Editing the Music Video

Before we begin to edit, we dump all the footage from the SD card into a folder. We then watched all of the clips and selected the few takes that we will use. Once those were placed as raw footage in the editing software, we began the editing process. In the beginning, there were 12 scenes from our storyboard. Despite there being many takes, Mariapaula and I needed to agree on which video would be the best for the final scene. We placed all of our footage onto the program (iMovie) as the first step. Then, I went through each of the clips and cut the audio from them. When editing, I glance and analyze how the scenes would work and what could be taken out and what can be changed. I had to shorten some of the videos because the actual scene would be enacted in the middle of the video. We tested how we could change the speed in some scenes and to see if it could enhance the scene, which did for some of them.

There is an adjustment in iMovie where you can stabilize a video that is shaky. This setting helped improve many of our scenes. Mostly because it make the music video much smoother. Then, we used a website which converts YouTube videos into audio files. I had to go copy the link of the YouTube video of the song we were using, and download it as an mp3 audio. We added it to the third track of our music video. Mariapaula figured out how to make the music best fit and cut a bit of the beginning of it. She then cut the audio clip and shortened it to our last lyric at the end of the video. We expected our music video to be just a bit over a minute and with the song added, the music video came out about a minute and 8 seconds.

While we were editing the third, fifth, and sixth scene, Mariapaula and I did not like the way they played together. We also noticed one of the scenes wasn't filmed right. Also, when we had "finished" editing, the video came out only 58 seconds long. We had to figure out what was wrong with those scenes, and how to fix it; so we planned to reshoot them on December 1. When done reshooting, we imported the new footage which also made the video longer than a minute. Something we wanted to do with our music video was put together the lyrics to match with whats happening in the scenes. Mariapaula suggested scenes 5-7 to fit with the song, but it wouldn't have the start of Verse 2 to start with scene 8. But, we had to make Verse 2 to fit with the scenes after 8 because then the song would end correctly for the music video. We then added a few transitions in areas that suggested there was a new locations (cross-dissolve). We had finished the editing process and I exported the music video.

Refiliming Certain Scenes in Music Video

After reviewing our footage from the first time we filmed, we had noticed some mistakes. Firstly, in the scene where Juan is in the car, he is supposed to be getting out. When we filmed, I had told him to be getting in, when in the storyboard it was meant to be the opposite. Another thing wrong with that is that, to be getting out, he would be at his girlfriend’s house. When we originally filmed it, it was outside his lover’s house, so the setting was also incorrect. We also noticed that Mariapaula had left her eye drops in the scene of her crying in the back. As well as in the frost two scenes we couldn’t see her phone that well in general. This made it difficult to see the photos of her and Juan. I went to Key West for Thanksgiving break, so I was unable to film during the first few days (Tuesday-Thursday)

However, Mariapaula had already been planning to help Emily and her group with their music video. So she used the opportunity to ask them to help reshoot the first two scenes. As I wasn’t needed for this, it was easy for them to reshoot. When I got back on Thursday, we had planned to reshoot the next day but had to cancel because of personal problems. We then rescheduled for Sunday. When the day came, Juan had come over to my house and we waited for Mariapaula to pick us up. We drove to her house and filmed the scene where Juan gets out of the car. We had the car on neutral and told him to set it to parking and go to turn off the engine. As he was turning it off, he was to look at the flowers in the driver seat and we panned the camera to it. This scene took only about three or four takes.

Next, we wanted to add a scene of Juan "driving" back home. Juan is unable to drive so someone else had to do the driving. Since we were at Mariapaula's house and using he car, she did it. She was also her mom's daughter and the only one with a license. So, she drove the car out of the driveway and slightly down the street. When I started recording there had been a car in the way not moving. So we had to wait for them to move the car in order to record. After that, I had angled the camera to face the house from the left and across the street. I stood still as Mariapaula drove by and into the driveway. This scene was also pretty easy. It only took about two or three takes. After this scene, we were finished and reviewed all of the footage put together.