Editing

In order to edit our music video we used Premiere Pro CS4. Firstly, we had to import our footage into premiere pro after uploading it from the camera. This enabled us to see a list of our clips which we could then play in the preview window. Once we were satisfied with what clips we wanted to use, you drag the clip into the playing area. This will now be show in the right window which shows the actual music video. We decided it would be more efficient to drag all our clips down, rearrange them and then add transitions and effects after. This enables us to see any gaps that we would need to film again. This was made apparent to us. It was important to cut down a lot of clips as most of them were too long. We then imported the song the same way as the footage but dragged it down to the audio section. It was important to mute the sound from the footage so that you could hear the actual song. Once we had arranged a lot of the clips we decided to start adding effects and transitions. Our song is quite depressing and sad so we thought it would the footage would relate to the song if we decreased the brightness. We changed this by going on the tab colour and correction and then brightness and contrast. Another effect we used is changing the speed of the clip. The pace of our song is quite up and down, starting quite slow, then speeding up and at the end slowing down again. Therefore when it was slow paced we decreased the speed of the clip so it would make a slow motion style effect. For the fast paced music we increased the speed to make a lot of short, fast shots. This creacted hecticness and excitement. When deciding on transitions, wse found that we used a lot of similar transitions. This is because we found that a lot of them did not suit our music video. Using the same ones several times created continuity and looked more professional. The main transitions we used were dip to black, cross dissolve and additive dissolve. We especially liked additive dissolve because during the transition, the previous and next clip blend in together and when going to the next clip you still see the previous clip as the opacity decreases. When arranging our footage we realised that it would be a lot harder to fit three and half minutes than we previously thought. We refilmed numerous times and thought we had a lot of footageand then found that we still had gaps to fill. There was only one way to overcome this and this was by cutting sections of the song out. This was made possible because a lot of the song is repetitive. When the pace of the song slows down for the second time, shortly after the pace fastens up again. We wanted the end to finish with a slow pace so we cut it before the pace fastens up again. So that the song didnt end blunty we gradually quietened it down at the end. The song was still too long so we cut out other sections that were repeated. This was a very difficult process that required patience and perserverance. It was very hard to cut the section at the right point. Using the razor tool you select the start of the part of the song you don't want and then another mark up to where you want it. You then slect it and delete it. Another thing that proved to be difficult was matching up the footage with the right part of the song. This again was overcome by patience. The last thing we added was 'Pendulum - Watercolour' and 'New Media Solutions' in the left hand corner of the first clip of the music video. This made it apparent that it is a music video and is a common convention of existing music videos. We didn't want it to take emphasis away from the video so we decreased the opacity and made it dissolve away after a few seconds. By adding this convention we found that our music video looked more realistic and professional.