Editing My Video: Stage 4

After gaining feedback about my video and its appearance it came to adapting some of my shots and including more footage. Instead of the initial long shot of the couple sitting on the bench I thought I would replace these with establishing shots of the surrounding area.t his included close ups of bushes and pathways that would give a general idea of the setting for the first scene. When taking these however, the weather conditions were the exact opposite to the rainy day the main scene was taken in, therefore me making sure I shot frames that didn't include direct sunlight that would be a noticeable in comparison to the other shots. However this meant I could also explore more into post editing of my footage to make it appear the right weather conditions, furthering my development skills. I also took close ups of my clock that I would then speed up to create a time laps, not only showing the passing of time but the idea of the narrative going in reverse. I filmed two different clocks to give variation and to see which would fit better.

Camera Rushes Log 4- Extra Footage

Now I had this footage it came to placing it in the video. There was one particular shot I wanted to use in the opening sequence that showed a tree swaying its branches in the wind, yet it had a clear blue background which I wanted to eliminate to make it appear cloudy and grey like the first day of filming.

To start I highlighted the sequence of footage I wanted to edit. Then selecting colour replace from the effects menu, I used the grab tool to highlight the colour I wanted to replace.

To change it to the grey miserable sky I wanted to achieve, I went on the colour picker and changed it to a grey that matched my previous footage.

Using the similarity tool, I could then determine how much the colour would be changed on the background, especially around the branches of the tree where some of the blue was still outlining the darker colours . Changing it to 43 gave a cleaner finish where no blue was then visibly outlining the branches, achieving the grey sky I wanted.

 

I finally wanted to remove the slight blue hue the colour replace tool gave the tree in the image, wanting it to look natural and an unedited shot. Using RGB curves let me change the colour balance individually and reduce the blues present to give the shot a natural appearance. Also this tool could make me lighten the shot so textures in the tree were more visible.

 

Doing this edit not only gave me a shot that would fit with the rest of the videos appearance, but develop my skills in editing that I could apply to future projects, knowing the functions that could create the image I wanted.

 

Further changing to this video was the removal of the performance shots. As my feedback suggested, it distracted the attention from the strong narrative and was unnecessary  and out of place, therefore replacing it with alternative footage.

 

A final edit I did from feedback was including a time laps of a clock moving in reverse. By adding this in at different times in the video I thought it would particularly illiterate the idea of the relationship being shown in reverse time.

 

To create this time laps I simply filmed my clock for 20 minutes and sped it up 10,000 times the speed it originally was. I then reversed the whole thing that would therefore make the whole shot run smoothly and show a clear passing of time.

 I also thought to include it over the top of the last three shots of the montage would be effective in showing the breakdown of the relationship. I achieved this through reducing the opacity of the layer of the clock and laying it over the other shots to create two images visible at once.

 

Adding the clock shots not only brought clarity in my narrative but added more technical elements and exploration into effects of post editing I could include within my video. now I had added and changed my video according to my feedback I could then upload it as my first draft to Youtube and then show it to my official focus group, who would give me more feedback as to my music video fitting with my chosen music genre and working as a professional product to promote the track.

Peer Feedback on Rough Draft of Music Video

Creating Two Versions of my Music Video

Editing my video: stage 3

Now I have decided upon creating two versions of my video, it has come to reversing the second one. Although I edited the scenes in order of movement, they would need completely altering so the movement worked the same way in reverse. I initially thought I would have to reverse each video individually, yet I found a way of doing them all at once:


I started by highlighting the whole video, including the audio track. All I then did was copy and paste the whole video further along the timeline so It was exactly the same in editing and all I would have to do was swap round the footage.

I then removed the track from the highlighted footage, locking the layer so no editing could disrupt it. With the rest still highlighted, I then right clicked on one of the shots, selecting the speed/ duration tool.



I ticked the reverse speed icon that would then reverse all the footage at once at the speed they normally played at. This individually then reversed each shot within the timeline, taking a while to render.

It then came to shuffling all my footage around the different scenes. As I has edited them in the order they would flow correctly in normal time, I needed to move the end shot so it was now at the beginning of the scene, and the same with each shot leading after that. To make this easier I moved the footage in a circle motion around the middle shot of the scene, placing them on Video 1 and 4 whilst I was organising it. Therefore each scene would be exactly the same as the first version of my  music video, yet play entirely in reverse.

In doing this version, I was able to view the version that works along my original plan of all motion going backwards. I like the effect it gives certain moments within the video, especially within the dancing scene where they fall onto the bed and start dancing, as well as the cheating scene where the flowers fall back into the guys hand. This version is much different to the first, not only because of the order of footage but the perspective in which the audience takes on the relationship. This versions seems to I've an equal focus on the couple rather than taking the perspective and sympathising with the main male. Therefore doing this version not only widened my skills within Premier Pro but made me visually aware of the ways in which different emotions can be altered through reversing footage.

Editing my video: stage 2

Once I had edited the main narrative of my story together it came to including the performance part of my video. These shots would display the lead singer the same male figure in the music video, as well as a trumpet player and drummer. I had organised these to be shot in front of a plain white background so the main focus was the band playing, which would contrast with the busy nature and locations of all the other narrative scenes.

 Whilst filming my band I wanted to experiment with two ways of filming the song being performed. The first would include the song being sung at normal speed with the instruments playing at the same time too. However, I also wanted to shoot a version that would play around with motion control. Previously I experimented with motion control, that changed the speed of the actions but once edited would still be in synch with the music. In audacity before the shoot, I sped up the original track 75% of its original speed that I then played to my band when being filmed. This way they played the instruments and sang at double speed, giving me the freedom to slow their movement down in post editing, which would still synch up to the song but would create an effective style of filming.

 

This worked successfully in shooting, and now it came to adding it over my narrative. I started by copying the track and putting alongside the rest of my editing. I then imported the video and put it video 1, unlinking the sound as this was no longer needed. At this point the video was much shorter than the track and so the speed needed to be altered.

 

By right clicking on the video on the time line I could then select speed/ duration to change the length of the footage and slow it down.

 

From previous test footage, for a video increased by 75% the speed of the video should then be increased by 50-60%. This took a bit of experimenting to get the vocals to link up exactly with the video, yet I finally found 57.5% linked the two together perfectly.

Pressing Ok then required the file to be rendered. After a few minutes this was complete and the video was ready to be placed amongst the narrative of what I'd already edited.

By knowing the speed needed to make the video work in the audio, I could adjust some of the other footage taken in this style to add a variety of angles and close ups to the performance shots.

Using the cutting tool, I could then take out specific parts of the song I liked and place them in amongst the rest of the footage. This would not disturb the rest of the video, and that way I could keep going back to it if there were other parts I preferred. Also by keeping the rest there I could work out the exact times in the song against the timeline, which I could then put in the same place in my official video.

Using video 4, I could then overlay this on top of the rest of my footage, decreasing the length of some of the shots within the park as well as other points in the video.

Including the performance parts of my video relates to Jon Gows's theory of music videos, my video now falling under the category of 'Enhanced Performance' that demonstrates performance elements alongside a narrative, in which the main singer in the band acts as the main character in the plot. By filming two versions of the song being performed, I could experiment further with the effects of the video to create interesting visuals alongside the narrative that would soon be turned backwards. By including the main band member in the narrative, it illustrates to the audience these are the experiences the main band member has been through, and can be expressed and understood by the people who watch it and have been in similar positions. In doing this I am considering my target audience, knowing people fond of an indie genre can relate to not only the lyrics, but the visuals going with them that demonstrate indie themes in what they are wearing, the instruments they're playing and the emotions conveyed within the video.

Editing my video: Stage 1

Now that I has the sufficient amount of footage to create my entire music video, it came round to editing together along the direction of my practical production treatment to piece together my intended  idea for my music video. As I have discussed previously, I wanted my footage to play in reverse within the scenes, so the whole video goes backwards in time, however, editing it this way would not be very simple. Instead I decided to edit each scene individually in normal time, which I would then go back and reverse once I had completed all my editing.

I wanted most of my scenes to be influenced with continuity editing, so the actions flowed and time passed normally within the scene, between the different camera positions and shots I used. This meant lining up the shots sometimes took a lot of attention to get smooth transitions between the shots. This specifically became an issue in the cheating scene where the main guy runs up the stairs:



 

I wanted a variety of angles that not only created variation in shots but refered to the change of power within the scene once he opened the door.

 

There was a certain shot in this scene where I also wanted to position the audience in the point of view of the main guy when he first opened the door. When filming I moved the camera stepping forward into the room rather than just stationary:

 

 

Seeing his reaction and then seeing the action from his point of view added variety in shot type and puts the audience in the position of the guy, to feel the same emotions he would when opening a door to this.

 

These two shots and most of the scenes throughout the video were created through extensive use of the trim tool, as well as editing the length of the footage in the left preview screen against the right screen. This way I could have the same action in two different camera positions parallel to each other, which I could cut down so they switch viewpoint of the action so they flowed into each other and kept continuity in time.

Editing each scene in this manor widened my skills in continuity editing, as well as the different functions on Premier Pro. Even though all I did was simple cropping of my shots, compiling them to flow in a natural way was hard work, and now I feel more informed on how to do this to create realistic looking scenes. This way when I change it round to play backwards, the motion should flow with the exactly same effortlessness just in reverse.

Now I have got to the stage of having each scene edited in order, yet reverse in the flow of narrative. Although I intend to reverse the whole video so even their motion is backwards, I like how it is looking at the moment with the different scenes still moving forward in time. I will consider this as I move forward in my editing process, maybe creating two versions of my video to compare.



 

Location reflecting the genre and mood of my music video

When filming different locations that would display the different events in their relationship, I wanted to create certain mise en scene that in itself would reflect the mood of the scene. Luckily the days organised for filming became perfect in making this work, with either weather conditions or lighting that worked well with the emotions and action in the scene.

http://www.pinterest.com/theresakuhn4/locations-reflecting-the-mood-of-my-music-video/


Follow Theresa's board Locations Reflecting the Mood of my Music Video on Pinterest.
Overall each of the main scenes created a great pathetic fallacy that related to the emotion of the couple throughout their relationship. obviously some shot needed to be edited to make it easier to view, yet doing this will help the audience understand the course of events in relationship and the exact emotions I wanted to get across to them.


By including an element of nostalgia in the repeated settings but different emotions of my narrative, as well as elements within the scenes, I can class my music video to be postmodern. Jameson's (1998) theories of our cultures 'past becoming romanticised by artistic representation of history that is clouded in nostalgia' can relate to the nostalgic view on the previous events in the relationships I have created in my hyper reality world of this boy and girl. By seeing them drifting apart in the first park pathway scene that contrasts with the second one when they are first going out, it creates a feel of nostalgia, romanticising the better times they had spent together in that park as if it were a distant memory that can’t be recreated in the same way. The same goes for the bedroom scenes, in which the first you see in my video displays them arguing, compared to the second one when they are happily dancing and listening to music. having both scenes filmed  in the same location emphasises to the audience the difference in emotions and creates an awe of nostalgia into the lives of this couple which can now not be revisited in the same harmonious way, which the audience themselves could have experienced.

Also my choice in props for the dancing bedroom scene similarly relates with this theory. We see the guy pick out a record and play it to the girl, in which they both get up and start dancing. By including the use of a record player rather than an MP3 or CD player, it is recognised as a music player of the past, and again, the scene becomes nostalgic to the use of this old fashioned way of playing music that is much more romantic than a normal iPod device. As an audience we are saturated in the idea of elements of the past being an exciting way in which to live our own lives, and so by including this, my scene becomes much more effective as a way to reflect the great time the couple are having together.

Rush Logs for Filming

Once going out to each location and filming the different scenes necessary for my music video, it came to watching all my footage back and analysing it to see what shots were successful. Compiling a rushes log let me look through each shot, noting down the type of camera shot and the action involved, and whether it could be used or not. This was very useful when editing my music video together as I could instantly collect my useful footage and discard what didn't work or where actors lost composure within the shot. There were some shots that needed numerous takes due to the actors loosing focus or the camera not being in focus, and this most certainly helped sift them out. The next few documents display my analysing of footage for my different locations:

Camera Rushes Log: School filming and band performances

 

CAMERA RUSHES LOG: Cafe and park filming

Camera Rushes Log: House filming

Every Shot Story Board

http://issuu.com/theresakuhn/docs/every_shot_story_board.docx?e=11411834/10164042

Major changes to music video scenes

After planning out my music video and getting people to be involved, its come to my attention that some of the scenes I wanted to perform were not easily available to do with all the people I had in mind to do it. This mainly concerns the party scene where they meet for the second time and go off into a different room together. However getting the amount of people to be involved for this at a time when they were all free was not available, therefore I have changed it so where this scene should have gone, it now shows them walking in a park together.

Also due to weather conditions and accessibility of getting equipment outside, I decided to relocate my record playing scene inside the guys bedroom, providing an easier location to work in for me and my actors.

Moreover I changed the location of the argument scene to be in the guys bedroom rather than the girls. I thought the narrative would make more sense for her to visit him after what she had done round her house, rather than the main guy leave her house and return again to argue. This way the narrative flows better and will be clearer for the audience.