Editing Lip-Syncing:

Lip-syncing is one of the most important features in a music video. Producers aim to make it look like the singer is singing right then and there, not that music is edited over. So, to make it as realistic as possible, lip syncing needs to be spot on, otherwise there will be a slight delay in lip movements and music lyrics. This small mistake has a huge impact on the video as it makes it look less realistic and the audience will notice the delay, and this will stop them from being fully immersed in the video.

In order to try and prevent this when I attempt to make my music video, I have decided to try to get some extra practice in and test a few different editing techniques. 

Accuracy: 

I attempted to keep the lip syncing as synced up as I could by using a few techniques when filming and when editing:

During filming I would play the song aloud, through my laptop. This allowed my friend to hear the pace of the song and be able to keep up with the lyrics. I also tried my best to countdown toward the start of the chorus so my friend would know when to prepare herself so she didn't miss the start of the chorus. I took many videos, so I had more footage to work with. This is because with more footage, there would be more of a chance of having a good lip sync.

During editing I would go through the usual routine of trying to match the section of footage up with the correct section of music. After roughly matching the music and video, I would keep my eyes peeled so I could notice any errors within the clip and the music. Down below is a clip of a bad lip sync, where there are points throughout the video where the song and footage don't match. The video is slightly slower than the audio.

Bad lip sync from Charlotte Bancroft on Vimeo.

However, by tweaking the speed of the footage by 1-2%, I was able to bring the video up to speed with the song. But, there are a few moments when the song doesn't sync with the footage, and this is because my friend briefly forgot the lyrics and stuttered. Down below is the "fixed" version.

fixed lip sync from Charlotte Bancroft on Vimeo.

Making it interesting:
Music videos rarely have large chunks of the artist lip syncing. This is because it is pretty boring to watch and the audience loses interest. To prevent this, the performance is usual split up by narrative footage or a different shot of the artist singing. Since I have no narrative footage to work with yet, I edited different angles of my friend lip syncing together.
Lip sync cuts from Charlotte Bancroft on Vimeo.

There are a few lip sync errors in a few of the clips, but it makes the clip slightly more interesting than a solid 10 seconds of one lip-syncing clip.