She's a maniac, a maniac, on Final Cut Pro: EDITING pt I

08/01/2013
Today we began the editing process for our music video. I also finally had a chance to discuss with my group some of the issues we came across over the holidays. We first discussed the red leotard incident, and decided that once the leotards arrived, using the classroom we would set up the green screen and only have the artist perform the dance sequences and the lip syncing, as it would be too time consuming to reteach the choreography to the back up dancers. We also discussed about filming the bedroom sequence after the exam period. We will use both opportunities to take photographs for our inlays.

We first imported out clips onto the mac, by opening up final cut pro and creating a new project within my event. We then selected the clips we wanted and imported these into the event. This gave us a chance to look over our shots and clips. The shots of me performing were good and use able, as the dance sequences were danced in time to the music and it was clear I knew what I was doing. However the majority of the back up dancers clips are un useable, with the exception of Issy's improvised section. This was due to the back up dancers not being able to learn the routine to a high standard and despite dancing the routine as back up dancers performed it was still poorly danced and was clear they were watching someone. However I dont believe this is down to poor planning, as back up dancers were told to watch the choreography video online and Linzi had been taught the choreography the day the video went up. This meant that half our clips can not be used in our final product.

We also came across another problem, due to the amount of un useable dance clips we thought we found a solution in the suggestion made by a member of staff to key out the white background using a keyer, however instead of adding the three dancers to the same background, we were going to duplicate me. However when we attempted to use the keyer it wasn't very effective, as the entire image became blacked out and the background had speckles of white.

Once all the footage had imported we began playing around and trying out numerous effects. We began by editing the opening beat sequence. Looking through the shots we decided to use a mix of Me and Issy changing positions, as Linzi's tended to lack oomph. I also loved the second shape made by Issy in the video.

We also came across another problem when editing these shots, as they were long shots and originally the sides of the white backdrop could be seen this meant we had to crop the shots, however once cropped they then didnt fill the frame of the video. Although this wasnt a major problem, lining up the shots with eachother was, due to the black strip either side of the clip, if clips werent matched up, they would appear to move. We solved the dilemma by creating two plain black separate images and placed these either side above the shot, just so they slightly covered the edge. By right clicking we turned the images into one compound clip, this meant we could move them together. We dragged the time scale of the clip so that it covered all the shots in the first verse, this meant all our cropped images would be in line with each other rather than moving about.

So far the first verse is a compilation of Me and Issy dancing and Lip sync, both mid shot and close up. However due to not being able to have all three dancers at once, we wanted to add variety to our shots, as I wasnt overly happy with how the mid shot profile of the lip sync turned out, I decided to add a mirror effect, this was an effect we had planned to use later on in the video, during the bridge sequence, shown in our storyboards. However, I thought it would make our clips more interesting to watch, due to the current lack of variety.

The shots have been cut to the beat and the strong images the shots show are really effective. However once we film the bedroom footage, we will have even more shots for our opening sequences. We also began editing the opening chorus beginning "Bless your soul...." unfortunately the floor sequences didnt turn out exactly as planned, and although they appear during our storyboard, they wont be in our final product.

I'm slightly concerned about certain elements of the music video at this point, due to the amount of un useable shots and issues with the keyer, I am also slightly concerned that we may face problems later on using the green screen, as often shadows could be seen cast against the screen which may make using a keyer difficult.