day to edit since the cuts are repetitive and a razor tool helps to create this. Whereas in an opening to a Thriller Film, it is different footage used throughout it almost like a ongoing timeline that never changes.

On a last note, I would say that I am very proud of what I achieved in my first task because the edits and camerawork was on point but if the mise-en-scene was up to scratch too, it would have been even better.