Real-Life Math
The talking heads of music television aren't just there to
look good. If their terms of employment require them to help out with production,
they may have to use their heads for number crunching, as well.
"Knowing
how to work with time is important," explains former VJ Laurie Brown, "like
timing out a program and leaving room for commercials."
What you see
when you watch a pre-taped program is a seamless patchwork of different shots,
music or voice-overs. Often, production people will use a technique
known as "back timing" to match a sequence with a soundtrack. This involves
lining up the point in the video and the point in the music they want to play
together, then working in reverse.
You're a VJ putting together
a program on a new teen sensation. You have some footage of her at a charity
tennis tournament and you think it might be funny if you play some melodramatic
music in the background. Through back timing, you can show her hitting the
ball on just the right note.
In slow motion, the clip of her running
to and hitting the ball lasts 8 seconds. The piece of music that you've
chosen runs 10 seconds, ending with the climactic drum clap with which you
want her to hit the ball. Since the audio track runs longer than the video
track, you know you'll start the audio first. In mathematical terms:
audio
= a
video = v
a - v = s
How
much earlier will you start the audio track?