Music Video ConstructionMusic Video Construction

Farzana BegumFarzana Begum

The program I used to edit my music video was called ‘Final Cut Express’, I used this program other than the other mainly because this program has made my video look profession as possible and I used an apple mac laptop were this program was placed. This program has all the special effects and video transitions that programs such as Movie Maker does not have. So as you can see, I am just opening up Final Cut, where I have edited the footage for my music video for the past few weeks.

As I opened Final Cut I clicked on my documents to get all my footage that i had recorded over the last few weeks, As a result all the footage came on the left side of the screen. As you can also see when looking at the bottom, you will find a time line that specifies the footage along with the transitions and audio underneath, this is mainly to keep a track of how far i have created my music video, and what footage i have put onto the timeline. There’s also ways were u can cut the footage to make it look right. On the right you will see numerous buttons and options which allows you to edit the footage to make it look better and professional.

STEP 1.

In order to put my footage on the timeline, I had to drag the piece of footage I wanted as the start of my music video onto the timeline, after I had to put the footage on the timeline, I played that clip to see how it looked and to ensure it was the right clip. However, half of that clip I did not like therefore I dragged the clip from my right side and cut to the part I didn’t want as part of my music video and saved it.

STEP 2.

After I put the footage on the timeline, I had to render it enable to play it, I did this by going on sequence, then going on render and then clicking needs render. I know my footage needs rending because on top of my footage, there is a red line to show that symbolizes that it needs to be rendered, I know its rendering because a information box pops up on the screen which says writing video, it also shows how long its going to take to render. I had to render my music video the whole way through, this is to ensure that its finalized, however i can still undo any mistakes or anything I don’t want just by going on file and clicking undo.

STEP 3.

After this, I had to put the audio onto the timeline as you can see that there are two separate timelines, which one is for the footage and the other is for the audio, therefore I put audio which was ‘Beyonce - Best thing i never had’, To get the audio onto my timeline, I had to go to www.youtube.com and typed in the song I wanted, then I went on a program which allowed me to download the song. However i realized that the song i downloaded was 4:30 seconds long which was too long as my limit was only 3:30 so I had cut the song to the right time, which was very difficult to do, but as a result I succeeded as i used the effects to fade out the song, I did this by going on effects then clicking on audio transitions and I used the effect cross fade, which gave me a nice fade onto the audio which made it sound like I didn’t cut the song which made it sound professional and realistic.

STEP 4.

After sorting the out the audio, I started adding effects to the first footage that I already edited, I did this by going on effects and clicking default - cross dissolve, the reason I choose this effect is mainly because it gives a soft effect which makes it look abundant and professional as it is the start of the video, I needed it to look effective so it could excite my audience to watch the rest.

As you can see on the left screen there is writing on the left hand corner, I did this by clicking a small box which says ‘A’ and entered the text, which i had then dragged to the time line. After this I had then clicked on the window frame below and clicked on image, which I altered, making the text smaller and placed this in the corner of the video.

STEP 5.

After this, I included a transition so that the credits will fade out of the shot. I did this by clicking on effects in the corner and selecting the folder with dissolves which are under the video transitions. I then selected the ‘Fade in Fade out‘ and dragged it to the area i wanted it. Finally I rendered the clip/transition by clicking Cmd and R, resulting in a smooth of the credits.

I then carried on editing my next footage, to make it easier for me, I added numerous clips on the timeline and rendered it to see how it looked, this did not effect anything as i could undo anything i wanted to change. The shots I liked I put them to together and then applied effects by dragging it on the clip, or you can highlight the clip and click on the effect. After this, i had to render the selected clip, giving me this effect once more.

STEP 6.

STEP 7.

Here you can see many clips of the first part of my 30 seconds of the video, these were little 5 seconds clip which i put together, I did this by joining all the clips together, to make it seem professional enough I cut the footage, I did this by clicking onto the clip and dragging it to the left. I also used video transitions on each footage, and I did this by clicking on effects, video transitions dissolve and then I decided to use the transition called ‘Fade in Fade out dissolve’ I used this effect out of the other mainly because it gives a good dissolve effect which goes into the next clip.

STEP 8.

This is a footage of my artist lip syncing, in this footage I wanted to add some effect onto the clip in order for it to attract my target audience, this is why at this footage my artist is interacting and looking straight at the camera and singing. To add the certain effect I had to click on effects and used video filters and decided to use the effect ‘Soft Edges‘ mainly because it gave a nice soft edge with a tint of black as a boarder, after I dragged it on to the desired clip, and pressed Cmd, R to allow it render.

STEP 9.

I was now on the stage where I started including my flashback scenes onto the timeline, I did this by dragging the footage onto the timeline and clicking play, however the one problem was that my first flashback was too long and i didn’t want to bore my audience, therefore I decided to cut the flashback into 5/10 seconds flashback each and putting another footage of my artist singing in between, and as many RnB music videos today have a smooth flow, I wanted something similar as this means I am following the right codes and conventions for my music video to be a hit, so I decided to drag a transition in between every flashback and lip syncing scene, which then I had to render and as you can see from the print screen above I used the effect called ‘addictive dissolve’ because it gave me a smooth flow to the next clip. Lastly to make it look as a flashback I had to change the footage into ‘Black and White’ and this symbolize that its a clip from the past.

STEP 1O.

This is another flashback that I uploaded onto my timeline, same again as the other flashback I cut the scene into little footage's and put another clip in between, as this is to ensure that my target audience do not get bored. As you can see I also I changed the color of that particular scene, this is mainly to show that its a footage from the past. I did this by going on video filters and clicking on effects, and choose ‘Black and White’, this will also make my music video interesting and eye catching as the scenes color's changes, instead of it being one color. Also I added an video transition called ‘cross dissolve’ I did this by going onto video transitions, this is to give a smooth effect onto the next clip.

I was now on the part where I was half done, as you can see this clip is in normal color, this is to show that my artist is out of her flashback and into reality. This was a 5 second footage and I didn’t need any editing on it, this is simply because the camera did all the editing for me, I started the camera at the start of the sofa, and used slow motion and dragged the camera slowly onto my artist and held it there. However I did added double video transition, this is because I wanted a fast move to the next clip. I did this by dragging the transition on to both ends of the clip, and then allowed it to render.

STEP 11.

This is the next clip that I put onto my timeline, and as you can see the double video transition to give that extra effect which make it unique and attractive. I also the reason I used so many transitions because i wanted it to overpower the certain clip which made it look effective. This is the part where the camera zooms in and out onto her ring to show that she is about to leave the ring and go. This shot highlights her new profound courage in walking away from her husband and getting what she really deserves.

As you can see , in this shot her face in towards the camera, this is to show and symbolize that she has said goodbye to everything she shared with her husband and she’s ready to walk away. However, this footage was rotated on the side, which wasn’t the rotation I wanted, so I had to rotate it the right way, i did this by clicking on stereo and clicked on level, however this did not work, therefore I clicked on motion and played around with the right rotation I wanted.

STEP 12.

This shoot shows the ring that she has left, showing that she ends every relationship. I wanted to add effect to the part where my artist leave the ring and leaves, however I chose not too because I did not want to an obvious effect, therefore I just left it natural. Unfortunately I found it difficult to film this part as the rings wouldn’t stay together. Yet still, after trial and error I managed to get a good enough shot. I then imported the slips on to final cut and added them onto the timeline, I then added a non addictive onto the clip so it gave me a dissolve effect to the next footage, this made it effective and contrasts to the smooth flow though out the whole music video, making this one the most memorable scenes within the music video.

As you can see, there is a video transition added, to make it smoothly go onto the next clip, I did this with three other footage’s before this, this is too show that the husband can’t believe what his wife has done, and can’t get his head around what went wrong in their married relationship, it kind of gives a dizzy effect, meaning that his head is spinning because he cannot face the truth. Therefore i used video filters to show this.

STEP 14.

Lastly, you can see that I have added yet more credits towards the end of the music video, as this is a typical convention associated music video, I has written theses words within Photoshop that were then saved as a JPEG and imported in to Final Cut. This, then added on top of the footage and added a transition in order to fade it in to the next clip. However as the music stops, it makes my target audience to think that the music video is finished although it hasn’t, this low key lighting makes the artist look even more domineering to see what the next clip is. into a black background to show that its the end of the music video, giving it a really good effect, and then the credits slowly fade in too by dissolving at the end, making the husband realize his wife was the best thing he never had.

The End.