Editing workshop - editing a music video

When editing music videos, there is a very particular order in which you have to edit. what you do first if all is a performance cut (this is slightly different for solo artists), then a narrative cut, and finally you place any effects work that needs to be done. After all this is edited, you then use colouring to finalize and perfect the video. 

List of the order of editing (particularly for a band's music video):

• Performance cut 
• narrative cut 
• special effects 
• colouring

If you edit in this order, you wont be get into a situation where you spend too much time on creating an effect that ends up getting cut from the video. 

When first loading up a project on Adobe Premiere Pro, there is a screen on the left hand side that is context sensitive which will keep changing according to what clip is being looked at. On the right hand side, it displays the video screen which shows the video you have edited. On the bottom right of the screen, it shows the sequence of videos which you cut to your liking and on the bottom left side of the screen it displays the rushes (un-cut videos from your shoot day).

When first receiving the rushes back to start editing, the first job to do is to sync up the footage with the music. This is done by using a clapper board, this is a screen which displays a running number visible in the shot before the filming is done which we are then able to match up with the time code of the song. The clapper board beeps and counts in the song. To sync up the video with the song, you drop in the video on the display screen and place it on the same number that is seen in the footage on the timeline. You can then play the video footage with the music to see if you have synced it up correctly. 

When putting together footage on the timeline, it is really important to label the footage on timeline as clear and specific as possible so that the editing process does not become confusing. 

It is crucial when editing to keep your footage organized so that the video doesn't therefore become harder to edit and refine at the end. It is also important when editing to take your time when altering footage to make sure you are completing tasks correctly. 

When editing your music video you need to follow these main rules: 

• listen to the music and illustrate what is heard 

This means that your footage and shot durations should correlate with the rhythm and timing of the music. Or, if there is a significant lyric, the singer should be shown in a close up. Similarly, if there is an instrumental section of the music, the band should be shown in a wide shot. 

• group your shots together

If there is an image of, for example a guitarist, the video should display at least 2 shots of the guitarist before moving onto a different image (instead of just a singular shot). This stops the video looking random and helps to make the video look more coherent. 

• follow the movement in your footage 

This means that if you have the artist doing the same movement in two different sets, you can cut footage together where the artist completes the movement- making a seamless cut. Similarly, if the artist is performed a gesture, you can also mimic the gesture with the camera movement. 

Editing a solo artist is much more difficult compared to editing a music video for  a band. For a band, you do a performance cut of the band whereas for a solo artist you cannot do this. 

When looking at editing for a solo artist, we took a look a Katy Perry music video ('I kissed a girl'). 

The sets on screen and the artists delivery have to be really well thought out as that's where the audiences focus is on. In this music video, the set location changes throughout about every 30 seconds (whenever the music changes) before reprising all the sets at the end. However, some solo artist music videos use different sets throughout the music video and intertwine different footage in editing. Because you cannot do performance cuts, you can use the artist movement to demonstrate the beat in the music - this is shown in the Katy Perry music video. 

It is important whilst editing to have a storyboard so that you know what to do when editing your video- this will be our next step.