Editing: Final Cut Express HD

Now we've started filming we need to start converting the footage into a video. The programme we are going to use to edit is 'Final Cut Express HD'.

Before this school year none of us had used 'Final Cut' and so it's going to be a gradual process and there's bound to be many mistakes made. However, when we made our Animatics we used 'Final Cut' to put our pictures into a video and it gave us a bit of practice before doing the real thing.

'Final Cut' is going to allow us to add filters to our shots for effects and play around with the speed of the footage for fast forward or slow motion effects. Also if any of our footage is unneeded or poor quality we can always cut it out. The layout of the programme allows us to to view the timeline of our audio file at the same time as our visuals timeline, this helps us with timing and placing shots in time with the beat.

Firstly, we felt it was important to name each clip of our footage so it was easy for us to distinguish which bit was which when dragging clips into the timeline. After this we had to import our track 'Demons' into 'Final Cut' and then lock the audio layer. Locking the audio layer was important because without doing so the audio file would split when we started to drop clips into the timeline. After these preparation stages we were ready to start editing.

As shown in the image above, all our clips of footage were kept on the left hand side of the screen and the timeline of the video just below. If we needed to use a clip to add to our video you just simply drag the thumbnail down onto the timeline to add to the rest of the video. However, our clips were quite long and shots in music videos last seconds, not minutes. To overcome this we could simply cut out any unwanted footage. This was done by simply highlighting the section of footage we wanted to cut out from the clip and selecting delete. This is an important part of editing because it keeps the video flowing and stops it from becoming boring, I mean we don't need to show every single footstep the actor takes....it isn't necessary. Below is a photo showing how the length of a clip is trimmed/cut. The area of clip highlighted with the border is the part needed, the rest is cut away.

To the left is a grab shot from the drug-taking scene in our music video. This actually took a few minutes for Taylor to do because sniffing flour isn't the most pleasant thing to do! However, we managed to cut it down into about 4 quick cuts lasting a few seconds. This allows the viewer a chance to understand what is happening in this scene without showing every single tiny detail.

This technique is also used when Sarah shows Taylor out the door. When filming Taylor had to get up from the table, argue, make his way into the hall, get his coat and eventually exit the house, a lenghty process. So again, we split the footage into about 6 cuts by trimming away the parts we didn't need. 

We decided to film the majority of our video outside in the dark because darkness relates to the song title 'Demons'. Drugs and relationships breakdowns are quite upsetting topics so we decided to create a gloomy atmosphere about the video by filming in dark. However, when we began editing we noticed that some of the footage was unclear because of lighting issues, to overcome this we had to adjust the lighting and colouring using the tool below.

To make our video look professional and keep it flowing we added transitions inbetween shots. Rather than just using straight cuts in every transition we used properties like dissolve to more gradually take the viewer from one place to another. In our video Taylor keeps on having flashbacks of his argument with his girlfriend, so rather than just cutting from his face to the argument we used dissolves. This fades out Taylors face gradually and fades in their argument they had earlier that evening, the picture below gives you an idea of this.