Lip synching -- cheesy?

[jubjub2]

I have seen lip sync used effectively in comedy and drama. I think personally, if you want lip sync in your video, then do it. Be ready for the nay-sayers and all the other comments if you do, but it's YOUR video for pity's sake. This is supposed to be fun....

[[Mike of the Desert]]

To me, lip synching shouldn't be used in any type of amv other than comedy. It's just the one thing that bothers me the most about many people's vids. I really don't see the point. Does anyone else feel the same way? What justifies the use of lip synch? Not tryin to put anyone down, I just want to know what everyone thinks about this subject.

Oh my God.. No man.
In my opinion, this is a completely WRONG thinking.. But it greatly depends on how you make music videos and what you want for them.

Actually, IMO the lip synch is essential, is essential because a video is not just a beat synch or a flare there and there, it usually have a plot, a story, a main charachter, a singer. But this is just my way to look at this point.
If I'll be able to compress my last video, when I'll upload it I hope to make you see clearly what I tried to write here.

[Niotex]

depents in what context lipsync is used. If its just to have some random person sing the lyrics while the video plays in the bg then fuck no. If it brings actual context to the video and gives a sense of progression along with the vocal then its good. Also lip sync that consists out of just a stillshot with a moving mouth is bad... I mean its not like im watching a fucking mime correct? Also when we are doing lipsync to 2 char it would be nice to have him either progress along with the video so for instance starting off oke and lateron if that char in the vid gets wounded some bandages for instance. Or even so maybe for ones not go and grab random talking shots with differant outfits and lipsyncing them together... It has happend all to much and its breaks away from the flow and progression of the video...

and this made absolutely no sense at all =|

[JaddziaDax]

it made sense to me... ive seen so many videos where they just lipsync random people instead of making the lipsync focus or have anything to do with the song....

if the lipsync is random (as in random people singing the same vocal line), then it doesnt make sense, and essentially becomes borring (atleast to me) and i will usually turn a vid off before i even get half way.

if there are two singers in your song, then assign two characters to those vocals, dont assign it to 20 random people, or else the video loses the effect you started with... and is just rather borring...

mood, emotion and everything else should be taken into consideration when making a lipsync piece too the look on the characters face while hes singing is also important... if its a sad meloncholy song and you want the mood of your vid to be the same, dont make your character sing with smilies around him or "angry marks" around him... (as angry marks tend to look comical) and if youre doing the opposite and going for comical then dont use the more dramatic looking scenes...

i donno im rambling... but i suppose this all goes back to, it depends on how its used...

[Knowname]

BAH! this thread is so frustrateing!! Cuz all you need to know is 'nobody wants to laugh at your drama vids, if your gonna lip sync a drama vid do it PERFECTLY or don't do it at all' also as Niotex (and I pointed out in my last post) pointed out, there are good occasions for lipping and bad occasions. All you can do is learn em.

To add to this, though (maybe it won't be so repetitious then...) I'd like to touch on some alternative methods of lip synching. A great alternative to lipping is just FINDING THE RIGHT CLIP!! If your concept is strong enough than beleive me, it's easier than it looks, in many occasions Silence is just GOLDEN. I'm not just saying don't do it, I'm saying Aieli_Ileia, I and others had been looking into something we like to call internal sync (I like to call it lazy editing ;p), what it is is those occasions when you lay a clip down and though the scenes dont change at every beat your still satisfied with it (see?? lazy editing...) but taken one step further. You look INTO the scene and see just what motions correlate to what and so on (as always, it helps if you stay consistant throughout the vid) I did this in an unreleased VERY early work (pm me and I'll upload it for you) but for a more dramatic example see this one again.

In that video there is also my third example I like to throw around, dub edits. these you pretty much have to sync. and you can see how well it goes, much better than without, in fact I'm thinking about reuploading this video with just the dub left in the end... I mean, what'd it hurt?? Even if he says 'why did the chicken cross the road?' and she says 'I don't know' it'd STILL add to the dramatic atmosphere... I think. you can also make your own dub too (my example is in an MEP that should be released in 3 days... so I can't link to it now...)

And to finish my insane hoaring post I reference this video I sent it into AnimeUSA2003 and was told during the second lip portion the ppl heard laughter... for years I didn't know why. But if you look at it, it is nowhere near perfect (not like the first portion.... oh you don't even want to know what/ how long I spent on that) even resembles that maniquin thing Niotex complains about ;p.

On that point my top complaint is, like in this video the naru and that one Wolf's rain parts just need to show more... spirit. They are like maniquins... cept they move (and in Naru's case... it's just WRONG).

anyway, sorry for the rant... actually, no, I'm not -_- it's therapeutic.

[Knowname]

what the heck am I saying?? well just that there are other alternatives to lipping. In fact I just switched over to the announcements section and POD's new 'experimental' video is exactly that. He didn't call it drama but I would, this thing speaks LEAGUES to me, much like the base song, Cannon, is supposed to do.

[madbunny]

Why are people making such a big deal out of this?

Done right, it's not cheesy. Done wrong it sucks and is distracting.

Lip sync is just another editing trick, like flashes, fades and lens flares.

[ssj4lonewolf]

yea hmmm...lip sync is good if its done to sync. I've seen plenty of videos when it was done out of sync

It all comes back to personal perference. I cant get enough of lip sync, cuz i do enough v sync anyway. So if people dont like my lip sync i just tell them to shut the fuck up.

[DJ_Izumi]

I'm still trying to figure out of the lipsync done to my latest video for Gravitation comes off as cheesy or if I achived the 'MTV style' effect I wanted too.

[Ezmereth Moriquendi]

i can't really think of a time when the video wasn't good in the first place that lipsynching messed it up for me. i also used lipsynch in a drama-based video myself (re-invented 1), and i think it fits very well with the storyline i tried to build. however, i actually used a male character with male voice, but it's a shonen-ai anime and so the character is very feminine... sadly right now i actually can't think of another example that i've seen. sorry. but i really do think it can be done!