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Trick: How They Do That . . .?
Hey all, I’m an up-and-coming music video director and film director. And I started to notice alot of lil tricks they are using now in music videos, just wondering how they do that.
For example, in one music video they had two of the performers in front of the camera moving at normal speed, then they had all these girls on them and around them moving at an accelerated rate. How where they able to have the performers moving at a normal speed, then all the girls moving at an faster speed? I thought maybe two different set-ups, one with the performers and one with the girls, and just lay the girls overtop in editing, but how were they able to make it seem like they were all over the guys?
Melvin Royster
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9 Replies
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Also, does anyone know how they have a certain object or person in color, while the rest of the background is in black and white?
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The colour one has been coined the “Pleasantville” effect. Here’s a web tutorial for an AVID system:
https://www.geniusdv.com/avid-pleasantville.php
Chances are, alot of the effects you are seeing are done with something like a Discreet Fire, SGO Mistika, etc. effects box. The music video is the bread & butter of the boutique effects house. NLE systems are best at creating the offline edit to be conformed for a higher-end effects session.
You might find some tutorials on Google for After Effects or Combustion which might be fun.
As an up and comer though, try to do something original and different that you thought up. It’s how one gets noticed from the crowd of copycats eh? 🙂
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the singers are lip syncing to slow playback of their song… the girls are dancing at normal spee… and the whole thing is being shot slow. Wehn played back at full speed, the singerare signing to the track at normal speed and the girls are dancing fast. It’s not a digital effect… it’s a camera effect.
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Thanks alot. I appreciate it. And Kevin thanks about being original, I know what you’re talking about. But I was just wondering how they did that, I had a couple of ideas but wasn’t too sure. If I do try to use it, I’m pretty sure I’ll put a different spin on it. I’m going to try and see if I can find the After Effects tutorial.
And Juan, can the Pansonic 100 and/or 100A camera shoot at a slower rate? And what is slow rate in a film camera?
Melvin
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[Melvin Royster] “can the Pansonic 100 and/or 100A camera shoot at a slower rate?”
No. The Panisonic Varicam (HD camera) can but not very slow … 60 fps.
[Melvin Royster] “And what is slow rate in a film camera?”
Depends on how much of an effect they want …. i would imagine it could be half or quater speed… so 48fps or 96fps. Doing something like that camera effect takes alot of work, planning and most of all experience. Play around practice… If you can find a super 8 camera that allows cranking… try it with that first.
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Ineresting. Thanks.
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I second the idea of Super 8mm techniques. For all the improvements of a DV camera, the Super 8mm camera still has allot to offer for the budding music video maker.
The Super 8mm medium is really nice for the more grungy look that one might find in a KMFDM or Front Line Assembly video (am I dating myself here?).
While the transfer rates to video might seem a bit worrying for a low-budget video, you can try your hand at your own film to transfer device. It can be a interesting style to pursue. A very interesting article can be found here in downloadable PDF form.
https://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d__and__photoshop/super_8_to_video
Don’t think that you are hampered to the grainy abyss though. One can get very good qualilty film and cameras from a specialty house like Pro8mm which produces 35mm Kodak Vision cartridges especially for Super 8mm. It really is quite amazing to have such potential like Max-8, allowing for Widescreen formats:
For the price of a high-end DV Camera, you might be able to grab a good quality Beaulieu from a reseller and package it with a Workprinter. It could give you that artistic edge you may be looking for.
It even might be cheaper to take a night course or something in a nearby film school that gives you access to their equipment rooms and student film shoot supplies. Either that or befriend someone who is involved in such a program for a credit in the film. 🙂
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the singers are lip syncing to slow playback of their song… the girls are dancing at normal spee… and the whole thing is being shot slow. Wehn played back at full speed, the singerare signing to the track at normal speed and the girls are dancing fast. It’s not a digital effect… it’s a camera effect.
I’ve seen news inserts with this fx, where the reporter is giving a PTC with a busy street behind him, surely he wasn’t lip syncing at a slowed down rate !!!
Is it not possible to the same thing by speeding up the clip, then laying the same clip over the top at normal speed and using animate to cut out the scene behind the reporter? -
Shoot in standard progressive-frame (or even interlaced) mode and do the speed changes in post production. You can do it in discreet combustion 4 using the new Timewarp operator (though it probably won’t produce the smoothest slow-mo), or if you have access to a higher-end Avid system, use Timewarp/Fluidmotion for smooth speed changes and set frame speeds. If you’re working on Xpress Pro, use “Optical Flow” from Boris (available in Boris Continuum Complete AVX v3 and later, or in Boris Red 3GL), or look into SpeedRamp from 3Prong. Both have decent results.
https://www.3prong.com
https://www.borisfx.com
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