The Editing Begins

Despite not having a digital copy of the song. I have begun to edit the video by using the sound that was recorded on the camera. This means that I can just sync up and replace the camera sound with the sound track later on. I have started off by putting together the intro, which consists of the band walking into the music room and getting set up. I have cut between the two shots of them walking in to create a smooth transition. As they begin to set up, I cut to a shot of the lead singer plugging in his amp. I then jumped back to the shot of them getting ready. Once they are ready, it jumps to a close up shot of the lead singer saying "LET'S GO!!".

So far that is all the editing that has been done. The introduction has been completed. I am pleased with it, but I think it would look more interesting if we would have taken more close up shots and cut away shots of the band getting ready. Unfortunately, at this stage, we don't have enough time to take anymore shots, the band are busy revising for their exams and organizing another filming day would be too much hassle. We have no choice but to plow on with the editing and do the best we can.

During the editing, two problems have arisen. I started off by editing the introduction at home on my own computer, I didn't realize that I was using a different version of Final Cut (the editing software) to the version they have at college. When I tried to use open my file in the college's Final Cut, it said that the file I was trying to upload was to new. This meant I had to re edit the introduction on the college laptop. The second problem that has occurred is to do with the rendering time. The laptops that we are using are slightly out of date, which means that rendering takes a very long time. During todays lesson I have had to wait over an hour for clips to render. This is slowing drastically slowing down the editing process.

Another dilemma

Today we went to go and pick up the sound track from the band. They had planned to record the track in the music studio on tuesday. When we got there they said that they weren't allowed to record the track until after half term. We told them that this wasn't an option for us as we have to complete the video by next friday. We talked to the head of the music department, to see if they could use the music studio during the next few days. She said that she could fit them in on tuesday next week. This is good but it means that we have to wait even longer for the track, and it doesn't give us a long time to complete the video once we have the track.

We finally have a band

Yesterday, we were told that we needed to get our act together. We had been searching for a band for a long while and still had no results. This called for drastic action. We walked over to the music block hoping for a miracle. We approached the head of the music department to ask her if she new of any bands that would be up to the task. To our great delight, she said that she knew of a band that were very talented and would be up to the heroic task. The next day we met up with "Post" to discuss what they wanted to see in the video. They didn't have preference. So it was down to the mighty team of Doug, Scott, Holly and Daniel to come up with the goods. They said that they rehearse on fridays at 10:30am till 12:30pm. On the friday morning we collected our equipment and set off in the direction of the music studio. When we got there, there were only two of the band members present. This gave us a lot of time to set up and make sure everything was working at optimum quality. Once all the band members were present, we started shooting. I was directing the video, it was my job to tell scott (the camera man) which angles to shoot at. It was holly's to set up th equipment, and do a safety check of the room. Once holly had deemed the area to be safe, we were ready to film. The first shot that we filmed was of the band walking into the room and getting set up. We filmed this from two angles so that we could cut between them during the editing process. The next shot was a close up of the lead singer plugging in his guitar amp. After this we filmed the band performing the whole song three times and filmed it from three different angles. We had some good shots but we got the band to perform the song once more so that we could take some cut away shots of feet tapping, interesting angles etc. These small shots will be perfect for making the final video look more interesting.

Choosing a Band

After doing the research for bands and solo artists in the local area, we decided to contact Alice Wilkinson to see if she would be available to film a music video. She unfortunately declined the offer, so we then needed to find another artist.

Recently, choosing a band has been tricky. Even though there are four of us in a group, only Scott new a local band. "Forest" are an indie rock band that have recorded their music proffessionally but have yet to produce music videos to go with their tracks. We contacted them to see if they would be up for filming. This conversation lasted about 5 days because the band couldn't find a day where they were all free. By this time, other groups in the class had already got their footage and were ready to start editing. This made us pick up the pace. We told "Forest" that we didn't need all of them to be in the video, we only needed one or two members to make the video. But once again, the band couldn't get their act together, and they all said that they couldn't find time to film. This was a shame, we had been trying to organise a filming day for the whole week and at the last minute the band gave up on us. We are now at a "loose end", we need a band fast otherwise we may risk missing the deadline for this project.

It is interesting that the two acts we have contacted have declined our offer for a free music video. Many bands would "kill" for a professional music video. Maybe people aren't taking us seriously enough because we are students, they underestimate our talents.