Advice on Slo Mo

[adrian vedder]

Hello everyone!

I'll be shooting a sort of music video this next week and I want to use a lot of slow motion, mostly 60p but maybe I'll go all the way up to 120p from time to time.

The question is, if I want to lip-sync to a song, I need to play the playback music at 2 and a half or five times the speed, right? So when they sing it actually matches the song?

Has anyone done this before? Also, I assume I'll get no flicker from a kino, is that correct?

Last question, would an Epic X hold its ground indoors with just two kinos at T2.0 120p? Or do i need a lot more light?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Terry VerHaar]

As for the light level, the answer would vary a great deal depending on what you are shooting, how large the space is, how far away the kinds are, etc. And, remember, at 120 fps your shutter will be no greater than 1/120th - not much light there.

 

[Marc Wielage]

The question is, if I want to lip-sync to a song, I need to play the playback music at 2 and a half or five times the speed, right? So when they sing it actually matches the song?

Yes. But do a test first. Be warned it's very hard for performers to lip-sync certain songs double speed. I think 48fps (2X) is about the limit for sync playback.

 

[Serge Tsipis]

I have been shooting 48-120 fps with KinoFlo all the time - no trouble. I guess there is no point cranking up to 120, 48/50/60 will do. But it depends on a music density, tempo and vocals - you can make it 1000 fps, if a talent is still able to perform at that speed. But talk to the drummer first! As about lighting, sometimes it doubles, or triples - so that is to be planned in advance. It really depends on the space and framing. Wide shots will require exponentially more light. I might be wrong, but 2x KinoFlo 4Banks will not be enough for indoor shoot at T2.0 aperture and 1/120sec shutter. I use several additional 1-2kWt HMIs with gels and scrim to help with fill light.

Remember to warm-up your camera, black-shade and restart it each time you go to over-crank and back. This is extremely important, and everyone tend to forget it.

Good luck with you production! It's a great fun actually, love shooting slow-mo.

 

[adrian vedder]

Thanks a lot guys!
A few things:

1. I forgot to mention this is the poppiest of pop songs, so no actual musicians will be shown! hehe. Simply a girl singing a ballad around cute things, so I can go all the way up to 240 easily I believe and it would still sound slow ^_^

And yeah, obviously light depends a lot on the frame and the actual location, but since the EPIC has a rather low ISO I was wondering if this was realistically a thing I could do with a couple of kinos and a one or two 650w tungstens, cause I'm also thinking about renting an F55 for the higher light sensitivity, or maybe find a couple super speeds or master primes to go all the way to 1.4

Getting more lights it's out of the question, since it's only gonna be me and some guy to help me as a grip, but he's never done it before, so it would be slooooow... And I want to move fast. I rather spend the money in the extra aperture on the lens or the F55. I know it won't look as nice, but when the problem is the amount of people, there's only so much you can do.

Serge, why is that important? (It's a real question, not a challenge)

thanks everyone!

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Serge, why is that important? (It's a real question, not a challenge)

For better noise handling, the camera needs to be blackshaded at intended shooting specs for Sensor temp + Shutter speed.

IMHO sensor temp is the most important. If you blackshade @ 25 fps and go up to 120fps (1/250 sec) you won't have a bad blackshade (please test it yourself). But if you go below 1/25 sec you will have more blackshading problems.

You can check if your blackshade is performed correctly :

- choose the shooting FPS/Shutter
- put a cap on your Epic to get a black picture
- push the asa to the max and look if the blacks (noise) are even.

Pat

 

[Joe D'Arcy]

It's best to speed the song up - double time - this can be done in protools. Then play the song back while you are filming so that the vocalist can get the timing right. I have just finished a clip doing this. I wouldn't try any more than double time. You can still do ultra slo-mo without the vocalist in shot. Get the vocalist to practice before you shoot.

 

[adrian vedder]

Will do that for sure Joe, and yeah it shouldn't be hard to bring the song tempo up. Did you shoot at 48fps? I'd like to get at least 60 so it looks "slow" enough, and it shouldn't be hard for her, since I can sing the song myself at that speed (2.5x). Also, as you mention, she won't be singing the whole time, so I can go a lot higher when we have other stuff in frame.