Post-Production: Update on Editing

During the process of completing research and primarily starting our ancillary products, Harvey has been constantly working on editing our music video and therefore he is effectively updating us with his results throughout. As a group, we are all determined to achieve unique, inspiring and impressive results by confidently experimenting when necessary and being brave and bold within our decisions. As a group, we discussed trying techniques which would distract viewers from the lack of footage. It is exciting to attempt and incorporate different techniques and styles, however Harvey has to be careful not to allow the video to become too repetitive and for the shots to make sense.

For instance, as we understand, our rough cut for our music video has already been completed and therefore we are happy for Harvey to be confident and attempt to incorporate and weave other footage into the cut. He explained he wanted the editing to be completed in an effective and interesting way to prevent viewers from becoming tiresome or bored whilst watching. Therefore, when Harvey was examining footage to weave within his rough performance cut, he constantly bared in mind the idea of thinking outside of the box and immediately introducing elements in the video to entice the viewer. For example, he instantly began by choosing footage of Luca, one of our cast members spray painting. Similarly, Harvey played around with several shots of Luca spray painting and instead cut the shots to the beat of our track to make it more entertaining and flowingly rhythmic. Although Harvey is prepared to challenge himself within editing and take risks, he found this first editing process fairly simple although the shots were quick.  We similarly wanted our video to instantly introduce and represent our artist, therefore we started with the spray painting of her name, ‘SIOUX.’

As this is a group effort Fran and myself allowed Harvey to know we appreciated his first editing attempt and direction and are therefore happy and relieved for Harvey to carry on. We also agreed to use the same direction of quick shots throughout, so the video flowed and didn’t look random, however we are excited to see his experiments.

Rapid editing

Similar to this, Harvey also tried another type of editing in this session, called rapid editing. As I understand, rapid editing consists of numerous shots which continuously race and flash between each other in time with the beat. In order to achieve this type of editing, Harvey picked three different shots of footage and then cut between them every millisecond creating fast paced, interesting and impressive aspects to our video.  

Jump editing

As well as experimenting with the rapid edit technique, Harvey also challenged himself to incorporate a jumpy, staggered type of edit. For instance, a jumpy edit is where the footage shown seems a lot closer than it is as the shots jump closer and closer. This is achieved by cutting seconds away from one stream of footage.

Harvey will continuously carry on editing and his next step is to complete a full rough edit in order to show our teachers, Luke, Phil and Matt. By showing them it will gain further suggestions and advice towards our video to help improve it.

Post-Production: Inspiration for ancillary products

Subsequently, after understanding the dynamics of our workload and managing our time effectively, I felt the need to complete further research into ideas for our ancillary products. I felt the sooner we begin generating ideas, the better as this will prevent time wasting. Therefore, I spent some time exploring the world of pinterest and found some inspiring and motivational sources for to progress our work and ideas further. I mainly focused on ideas for designs as a whole not particularly our star image of our artist.

Post-Production: Introducing the Editing Process

Having just managed our time and planned our direction carefully and concisely, as a group we wanted to view all our footage that we captured from shoot day. This was not only an anxious and apprehensive job but it was also quite relieving and exciting, finding out whether our work hard and endless hours of preparation had payed off. As a group, we were all aware Harvey was taking on the role of editing our music video, however as this is a group task, we are all happy to help where necessary.

For instance, on Tuesday we ventured up to the editing suit and began reviewing our footage. We firstly started by organising our several rushes into groups, so the editing process would be simpler and more organised for Harvey. However, when viewing the rushes, we were slightly disappointed as we had not managed to capture as many shots as we had planned to due to timing on shoot day and therefore we were worried our video would lack variety and excitement and fall repetitive of shots. Nevertheless, we were all pleased with the lip-syncing shots and therefore our demands were met allowing our video to consist of a performance base video.

Progressing positively forward, we confidently understood we needed to start our editing by creating a performance cut. For example, as a group, we all began to accurately line up all our footage correctly conforming to the music queues and precise timings. This task was beneficial as it allowed us to specifically focus on the lip-syncing making sure it successfully lined up. However, along the editing process, we were met with the unfortunate problem of the clapper’s timing. For instance, unfortunately on shoot day, the clapper failed to meet with the correct timing, making this task of difficulty, however we took on the challenge as therefore we were forced to match all the footage to the audio sounding notes. This was not a major problem as the song consists of prominent, bold beats making it easier to link.

 Rapidly after completing this task, we began the next step of our editing process. Fran and I agreed to let Harvey start playing around with the numerous of amounts of lip-syncs, to allow him to start practicing and in order for him to complete a rough performance cut. A performance cut usually consists of a rough video made up completely of just lip-sync, this allows an easy start and base for editing a video.

After some valuable and qualitive time, our primary performance rough cut for our video was completed and we were reasonably happy with the results. We all agreed a lot of work needs to be done until we are satisfied and pleased but this is a very good start and a motivational push for ideas for our ancillary products, such as for our CD Digipak and our Website. Moving forward, Harvey informed us that he will become more confident and make bolder choices in his next few stages of editing. Due to this decision, he will attempt to experiment with other parts the footage we gained on shoot day.

Post-Production: Ancillary Products

Following on from choosing an appropriate name and evaluating our shoot day. We recognise the essential need for producing ideas for our CD Digipak and website. For example, we primarily decided to share the roles in our production evenly, for instance, I personally got assigned the role of creating the website, taking control of one of the ancillary products. On the other hand, Harvey is taking on the role of editing our main artefact, the music video and lastly Fran is in charge of creating the CD Digipak.

This worked out well as Harvey enjoys and appreciates aspects of editing, similarly Fran is experienced with the software Photoshop, which is useful for creating Digipak’s, and equivalently I studied photography so I am very interested in making and designing the website. As I study photography, I am use to the formation of compositions and crafting items, using software’s such as Photoshop and InDesign. Due to this, Fran and I will take control of completing a photoshoot for our ancillary products. As we are all dealing with different elements of our portfolio, we will constantly update our group with aspects of our process of our journey and creation of our products. From this, we will also receive appropriate feedback and see if were on the right page and going in the correct direction.

As I understand, all three products have to link with each other and become a collective force. This can be achieved by including similar logos, conventions and ideas across all three elements. For instance, on both ancillary products, aspects will briefly follow and include colours of greens, neutral colour schemes of subtle creams, whites and tones of greys. Similarly, techniques such as layering will be included and conventions of snakes will also appear across the products. Clear, structured and clean templates will also be followed throughout.