The Editing Process

This has been a relatively smooth editing process because our footage was filmed over several days. This meant we never came up against a wall of footage that was overwhelming to edit.

We began with the footage me and Ed collected of the band in our very first filming session. This was probably the most difficult thing we had to edit of the whole process because we had almost 5 minutes worth of footage 5 times over from 5 different angles. This was a lot to get through and made for more layers on Final Cut than I ever got near in my project last year. We decided to start by just putting the footage into the programme and layering it up so the lead singer was the top layer, this meant it always defaulted to him which we liked because he was the one we focussed on the most. From there we switched through the lead guitarist, drummer, bassist and master shot (as well as the singer) depending on what they were doing at each time and how recently we'd last seen them e.g. for the big drum beats we focussed on the drummer and for the guitar solo we focussed on the lead guitarist. It was a matter of common sense as well as making sure we had enough cuts to fit with the fast pace of the music without it becoming too busy and overly jumpy.

We also had to make sure that our lip-syncing was always matching up - this was a big struggle because any time you wanted to change who was onscreen you had to change the length of the video rather than just dragging it around to ensure the instruments and singers were always in time with the track. When we filmed it we asked them to play alongside the iTunes song we had plugged into a speaker to ensure their timing was bang on as we were filming it. We decided to mute the sound on the footage and overlay the original track because the quality of the sound is so much better. However, that did make it a bit of a pain to edit because we had to ensure all the timing of the instruments was correct in every clip we moved.

After we'd filmed the band, Ed and I had gone to the Christmas light switch on in Leeds to film it. This footage was a nightmare to sift through as I had just left the camera running all the time so we had chunks of 15 minute footage to watch and pick the best bits out of. It took ages and, although I did achieve my aim of getting loads of footage and some really good bits by accident, I think, for future reference, only filming what you need is the way forward in efficient filmmaking.

Once we had this complete (which did take us a good few weeks) we went on to film the main body of the video at Christmas in Leeds. When it came to editing this we did pretty well; it was all filmed on one camera so the footage was in the order we filmed it in, making it easy for us to identify where certain parts would be (so we didn't have to wade through hours of footage to find them). The hardest bit of this part of the process was condensing what we had filmed into a clear storyline that fit within the beats of the song. For example, the scene where Rob kicks/puts money in James' cup was filmed several times from a range of different angles. Therefore the challenge was choosing what angles to use at what times to effectively tell the story of what's happening in the scene in as little time as possible. We did manage to do this and I'm so happy with how it looks, it makes it understandable as well as looking really nice because the shots turned out very well.

A technique we did find we liked was jump-cutting James' actions. It originally started because we have a shot of James walking in front of the first direct arena and this is a wide, open space and it took James a while to get across. Therefore Ed suggested that we jump-cut his progress across the screen just to speed up the pace of the video. However, we loved the effect this gave the section; it made it slightly more gritty and not so clean cut, reflecting the genre of the music and the content of the narrative. It also highlighted the passing of time which we really liked because we had been playing with the presentation of James' life as long and repetitive through our use of the repeated storyline in order to give the video an initial sense of hopelessness and the feel of the never-ending suffering of the character. We decided to use this throughout the video as it became a very effective technique for condensing the action but still portraying the whole story. We also like the mood it gives the video and the slightly grittier edge it provides.

This section of the video did take us a considerable amount of time to edit as it was where the majority of the footage was but it was relatively easy to put together, especially compared to the Christmas light section. What was nice was that we had all been filming bits independently of one another - at each point in the day a different person would be carrying the camera, just for ease, and, unbeknown to each other, we had all filmed random bits of the day that caught our eye when we were holding the camera. Therefore, the editing process became like opening a treasure chest full of loads of footage we hadn't expected to find e.g. there was loads of footage of James walking around from different angles that hadn't been planned but are really nice and natural. I was so happy when I saw it all and we've put loads of it into the video because the mood is just what we were going for and could never have been captured in a choreographed shot.

We then added the footage from our third day of filming. This was the section we filmed at my house of  James going to his friend for help and being allowed to stay in their spare room. This was very quick to edit - it was a very small section and consequently there wasn't much footage to tame. Therefore we finished this in the space of a lesson and just interspersed these shots with the original band footage so it all tied together cohesively.

The most recent bit we've edited has been the montage. This was a challenge because, as the name suggests, there is a lot of different footage that needs to be put together, including time lapses as well as regular cuts to the band. This section takes place during a powerful instrumental where the band were really performing well on their instruments so we didn't want to lose that performance element by focussing too much on the storyline. Therefore it was a challenge to strike a good balance and get the pacing of the video right. We did manage to do this and I am really happy with the editing of this section and proud of how I managed to condense it down however, we feel the content of the montage doesn't reflect the increased energy of the song as, when the song is at it's most dramatic, our character is brushing his teeth. Therefore we are going to do some more filming at Victoria Gate in Leeds for the last section of the video but, while we're there, we're going to see if we can get some more dramatic, cinematic shots of James which we can put into this montage to make it match the mood of the song more.

The other drastic idea which raised itself today was the questioning of our colour. The video looks really nice in black and white and, although we originally thought it would gradually change into colour, it actually looks better left in black and white. Therefore we are seriously considering leaving the whole video like that and leaving the storytelling to the narrative, rather than the colouring of the video.