# How did they make that VH1 commercial? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703 "2004-12-14T01:27:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/1 "2004-12-14T01:27:45Z")
I just saw this commercial for VH1 where all these clips from various videos were played but the vocalists were mouthing the words to some _other_ song while some other voice sang that song in the soundtrack. Does anyone who has seen this know how it was done? How did they change what the singers seemed to be saying? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/2 "2004-12-23T17:40:42Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I just saw this commercial for VH1 where all these clips from various videos were played but the vocalists were mouthing the words to some _other_ song while some other voice sang that song in the soundtrack. > > Does anyone who has seen this know how it was done? How did they change what the singers seemed to be saying? > > -FrL- I don’t think they changed any of the original videos. They either found videos where the singer was actually singing the words or looked enough like it to fool you. Looks like it was labor intensive, though. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/3 "2004-12-23T17:46:18Z")
Computers. It’s all done with computers now-a-days. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/4 "2004-12-23T20:05:27Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I just saw this commercial for VH1 where all these clips from various videos were played but the vocalists were mouthing the words to some _other_ song while some other voice sang that song in the soundtrack. > > Does anyone who has seen this know how it was done? How did they change what the singers seemed to be saying? > > -FrL- HBO was running a similar promo with its Sunday night line-up using Mel Torme’s “Coming Home”. That looked to be all done with editing going back over the original clips. ---
**Author:** ![Mini-Thud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Mini-Thud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mini-Thud)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/5 "2004-12-23T20:08:27Z")
I’ve seen it done before where “they” can slow down a clip and speed it up as needed to make it look like the person is saying something else, if not much movement is going on, its fairly convincing I haven’t seen the commercial, but i doubt thats the method they used in it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/6 "2004-12-23T21:12:17Z")
> [@Amp](#): > > Computers. It’s all done with computers now-a-days. i thought only the military and NASA had computers. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/7 "2004-12-23T21:56:32Z")
There was an animation floating around the net a while ago with Bush and Kerry appearing to sing some love duet together, using the same methods. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/8 "2004-12-24T00:14:06Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > i thought only the military and NASA had computers. That’s what “they” want you to think. ---
**Author:** ![Ooner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@Ooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ooner)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/9 "2004-12-24T02:47:42Z")
I’m pretty sure almost all of the clips are just of the singers saying one or two words, so it wouldn’t be hard to pick out little clips from the song that look like they sync up and put them all together that way. Not too difficult, but very clever. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/10 "2004-12-24T02:51:56Z")
My recollection is that they were clips of several words’ length, but it has been a while since I saw the commercial. -FrL- > [@Ooner](#): > > I’m pretty sure almost all of the clips are just of the singers saying one or two words, so it wouldn’t be hard to pick out little clips from the song that look like they sync up and put them all together that way. Not too difficult, but very clever. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/11 "2004-12-24T04:32:01Z")
I haven’t seen this commercial, but I’d guess they just found clips that were close enough to the desired words that you could be fooled. Like the “Hey Ya Charlie Brown” video. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/12 "2004-12-24T05:46:50Z")
> [@](#): > > My recollection is that they were clips of several words’ length, but it has been a while since I saw the commercial. The clips are all about one syllable, a few might be two. I’ve seen the commercial a bunch, and I always pay attention to what’s going on, because I think it’s neat. Really, it doesn’t seem like it would be _that_ difficult to put together (they use about four or five videos - Maroon 5, Avril Lavigne, Bowling for Soup, Green Day and Eminem are the only ones I can remember). If you look really closely, some of the clips they chose don’t even synch up with the words that well. Very cool commercial, though. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-that-vh1-commercial/279703/13 "2004-12-24T05:57:32Z")
A wizard did it.