Editing Session - Improved Footage 2

For our last part of editing we decided to incorporate some more lip syncing in our video as our rough cut didn't contain much of it. We had a few gaps from what we left from editing the whole of the music video the previous day. These gaps would be where the lip syncing would be placed in the music video, this provided the right balance between both the performance and the narrative. We introduced each lip sync to the beat and made sure that each of the lip sync footage was parallel to the lyrics otherwise it would have looked contrapuntal and unprofessional.

Editing Session - Improved Footage

On Monday 4th January we went back to school to edit the rest of our music video in which we gathered footage to improve it in terms of continuity and fluency as well as the audience understanding the narrative. We uploaded the footage and did what we said in a previous discussion and that was to manipulate the footage of the morph men performing robotic movements. We used repetitive reverse edits to each shot, this brought a sense of quirkiness to our music video and allowed us to break up some of the shots in the narrative which was one of our objectives after reviewing our class feedback. Another objective was introducing an ending to the narrative which would in turn give the audience an understanding of where it leads. We added this to the end of the music video as the music fades out. This didn't require any editing as there was no music to keep it parallel with. The problem was we felt that we could also improve a music video a bit more by introducing more shots of lip syncing which would also break up the shots of the narrative. So we decided that we would film some more lip syncing shots that night ready to be edited the next day in our double media lesson. this way we would have taken on all of our objectives in improving our music video and hopefully have a final version of it.

Editing Session - Performance 2

Concluding yesterdays session of editing we decided we would carry on editing the following day being today (5th January). Today we decided that we would try and finish off the rest of the performance in terms of editing. In our next stage of editing we had to align the footage with the music to create rhythmic editing. We did this by adding quick sharp edits to the lip sync of the lettering in the lyrics which allowed a rhythmic basis connected to the song as well as add quirkiness a convention of an electronic music video. Other than that we tried to edit in as many different shots as possible to create a quirky feel amongst the performance. We used transitions such as dissolves to show the different band members changing stations. Together as a group we worked effectively in order to get the performance edited which would see our music video finished as a rough cut.

Editing Session - Performance 1

Already today we had edited our previous footage being the gym scene an hour earlier now we had to edit our performance. Overall we had captured over an hours worth of footage so we first had to analyse whats parts of the footage we wanted to use in our music video. We discussed the different parts of footage between us and decided what would look best. We came up with a particular edit where all of the band are in their morph suits and that they would change stations without moving so it looks like the morph suits are changing colours, this adds to the quirkiness of the music video a convention of an electronic music video. Finally we had narrowed down the footage of what we were going to use in our music video we decided to start editing. We started our performance editing where the instrumental kicks in towards the half way point in the video where we incorporated a close up of the guitarist plying the guitar to emphasize the musicianship of the band. Unfortunately we had to conclude our editing for today as we had run out of time during our lesson but decided we would continue editing in our next lesson the following day

Editing Session - Gym Scene

Today on the 4th of January we had a double media lesson meaning we could hopefully edit the Gym scene as well as part of our performance. Firstly we had to start editing the Gym scene as well as discuss what footage to use in the music video as we had a range of footage of the main character exercising on different machines. We all decided to use only 4 of the machines as some of the shots that we took on others were low quality in terms of lighting so we decided to get rid of that footage giving us the sufficient amount of footage for the gym scene. First of all we had to align each part of the footage to where we thought was most appropriate. We decided that it could be linked with the lyrics i.e. when the lead singer sings laid back the main character will be leaning backwards on the rowing machine. We decided that we would quicken the pace of each of the shots a little so they don't last as long allowing us to perform quick sharp edits creating a rhythmic basis. We had now finished editing our Gym scene which took us an hours long lesson but as we had a double lesson we would be moving onto our next set of footage being the performance in the next lesson.

Editing Session - Office Scene

Today on the 3rd January we all decided to edit our next part of our music video being the office scene. Not much editing took place in this scene as it is quite a short scene but we decided to play with the different transitions and effects too identifywhich one looked most appropriate. As this scene would be during the chorus of the song we wanted to create rhythmic editing by introducing quick reverse edits. These edits would be the where the main character is stamping the papers on his desk as this is repetitive and would code for repetition. As this lesson was only an hour we didn't have enough time to edit anymore footage but at least we had made progress and tomorrow in our double media lesson we could focus on the next scene as well as the performance side of the music video.

Editing Session - Journey to Work Scene

In our second lesson of the day we decided to carry on editing our music video by starting on the next scene being the journey to work. We looked at the different edits we could use to manipulate the footage in terms of showing the role of repetitiveness and ensure that the edit is parallel with the beat of the soundtrack. We found a particular edit that we thought we would use twice in this scene which was a reverse edit. The use of the reverse edit ensured we could add another code for repetitiveness as well as add some quirkiness to the video. This quirkiness is a convention of an electronic house music video. We decided that one of the shots lasted too long and therefore had to either shorten the shot or increase the speed of the shot. This footage was the shot where we tilted the camera up the side of the HSBC Building in Canary Wharf. We decided that if we managed to speed it up the shot would look more quirky and fun whereas if it was simply cut it may have looked boring and look contrapuntal compared to the beat of the music.  We concluded today's session of editing as the lesson was over, but we had made a lot of progress in terms of editing 2 of the scenes within the music video. We would carry on editing in the next lesson we had which is on Friday.

Editing Session - Opening Scene 2

As we had to stop filming the previously day because we ran out of time we carried on editing the opening scene piece of footage. During the 2 hours we had we got our heads down by adding new effects to our music video such as increasing the speed of the main character having a shave so it was parallel with the beat as well as adding two transitions in the shaving footage representing time as many people identify this transition to be clock like. We had then concluded the editing stage of the opening scene and ready to start editing the rest of the footage.

Editing Session - Opening Scene 1

The Monday (31st January) following the filming of our performance we took our footage that we had filmed up to this point and got ready to to start editing it. The beginning stage was to transfer some of the footage that we hadn't quite uploaded yet to the Apple Mac. Once we had done this we had to render all of the footage which would enable us to start editing the footage we had gathered.
in todays lesson we decided to solely focus on the opening scene that we had filmed for our music video. We started by editing where the main character is awoken by his alarm clock, we added the audio of the soundtrack onto Final Cut so we could see where the edits could go in rhythm with the beat. When the beat first kicks in is where we wanted the alarm clock appear and when the introduction of the beat fades we wanted the main character turning off the alarm clock. Once we had done this we included the other footage such as the journey to the bathroom as well as the scene in the bathroom and the main getting changed. Once we had put this into the correct order getting rid of any footage that we didn't need we started off the editing of the scene by adding a vibration effect when the alarm goes off in the video. We concluded our editing there for the day as our lesson time was up but planned to continue the next day when we all had a double lesson of media.

Editing Session - Learning how to use Final Cut

Back to school on a Monday where we as group had gathered enough footage to at least edit for around 45 seconds of the music video. First of all we needed to learn the process of transferring the data from the Video Camera (HD) to the Apple Mac. This was simple as we all have had previous experience of doing the same thing on a PC so it was very similar, by extracting the SD Memory Card from the Video Camera and inserting it into a SD Card Adapter which is used to connect the SD Memory Card to the Apple Mac. Once we had our recent footage of the opening scene and the journey to work scene on the Apple Mac we could start to use the program Final Cut Express. As we had little knowledge of how to use Final Cut Express we required a bit of help from our teachers in getting started but once we knew the key processes of Final Cut Express we were confident in using the editing program.

We first needed to insert all of the footage from both the scenes we had previously filmed onto the editing time line where it allows us to add visual footage as well as audio. Secndly we needed to insert our soundtrack onto the editing timeline so we could edit our footage in line with our soundtrack otherwise known as rhythmic editing. Later on in the lesson we had to render all of the footage so we could eventually edit what we had filmed so far.

This was a learning curve for all of us as we all learnt the starting off process to the editing program 'Final Cut Express' and we would use this knowledge for future reference when editing our music video. We used this lesson to play around with the editing program, Final Cut so we could become familiar with it making it easier to use in the future.

Apple Mac - What we are using to conduct our coursework on

SD Card and Adapter

Screen Shot of Editing Program Final Cut Express