Editing

In the last week of term we filmed the shots of the video in the woods (see last post) and have attempted to edit them to the audio. (It is strange how I consider the track to be audio rather than 'music') It took us an entire day to 'log and capture' the footage because the computer was being updated, (this time it WAS the technology that held us up, in comparison to when we seemed to waste/spend alot of time trying to find our around Logic. I am still considering whether Carla and I (especially I, having experience with that type of software) are plain stupid or the Logic interface indeed does suck (And it comes with a manual!?)). The following day we were to start editing, unfortuneatly poor Carla was ill but I intended to make a start, after sorting out things like ISP forms and cups of tea I made a start.

Naturally I dived straight in to editing my favourite parts (the hovering legs) then moved around to the sections surrounding the verses. I was hesitant to start editing the dancing sections as I quessed that Carla would have a more valuable aesthetic judgment to editing the dance than me with my mere sound technician background.

The middle 8 shows us in the grandmothers bedroom with wolfy. I am looking forward to seeing what effects (juddery and flickery) would work with this as, (1) the lighting (despite the candles) is bland and, (2) the one camera angle is also bland. The actual scene, beyond these aesthetics, I like- It is pointless and strange, we have no purpose in crawling around the wolf bed and doing strange actions- not even a mischevious one, which is what is expected from the bemused but determined look on our faces (this was not intented when filming, we just found what we were doing amusing but were determined to finish the scene without laughing). The audio just after the middle 8 appears strange when listening back- probably because it just sits there and doesn't modulate or suggest that anything is about to happen (because of this is it a section on its own?) - the middle 8 finishes almost randomly (to no rhythm) and this little section could be said to finish when the sound that increases in frequency comes in. This particular sound we have used in order to link sections together- using the modulating frequency quality of the sounds to suggest modulation from one section to another? (this would be an unconcious judgment and the reason it was chosen was because it sounded good/worked with our intentions). Back to the little static section between this sound and the middle 8, I observed that when editing footage to it there were tiny points that seemed to fit cuts and certain shots that worked with particular sounds (it is my experience that these observations are only made (1) by accident (2) intuition or (3) experience- in editing a previous project or seeing it done in other works) One example I will make is the moving of mine and carla heads when sat together on the bed with the pebbles- from to right the to left, from a previous project I knew that if I put this movement on top of a certain sound that had similar movement (pitch/timbre to time) the viewer would assume one was because of the other/linked. This 'worked' because the sound and image were harmonised. In my opinion, attention to the exact point of cut and the movement of the image to the sound needs further attention in the final edit. I feel that the video looks amateurish because of this disjointed feeling it has- another suggestion I would make to help this problem would be to change the aural landscape between the grandmothers bedroom and the woods, however as it is meant to be a pop video rather than a film this is not appropriate.

The editing I did solo I felt was uninspired , there where a few reasons for this-

• because there were gaps in the timeline there was no sense of continuity I failed to see the 'whole picture' I found that when the sound carried on but the image went to green frustrating
• The aesthetics of the footage I was not pleased with, therefore it was frustrating to edit
• Carla was not there and I hadn't the confidence to make a final edit before she saw it.

The scenes in the wood were dark, the light from the torches produced the brown of the tree trunks and the earth, the reddy orange of our cloaks and the blackness of our surroundings. The result was indeed mysterious and sinister and this completely contrasted to any smiling, like when we leaped into shot after the hovering - smiling looked really bizarre and I liked that. Going back to that shot of us jumping- interestingly it was incredibly important to me that we jumped on the beat, for reasons I do not know! I don't think Carla approved but I had to insist.

The next day Carla was feeling better and we edited the dancing sections. We had alot to choose from in the first verse, we disagreed sometimes and by the end I was completely fed up, mainly because the shots weren't as good as we'd hoped and the experience of filming them was awful in the first place. There were as few shots where there was a huge shadow in the background and we were pleased with them- the shadows created atmosphere and looked effective.

This is only a short review of the editing and I intend to have another (objective) look at the film after the break.