Editing; Wake Up - music video

For our first edit we decided to use some footage we took last semester when we spent a day trying out the cameras. We had the idea to shoot a music video to make things a bit more fun for our first attempt. In the morning we shot in the TV studio on campus and in the afternoon we went out on location to the beach in Weston and in town shooting on the high street. Since we had two cameras for the day one camera took some cut way shots on the beach while the other was filming in town, it was a great way to get two completely different perspectives and techniques. So using the footage later as an edit was interesting because the time break had given me a completely different vision for the piece. I actually had about three different versions on the go at the same time, just to see where they would go. In the end the one I settled on was the more simple of the three. I used some repetition, using the same shot several times to mimic musical motif's in the song.

http://www.myspace.com/samsimmonds 

I recorded 'Wake Up'  a couple of years ago now and has several different mixes, and is actually being remixed right now by LA based Groovejunkies for release through the Morehouse label some time this year. 

http://www.myspace.com/morehouserecords

So it was a wonderful opportunity to play with the images for the track.

I haven't been using Final Cut for very long, so I was a little nervous to start with, but I think being thrown into it was a great learning curve for me. I can see now what I would change of course, but at the time I had a more limited knowledge and very little experience with Final Cut. I wanted to use as much of the footage we shot as possible while maintaining a connection to the music. But I know I could have improved on my cut if I had made smoother transitions between edits and worked harder on the rhythm  of the piece.