Prelim Task

Lip Synching and Performance Challenge

 We were given 6 hours to produce a short music video which challenged us to perform to a piece of chosen music by lip synching our mouths to the lyrics in the track. I worked with Daniel Thorpe and we were given the track 'Burning Down the House' by Tom Jones and The Cardigans. I could not find an official music video for the original song, however I found a live performance of the song being sang by the artists.

Planning

We didn't have a lot of time to plan as I was absent for the first hour of the preliminary task, and this meant that we needed to film straight away. We came up with a simple idea of us both singing like we were in a recording studio. This meant we needed a blank background, so we would find a small room with a plain white wall or board in the background so that filming would be easier to edit with lighting. We decided to wear big headphones like people do in recording studios and found a microphone and stand to give the illusion that we were actually perfoming in a studio.

As this task was based on performance and lip synching quality, we decided to keep it simple with similar head shots used throughout with a couple of close up shots to emphasise the mouth moving to make it obvious that we were lip synching.

Directing

We took equal turns of directing as we shot it in two parts so that only one of us was on shot at a time and this allowed us to take the role of the director throughout the production stage. It was easy to direct in such a small group and the set was simple to work with.

Shooting

We positioned the camera on a tripod and kept it in the same position to make sure that each shot looked similar and would give the impression of a studio set. I shot all of the shots of Dan and made sure the camera was steady and in focus for the best effect. Originally we shot the shots with natural lighting, however after a brief lesson, we found out how to use the stage lighting correctly to create the effect of the background in a studio.

We found that the closer you stood to the camera, the less shadows which were created and the positioning of the light made a difference to the colour of the picture, and therefore experimented with the different lighting until we found a light that worked for the image we wanted to give.

Editing

Dan decided to put the shots together on the Adobe Premier Pro CS4 program so that they were in order and then cut them to the correct places so that we were lip synched to the music which he also imported to the program. I then took over and added transitions to shot such as cross dissolves inbetween shots that seemed a bit shaky.

I then decided to make the beginning more unique by adding a transition that showed the shot 4 times on the screen in a pop art style. I then used a wipe to link the following shots together as this made it feel more like a music video.

Music Video