Red cam music video shoot: creating playback mov for video iPod

[Richard Crowley]

Thanks, Ty. In my defense, a review of the record will show that I did NOT say what Mr. Watkins thinks I said. I said that “it is not rocket surgery” which was meant to imply that it probably isn’t as complex as everyone assumes it to be. Mr. Watkins is not the first to come to one of these forums assuming that sophisticated measures are required. I was caught in the same mindset before I tried it.

I have done many productions (“music videos” and otherwise) where I used a master audio track from an eternal recording of some sort. Whether it was the release mix of the song for a music video, or the program transcription from the FOH system at a live event, or the mixdown of a concert from an audio multi-track (like from my Alesis HD24).

I take that audio track as the MASTER for the production, and sync everything else to it. All the cameras are recording “scratch” audio tracks, typically from the on-camera built-in mic (which isn’t good for much else).

I then find it quite easy to lay down each video clip into the NLE timeline and slip the video to align its scratch audio track with the master audio track. In come cases, the various clips were from different cameras shooting non-switched multi-cam of a live event. And in some cases (such as a music video) the video clips were different segments that were shot in various places, and maybe not even the entire song, but only a portion of it.
Of course you mute the camera clip audio tracks once the clip has been moved into sync. The camera audio is used ony for sync. Sometimes a camera is in the right place to capture some ambient sound (like audience applause, reaction, etc.) and bits of the camera audio track might be useful in some places.

Once you have heard the song 10-20 times (shooting, editing, etc.) it is pretty easy to locate the section of the song that correlates with the video, even without timecode. And those places in the music that are ambiguous (exact repeats of the chorus, etc.) give you the option of using the video in ANY of those places, regardless of what any timecode may say.

Maybe it is just because I am musician as well as an audio and video producer that I find this pretty easy to do without any kind of timecode, or even slate and clap-sticks for sync.

Of course, this all asumes that one has already confirmed that they can take a master audio clip and successfully lay it into their NLE with whatever format and/or samplerate conversion is necessary. And then they they can take the video from the camera(s) and do the same. But this is a more fundamental prerequisite that has nothing to do with shooting a music video, or with using timecode.

I really encourage people to try it before assuming that they need sophisticated equipment and procedures to keep video in sync with pre-recorded audio. Remember that every time a video transistion is introduced to the edit is another place where you can “pull up” the video sync if necessary.

[Ty Ford]

Richard,

As always, you are a wonderful resource for the Cow. Now about this surgery I’m thinking about…:)

Regards,

Ty

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

[Bouke Vahl]

Guys,

This is all so easy if you use this:

https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/38/digital-clapper-board

Either record the LTC on the cams audio track, or lock the Red’s LTC input to it.
(I would do both, audio as a backup, since i’ve heard horror stories about RED locking…)

hth

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pro’s

[Paul Abrahams]

Glad I found your post I was having Kittens trying to figure out all the mumbo jumbo on shooting music video. Syncing by sight or ear is the way to go, being a musician syncing tracks for me is easy. A bit scary for the uninitiated I suppose.

One thing I have trouble finding in my research is Mobile Audio playback. I’m looking at using a Ghetto Blaster (I think thats what they called them) under battery power for following glidecam shots. Hopefully enough spill will be picked up by the camera mic, if not I may have to attach a long cable and not trip over it…. LOL.

As far as cueing up the audio on the shoot, I’m going to cut up the song in sections with lead in and tail out to match planned shots. Probably better than skipping through the whole song trying to find sections by ear. I’ll also be attempting some slo-mo, double tempo and timelapse pretty ambitious for my first one. If all goes well I’ll blog about it for other noobs.

Richard, have you ever done any Music Videos for a band called ‘The Reels’ or were you involved with countdown or hey hey or any TV stations?

cheers