Editing Our Music Video

Throughout our music video we aimed to include as many shots and angles that related and connoted the scenes and the emotions that the scenes were aiming to portray. Through the editing stages we was able to further develop these emotions through the use of overt and covert editing techniques.

The opening shot instantly connotes the protagonist's difficulties, we created this concept firstly by having him on the bench but further expressed it during the editing process by putting a vignette mask over the shot, this makes the shot extremely dark and also by making all of the corners dark it isolates the character from the rest of the world. This also allows for the use of Barthes' enigma theory as audiences will want to know how and why the character has ended up this way.

When editing the transitions into flashbacks we used a cross dissolve which emphasises the connotation of the characters dreariness as it continues on with the slow movements and thoughts. We further emphasise that the character is having a flashback/continuation of his dream whilst he wakes up by using a dream filter. The dream filter links to Levi-Strauss' binary opposites theory as it is a direct contrast to the vignette filter as it brightens the shot and this helps to connote that the character is dreaming of better times.

In numerous sequences we used match on action shots in order to allow our music video to flow. We often increased the amount of match on action shots within a certain sequence in order to stay synchronous with the music.

During the performance shots of the band we used a black and white filter, added during editing,  one reason why we chose this is that it differentiates the performance shots from the narrative shots. As well as this the room we were shooting in was quite bright, so by using a black and white filter we could better connote the negative meaning behind the lyrics. When deciding which performance shots to use, we chose quite a few close ups of the band playing their instruments, not only to suit the stereotype of the genres music videos, but listening to the feedback from our focus group/questionnaire suggests that audiences wanted to view solo's/instrumentals during music videos. 

During some of the flashback shots which signify the characters arguing we decided to use a desert glare filter. We chose to use this filter because it uses a slight red colourisation, We thought that this would be effective due to the fact that red can be a connotation of anger and fury, but equally it can also be seen as a connotation of love, therefore I think that this is a key shot due to the fact that it connotes both sides of the characters emotions, adding to the audiences personal relationships with them and Blumler and Katz theory.

Our music video starts with a slow motion shot of the protagonist on the park bench, the slow motion is synchronous with the slow introduction to the song 'How you remind me' by Nickelback. By using slow motion over the shot we can connote that the character is weak and dreary following the fact that he may have possibly woken up this way for a few mornings prior, this can further connote that he is extremely troubled and i believe its good that we deliver this message to the audience as soon as possible.

We specifically used the bar scene around the 40 second mark due to the fact that this allows us to use Andrew Goodwin's theory as the protagonist slams the shot glass down on each syllable of the lyric "every bottle". This links to the theory as the lyrics are synchronous with the narrative. We chose not to use a filter over the bar scenes due to the facts that the colours in the bar were saturated, connoting the characters intoxication, which also has the inter-textual reference and inspiration of the film Limitless.

In this shot we used a cross fade in order to speed up the transition of the female character walking down the slope and being held by the male protagonist. This helped to reduce the length of the shot and to keep this part of the music video quite fast paced. We thought that the tree's provided the right amount of natural lighting so there was no need to put a filter over this shot.

We used a vignette mask over this shot due to the fact that the windows were reflecting quite a lot of light, therefore making the shot desaturated, denoting the darker moments in the relationship of the two characters. As well as this the cameraman was reflected in the windows so we decided to crop the shot and use a very slight vignette mask in order to cut him out of the shot.

The blue markers in this montage shot connote the points in which the vocalist says 'yeah' and 'no', we decided that during this sequence we would use a jump cut each time the character said the words in order to keep the video footage synchronous with the music. As well as this, this has the effect of keeping the desired fast pace.

We ended the music video with a fade to black transition fading out from the man holding his arms up in disbelief that the woman has walked away from him. There is a message in our final scenes as both of the characters are seen walking away from their problems, the man walks away from alcohol and the woman wakes away from the man.