EDITING BLOG

http://www.youtube.com/user/hurtwoodhousemedia - This is a link to the Hurtwood House page on youtube, where all the video's will be. Since our pop video was put up, there have been disagreements with the group and so for diplomacy it is down at present.

Overall about 8 weeks has been spent on preparing our video. So far 3 of those weeks have been editing. We have probably spent about 3 to 6 hours on editing a week during those 3 weeks, including staying late to try and finish it. We have had a lot of problems along the way which include loosing locations and idea changes. The equipment used includes Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects and Color. The first thing we did was go through all of our clips on final cut pro and put them in separate bins according to what they were. For example we would have a bin for shots that we could not use, a bin for wide shots, guitar solos and so on. After arranging all of the clips we started to build our video.
The first step we took to actually editing the video was to lay down a wide shot of the whole song and inter cut from there. This however proved to be difficult as our video was constantly spinning so we needed to cut on the black. This led to a number of problems such as wrong timings and different colour shades, but we managed to find a way around it using techniques such as dissolving the clips and speeding them up so they would be in time. We did not use our storyboard as our idea had to change at the last minute because we lost our location on very short notice. We went about the editing to try and make it creative and original but at the same time so it would work.

During editing we found that one of our experiments worked. This is where there was an instrument solo and we would cut it so that the only person in the mise en scene was the person playing the instrumental solo. This meant that we would see the same person in the mise en scene twice, which added to the unusual atmosphere of the track. We found it to be aesthetically pleasing as well to watch. We eventually came to our first assembly where there were still mistakes and errors that need correcting, however the basics of the video were in place. An example of some of the problems we had were different shades of black during the cuts, out of sync instrument playing and scrappy cutting in other areas.

We came to the fine cut by clearing up our mistakes that I mentioned previously and changed a few things to look better. We cleared up all of the scrappy cuts that we had in our video to make them look professional and seamless, changed a few clips, and sped up some of the shots to again create an unusual effect. We then previewed our video to our teacher, who made a few suggestions of things we needed to change and then after we received his approval, prior to fixing these issues we were able to then load it up into Color. In Color we were just trying to get the colours right and the shades and tones to look as natural and as professional as possible.
The style of music we are making a music video for is bluegrass and this is typically different from the usual types of pop videos. This meant that because our music was different and unusual our video had to match that sort of feel. Because our location was taken away from us on short notice we decided to go for a minimalistic approach to our video.This meant that we needed to think of an interesting concept, so we came up with the idea of rotating the camera clockwise in the middle of the band who would be surrounding it. The meaning of the song is about a girl who is reckless in her approach to life and is all about having fun. We needed to support and convey this meaning through our pop video which meant making it fun as well as minimalistic.

The band we were filming are a real band and they already have an ‘image’. This is a vintage feel with a modern twist, and we had to try and express this in our video. This is a shot of the whole band before they bow. We panned across them to keep the continuity of the video. This is the last shot we see and therefore will be the last image of the band in the audiences mind. This shows the certain style of dress that they wear which is clearly modern clothing.

With the photo below of the man playing the banjo we again panned the shot from left to right. So at the beginning the man appears from the right hand side and moves to the left as we filmed it clockwise. This was to try and make the band seem more rebellious as they are appearing against our eye line that we naturally read along. This is one of my favourite shots of the video as it portrays the bands image further by having an aged experienced musician showing his passion for music through playing his instrument.

Our editing style was slow paced to match the rythm of the music. We cut to the beat in places and against it in others. We had shot with gentle tracks and a gentle shapes of the violin and the double bass and so held on those shapes for slightly longer on some shots. Similarly our close ups of the two women and the man were one to two seconds longer to emphasis they were the key characters.

Our edit style at both first assembly and fine cut was especially concerned to stress these elements.

The next shot displays two girls that were in the band playing together. They again appear from the right of the mise en scene, suggesting that they are disobedient and careless which helps add to the whole bands image and the meaning of the actual song. These two girls will also be selling points as they are young and attractive to men so this will again add to the appeal and interest of the band.

The next screen shot displays one of the girls in the mise en scene twice using the edge wipe function on Final Cut Pro. We did this a lot in our video when editing to make the shots work. This also makes the video seem more interesting as it confuses the audience but it is the pleasure of the unexpected.

Continuity editing is when everything co-ordinates with itself and all the shots are cut to the beat. In some cases the shots will not be cut to the beat but say if the first one was a second after the beat, then in continuity editing the rest of the shots would be a second after the beat as well. Discontinuity editing is when things are different. For example if on shot was cut to the beat then the next one will not be. This can create a more interesting video as sometimes continuity editing can make videos look very robotic with not much flow, however discontinuity editing can create different and more exiting and overall give a more natural and human feel. We therefore in are video used discontinuity editing to try and make it more aesthetically pleasing for the audience. An example of the discontinuity editing is the picture above where the same person is in the mise en scene at one time. The picture above shows the discontinuity of our editing.
According to Keith Negus there are 11 key areas and common generic conventions that should be used in pop videos: The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s image is the first one, and we have tried to do this trough are video by using 360 pans of the band members. We used wide shots, mid shots and close ups. The second one is the featuring of the artist, which we have done explicitly by using close ups, mid shots and wide shots. This also covers the third point of using extensive shot types and movement. Almost all of our shots are moving, with a small number of exceptions. We also have repetition of reoccurring thematic elements (using the 360 pan constantly). In our video we do not have a narrative structure, but we use a performance element the whole way through. We have definitely used the flexibility to disregard realism by using the same person in the mise en scene. We do not have many shots that cut tightly to the beat of the track and no real use of special effects apart from lighting tones. We have a carefully constructed mise en scene, by having unusual sequences and distorting cuts. The last of Negus’s conventions is high impact instantly.