Technique Used In Chopper

[thelaughingduck2001]

Don't know whether anyone's seen it, but in Chopper, there are several sequences where everything is sped up but the dialogue is in synch with the mouths (pretty much)

Am I right to think you would record the dialogue first, slow it down (say by a half) half the actor mime along to it as it is played back slowly, then, speed the footage up by a half and speed the dialogue recording up by a half, thus bringing it back to the original recording. Therefore, every motion would be fast but the dialogue would remain in synch.

And don't ask me what I'm measuring by when I say half. Let's just say fifty percent.

Is that what you'd do.

And I can't recommend Chopper enough. It sort of gets lamped in with so-called 'Lads Culture', when I say that I mean kids who cause trouble watch it (if that makes sense)

Put it this way, you can buy it in a DVD box set with Romper Stomper and Scum. And they don't watch the movies for what they're supposed to be, just for the fights and naughty words.

And if you haven't seen Chopper-But it on DVD. There are two audio commentaries and an interview with the real Chopper. For ?4.99!

[bigmasi]

You don't need to speed up the sound recorded... just use the sound that u recorded in the first place. Or did I misunderstood something?

My friends did years ago this funny short movie where they spoke all the dialogue first and then reversed it and learned to speek it again reversed. Then they of course reversed the filmed material and the dialogue was hilarious!

[FadedNumber]

Yeah, that sounds about right. Just like when they have people in slow motion singing their songs in music videos, except in those, they do it the other way. They speed up the music, then film the singer singing the sped-up version, then slow it back down to fit with the normal version of the song.

[Vlad the Impaler]

If all you want to do is speed everything up but keep the voice at the same PITCH you can get programs that do this.

When you say speed up, do you mean the lips are moving at a faster speed too or the same speed as they would normally and everything else is sped up?

[windowslaws]

the first way you say is right

[Nic Sadler]

This technique is used frequently in music videos and commercials. In Hip-Hop videos (see Missy Elliot) the slightly jerky dance moves come from shooting the sequence at a low camera speed, somewhere between 4fps and 18fps, similar in effect to those sequences in Chopper. When played back at the normal speed of 25fps, the action is seen as twitchy or jerky.

The key is to have a sound playback tape made that runs to a slow but precise speed. A tape that runs at half speed will be used when shooting at 12.5fps (50% of 25fps). When the normal speed sound and the film are combined everything remains in sync.

The scene in chopper would have had the dialogue pre-recorded, the actor would have mimed the words on the tape (which would sound v-e-r-y s-l-o-w), the camera would be set to run as slow as the sound.

Bob's your uncle.

The reverse is true. An old trick in music videos is to slightly speed up the sound during palyback and run the camera slightly faster in proportion. The resultant image makes the artist look more dreamy.

[jungleguy]

a friend of mine is a lead singer in a band they used the technique in vid a while back (5 years+)

The artist mimes in slow motion(mouth and body motion), half speed, when played back the environment runs double speed but the artist in normal. add the lyrics not the ones recording in slo-mo, cut in and out to hide poor sync, and hey prestow the illusion is created.