Music Video Editing Blog

      Anyeska, Lesly, Jazmin, and I all worked on editing our music video. It took up the majority of our class time, and unfortunately, the editing process did not go well. Although Anyeska was able to dump all the footage from the SD card to the desktop, it took a while to view each scene we would use and for the computer to handle the download size. Eventually, I was able to finish the downloading process and save it all into Google Drive. After this, Lesly found and downloaded The Lazy Song, by Bruno Mars onto the computer. Once I was ready to edit, I opened Pinnacle Studios and imported the footage and audio into the program. From there, I started editing the raw footage. It was difficult to do this because the preview of a scene (on the right side of the screen) would lag and slow down the computer. Thus, it took me some time to figure out the different scenes just by their image, when I was trying to match it to the lyrics. The following paragraph will explain the different tools I tried to use and what happened during my editing process.

      Due to the fact that our class time was running short, we were only able to begin editing the first scene. First, I used a razor blade icon to split the first scene because it was too long and unnecessary. I thought to detach the audio from the shot, but it helped to match the first lyrics to our dance. Since the background sound was the actual song, we wanted to dance or act out each scene with a reference and to potentially benefit us while editing. I had difficulty trying to place the first scene as soon as the initial lyrics: "Today I don't feel like doing anything" started. Apparently, Pinnacle Studios uses a magnetic timeline, in which any clip you drag and drop into the timeline snaps to any existing clips. I did not know that you can turn that function off, so I struggled to do that. I let my group members try to fix or get the scene to where we wanted it, but they didn’t know how to either. With little time left, we decided to end our editing process and rely on starting and finishing it next class. Unfortunately, after I saved our music video I deleted the footage from the desktop, thinking that I wouldn’t need it, but it backfired and ended up disabling the footage from pinnacle studios. I ended up solving the problem even though it took up 5 minutes of editing time.

      There are editing techniques I planned to use in the music video. Some include adding a title screen, subtitles, cropping footage, and a fade-in/out. Hopefully next class, when we continue editing that I'll see a vision along with my group members of our music video coming to life. I also hope that editing will be successful. I think it may be hard at first, but Lesly and Brit seem to be experienced and ready to edit our footage. The only type of sound I plan to use in the music video is background music. The camera movements and angles we used were: High angle, tilt shot, pan shot, long shot, medium close up shot, over the shoulder, point of view, zoom in/out. All of these editing techniques will be used while editing our music video. We will try to edit so it comes in between 1:05 to 1:15. Ultimately, I will create a fun and interesting music video that will excite and engage audiences.

Filming Blog #2

      Last week Sunday, I met up with my team mates to finish filming our music video. We met up at Anyeska’s house again, but this time we met up around 1:30 PM. Initially, we had four scenes left to film. However, we ended up breaking the storyboard and switching over to new ideas. We ended up only filming one scene on Sunday, which was actually our very last scene of the music video. Scene six and scene seven from the storyboard which I drew, was merged together into one scene, breaking the storyboard. Additionally, scene twelve from the storyboard was changed up. Instead of filming a long shot of Jazmin kicking her socks off then laying on the couch, Anyeska filmed an extreme close up shot of her kicking her shoes off. It was my original idea to show someone taking their shoe off when the lyrics stated “‘Cause today I swear I’m not doing anything;” the reason being that a person can not go out and do anything if they are not wearing shoes. All in all, these changes to the storyboard was made the day before, Saturday.
      Scenes thirteen through fifteen were completely changed up on Sunday. As previously stated, we only filmed one scene on Sunday. Basically, we merged the three scenes together, making them one scene, and cutting our actions short. Our initial idea was to throw up paper confetti in scene thirteen, lay on the floor in fourteen, and in the last scene someone would cover the camera with their hand; Instead, we went against the storyboard again. We decided to only throw up the paper confetti, gather in a circle as we cheer happily, then Jazmin walked away from the group and covered the camera with her hand. Anyeska’s mom was behind the camera for the previously described scene and the scene was filmed as a medium shot. At that point, filming the music video was called to an end. We all felt pretty relieved, so we decided to go out and have some fun.
      Overall, filming was successful. I enjoyed working with Anyeska, Jazmin, Lesly, and Nick. We were quite strategic of how we went about filming the music video. For one, everyone was involved in at least three scenes which means that we all played a huge part in the music video. Moreover, we filmed in five different settings around Anyeska’s house, and everyone had a chance to operate the camera. Meaning, we all actively contributed to the music video as a team is supposed to do. I felt as though I learned a lot from my fellow AICE Media classmates. My biggest takeaway was how to creatively use camera movements, angles, and shots. I am content that I made the decision to work with my friends because for the entire time, work felt like leisure. I will definitely be working with these same people for my final Cambridge project.