Faux slow mo effect

[Kirk.Attard]

These few days I was watching a bunch of music videos to grab some ideas and get in the mood for the genre before I prepare pre production.
One 'effect' that intrigued me was a sort of fake slow motion effect. I describe it like this because I sort of see the action going in slowmotion but the singer is still synced with the music.

Is the singer singing with a sped up music track on set and then shot at varispeed? It looks very interseting. Has anyone worked with this style before. Interested to see your opinions. Thanks for input. I see it useful in action movies as well.

 

[Sam Winzar]

I've done this quite a lot on music videos. You shoot at say twice the frame rate while having the singer singe twice as fast and away you go. The most important thing to do is to get the band/singer to practice the double speed version before hand (I actually did a triple speed version for a music video and had a drummer that could pull it off! However the video never made it to air for other reasons).

Another speed to try is something around 30-35 fps. It can make their performance seem a little more graceful and elegant without being too much of an obvious slowdown effect.

 

[Ben Scott]

About 99% of music promos I've ever worked on use this for at least one of the 'sync' takes during a day's shoot.

For working in 25fps land set the Project frame rate to 25fps and set your frame rate to whichever your chosen fps is. Then adjust the speed of the song.

12 fps: make song last 2.000x as long as normal; play it at 50.00% speed
18 fps: make song last 1.400x as long as normal; play it at 71.44% speed
20 fps: make song last 1.266x as long as normal; play it at 78.96% speed
23 fps: make song last 1.080x as long as normal; play it at 92.60% speed
27 fps: make song last 0.920x as long as normal; play it at 108.68% speed
30 fps: make song last 0.840x as long as normal; play it at 119.04% speed
32 fps: make song last 0.778x as long as normal; play it at 128.56% speed
37 fps: make song last 0.680x as long as normal; play it at 147.04% speed
48 fps: make song last 0.520x as long as normal; play it at 192.32% speed
50 fps: make song last 0.500x as long as normal; play it at 200.00% speed

 

[Kirk.Attard]

wow ben and sam/ Thanks a lot for the replies. really appreciate that. Will have to try it out

 

[Marc Wielage]

About 99% of music promos I've ever worked on use this for at least one of the 'sync' takes during a day's shoot.

For working in 25fps land set the Project frame rate to 25fps and set your frame rate to whichever your chosen fps is. Then adjust the speed of the song.

12 fps: make song last 2.000x as long as normal; play it at 50.00% speed
18 fps: make song last 1.400x as long as normal; play it at 71.44% speed
20 fps: make song last 1.266x as long as normal; play it at 78.96% speed
23 fps: make song last 1.080x as long as normal; play it at 92.60% speed
27 fps: make song last 0.920x as long as normal; play it at 108.68% speed
30 fps: make song last 0.840x as long as normal; play it at 119.04% speed
32 fps: make song last 0.778x as long as normal; play it at 128.56% speed
37 fps: make song last 0.680x as long as normal; play it at 147.04% speed
48 fps: make song last 0.520x as long as normal; play it at 192.32% speed
50 fps: make song last 0.500x as long as normal; play it at 200.00% speed

I have found in the real world almost no singers can pantomime singing at 2X normal speed. 1.5X is pretty much the limit.

 

[Kirk.Attard]

Good to keep that in mind. Thanks.

 

[Ben Scott]

I have found in the real world almost no singers can pantomime singing at 2X normal speed. 1.5X is pretty much the limit.

I was shooting at 60fps, so more than double speed a couple of weeks ago with no problems.

 

[PC Greene]

This is a very slow song & lips aren't shown for much more than 1 sec per edit & even then sync is questionable. IMHO 1.5X is still best guesstimate tempo & editing aside.

PCG

 

[Eric M Hurt]

I have found in the real world almost no singers can pantomime singing at 2X normal speed. 1.5X is pretty much the limit.

Depends a lot on the song. I've shot plenty of artist singing at X2 speed.

 

[Iannis Holwech]

The Police "Wrapped Around Your Finger" music video from from The Police's 1983 album Synchronicity.

Technical notes on the music video from director Daniel Pearl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svWINSRhQU0