lip synch at 36fps

[booper]

I was thinking I would try to lip synch to a song, but I want to get that slow mo effect that some music videos have these days. I have a computer and I was thinking it could work like this:

Shoot at 36 fps (with a Chinon 806 SM)
make the song run at 50% or twice as fast (on the computer)
and lip synch it

Later when the film is played at 18 fps and song runs at normal speed, it should synch up right? Am I trying to do something that needs to be done with more professional equipment by someone with more experience? I'm relatively new to super 8.

Thanks in advance

[mattias]

i have lots of experience with this, and from what you're saying it seems like you got it exactly right. very few cameras run steady at these high frame rates though, so you'll probably have to cut often to keep sync. good luck.

/matt

[Lucas Lightfeat]

If you get the singer to lip sync to the music playing at half speed, and film in slow motion, when it's played at normal speed, s/he'll be singing in sync, and everything in the shot (except for the mouth) will be in slow motion - very cool indeed! Try it...let us know.

Lucas

[mattias]

If you get the singer to lip sync to the music playing at half speed

i'm sure you mean double speed. have you actually tried it? once you have there will be no doubt about it. i still hear the song in my latest music video at double speed in my head every day, and i'm shocked whenever i hear it the normal way... :-)

/matt

[Lucas Lightfeat]

Hi Mattias,

No I haven't tried it, but I'd love to.

I can see you are right in saying speed up the music, not slow down :oops:

Is it easy to do? I imagine 2x would work better than 3x speed

Lucas

[mattias]

yeah, you should. it's a lot of fun. speeding up to 200% works well, but can be hard for the singer, and especially the drummer. :-) 150% works fine too, is easier to lipsync with, and it means you shoot at 36 fps, which is a setting many cameras have...

/matt

[booper]

Well I did a test with some Plus-X where I lip synched to a song that was converted to twice the speed of the original (for example, 4 minute song in 2 minutes). It was a bit hard to hit the words dead on and must be impossible with a fast song. This is a ballad though so I believed I got pretty close. Anyway, I did a poor man's transfer off the wall so I won't be able to get exactly 18 FPS. Although it came close I'm going to have to have it transferred frame by frame to digital tape to know if I can pull it off with my non professional set up. I wish I could afford a work printer Not just to have it done, but to be able to have it done right when I need it.

I'll do another test soon and post the results. Thanks for the great feedback. I just wanted to know if anyone had done the same thing.

BTW, does anyone have a work printer around Chicago?

Mattias, we just crossed posts. I just want to make sure I understand. If you were shotting at 36 fps (which is all my camera will do), would'nt the song need to be twice as fast for it to synch up when the film is played at 18 fps?

[mattias]

sorry, you're right. i've never really used 18 fps for anything but home movies myself, and in this case not even super-8 but 16mm. i've also done it with video, in which case 200% is really the only option since it's the only slow motion speed that looks good. i did manage to get good pretty good results with 150% too, but that took lots of tweaking and some use of high end software. (http://www.mattias.nu/leon/)

/matt

[Sonic Truth]

i like the sound of this effect can it be done shooting at 54 fps, and playing back at 24?

[mattias]

i like the sound of this effect can it be done shooting at 54 fps, and playing back at 24?

yes, if you run the playback sound at 54/24=225%...

/matt