Lip Sync Exercise

In preparation for the lip sync exercise we learnt the lyrics of the 30 second part of "Shake it off" by Taylor Swift. Here is a clip with the amount of music used as well as the actual music video. I watched the video several times and looked for different elements we could incorporate in our video that would adhere to the stereotypical pop videos. I found that there was a very fun and jokey environment in which the actors had fun and were playful. I also decided to get a fake microphone to identify the singer, and a hula necklace for fun.

In the studio we worked with 3 different sets that allowed our video to have more variety. We had a volcanic background that created a different setting as well as showing the use of tracking shots to show all the characters in the sequence. Another group managed to do this very well and it can be seen through this gif of their version of Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off"

Then we worked at the couch where we played out different scenarios and used different closeups of feet as the camera we used for that was a camera that did not have a zoom which meant that we needed to measure the length at which the camera was filming to make the focus accurate. We also used the couch to have a short sequence that shows us having a dilemma and then dancing instead. This can be seen in the second edited cut off our video.

Finally we worked on the green screen where we were able to have wider shots along with more active and shots that allow us to run across the camera. Then in editing if we had more time we would be able to add more effects to the background to make it look as if we are in a different place or setting.

I learnt about how to make use of a tracking shot and how to focus close ups on the camera that we used. I also learnt that it is very important to sing or have the same energy as the song or else its obvious that you are lip syncing and it kills the effect of having a music video with the artist singing the song.

In the suite we worked on cutting on different points in the song to have a variety of shot lengths and editing techniques, for example we cut on the bass drum as well on several snares and at points different parts of the lyrics that illustrated the lyrics.

During editing I learnt that it makes it more visually interesting to cut the shots at different points as well as changing up the angles and shots so if we have included a close up it should be followed by a wide shot that might be a bit longer.

Some mistakes we made was that we took too long to choose our shots and we were very picky with the editing process which meant that we were not able to finish the editing as effectively as we would have liked, however we managed to finish it. Another mistake that we made was not focusing every shot and we had to not include a certain shot that was part of idea due to the fact that it was out of focus and it would have made the whole video low quality which was not the idea of the exercise.