Editing

Unfortunately Chiska was unable to make it to the group editing session on 27th June, so Aaron and I shared out the editing.

 

The editing software we used was Abode Premier Pro CS4, and this was then uploaded to YouTube.
 

 

The first step after transferring all the files to the computer was to view all of the footage to differentiate the usable and unusable takes and then the best versions of these. These were all renamed to make the rest of the editing process a lot easier.

 

We then imported the 'Burning Down the House' track and cut this to the required length. This would act as an anchor throughout the editing process as the visuals were flexible but the soundtrack had to be left unabridged in order to cause complication later on.

 

Another anchoring element during the editing process were the two master shots, one in a monochrome colour scheme:

 

 

And the other with red lighting and costume accents (Glasses, Tie, Shoes, Lipstick):

 

 

Multiple takes were shot of both of these set-ups and so we watched them through and selected the best ones. These were then inserted into two separate tracks. As there was no audio on the visuals at all, we had to sync the moving picture to the sound track visually. This took some time but once achieved made the rest of the process easier.

We then started selecting our inserts, starting with the close-up of Aaron stringing an electric guitar. This particular insert took a lot of time to sync with the music, but fortunately we had many different takes to try out and work with.

 

We sequenced the inserts to always be flicking through different types of shots, to add variety. On the close-up shots of Chiska and I singing, we inversed the images at points so we were looking in different directions. This added a bit of change to the visuals. At one point we also split the screen so that Chiska and I were next to each other. We thought this worked quite well as we were taking on the same role of the female singer.

 

All the transitions between different shots were just simple straight cuts. We thought this worked best and added a fast paced feel to the video. This was enhanced by our 'jumps' from the monochrome master shots to our red ones.

 

One thing we noticed during editing was that we shot no close-ups of Aaron singing in our monochrome colour scheme. This initially caused some problems, as the red accent scenes were meant to be for the fire references only, but we managed to work our way around this.