Lip syncing Task - What we did

When we were first given the lip syncing task we were all very excited. We began discussing the genre and automatically knew we wanted a pop song as this would be fun to lip sync. In preparing for this we visited YouTube and chose the song ‘Girlfriend’ sang by Avril Livene.                  



                            
 

When we were first given the lip syncing task we were all very excited. We began discussing the genre and automatically knew we wanted a pop song as this would be fun to lip sync. In preparing for this we visited YouTube and chose the song ‘Girlfriend’ sang by Avril Livene.

We choose this as the song was catchy and locations in the video seemed practical. We were able to use the school facilities i.e. the front of the school for the first shot and the dining room for the main part. Also the stage would be good to use for the part where Avril would sing with her band. This was perfect as we had a drum kit on stage! Furthermore we also noted the lighting was in the video was filmed in daylight so we could film in our lesson! Once all this was decided we asked girl from our year group to audition to be Avril. We got them to sing whilst we play the instrumental version. After an hour of auditioning we found the perfect girl to play Avril. 

Whilst this was being arranged outside of lessons, in the lesson we decided to create storyboard with the relevant details to help us and avoid confusion on the day. We all were in charge of 5 seconds of the video as only 30seconds needed to be filmed. We thought this would be easy, however this was more difficult than we thought. You’ll be surprised how many times we had to watch the same 5 seconds to ensure we got the camera angle and shots correct as well as notice mise en scene, lighting and sound! This took a few lessons but by the end we were proud and believed the day would be a success due to us carefully planning.

Once this was done we had a meeting with our actress and informed her on what she had to do and when. The next step was to organise the music video i.e. booking relevant rooms, making sure our actress was available and everybody knew what they were doing.

We decided to have a dress rehearsal were we practiced shots and choose clothing as well as organising the extras! We practiced tricky parts such as keeping the actresses still whilst we moved camera to match shots. 

However on the actual day of filming we were pleased with the mise en scene and lighting as well as the characters. We also believed we used the cameras well to create the shots we wanted.  We had to use the food tech room instead of the canteen due to problems arising. Secondly we forgot to conduct a risk assessment and there was an art exhibition going on in the hall where we were filming on the stage with the band and something broke. Overall the filming went well due to the careful storyboarding and we were very delighted with the actresses and extras cooperation.  This is an important point we are going to bare in mind when creating our music video.

The next lesson we imported the videos on to IMOVIE. We then edited them on Final Cut. Then we added the music to the videos. This was challenging however once completed we were thrilled to finally finish editing. 

What we learn't

• Planning is essential
• Before filming ensure all locations are available and no last minute problems have arose
• Ensure the artist knows the song very well including the breathes needed to be taken between lyrics.
• Ensure the artist sings out loud and moves her lips in an over exaggerated way so its easier to lip sync the song.