Editing

We had a bit of a problem when sending the file back to Final Cut Pro from Color. When the footage got back to Final Cut Pro, There were a few clips that went missing and hadn't been colour graded. We then had to find the right clips and put them back into their places by looking at the original sequence and finding the correct clips. After we had sorted this out and all the sequence was back together, we had to colour grade those clips in Final Cut Pro which meant doing them separately. There were quite a few clips to do so this took up a bit of time. However we did get it done and the sequence was now all back together and colour graded making it look like a music video.

Colour grading

We new that our music video didn't quite look right for some reason and we decided it was because the colouring wasn't right and the scenes then seemed not to fit together as one music video. The powder paint fight was too grainy and didn't have enough contrast or brightness to it. The studio scene was just too dull and didn't fit with the powder paint fight scene, and the smashing plates and lip syncing needed their colour changing slightly and needed to be brightened up. We used the program 'color' to do the colour grading with which, when we first went onto it, we didn't have a clue what we were doing. We played around for a bit and eventually figured out how to do it but we had to do it clip by clip and with our music video having a lot of choppy shots in it, it meant being patient and taking time over it. We changed the colours, the contrast and the lighting and we then sent the sequence back to Final Cut Pro so that we could edit more if we needed too. The colour grading was what made the footage look like one whole music video and what made everything fit together in the end. This whole process was very successful.

Editing

Today, we finished the whole sequence so all the shots were in the right place and the music video made sense. This was quite a stressful day as we wanted to get the sequence done by the end of the day and we didn't know if we would be able to do it but we stuck to our schedule and we got it all done. We did not follow the storyboard completely because some of the shots just didn't work. However, I think the shots that we have done, have worked out for the better and the music video does look good. We all watched it through and we still thought there was something missing. It still didn't quite look right and this is when we started to colour grade.

Importing everything

We have now got to the stage of importing all of our footage so that absolutely everything is in Final Cut Pro. All of the powder paint footage and the studio footage is already up on Final Cut Pro but we just need to import the final bits including the smashing plates and the lip syncing. Once this is done we can finally start to edit it all together and finish the sequence and then we can finalize the sequence with the finishing touches.

Filming the smashing plates

We decided that the darkest place we would find that would be good for shooting this scene was in the photography's dark room. It was pitched black so we could use the spotlight on the camera which gave the same light as the other scenes we had shot (paint scene and studio scene). One of us stood on a chair while the other filmed and the one standing on the chair, dropped the plate from that height with a bit of powder paint on it so that it would link into the powder paint fight and so that there would be an explosion of powder paint when the plate hit the floor. This worked very well and we got some great shots from this filming session.

Second scene shoot

The shoot for the second scene went well and we got the shots that we wanted. We ran over time a bit and because we only had 2 hours it was quite a limited time that we had. This meant some of the shots weren't as up to scratch as they should have been. When we put the footage on the macs and onto final cut pro with the rest of the footage that we had edited, we thought it fitted alright with the rest of the powder paint scenes but we will defiantly have to colour grade it to make it fit with it more. The one thing we couldn't shoot was the smashing plates because we couldn't smash them at this studio that we had booked out. We have decided to shoot this scene in a dark room on a plain black floor. We will put powder paint on the plates so when they smash the powder paint flies up with it and when we put it in slow motion it should create a good effect.

Second scene location

We were not able to use the drama studio to shoot our second scene as it turned out not to be free at the time we wanted to use it. This gave us the idea to use a proper studio that we would have to pay for but would have better lighting to use and better facilities. We have decided to shoot the scene as if they are on set for a film so that you can actually see the big lights and all the equipment in the shot. This is what we sort of hope for it to look like...