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Please give me tips of how to edit footage of a band playing a song in footage, to the song in sequence!!
PLEASE HELP!
I’ve never edited a music video in which a band is playing the track, and this is turning into a nightmare.. What’s the best way to line up footage of a band playing the track, to the same track in the sequence??
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6 Replies
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Did they play to the playback of a CD? Or did they just play live?
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Oh, I forget to say that. They’re playing to a track from a cd.
They’re pretty decent, but they’re sometimes off beat which throws me off.
I have to get this done by tomorrow afternoon for a press release, and if its good muchmusic wants to play it. Somehow I’ve stumbled onto making a music video of a song that’s been #1 in the inspirational section of itunes for 10 days (possibly because I work for free and they were desperate to take advantage of their chart position quickly), but I’ve only worked for a summer camp and a church, and never done something that involved such exact timing.
Needless to say, I’m kind of panicing about blowing an opportunity I probably won’t get again for some time, if ever.
Also.. What television standards should I be aware of for something like this? Title safe zones for text I suppose
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Turn on visibility for the audio waveforms, first thing. You will be able to see how they match up in each section.
You don’t say what footage you have, so I’ll base this on how I would have done it.
I would have shot with at least 2 cameras and done at least 3 takes.
The footage I’d have then is:
2 takes wide shot end to end.
2 takes lead singer
2 takes assorted shots of the rest of the band.
In a hurry, this is my flow:
Lay the pre-recorded music down and lock the track.
I would pick a master shot from my two wide takes, and match that up to the pre-recorded track first, listening to both audio sources and trimming one until they don’t echo or phase-cancel, which means the audios are synched… then lock that track so it can’t accidentally be changed. Mute the audio for that track.
Second, I would pick out all the best closeups of the lead singer for the sections where I want him or her on camera, and lay those down on a second track above the first. I get close first by just matching using the lyrics, plus looking at the spikes in audio from a drum hit, which is very obvious on an audio waveform, I use the audio waveforms for rough alignment, then play the section over and over, adding or subtracting frames or bumping via the [ and ] keys for single-frame adjustments, until the audio doesn’t echo or ring. The I turn off that track’s audio, lock that track.
Third, I go back to a third track layer and fill in with the rest of the band where and as appropriate.
I delete the unneeded audio tracks, and add any effects and transitions, then mixdown or render out a reference movie. Finish color correction on the reference movie, add titles and slates and etc. as indicated by client.
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The other way to go is to set up the multicam feature, roll all the footage live and hit the keyboard keys to select your shots on the fly, as if directing a live-switched feed. I’ve done it both ways. the more sources I have, the more would pick multicam over hand-layering. You sound very new to this so multicam might be a bit much the first time out on a 24 hour deadline.
Good luck to you. -
Thanks for the workflow breakdown. very helpful. Any tricks you can think of, like keyboard shortcuts that are not as well known but really helpful?
thanks
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Nothing comes to mind in the context of this kind of project.
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