Editing- As a Whole

Editing as a whole was a hard process, partially due to lack of time, but also because it's such a new experience, it's hard to get your head around it at first. Although, once I got into it, I quite enjoyed it.

Using Final Cut Pro was hard at first because it's not similar to any software I've used before, but after a few sessions, I got the hang of it and started to speed up when editing. I found it difficult to edit our footage into a sequence because the shots we took were more creative but didn't have much of a narrative because we didn't want to give too much away. Whereas with other groups' thrillers, they could edit their thriller together into a story, we had to try to come up with artistic ways of hiding what the boy is doing, whilst gradually leaking the information to the audience.

Originally, we were going to have more of a narrative with a boy going around his room, deciphering puzzles and then sitting down on his computer and hacking, although on the day, we realised we could actually create the same effect without filming around a boy's bedroom.

I preferred using After Effects to using Final Cut Pro because it's made by Adobe and I've used Photoshop before, so the layout of the software is very similar. However, it had always baffled me how people create animated title sequences so I really enjoyed stumbling through After Effects and learning how.

When making a title, I started by creating a new title card. Then, from a stock of images and footage, I would scroll through and find some appropriate items. I would then drag this into After Effects and add it to the bin labelled "Stills" or "Footage". After this I would drag the image onto the timeline and place it somewhere aesthetically pleasing. Next, going back to the stock of footage, I would find a moving image and repeat the process so that it was layered over the top. Then, pressing the 'cmd' button and the '-' and '+' buttons, I would scroll through, changing the effect on the layer until they combine and look pleasing. Then, I would add Key Frames and create a movement path for the image lasting around 2/3 seconds. Penultimately, I would add another layer, the name and position of the person and create a movement path for them as well. Finally, I would add some effects such as 'Blur' and 'Negative' to ensure that there's a theme through the title cards.

For example, this is one of the title cards I made.
I went and found the image which is some sort of map (the layer which says "ANTENNA SUBSYSTEM") and dragged it onto the timeline. Then, I went to the footage stock and chose the beams of light, which move, that go diagonally across the screen. After layering them, I held 'Shift' and used '-' and '+' to scroll through and choose an effect which was aesthetically pleasing. The still image was originally black text, so I applied the 'Negative' effect to make it show up against the dark background and also to create some contrast. Then, using Key Frames, I chose for the image to travel from the top right to the bottom left. Finally, I added the text and, again, using Key Frames, created a path for the text to travel along. Initially, the text sped across the screen, so I moved the second Key Frame marker further away to increase the time taken for the text to travel across the screen.
With all of this done, I played the title card, was happy with it and so I saved it and moved onto the next one.

I really enjoyed using After Effects, not only because it meant that I could learn new skills but also because it was really fun to create something which, in my eyes, looks quite professional.


Despite it being time-consuming, I enjoyed editing, especially using After Effects and would like to do it again in the future. Now, I'm looking forward to creating an interesting and innovative Music Video in A2.