Post-Production: Editing

 This part of my blog will detail the editing process done by Regine

Plan and Outline (as a to do list):

1. Selection & Compilation + Grouping of Footage  

2. Software

3. Combining Clips with the song = Rough Draft

4. Feedback (Audience and Teacher)

5. Execute Revisions

6. Feedback part 2 (Teacher)

7. Execute Revisions

8. Colour grading

9. Added Effects

Selection & Compilation + Grouping of Footage 

Since my group and I had done multiple takes, I had to do the time-consuming job of watching nearly all the footage to find the correct one. This was especially important in the multicam shots where I had to find the single take we took through different angles to ensure the movement remained the same. Although we were warned to use a clapboard to know which footage was which, we found the technique to be difficult in some cases where the writing was not clear to the camera no matter what we tried or that it didn’t work for multicam shots where each of us were in different positions and we did not have an extra hand to hold a diy clapboard. In the end, we decided to leave it out. Instead we would review our footage together, delete failed ones (unless still salvageable) and then upload them to our shared drive. This way, it narrowed down the amount of footage there was for me which reduced the amount of time I spent going through them. Although the process seemed a lot, I truthfully found it easy. Often, I looked for the latest or second latest uploaded footage of a scene as it's likely the best shots and why we choose to stop filming a scene. While the rest of the scenes, I had chosen carefully by process of elimination- evaluating acting, lighting, camera angle/movement to eliminate any footage with noticeable mistakes.

Because of my team’s file organisation on google drive, I was able to compile all the scenes swiftly. I simply had to download it into the correct folder in my laptop. The file organisation on my laptop was similar to the organisation I had with my team where a single folder was dedicated to the entire project and within it, was more folders that included the footage and which scene they belonged to, the music itself, and the project file. This allowed my importing/searching of footage to be easier because the segmentation prevented me from having to comb out each footage if I was looking for one. 

Software

To edit the music videos, I chose to use Adobe Premiere Pro 2025, a timeline-based, non-linear video editing software application by Adobe. Although I had no prior knowledge on Adobe Premiere Pro, I had chosen it as my editing software because a friend had recommended it to me for its available features that didn’t require a secondary app like high quality exporting, colour grading, effects, etc.

I had used this tutorial to grasp the basics of the software. I have some familiarity with editing apps in general like Adobe After Effects and Capcut so I got comfortable with Premiere quickly and didn’t need much time to adapt. After that, I imported my scenes, added the music, and began to combine all the clips into a rough draft.

Combining Clips with the song & making the Rough Draft

Markers

I had used markers to pinpoint where certain beats were. This was important in helping me make sure the clips were cut/followed along with the beat which made the video more rhythmic and satisfying to watch and listen to. Using the markers allowed me to snap my clip duration to the markers rather than guessing where to stop, which made the jumpcut scene much easier to execute.

Jumpcut scene

The jumpcut shot we took was taken without a tripod and by using different takes than one singular take. This was an unintentional mistake by our team since neither of us had a tripod at hand and tried to improvise by just keeping in position and staying as still as possible. However, I still have the job to make sure the composition of each frame is as close as possible. I did this by marking a single stationary point (such as the piano and table) and adjusted my footage based on that point. This process took quite a while since I wanted it to be as seamless as possible, however I think the result was worth the time put into it.

Aspect Ratio Change

A characteristic of old cameras was their 5:4 aspect ratio instead of our now common ratio of 16:9. I wanted to implement this into our childhood footages scene to really sell the realism of old cameras being used in the music video. To do this, I simply took two rectangles (graphics layer) and added them to each vertical ends for the videos within the childhood montage.

Multicam Syncing 

My team and I used the multi-cam technique on 2 occasions; on both stage and beach performances. Since a clapboard was not available for us to use, we used an alternative by clapping in hopes of causing a spike in the audio that's identifiable. Unfortunately when I was in the post-production stage, I saw that the soundwaves of the videos were not loud enough to be able to catch the clap. This was likely due to the distance between each camera was different to the the clapper, on top of the fact that the room was extremely echoey. This was also the case for the beach performance as the atmospheric sounds (like wind, people, the ocean, etc) drowned out the noise of the clap.

 

Since there was no other way to combat this issue because we already finished filming, I decided to power through it and synced it manually. Although it took much more time than using a clapboard, it wasn’t too difficult to watch for visual indicators which was often body movement as well as listening closely to the song playing in the background of the videos and sync it with the actual soundtrack. There were generally no issues to me during this process other than a minor instance of not being able to make out the words being sung, which confused me on whether or not it was synced to the music.

Feedback (Audience and Teacher)

I made the first ever draft to send to my teacher to get his feedback. You can watch the draft through this link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13zxYsOspH_jBtg38i4zicwVlhZIFl3-V/view

During the time we were supposed to have a feedback session, I fell ill so I didn't receive the feedback directly but instead, my teammates collected the feedback. Here are the problems my teacher found:

1. The first clip (0:00-0:11) does not connect with the following scenes, since it does not show her going to her house. It's better to remove it completely or replace it with another scene. Our teacher suggested a scene of the flowers floating in the water might be a good fit as it would connect the start of the music video to the end.

2. There are some errors (00:52) with the ratios of the childhood videos

3. Decide on whether to leave or include the original sound of the childhood videos since there was only one video that included its original audio.

4. The colour and quality of the camera changes between two scenes (from 01:31 to 01.33). My teacher suggested to colour grade them so they have the same colour and tones 

5. There seemed to be a mistake in the audio and video syncing in one of the stage performances

6. The transition from the hand that was lifted in the stage to the beach needs a few changes:

• My teacher suggested rather than transitioning a tilt camera movement to a static shot of the beach, shoot a scene with similar camera movement 

• My teacher specifically suggested tilting downwards to the sand and then tilting upwards to show a long shot of vina walking on the beach. He provided my friends with a drawing to explain this.

• He also suggested we shoot her from different POVs like from the back, the side, and the front.

7. My teammates have been discussing the use of voice note conversations to add as background noise to the music video. Cheryl had made phrases and sentences and borrowed the voice of her moms’ friend. After receiving the voiceovers, I edited them into the music video. 

Execute Revisions

1. I approached my team to think about a solution to the introduction being unfit. We originally discussed a scene of our artist taking the bus however since the bus in Bali stopped running on January 1st of 2025, we discussed alternatives such as walking home. We decided to take time to shoot this scene afterschool. However I did not end up liking the walking home scene because it felt too plain and didn’t bring more to the story we were trying to tell so I tried my teacher’s other suggestion on the floating flowers. 

Insert video

I think the flowers worked well in connecting the whole music video together by foreshadowing the end at the beginning. It also acts as a hermeneutic code as viewers might be curious as to why there were flowers and what they symbolise. 

2. The errors were fixed and I had added and changed the arrangement of the video to look more chronological and show the artist growing up

3. Our teacher and my teammates said it would be better to leave out the audio of the childhood footages so the focus would be on the videos. On Top of that, a lot of the footage was of playing piano so the music playing would clash with the soundtrack. With those comments, I decided to leave the audio out.

4. I attempted to match the colours and quality between the videos but ultimately found it too difficult since the beach performance that Aurel had filmed with her camera was extremely overexposed. I watched this video as a fix.

   
   

Although I was able to bring down the exposure, there was a second problem with the oversaturated yellow that did not match the other scenes. I tried to cancel out the yellows by playing with the temperature and colour wheels to add more blue that would cancel out the yellow. However, I could not strike a balance between the colours and the actress would just end up too blue or too yellow. So I made the choice to leave out the videos she recorded and replaced it with a b-roll footage.

5. I rewatched the performance scene and made sure to pay attention so that the singing and music is synced.

6. The static shot of the beach was changed and followed with a matching movement that would transition the artist from the stage to the beach.

7. I thought the use of multiple voiceovers was excessive so I suggested to my team to keep one. We took quick vote and ended up keeping the last voiceover but lowered the volume. During this, I had also added reverb to the audio to make it more echoey.

   
   

Feedback part 2 (Teacher)

After a few changes, I went back to ask my teacher for more feedback. Here are all the suggestions he mentioned:

1. My teacher mentioned beginning with a black screen and adding a fade in to the beginning shot

2. The light switch scene should have the lights turn on when the soundtrack says “Hey [..]” as it is a crucial moment where the song begins (or where the lyrics start) while the lightswitch was a moment where the story begins.

   
   

3. Minor fixes to the duration of clips to ensure they cut to the beat for the beginning scenes with all the childhood photos

4. Changes need to be made on the phone screen scene because it is currently unreadable, which would make the scene pointless as the audience won't be able to catch on to the information in that scene and thus miss a big part of the story. My teacher suggested a single message rather than a conversation that pops up as a notification. He also added that we could have the background of the phone that receives the notification to be a wallpaper of the artist and her mom. 

5. My teacher suggested changing the order of the note scene where it begins with the artist looking at a note and then going in to reveal what the note says rather than vice versa. 

6. Ensuring continuity at the end where the artist walking into the water must end with her stopping as the following scene was of the artist standing still. This also applies to the floating flower scene at the end. My teacher suggested letting the flowers float more after being released from the hand before moving to the next scene.

Execute Revisions

1. A fade in and out was easily added with the help of a feature called “Apply Default Transition.” When hovering over the start/end of a sequence/shot, right-clicking would access this tab. Then I simply adjusted the duration of the cross dissolve transition to my liking.

2. Fixes regarding the timing, duration to match the beat of the music or sequence of a shot/scene was done quick and easily without little to no hassle.

3. The phone screen scene was roughly 4 seconds long so I didn’t require my whole team to be involved for this. I reshot the scene at home using my phone as the receiver and my mom’s phone as the camera. I had asked Cheryl to temporarily remove her profile picture as well as renaming her contact to Mama with a heart. I prepared a message for her to send and gave her instructions to send it within the next 5 seconds so I could have time to prepare the camera. This process was short and took roughly less than 10 minutes to do. 

Colour grading

Before diving into colour grading, I did believe it was important for me to understand colour theory so I watched a simple and short video to explain it.

This video gave me the foundational knowledge colour theory which could help in balancing the colours in scenes.

I then went to watch a more specific video on how to colour grade on my software. I used this video.

When colour grading, I wanted to really consider how the colour of the current scene is going to affect the audience's emotions. So I opted to a more desaturated, grey look at the beginning of the story to emphasize the boringness and blandness of this stage of the artist's life. After discovering the box’s content and reigniting her passion to start up music again, I would increase the warmth and saturation of the scenes to build a sense of rediscovery of self and interests in a hopeful and inspiring manner. By the end, I intended for audiences to truly feel the energetic and lively atmosphere that's almost reminiscent of the feeling of freedom so I choose to push the blues in the end scenes and increase the saturation to bring out the vibrancy of the blues.

Added Effects

Getting that vintage, retro effect for the recreation of childhood videos was extremely important to be right inorder to be believable when mixed with actual childhood videos. When I had looked up examples of old digital camera examples on Pinterest, I found the common traits of these pictures were bloom and noise.

Bloom refers to an effect when light extends past the borders of bright area in an image which causes a bright light dispersion that gives the photograph a dreamy look and nostalgic feeling. While noise is said to be the undesired fluctuations of color or luminance that often disrupts and hides the detail of an image. 

 

To copy this look on my footages, I looked into 2 tutorials which were fairly easy to replicate and gave me the results I was looking for.

By using a feature that blurs a certain colour channel, I could make my childhood videos seem glowy. i followed the steps by adding in an adjustment layer to place the effect on.

By adding grain, my footages looked more authentic as if it was really taken from the past.

Other edits I made were to increase the sharpness of the scenes (commonly found in VHS tapes which I considered following but crossed it out when I figured camcorders were too old for the artist’s generation), added a faded film effect that lightened the footage to look older/worn out and a touch of vibrancy.

Self-Reflection:

• Although I was not able to help much, when I did, I helped by reminding Regine details she may have missed (such as including the voice note of the star's mother talking and by giving her the feedback she needs (such as which clip may suit better in certain parts.

Production: Behind the Scenes

This is our blog to show the behind the scenes of the production of the music video. We did this blog as a group.

Date	23/12/2024
Scene	Childhood footages recreation for pre-chorus 1
Pictures
Challenges	We had no mother actor to display the mother and daughter relationship. Originally, we planned to shoot these recreation scenes at our star actor’s house as it would match the “childhood home” decor that we were going for. However because this was done during our semester break, our star actor was out of town meaning that we could not use her house. For clips inside the house, because we had to use 2 different houses, we had to find areas in Cheryl’s house that could look similar to our star actor’s house as that would be our main location for the upcoming scenes. This was difficult as the design of both houses are really different.  Had to make sure each time that none of us accidentally appeared in the frame as we were all always together in that one specific area during filming, so there is always that possibility. In addition to that, we were outdoors under the sun as well, so we had to prevent unnecessary shadows (other than the actor and the mother’s).
Solutions	We had to create ideas with the perspective of the camera being recorded by the mom. This works well with our intention of building her identity around self-growth and maturity as the main focus of these clips were showing her growing up.  Instead of using our star actor’s house, we used Cheryl’s, one of our team member’s houses as a replacement. She had multiple nature elements around her house as well as the broken down road in front, which in the end would aid to the low-income social group representation. We used areas like floors and corners of the house as we think that they both were common features of the 2 houses. Whenever we started shooting, team members that did not hold the camera had to go a few steps away so their shadows were not in frame. Furthermore, after every shot, we replayed the recording a couple of times to ensure that only the actor could be seen in the frame.
Lessons Learned	Our main problem here was this scene was not shot in the original planned house due to unmatched schedules with the star actor. Therefore we learned to make sure that both our team members and the star actor’s dates of availability had to match far before the shooting began to prevent absence of factors that would delay the shooting.

Date	07/01/2025
Scene	Competition preparation
Pictures
Challenges	We had no phone tripod for the jump shot sequence so instead, we recorded it handheld. It was difficult to maintain the stability especially because Cheryl was standing up while recording.  As seen that there is a calendar and to-do list on the white board, we had to make sure to change the date and add to the to-do lists on every clip to ensure the continuity element was accurately implemented. To show that it was a different day on the jump shot sequence, we had to ensure that there were noticeable differences with the star actor, props, and overall background. Then there were a few times where late into the sequence, we noticed that there was a mistake with the earlier sequence. This meant that we had to redo the changes over again, delaying the shooting time.
Solutions	We had to shoot it quickly. Cheryl held the camera while me and Aurel moved and directed Vina around. We replayed the recording at least twice with everyone together, making sure that the changes in the calendar and the to-do list are noticeable and correct. Because we did not want to repeat the same mistake twice as it was a hassle reshooting over again, after shooting a clip, we compared it to the previous clip. This helped us make sure that there were both noticeable changes as well as no repeated elements from the previous clip to properly indicate the different days.
Lessons Learned	Always double check with the team members after recording a scene to ensure that there are no mistakes before continuing on to record the next scene.

Date	16/01/2025
Scene	Stage performance
Pictures
Challenges	We had to get a supervisor during our shoot on the stage. We had no access to stage lights. Since the stage we used belonged to our sister school (a kindergarten attached to our highschool building), we weren't sure if we could access nor who to approach when it came to the stage lights. Aurel's camera needed a stand but all of us did not have a tripod for it so we had to borrow it from our school. Another problem was how we weren’t sure how to remove Aurel's camera from the tripod given by school. We had to make sure the tripod placements were placed in a way so they wouldn’t show in each other’s footage because we used a multicam technique  We had to find a way to hide the empty crowd during the spin-around shot.
Solutions	I had originally asked our media teacher but he was unavailable during our scheduled time so I approached another teacher I was familiar with instead and she agreed to supervise. Cheryl had asked the admin from the kindergarten building to link us to the light technician. He turned on the lights and instructed our supervisor on how to turn it off. He told us we were allowed to use it as long as we were responsible and remembered to turn it off after use. In addition to the lights, the light technician also provided a camera stand for Aurel and instructed her on how to clip it on. However, he did not instruct her on how to remove it and this became a problem since he had already gone home and none of us were familiar with a camera tripod. We doubled-checked our filming devices before rolling to ensure our camera wasn't seen by another camera. This relied on our communication so we had to be loud and clear when we're calling out any problems/issues. Cheryl was doing a spin-around-the-subject shot and she noticed that the camera would catch her shadows and the empty crowd sometimes. So I suggested she tilt the camera to a slight upward angle to avoid capturing the empty seats.
Lessons Learned	Since each of the team members are doing different tasks simultaneously (shooting different POVs at the same time), clear and direct communication played a very important role here. We were able to avoid misunderstandings and misdirections, avoiding further delays. In addition to that, though the reason why we lacked quite the preparation which led to a few difficulties, were because we were working with new equipment (lighting system on stage and camera tripod), it would’ve been better if we asked someone experienced beforehand about the things we needed to know or request them to supervise us during the duration of the recording as well. Thus this would lead to a smoother operation.

Date	17/01/2025
Scene	Box scene in verse 1
Pictures
Challenges	During this shoot, only Regine had been available to film so there was 1 cameraman, which made it hard to direct since I was multitasking between filming. This also meant Regine didn't receive any feedback for the footage I filmed so I wasn't confident with what Regine had filmed. The closet POV shot was extremely difficult to get because of the small size of the closet. Originally, Regine had planned to shove herself into the closet but due to the small space, Regine found it difficult to breathe
Solutions	Since there was no other way around our busy schedules, Regine took to shooting a short verse alone. She would first consult Vina (our artist) and asked for her input, then select the view shots that looked good and sent them over to the group where the team was able to comment and give feedback.  Out of fear of lightheadedness and fainting that came with shoving oneself into a small closet, Vina suggested using tape to hold up the phone rather than have Regine sit in it. Despite many doubts, the phone was able to be held with scotch tape however was set to the front facing camera so Regine could see how the shot would look like. This did mean the quality would be slightly off since the front camera and the back camera are not the same quality but we don’t believe the change in quality was drastic and could be blended in in post-production
Lessons Learned	Regine took to doing it alone because of a nearby deadline for filming so it was necessary for us to finish and collect all the scenes we needed for the first draft. This day of shooting taught us the importance of scheduling and sticking to it. We should have been able to clear our schedule to be able to film together as a group but due to our busy school life, this was made difficult.

Date	18/01/2025
Scene	Beach performance
Pictures
Challenges	Shooting in this open space led us to experience the extreme heat and high UV where it was dangerous to be staying out in the sun for too long.  Our digital equipment such as the camera and phone were prone to overheating under the sunlight. The team members could not see their phone screen when recording due to the bright sunlight. This led to us being more prone to mistakes such as how the star actor could be out of the frame especially during scenes where she was running.
Solutions	When choosing the spot to shoot at, we chose an area where there was a nearby cover for shade as well. This way both the team members and the star actor could take regular breaks at that spot when the heat was too much to endure. In addition to that, we made sure everyone used their sunscreens before shooting as well.  Fortunately, we recorded mainly with our phones so overheating was not as much of a problem in comparison to if we mainly recorded with the camera which was more prone to overheating. We didn’t really have a solution for this other than replaying the recording a few times after to make sure the star actor’s composition in the frame was good. This is as we brought limited equipment that would have been useful in the situation.
Lessons Learned	We were paying more attention to the clear and brightness of the sky instead of the UV on that day because we wanted to take the closest date as an opportunity to shoot as soon as we could. Not only will this allow us to move onto the next scene faster but also taking into consideration that we were shooting during the rainy season, we had to take that opportunity as it is. However, this was not a good choice as the extreme UV could be dangerous and our health could be affected.

Date	04/03/2025
Scene	Beach extras - Reshooting
Pictures
Challenges	The sand where both Cheryl (the one recording) and the star actor was standing on was unstable, so it led to multiple errors in the recording such as shaking and sudden changes of the composition.  Because this was a reshoot of extra clips to fill its continuation scenes, which were also at the beach, we had to make sure the lighting was the same.
Solutions	After replaying the recording and seeing that there were sudden movements from the camera, we decided to move to more stable sand so that the tracking movement was smoother. Furthermore, it is so that both Cheryl and the star actor could focus on their roles instead of worrying about falling in the sand. We used the weather forecast app to choose a day where the sun was brightly out. In addition to that, we came more or less at the same time as when we shot the first beach scenes. Therefore, the sun was at the same position as well as our shadows.
Lessons Learned	Take as many extra or filler scenes when recording the first time as it may be really helpful if later on in the editing, it turns out that there are still blank spaces to fill in.

Date	05/03/2025
Scene	Opening scene - Reshooting
Pictures
Challenges	Because we filmed this scene in the middle of the neighborhood street, there were multiple vehicles passing by that led us to having to stop the recording to ensure our safety. We had to take multiple reshoots, spending more time than necessary, as there were few minute delays to wait for the vehicles to pass each time. The distance of the star actor walking had to match with the duration of the intro as it is where we will put the scene in and so that it doesn’t feel too rushed or too extended.
Solutions	When there were no vehicles passing by for a short period of time, we took that opportunity to immediately shoot the scene.  We looked at the duration of the intro beforehand and ensured the duration of the recording would also be the same.
Lessons Learned	Choosing to shoot at the same place where there are multiple vehicles passing by means that we have to acknowledge the risks and dangers incorporated with it.

Self-reflection:

• Personally, filming was often really hard for me. Not that I don't trust or aren't grateful for my teammates and star, it's just that I am not very close with them. This occasionally leads me to feeling nervous and awkward which limited my capability to effectively contribute to directing out the scenes.  Additionally, I often felt unwell during filming sessions which further added to my inability to contribute as much as I wanted to. However, as the project went on, I gradually got more used to being around them and had better health which made things run smoother for me in later shooting sessions.