Music VideoConstruction

by: Khalid Daley

When starting to edit my music video, I had to use an Apple Mac Laptop, in which I stored all my footage in folder, so that it was easy

for me to access it.

To edit my music video, I had to use a program called ‘Final Cut Express’. Final Cut is a professional editing base where a lot of

professional music videos are edited and also how A2 Music Videos are edited.

This is what ‘Final Cut Express’ look like, once it was loaded. As you can see, there are different technical features that are required, when

producing the music video, in which as a student I was quite aware of what I needed to do and where I needed to put it.

Final Cut Express

Audio Tracks

Video Tracks

Opacity keyframing

Final Cut Tools

Motion keyframing

All these different tools are useful, as they require different sources that are needed or that are useful when producing a music

video.

Although the tools may seem quite complicated, after experimenting on Final Cut Express a few times, I found them quite easy to use, in

which I started to get familiar with the program itself.

These are all the technical features

Once Final Cut was up, I needed to get started with editing my music video, as I had to get it done by a specific deadline. In doing so, to get my footage onto the video track bar, I had to ‘File’ then ‘Import’ and then ‘Files’. In some cases, when I found doing this consistently, it was quite

exhausting so I put my folder (with footage in it) to the open space on the left hand side (next to the opening of ‘File’ on the bigger outlet of Final Cut Express).

Importing files, is something that must be done correctly, but can always be

done again if done wrong the first time. However, there are easier ways for you to access your footage, when trying to

put it on the ‘Video Track’, by importing the whole folder of where your footage

is stored, in which it will be in on the space, scene on the left. This made the process of accessing my footage a lot

quicker.

Once I clicked import my ‘Files’, the folder that had all my footage in it, showed the different clips that I could choose from, depending on if I wanted to use it or not in my music video. Once I had clicked on the clip I wanted to use in my music video, it would appear in the space on the left, in which I was able to drag it onto the ‘Video Track’. This made it easy for me to use a whole clip, or cut down so that I only use

the useful areas of my footage in my video

The area where all the footage is accessible, when clicking import ‘Files’. This is bigger version, as what is shown on the left, as I wanted to make it easier for you

to identify this through my explanation.

Without any sound, the music video would be incredibly pointless as the video focuses the main attention on the song, so that the audience are persuaded into buying it. In doing so, I had to put the track of my song on the ‘Audio Track’ so that I can keep of the video being played at the same

time as the song. I imported the song, the same way I imported my footage, in which it appeared in the space on the left.

The space on the left shows the folders that store all my footage (e.g. K.Daley, Folder 6 and Khalid Daley NEW!) and the track of ‘Ellie Goulding – Your Song’

(that I’m going to use in my video).

As you can identify from this image, I have started to edit my music video, in which I have also used some effects on my clips, so that it brings out the storyline more clearly for the audience. As there were pieces of footage, where there were scenes of the couple, being portrayed as a flashback, I needed to make this

black and white so that this portrayal was clear. In this case, I used an effect called ‘Gradient Colourize’ (although Gamma Correction may be highlighted, but this is a general mistake).

The ‘Gradient Colourize’ gave a black and white effect to my clip,

which linked to it being a flashback.

There are loads of varied and different effects that can be used on Final Cut, to

enhance the look of your clip/image.

To make my music video interesting and engaging, I wanted to use a lot of the transitions provided in Final Cut, so that it made the video more engaging and exciting for the audience, when they were watching it. Through doing research, I noticed that a lot of music videos used different transitions, as a way of showing a difference

between once scene and another scene. Transitions would also be used to show the fluency in the video, when camera cuts from once shot to another. In this case, I went into ‘Video Transitions’ and used the ‘Additive

Dissolve’ transition. This was the first transition I used in my music video, in which it made the changing of the scene look beautiful and simplistic as it was not overrated. I did use a lot of the same consistent transitions, as I

didn’t want it to draw too much attention away from the video, as that was the audience’s main focus. I will show other transitions that I used in my music video, and how this effect was used between to different

shots/scenes.

This shows the transition being used in my video. As you can see, there is a fade of scene being in

colour, fade into a different scene that is in black and white. This

evidently shows a beautiful contrast between the scenes, as it makes the shot look like it’s in the

season of autumn

Throughout my music video, you are able to see that this beautiful young lady playing the role of the music artist ‘Ellie Goulding’ (who is selling the song to the audience through the music video). These four different shots, show different camera angles needed to make the music video diverse in

it’s appearance. The season of my music video, was for it to be autumn, in which you can identify this through, the leaves, trees and field of grass (with leaves surrounding it). Although the young lady was mainly in the same costume, this reflected the narrative storyline being shown.

As I have mentioned before, I used quite a lot of the same video transitions in my music video as the song was mellow, in which I didn’t want the video transitions to be overrated as it wouldn’t go with the video, at all. Since I already explained about me using the ‘Additive Dissolve’ transition, another video

transition that I used was the ‘Cross Dissolve’ transition, as it showed a natural fading from one shot to another. This is evidently shown, as you can see from the images shown above. From looking at the image in left hand corner and the image in the right hand corner, you are able to see the transition effect of

there being loads of trees and leaves. This makes the video look peaceful and calm, in which this is how it suppose to be portrayed. From looking at the image under the image in the right hand corner, it shows another transition happening in the video. However the scenery of this transition is more beautiful, as

there is a beam of light coming from the sun, in which it shines upon the leaves, grass and flowers. This highlights the aspect of nature in my video. Next to that shows the ‘Cross Dissolve’ transition, in the ‘Video Transitions’ section.

As shown here on the left, there are a lot of transitions to

choose from. Unfortunately, the ‘Additive Dissolve’ and the ‘Cross Dissolve’ were the man transitions that I used for me video as they were the only

one’s that looked realistic and professional.

Although it may not seen varied, I was happy to use these two transitions throughout my

music video

There were a lot of areas of my music video, that I found quite challenging, due to the accuracy of cutting from one scene to the next and keeping the duration of the video in place, as I didn’t want to waste time on just experimenting with Final Cut Express. In this section, there was a lot of fast past editing, in which the cuts had to be sharp and accurate. To make sure I did this properly, I had to watch my clips on ‘QuickTime’ so that I could indentify what I was

going to use in my video and what I wasn’t going to use in my video, so that I could instantly cut out sections that I didn’t want. Doing the editing section, for the images above was very difficult, as I had to make sure that the lip-synching of the young lady was in time with the music and also that I showed the

different angled shots of the couple running away from each other (as though the young man is chasing after the young lady). I had difficulty doing this, as I wanted to show the continuation of the couple running, when the young lady would finish lip-synching a lyric from the song, but this was quite challenging as I had to make sure that I wasn’t repeating the same scene, as the audience would notice this, in which they may get confused or slightly bored of seeing the

exact same scene being repeated continuously. However, this was a success, as it showed continuous cuts of the couple running from two angles, which made it look extremely effective when watching it.

After I had finished doing that, I had to make sure that the shots of the couple were in black and white, as I was portraying it as though the ‘couple scenes’ were flashbacks. In doing so, I had to put the ‘Gradient Colourize’ effect on the shots, then render them. This showed an in-depth awareness of how detailed

the flashback is for this young lady and how she enjoyed the relationship she had with her boyfriend.

*HINT*: Always know what clips you want to definitely use in your music video, as it’s easier and less time consuming. Also when trying to edit scenes that requite a lot of cuts, make sure that the cuts are correct and that the scenes aren’t being repeated. Although it took me a while to edit this

section, due to the fast pace of the cuts, the result came out extremely great, in which I am very happy with how it turned out.

This was another area of the music video that I found difficult to edit, reason being was because the scene that I was editing had to start and end at a certain point in the song. I also wanted this edited section to get with the rhythm of the song, meaning that the cuts from different angled shots would have to be clean and accurate, although it would still have maintain the narrative storyline, otherwise the audience wouldn’t understand why that scene was put into

the video. This scene shows, black and white image of her and boyfriend in love, in which the black and white images represent the relationship being in the past, which also identifies the portrayal of the young lady looking at the past. I filmed this section from loads of different angles, so that I had a variety of

footage to work with and also so that the music video would look effective through the editing of different angles, that give different views from the eyes of a viewer/audience member. In this scene, the young lady didn’t need to lip-synch whatsoever, as this scene was mainly focusing on the acting and the

narrative storyline that was being portrayed by the acting of the young lady and the props identify in the shots.When finishing editing the scene and looking back at it as a whole, I was really pleased with it, because it showed a difference between the scene of the

couple running in the park (the young lady being chased by her boyfriend).

Editing this scene wasn’t as difficult as editing the scene of the young couple running in the park, however it was hard to get the accuracy on point to portray the storyline in the right way.

This is another one of the scenes that I blended in with the young lady lip-synching to the song. The editing of this was a lot easier, however it was quite hard to get the timing of each of the two shots on point, as it wouldn’t make sense if they were out on sync. This shows the young lady closing the box, where she put her images of her and her boyfriend in. The two shots show the box being closed from one angle, in which the camera is inside the box and it is facing upwards to show it being covered by the lid of the box. It then shows the closing of the box, from another angle, in which the angle is a mid-shot and it shows the box lid being covered on the box. With both of these shots, it makes it more effective and can be more engaging for the audience, as from seeing it from different angles can vary the quality of how much effort has gone into editing the video.

This is one of the scenes that I blended in with the young lady lip-synching to the song. This scene is mainly featured near towards the end of the song, as the lyrics get a lot more sadder. In this case, it shows the featured girl putting her images (of her and her boyfriend) in a box, as a sign of moving on from the break-up/the past. The editing for this is extremely clever, as it shows the young lady looking at an image of herself and her boyfriend, in which she drops it into the box (which is shown from another angle, and it shows it in the box from another angle. All of this is done accurately, quickly and sharply when watching it all together.

Filming a scene, from different angles can look very effective when editing, as it shows the

variation in camera angles and camera shots. A lesson I learnt from doing this, was that I had to be aware that when I did scenes from different angles, I had to do the exact same thing when

repeated so that it was accurate, otherwise the audience/viewer would be aware of major

mistakes in the video, and this could effect the views of a music video.

As seen on the left, I featured the young lady playing the piano at the beginning of the music video. Although these images, aren’t the finalised ones, I was absolutely definite that I wanted the young lady to play the piano at the beginning of the music video, as I thought it would be effective, since the track of the music has a piano instrumental at the start.

These are the shots of the young lady, playing

the piano at the beginning of the music

video. Accuracy was key, so that it looked

realistic when the young lady was playing the piano at the same

time as the track.

As seen on the left, it shows the young lady and her boyfriend sharing a kiss in the park. As you can identify, there is a white light that is fading into the scenery/shot , in which it makes it look amazingly effective, with the shot being in black and white and also it shows a sign of something special happening in the relationship.

By making the white light fade into the black and white

scenery, I had to use the ‘Cross Dissolve’ transition for this to happen as the white

light, was another people of footage that

was separate.

*HINT*: Something that I learnt throughout editing my music video, is to keep on planning ahead of when to film, what to film, what to edit and what tp take out, as it is better and easier to have an idea of what you want the music video to look like.

In music videos there is always a little caption that gives the artists’ name, song, record label and director of the music video. In this case, I did the exact same thing (shown above) in which I did it in a way that was simplistic as the music video was not overrated.

This is where, I was able to create the text to put at the beginning and end of my music

video. I found this easy to do.

This is at the end of the music video, where the young lady ahs finished playing the track of the song. In this case, I did it from two different camera angles of the young lady finishing playing the piano and walking away from the piano. I thought this was be logical, reason being was because I thought it would evidently show that the video has ended. From doing it at two different angles, it almost shows the imagery from two different perspectives,

in which I believe that the accuracy of it, is brilliant. Also something that is noticeable is that you are able to see the caption that gives detail of the artists’ name, song, record label and director of the music video. This is evidently visible for the audience/viewers which also shows the that video has

ended, in which it gives the audience time to reflect upon the storyline.