Editing my Video

I decided to choose my song before I started the edit so I could choose the best shots based on the energy of the video. As I chose quite a fast upbeat track I knew I wanted a variety of exciting dance moves like kicks and strong movements to cut to the beat to. My initial idea, I think, came out quite boring and I found myself starting again a few times. I knew how I wanted the video look but I was finding it difficult. To start with I looked through the footage that we filmed as a class and I collected shots that I wanted to use for the video. I put them out on the timeline randomly so I could use them when I needed. I then added my music to the time line so I would be able to get an idea of how long I needed my shots to be.

Once the music and shots were ready I started thinking about how to start the video. As the soundtrack has a rising pace, I wanted to make a short intro using a shaky camera shot and voices from the group setting up. The one I found displayed the dancers preparing to be filmed and getting into position, which was perfect as I wanted this introduction to seem natural. It also featured voices preparing the dancers to begin. After I edited the shot into the beginning of the song I realised that the songs drop wasn't until much further into the song meaning I would have to make a long introduction. As I did not want a long introduction I felt it necessary to edit the song. While trimming the beginning of the song I realised the song was also too long so I decided to edit the whole thing and make it shorter. To edit I first took the bar the song was along and used the razor tool to cut the song up based on what parts of the song I wanted to include.Then I just deleted the parts that didn't work and put the song together. I based whether the song would flow or not on the beats in the background of the song.

Now that the build up to the drop was earlier in the video I could make a better more energetic intro. In the next part I wanted to introduce the dancers with a medium shot/focus shift of them individually. After putting these in I wasn't sure what to do next. My first idea was to put different shots of them in their starting positions waiting for the songs drop before they began their dance. Then after the drop they would start the choreography in chronological order. 

However after creating the beginning of this I realised the video did not have the right energy that I needed so I scraped the video from the point of the focus shift shots and started again from there. My next idea was to use many different shots very fast paced during the build up, but then have it in chronological order again. After trying this I realised I liked the idea of the build up but the dance being in chronological order was the issue because the dancers choreography was not suitable for the track I'd chose and this is what gave me the idea to do a more abstract style video.