I’m a person who’d keep herself engaged towards the Production roles in any film making kind of project, as I am able to act that role out more comfortably and professionally. I think the eager, less trained artist inside me is somewhat shy with the idea of getting exposed with a lot more than I could absorb. I’ve done very minor editing work so far, and lacking grip on the video editing software “Final Cut Pro“, it became a a full fledged challenge for me. I didn’t have a Mac PC, and the “Adobe Premier” software I had on my laptop was making the files crash. So, Uni Mac PC’s were the only hope to get through with the project successfully.
I learnt through this assignment, about the complexity of data sharing from a windows supported hard drive, which might allow you to copy stuff to Mac, but it won’t support you to save something from Mac back in the hard drive. The Cherry to top it all is that, what you access from RMIT account on one Mac wouldn’t be available on the other. And you’re going to loose all your work, if accidentally you are logged out of your uni account. I had to the rough cut for three times, before I could take it any step ahead. The third time it was because of a Mac PC which stopped responding to Final Cut Pro all together. The IT department was contacted and none of us could resolve it, hence, the third shift.
I knew I had no option but to complete the project in one sitting, because I just couldn’t risk anything this time. For me editing this project was fun as well as a lot of trouble, because I’ve said too long in RMIT, and this addictive task, didn’t let me have a break for hours and hours, as my eyes were synced with the timeline, looking into every minor detail and following every little second, to ensure a quality outcome and to avoid any potential troubles.
Final Cut Pro is quite a complex software, with a few features easier to get hold of while the others kept my curious. However, I always recommend Final Cut PRO over Adobe Premier, as the output quality after rendering is far better of a video edited through Final Cut Pro than Adobe.
The theme I took in consideration for this project was “Impact”. After completing my online research to get hold of some nice B Roll and copyright free images, I came across Beachfront B-roll and a few videos readily clicked me,
1: Banana Ripening Stock Footage
2: Fire Department 2
3: Clothes Pin
4: Pile of Leaves
and I remembered having a personally done project with friends back in Pakistan, that I decided to use for this assessment as well and play around with all these resources at hand in a way that it leaves a strong impression on the viewer.
The music used in the video was by
1: Purple Planet: http://www.purple-planet.com/light/4583971320
Song Name: Light
2: Audio Nautix : http://audionautix.com/index.php
Song Name: Pensive Piano
3. Scary sound: http://soundbible.com/1814-Scary.html
Take a look at the editing sequence – SHIFT
Now you can see a pattern of B roll footage through out the video, initially somewhat slow paced but eventually they lead up to the event by the speed added to the clip which served the purpose of a transition, as well as adding to the tension that is intended to build up through out the video. This helped in supporting the theme by the intensity growing. The task was a great way of pushing me towards exploring different editing techniques and exploring the possibilities of creating something different. Also, the individuality criteria explains a lot that how important it is for us to grab practical concepts, even if we’re not editor, it helps in the supervisory role in long run.
I personally had a lot of fun doing the editing project, YES! regardless of going through so much trouble, I was curious to get hold of the end product and for an amateur and not very confident editor, this seemed like a kick start. Interesting montages and videos are observed in the social media world where digital mixing of copyright free material has enabled artists to produce amazing creations.. In the research paper “A Taxonomy of Digital Video Remixing: Contemporary Found Footage Practice on the Internet “, the author, Eli Howartt says
I argue that this practice of moving image appropriation on the Internet, called digital
remixing, represents a continuation in the development of the strategies and techniques of
found footage film making but possesses its own unique aesthetic and rhetorical
contributions.
I hope you guys enjoyed the video. Looking forward to your feedback. I would very much love to know what your version of understanding of the video is. Was there a strong element of impact through my editing?
Life as I Experience.... 