DSLR Test Footage 2 - Editing

For this task, we are tasked with the assignment of rehearsing editing techniques prior to planning our music video. This will aide our video as we will be experts in that particular skill.

Eye-Line Match - This involved cohesively matching up shots to ensure our subject, Thor, was looking at his subject, Connor, and this involved collecting a series of shots and gluing them together in Premiere Pro. This is something which will help us 'shoot for the edit' as we create a plan of action before the shoot in order to aid and benefit our post production process.

It was important we gained experience of editing techniques to exemplify our work. Furthermore, reflecting on our AS Thriller, we didn't do the aforementioned and we lacked a definitive structure of how we would approach the production or post production piece, so on reflection, we are producing a more in depth and decisive plan before shooting.

Match-on-action - This process is something particularly crucial in the production of a cohesive music video. This is the technique whereby continuity is obliged and, for example, if a character is seen picking up a mug, the next shot is them drinking from the mug.

Our attempt demonstrates this is a skill we can achieve in post production. To reflect, this was a brilliantly rehearsed and executed attempt at match on action, but we did suffer difficulties. For example, originally, the shot was shot from an angle 180 degrees in the opposing direction, but we had to battle with shadows of our camera operator in order to create a shot without continuity error.

These series of shots required thorough planning and this is something I enjoyed shooting and will only bode well for our music video. On reflection, I feel the second shot of the sequence is perhaps not cut away from sooner, but it's better to be making these mistakes during this process as oppose to in our music video.

Jump Cuts - This technique is something adopted by music videos and horror films in an attempt to make the subject of the shot fly across the frame for effect.

Our attempt involved our subject cutting from one side of the pathway to another, but, on reflection, the cut isn't clean or smooth and appears jagged and messy. This means our piece is detracted in quality for this attempt.

Fortunately, our genre for our video, Indie, doesn't adopt jump cuts all too often, so we should be able to avoid them, however, it was a good experience to learn from and broaden our knowledge of post production techniques.

Slow Motion - Perhaps our most successful post production technique of them all. Shot using a Go Pro and a Go Pro stabiliser, we managed to produce a smooth piece of slow motion footage. This involved increasing the frames per second count to double (120 fps) and slowing down the footage in Premiere Pro to create a smooth shot.

This allowed us to shoot a series of exquisite shots in slow motion as it demonstrates our ability to do this excellently. If adopted in our music video, this would exemplify our work and is something as a group, we've decided to explore the possibility of using this technique in our work.

Written by Connor Southwell