Editing Music Video

Post Production: Editing

Here are some screenshots showing some progression of the music video in final cut pro being edited by us.


Opening/Intro Scene

Shot of Guitar Amp.

For the opening sequence of the music video we decide to make it dietetic, as this would emphasise more that the band are preparing to rehearse/perform and then the music video starts. We felt this would give the music video a more unique style are rather than the song immediately jumping in.



Jump Cuts & Edits

Shot of drum slowly panning up.

We first layered some of the base clips down first and then slowly worked our way to refining the scenes more, for example we wanted the instruments to match the pace of the music and therefore in this section we made a shot of the drum jump cut to the drummer. This would create a more band performance effect since the pace of the music videos are usually quick and jump to multiple shots.

Jumps to the drummer.

Syncing Performance to Music
Most important of all we needed to make sure that the instruments matched the music whilst we were editing, therefore we had to listen to specific parts such as the lead guitar and drum beats. The shots also needed to look realistic enough as it would look out of place and could ruin the overall pace of the music video. An example shown below is of the drummer swinging to hit the snare but then the shot jumps to another shot which is close-up showing the impact of it.

Drummer about to hit Snare.

Hits the Snare.

Also there were times where we didn't have the narrative scenes filmed so we have to mark a section for where the narrative clips were going to be placed, this was done so that we could continue editing other parts without worry too much about not have specific footage yet.

Narrative Scene Space.

To maximise working efficiency we organised the best clips that were going to be used for the music video, we did this by browsing through our footage and then adding them to the favourite section. This allows us to navigate and edit the music with ease as it saved us time with searching for clips since there were a large amount.

Favourites Highlighted.

Lip Syncing & Narrative

One of the things we spent most time editing on was making sure the lip syncing of the video was correct. Lip syncing in the music video is essential in a music video and must be done well otherwise it can affect the quality of the music video. We had to assess what parts should the vocalist appear in for what lyrics, we decided on that most of the chorus parts will have the singer in it and was clear to us as the chorus is repetitive, also you commonly see the appearances of the artist there.

Thief Narrative.

When we placed the narrative scenes into Final Cut we made the scene cut in and out with some shots of the band performing, this was sometimes difficult as we had to find the most appropriate part to fit in. We did this to maintain a consistent pace throughout the video as if we ere to leave the narrative section unedited the scene would pre-long and could keep the audience less engaged and interested.