To edit the raw footage together we are using the Mac's that are located at college, and the programme Final Cut Express, more complicated then the software we used in our AS piece (iMovie). This means that we can use more advanced effects and therefore a more creative piece. The first stage of the editing process was to upload all of our raw footage from the camera's that we used to the Mac. This was a reasonably simple procedure but due to the amount of footage took quite a long time. Our next step was to create the stop motion effect by timelining all of the photographs we used together. The first problem we came across was the length of the photographs. Once dragged onto the timeline, each photograph was 10 seconds long, when we needed each one to be only 0.5 seconds long. This meant we had to go through the photos individually to ensure they were the correct length. Once we pieced the photos together, we then had to decide which scenes were the most appropriate to be included and decide on some to cut out, due to the time restraint of the song.
After watching the footage through, we decided the pace of the video was much to slow. So we went out and filmed more footage of our main character which we could then mix with our stopmotion. Once these clips were uploaded onto the mac's, we re-edited our timeline to create an effective narrative. The next step in our editing was to re-colour or filter our footage to maintain the meanings we desired. This meant slowing down pieces of footage or changing the lighting on some. After looking at the stop-motion, our group along with our teacher decided that the constantly changing lighting, caused by doing our stop motion in natural light, was effective as it gave the impression that the letter is not perfect and has flaws. It also makes the video feel more homely and more like a collection of memories in a photo album rather than an airbrushed video.
The next stage was creating the opening of our video. We wanted it to be obvious that the beginning is a flashback of the couples relationship and so this meant we had to edit it to be seen in this way. To add the aged effect, we decided to turn the footage black and white as this gives the impression of it being retrospective. We used a similar concept in our AS piece, where we altered the colour to make it obvious that that particular scene was a flashback. It was an effective technique in our AS piece, so we felt confident in repeating it. However, we were unsure as to what to use for the soundtrack at this point, as we wanted the song to start during the writing of the letter. We decided to use a voiceover (as mentioned in the narrative post) after being inspired by Rihanna's 'We Found Love.' Once we recorded the voiceover, using the Mac's in-built microphone, we added this to the montage and found it effective but not on it's own. We began to create s backing track using the proogramme 'Garage Band.' We toyed with the use of acoustic guitars and piano notes but couldn't create a track which we believed fit the situation. In the end, we decided on using a piano symphony of 'Jar of Hearts' by Christina Perri as the piano tone was perfect and it fit perfectly with the beginning of the original 'Jar of Hearts' for the rest of our video. We also decided to include the sound of the letter being scrunched up, as it contains a heavy symbolic meaning of the boy giving up. We added an echo effect on it to make the scene significant and to make the effect linger, like the noise.
The final part of the editing process was to create the complicted scene where the letter enters a photograph stuck to a fridge. This was something we had set our heart into doing even though we knew it would be a complex procedure. We got various teaching staff to help us superimpose photographs of our protagonist onto a photograph of the fridge. After a lot of time (both learning how to superimpose images and actually superimposing them) we had something in which we were proud of and believed it to be effective in the video.
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