Question about how music videos are made?

[Stella Richards]

Hey guys,

I have a question abouthow music videos are made.

In music videos where it shows bands playing (greenscreen or not,) do they actually play the song and then dub the recorded version over it, or do they pretend to play and then dub the music over it?

One day when me and my band write a good song, I might want to make my own home-made music video for it.

 

[AboutAGirl]

I'm pretty sure they just pretend to play it. In today's world, where musicians never even play together in the recording studio, I'd have a hard time believing that they bother performing the song for the video. I certainly could be wrong, though. And naturally, you can do whatever you want. I'm sure there are countless less-than-star musicians out there who actually do perform the song while recording the video. Tom Petty's only videos for recent albums have been footage of them recording in the studio if I remember correctly.

 

[Shaggy]

I think in a video, the do sing, but that singing is not used on the realy video. The song that they use is what the recorded to first time dubbed over.

 

[Muzoid]

They use the Studio version for the audio...it gets pumped to them through monitors, and a timecode is added in order to sync it up in editing.

The singer will usually sing along, it looks more natural than mouthing the words.

 

[Shaggy]

They use the Studio version for the audio...it gets pumped to them through monitors, and a timecode is added in order to sync it up in editing.

The singer will usually sing along, it looks more natural than mouthing the words.

Exactly what I tried to say, but you said it alot better then I did

 

[rollingstoned]

Also did this kind of lip synching a lot back in the old days when bands would come on shows like Ed Sullivan, etc.

Either that or a pre-recorded background cut and the singer sings live.

 

[zoose]

As a rule the only time you get live sound is with news or a camcorder.

I've done some fiddling with camcorder. Unless you can afford megabucks for a pro rig like the media use camcorder is your only option.

If you take a close look you notice the difference in cam and film is the lighting and sound - that is where the good soundman is worth gold.
Too many takes can ruin you and a good soundman can take bad ones and make them usuable.
Cam tends to have a homogenous light ground - if you can tinker with the cam track on a puter and add in shadow it will look more like film and have richer constrast (kind of film noir?).

For sound do your recording with no sound at all then build a make do sound booth and add both voice and effects at your leisure.
Use copies of your shadowed tape - it is a lot easier to add sound to a camcorder tape than to regular film (heck that's not even possible for amateurs I don't think).

It is also a lot easier to add effects by edit than trying to get it right live.
In short it is two separate operations - visual and soundtrack.

Or you can mortgage your house and have a pro studio do it.

 

[Nikki D]

Well, I don't know about guitarist, and I'm sure there are some singers out there who don't lip sync, but ONE thing is for sure. The drummer actually does play. I dont know if we hear that in the video. Or if we hear the studio version, but its kind of hard to fake hitting a cymbal, lol.
Also, sometimes, there are to versions recorded in the studio, specifically to be used to make the video sound a bit different then the single.