slow motion effect (like cold play yellow song)

[Michael Szalapski]

[April Henderson] “I would presume they the sped up the song then recorded the video to that song tempo and then slowed it down to the normal speed of the song.”

This is the easiest way to do that. (It would be better if you shot it at a higher frame rate (overcrank), rather than trying to do all the slow-motion in post.

What speed is “best” depends on how slow you want it to look. I once did a music video and did the song at double speed, then all you have to do is halve the speed.

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[Curious Turtle]

[April Henderson] “I would presume they the sped up the song then recorded the video to that song tempo and then slowed it down to the normal speed of the song”

Yep, overcranking is a common trick in music videos. There’s no right recipe that fits all circumstances, as different speeds create different final looks.

You will probably be constrained by your camera as to available frame rates and the artist’s ability to move their lips in sync for take after take :o) It’s not as easy as it looks!

All the best,
Ben

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[Michael Szalapski]

Ben’s right. Double speed is difficult enough to lip sync to. However, half speed’s not really all that slow looking.

If you’re looking into doing much slower than that, you might look into shooting your very overcranked footage and replacing the face with a separate shot of the words being sung at the proper speed, but that’s much more difficult. (Matching the angle of the head, etc.)

A better way would be to have them practice the really fast line over and over again. It’s a music video, so you’re likely to not be doing the same shot for very long. If you record each line right, you can paste it all together in the edit.

One really fun thing, is a camera control rig that can follow the same exact path but at different speeds and record different band members at different speeds of the song, then composite them together. So one guy’s moving in fast motion, one’s normal, one’s slow, one’s super-slow, etc.

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[April Henderson]

Hi and thanks a lot.

I’m not a pro at all, but if I get the geist of what you folks are saying, increasing the song speed by about 50%, shooting the vid, then reducing video speed by half seems to be about the simpliest idea?? Right?

When you say “overcranked” what does that mean? Does that mean a higher shutter speed? I don’t have a really fantastic camera, just a sony fx1, which is pretty cool and better than nothing.

I’ll just be shooting a one man band guy, but it’s an excellent song, I’d love this guy’s career to sky rocket!!

thanks

[Michael Szalapski]

Sony HDR-FX1? I have the same camera at home for my personal use and some freelance work. It shoots interlaced which means you can follow this tutorial for some decent slow motion. Here’s an old thread about how to get slower slo-mo.

However, none of this is going to be comparable to doing actual overcranking. Which the cameras I have at work can do…fun stuff to play with on a slow day.
(Get it? Slow day? Anyone? *crickets*)

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Sebastian Brown]

Im wondering what these conditions would render:

if you shoot at 60fps
with artist singing song 2x as fast

this would be the same thing (lips synced equalized by song playback speed on set but actions slow motion) right but you don’t lose frames

[Curious Turtle]

Yes, that’s right. Just interpret the frames so they playback at half the shooting speed and it will sync with the original track.

Cheers,
Ben

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[Sebastian Brown]

Thanks for the prompt response Ben!

when you say interpret the frames that makes me think your saying take footage shot at 30fps and slow to half speed in post. If this is what your saying I understand this works great but wouldn’t shooting 60fps with song sung 2x faster playing in a 30fps timeline render the same results with all full frames (no cross dissolves to create essentially non existing frames) thus a smoother slow mo while maintaining the speed and lip sync of the song…?

this seems like it would work but haven’t tested has anyone had experience with this?

[Curious Turtle]

[sebastian brown] “take footage shot at 30fps and slow to half speed in post”

No. That’s the exact opposite of what I’m saying. Film at 60fps then playback at half speed in post. The settings for that are found in “Interpret Footage”, which is why I used that word there. Doing it that way will give you the best results – no new pixels, no interpolation, just what you put in played back slower. A tried and tested method.

Hope that makes sense,
Ben

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[Sebastian Brown]

Awesome thanks Ben! I had the discussion with DP’s before and they suggested shooting normal speed and slowing down in post never quite made since to me I knew there should be a better way

here is another video that uses it