VIDEO EDITING//

I decided to edit my video in iMovie as it would be a quicker process, and I didn't need any intricate editing tools. I was only stiching my clips together and cropping them down to create the short edits which corresponded with the music. I already had the first 30 seconds from my first draft, but I decided I wanted to change the song. This required me to make some small tweaks so the edits tied in with the beat of the song. The music is key to creating the right atmosphere and vibe of the video. I wanted the video to come across as relaxed and enjoyable. So I chose two relativley low tempo songs. These were "Clams Casino - Realist Alive" and " Tycho - A walk". I chose to use both instrumentals, as I knew I wanted the songs to divide the piece in to two sections, I didnt want the words to disrupt this change over. Both songs had a mellow feel but with a clear bassline, this was important to me as this would emphasize my edits between clips. The Song choice was definitely influenced by the style of music which was played throughout "Aimless" I wanted a mellow instrumental which represents the freedom and release you get when you ride/skate.

When editing my footage, for the most part I reduced the background noise on the clips, apart from when the bike came close to the camera as I think the noise of the hub and the sound of the birds work really well along side the music. I used a variety of fades to acheive this and think it worked well, as the background noise never distracts you from the music.

I then begin to gather a rough plan of the order of footage, before I worked my way through cropping clips accordingly. I grouped certain clips together, for example the repeated grind on the ledge, as I think this emphasised the trick more, and would avoid the chance of it looking like I had filmed the same trick twice by accident. I was fairly confident with my intitial order of clips, but I had to make a few ammendments on the way. After the intitial worry of not having enough footage, I managed to add an extra 1:40 minutes on. Although the final film isn't aslong as I first planned, I am happy with it baring in mind the amount of problems I've had with arranging shoots, the weather and bike problems. I also think that at only 2:12 long, it is a perfect length to be played at my exhibition. As it's not too short that people won't notice it, but not so long that they get bored or walk away, so I think it worked out better than planned.

After I was happy with the order and editing. I decide to alter the colours of all the shots, for the most part they were fairly consistent so I could alter them all together to create the desired effect, but on the occasional clip, for example the shot of Joe opening his garage, I reduced the blue to make it match in with the other clips. I wanted my video to tie in with the rest of my final designs, so I decided to up the contrast slighlty and lower the saturation. This gave me the more neutral look which I have decided on in my other designs.

Once I was happy with the footage, I exported the clip at full 1080p from iMovie. I then imported it into premiere pro to allow me to put my opening graphics at the beginning and end. This was a simple task as I overlayed a JPEG at the start and end and then exported the final version. This was neccersary as I wanted to include this graphics so it would create a clear relationship between my designs and short film, but this feature was not availible in iMovie. I'm really happy with the way the graphics worked out, and think as well as creating a clear connection to my graphic work, it starts and finishes the video, to create a more complete feel to it.

Overall I enjoyed creating this video, I think this is partly down to my passion for BMX and enjoying just being out with friends and filming, and partly because of how flexible I was with the shoots and the editing process. I didn't tie myself down or make any deadlines with myself as there were to many variables which would have stopped me meeting them. If I had done it this way, I wouldnt have had the time to continue with my design work, and I dont think I wouldve been as pleased overall with the final outcome.

I did have some problems though with the final export. This was due to a variety of frame rates and other small export problems. This was due to me using two different editing softwares. My camera shoots at 20FPS, but iMovie converted this to 29FPS as a default. But then when moved into premiere, it recognised it at 20FPS, so when we exported at 29FPS, it started skipping and jumping. In the end I exported at 24fps and it seem to work fine.

I am still glad I did swap between the two, as this allowed me to work on the video at home, and made the overall editing process quicker due to iMovie being simpler and faster than premiere. In the end I managed to export my movie in 720p with no skips or pauses due to frame rate problems. I've decided to export the final film for the exhibition at a slightly lower quality. This is so that the computer wouldnt struggle to perform and becuase it is being projected on a standard definition projector, so we wouldn't see the full benefit of the 1080p.

If I had time to go back, there would be a few changes I would make, I would film some more moving shots, as I originally planned to include footage of Joe cycling to the skatepark, but this footage was too shaky as I was cycling along side him as I filmed. If  went back I would use a car and a tripod to get a smooth rolling shot of Joe as he cruised down the street. I would also do another shoot at the skate park to gather more footage, but due to weather and other limitations, this wasn't possible in the time I had.