Evaluation: Looking Back at First Cut

Evaluation of First Cut of Music Video

In reflection after creating the first cut of our music video we began to deconstruct the video according to three aspects:

-Pace

-Editing

-Shot framing and composition

In order to target and improve the video in accordance with the conventions of music videos.  We started by analysing the overall pace of the music video and realised that the first half of the video recognises and demonstrates the pace of the song far better than the second half. This is due to the temp of the song increasing. At 3:00 minutes in to the song the tempo increases, yet the current ratio of the cuts is (inside shots 64:48 outside shots) in order to meet the conventions of a music video the ration needs to in effect be the reverse of this and so to improve this aspect of the music video we must in cut in different angles and shots to match the temp for example when Jenny transitions from the room to the waterfall after this the duration of the shots are too long and thus we need to cut in other shots to create a pace that matches the tempo.

After which we began to analyse the edits of the video, this brought several issues to our attention. The first is that there is jarring between transitions and straight cuts this is partly due to technical issue on Final cut Pro that need to be corrected. Yet on some parts transitions have purposely not been added, yet this has caused jarring with in the video such as Amy and Jenny are walking along the bank at around 4:00minutes in and a straight cut is used amongst a sequence filled with cross fades, in order to change this to meet the conventions we need all transitions to run smoothly.

Secondly there is a break (at 1:54-1:58) where the music stops and Amy is seen to be looking away from the camera, however we fell this does not represent of moment of clarity among the two protagonists and so we have decided to use previously unused footage to create a moment of clarity that is suited to the video, where both Amy and Jenny look at the camera in a close up, to create a connection between the audience and the characters.

Following this we looked at the framing of shots and saw issues. At the moment when the waterfall first appears (2:32) the framing changes suddenly this is not a smooth transition and so to change this to meet with the conventions of music videos we must create a more accurate and effective transition that is appropriate. Finally we looked at the framing of many of the transitional shots and realised like the candle transitions at the start of the sequence they are poorly framed, other transition shots are not needed and so we fell cutting in to the video with different shots of Amy and Jenny would be more appropriate instead inappropriate shots that are badly saturated and slightly unrelated to the narrative of the video/song.

These changes will be made and used in the next cut of the video in order to better suit the video to the conventions of music videos for independent artists.