Music videos- how do they do that?

So....when you are shootin music videos, how do you shoot one location scene and switch to another scene while the song is in perfect sync? I know the song is recorded in the studio, but does the artist have to sing the whole song at each location?

Probably depends on the director, but yeah. On site Audio is probably never used except for any beginning or ending portions. So they just have the recorded track rolling on set, and the artist sings along.

If you know exactly what shot you want when, you could focus on just singing certain parts of the song, but singing an entire song isn't exactly tough for recording artists... 3 or 4 minutes max.... pretty quick shoot. Perfect for the 5D.

Like I said, depends on the director, they might even have them sing the same song in the same location multiple times to get several different shots at that specific location to cut them all together.

Its a fairly basic concept, and I'm sure everyone has their own preferences when shooting it.

Travel with a boom box, play the music so the singer(s) can follow along.

When you edit, first lay down the audio track into your editing program - lock that track as your master. Then, as you import your video files, Make sure all the audio matches perfectly.

I recently shot a short spoof to the song "I'm On a Boat", I had over a dozen video tracks. Once they were synced to the audio, the edits were a breeze. I edited the whole thing in under an hour.

I was a Music Video Director back in the 90's. We shot 35mm and Super 16 and in most cases used a (SMPTE) Time Code Nagra or Time Code Dat and a Time Code Slate to sync everything up and then we'd just playback the song from any point. Also, usually having a powerful sound system so the artist(s) could immerse themselves in the groove.

With digital recorders it's easy to use a simple slate and sync up the audio in Final Cut, Premiere Etc.

Remember, for music videos the cuts are so short that the bigger problem is making sure the artist is lip syncing accurately in the first place.

.....so the artist(s) could immerse themselves in the groove.

Indeed.

you could have great camera work, great editing, great music, even a great looking person on screen, but if they are not totally immersed in the groove, the video will look crappy.

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I've shot (and edited) several music videos without timecoded playback sources, since the early 90s. As long as your playback source doesn't drift (practically any digital device these days), all you have to do is also capture the playback audio with your camera. Then it becomes very easy to sync in post by using the reference audio, not the video.
This is made even easier with modern nonlinear edit systems because you can see the audio waveforms and you can make sure that the peaks are aligned (you first lay down the audio track and lock it, then add the video cuts together with the audio). There's even software that will do this automatically for you.

An even easier way to do it is by using the multicam functions offered by Final Cut Pro, Avid, or any other software that supports it. What you do is you shoot the whole song without stopping the camera, each and every time. Then you just sync the takes on the timeline and cut between them, as if you were doing a live TV show. You can do the same thing even without multicam, although it's not as fast. Just sync each take and lay it on a separate layer. You'll end up with lots of layers, one on top of each other. By opening a space on the top layer for a take, you reveal that take on the layer underneath. So, if you desire to use the take on the third layer, just open the respective spaces on the two layers above it. It's actually a very easy and quick process.

Of course there will be times when the performers screw something up. Just have them keep going, no matter what, so that you can still use the good bits. Or, as an alternative, just restart from scratch and ignore the bad take.