Lip Synching Exercise

In order to prepare us for next years course, we did a group lip synching exercise which involved us practicing filming and mouth the words to the song "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk.

As a class we went to the studio, where we were split into three groups of about five or six. Laid out was three situations where we had to film. The first and most basic, filming up against the green screen. The second and a little more tricky, a set made up of a flat covered in wallpaper with a built in window and a sofa. And the third and most difficult, a flat made to look like a rocky mountain - in this one movement was involved so the dolly track was also laid down.

The first situation (the green screen) was easy to film, as it required keeping the camera in the same place and letting the actor do what they wanted in front of the camera. The second (sofa set) wasn't more difficult but we had more levels and angles to play with, we took some shots from above looking down on the actor lying on the sofa. The final situation wasn't only the hardest but the most technical. The timing between the actor and the man pushing the cart along the track had to be spot on or the shot looked messy. I happened to be the lucky one who got chosen to push the cart, and my actor lip synching was Charlie Feeney. Before we shot we spoke about where we were going to start and stop (we placed tape on the floor so we knew) and then did a few practice runs. In the end, the continuous shot that we came out with was really well done and smooth.

We then went up to the editing suite and began chopping up all the shots to create a show reel. We now had access to all the clips shot by the whole class, so we had a lot to choose from. The moving shot of Charlie lip synching where I was pushing, was used in every single video in our class - which to me is saying something about the quality of the shot!