How to edit a music video

On Friday, the second of November our class had a lecture where we were told the basic principles of editing a music video. Although we went through some of these methods the previous term, it was helpful to be reminded of the ways to make post-production most efficient.

These are the main stages of editing a music video:

Syncing
One can sink the footage with the song by using an iPad with an application analogical to a clapperboard. To do it one needs to import the clapperboard clip of the song, then drag the actual footage over the clapperboard layer and check that the numbers on the clapperboard in the footage and in the separate clapperboard layer are the same.

To sync the materials with the use of sound, one needs to find the snare drum in the beginning of both clips by using arrow keys to move frame by frame and place the footage above the clapperboard clip on the timeline.

Editing the Performance
It is quicker to edit the complete performance element first and then add footage to it to introduce the other elements. To do it, one needs to organise the layers by naming each one accordingly (e.g. "guitar", "bass guitar", "drums" etc.) and duplicate the whole timeline in case if changes will have to be made. The first line of the singer should be on his/her close up.

When editing choreographed elements, attempt "graphic match", which means that the motions between the shots should correlate - move in the same direction or to be visually similar.

Once the performance element is done add the shot of the other two elements by importing them into the cut out parts of the performance.