Editing

Now I have sucessfully completed my filming it is time to begin the editing process. To this I will be using PowerDirector 64 Bit Ultra. I am choosing this software because it is easy to use and it offers a wide range of effects that can be incorperated into videos. So far, I have 6 minuites of footage with the music track only lasting 4 minuites so I will have to do a lot of cutting down. I am choosing to edit the tracks in chronological order to make it easier for me to put together the peices once i'm finished.

Firstly, I started editing the break-up scene between James and Karima. Since this was the only part where talking is involved I had to be carefully not to cut out any of the important speech when editing. I then inserted the music track into powerdirector and started editing the scenes with Karima stalking James. This was the most difficult part of the editing process since there were a lot of irrelevent takes of a certain scene and some scenes were too long or short which meant the audience wouldn't be able to understand what was happening. I solved this problem by deleting all the the irrelevent scenes and then cutting down the scenes I did this with Powerdirectors multi-trim tool which allows you to put markers on a clip to show the bits you want in the scene or cut out.  I then added slow motion effects where James was turning around so the audience could see the surprised expression on his face. To finish of I added the clips with James walking with nobody behind him and then inserted the clips with Karima after that so it made look like she magically appeared.

Next, I started editing the scene with James going over to Karima's house to try and convince her to get back together with him. Like that will happen. Anyhow I timed the clip with the music track so that when the music slowed down it shows James walking up to Karima's door and when he started arguing with her the music would speed up. I did this because when the music fits in with what you are seeing it enchances the visual effect of what you see because it feels more realistic.

Thirdly, I edited the bits with James asleep and feeded them in between scenes of the video. I then added a worm whole effect when the  scenes with James asleep  appeared. I did this to make it clear to the audience that James was no longer in the dream world but that instead, we were watching him sleeping. I then added a blur effect at the end of  these scenes which made up a cool fade out transitioning effect when exiting the real world scenes. After I used Powerdirectors powertools to speed up the scenes in the real world so it matched the pace of the music.

Finally, I added in the scene with James entering in his room and going to sleep after a bad day and the scene with him walking up, running down stairs, and turning the thermestat down. I had to edit out all the bits with my shadow in here to create an effect of realism. I then inserted a slow-motion effect when James woke up so we all see that bemused expression on his face.  In all it took me about 5 hours to edit on my own but I am quite happy with the end result and I hope you will be too.

Filming Day 5

Today I filmed the carry on scene from day 4 which involved Karima jumping out of the bushes at night scaring James while he is living his nightmare. I filmed this by having James walk towards the camera while as Karima was emerging out of the bushes to scare James I turned the camera towards Karima to get them both in the picture as James jumped back with surprise.

I edited this on Powerdirector the day after by inserting a slow motion effect as Karima jumped out to scare James. I did this to make James's afraid expression clear to the audience and because it also added enjoyed effect to see James getting scared by a little girl. Whereas if I did this in normal video speed, it wouldn't look as dramatic because we wouldn't get to see the expressions James and Karima were doing which would make the overall experience less enjoyable.

Introduction to Editing

I talk about the software I'm using to edit, why I'm using it over other programs and some examples of effects I can do with the software. Enjoy!

Filming Day 4

We thought we would give Karima a rest this week since she has done so much hardwork.......
Anyhow this week I filmed the scene from my storyboard which shows James coming home and going to sleep where he enters the dream world where all the crazy stuff happens. Taking advice from James experience in his photography degree classes we chose to film in short straight cuts instead of having the camera following him. We chose to do it this way in order to avoid the camera shaking and to give us acess to more angles. We started the scene with James opening the door and turning up the themometer. We did a zoom in effect here of him turning up the themometer so the audience could clearly see what was happening. 

After this I filmed James walked up the stairs from behind then half way through I switched to the top of the stairs to show up walking up the stairs and going into my room from in front. This created great continuity because he never went out of range of the camera as if he would have if I filmed it all from behind him.

Next I filmed him going to sleep tossing and turning. I chose rotate the camera left and right here in order to create effect that would distingish between the real and dream world. I also did a quick pan around the room so the audience could easily recognize that this was his bedroom but also created a nice transition into the scenes where he is dreaming. This pan shot latest a little bit too long for my liking and would need to be cut down with Power Director the edititing software I am using.

Filming Day 3

On Thursday, me Karima and James went to Castle Park to film some night time shots. I used my dual LED flash on my Samsung Galaxy S2 as a back light to make things brighter on the Flip Ultra HD camera I have been filming with so far. This didn't achieve much success though since there was still a lot of noise being created in the video. So instead I decided on filming just one short scene in the night and to keep the rest of the shots in the day time for better quality.

The scene I shot this week showed James coming from one side of a path looking over to his right to see Karima walking with a mystery man (who was played by me). This scene was different from the rest since instead of having Karima coming from behind him she was on his right which would bring a good opportunity for a split screen effect.

Looking back to the David Guetta Video I analysed I chose to feature my self in the video in order to raise the viewers awareness of the producer behind the video. I felt this was an important feature in an Electropop video since most of the time the person who makes the music , lyrics and sings are all the same so it is important that the viewers recognize this.

Filming day 2

Today I went back to Ashton Court with James and Karima to do some more filming. The first scene we shot was James walking back down from Ashton court to is house wear he would suddenly see Karima sitting their in front of the sun. I portrayed this by first filming a scene with James walking down a hill squinting as he can't believe what he is seeing. Then I filmed a scene with Karima sitting there while I tried to perform a pan shot around her to make her sitting their look more effective.

The next scene was similar but this time I filmed Karima walking behind James on a hill rather than just sitting there. I did this from a low angle to make Karima look more superior since she was higher up on the hill than James which made her stand out more. This is important because the audience can therefore recognize that this is a nightmare rather than a happy dream where she is in control and not him.

The last scene we shot today was in a graveyard next to Karima's house. I chose to shoot here because I wanted to symbolise the lyrics "on my mind" which come into play throughout the songs chorus. I showed this by first doing a establishing shot of the area for the audience to recognize the change of place. Then I filmed two separate scenes one with James sitting on the bench crying over his ex then another one with Karima doing the some thing. I did this with the idea that I would be able to put them together and create a split screen with two scenes either side each other. I am choosing to do this to help the audience understand that this was a movie with comedy and sadness about a guy having a bad day. This relates to the Nero video where at the start the girl says " you must stop this" but the other girl refuses to take the medicine. This relates to the Nero video because it is about going against what is expected of you. For example old idea's of marriage that people are meant to be together

for the rest of their lives.

The final piece of filming that I filmed today was at Karima's house. I this clip we filmed James trying to make up with Karima which would end badly for him with him getting water poured over him. As explained above I did this to show that that not everything can be explained. I chose to shoot this from an over-the-shoulder angle and go into a close up of the James after he had the water chucked over him. I felt this was the best way to show this because it let us not only get a good look of Karima's unforgiving face but of James's surprise face after he got drenched.