This was my first attempt to editing the Great Wall footage for the opening (church hymn) of the music video.
I decided to use a black and white filter for the opening to create a juxtaposition with the vibrant, maximalist footage we have for the techno section. The black and white creates a feeling of monotony and restraint.
The footage of Arina’s reflection on the water dancing is with colour as it represents a sense of freedom my character is longing for, since colour is absent in my character’s footage, it highlights her need for what Arina represents which is freedom. Although this opening suggests freedom and happiness through the character of Arina, this is subverted and developed later on in the techno section; Arina’s character is seen to manipulate and takeover my character as an evil influence. Essentially, Arina’s character represents another, repressed side to my character. Arina and I believe that a person has many aspects to them and there tends to be one that is repressed due to fear and perhaps shamefulness. Arina’s character also represents maturity and life in society. From this perspective, my character longs to mature and enter society, seeing it as being liberal. When in fact, society is much more complicated and brings different sides to my character, she struggles and evolves for survival. The emotional turmoil is depicted through the glitch effects between two dichotomous modes (panic vs. in control, close ups & wide shots, close proxemics between characters & one character alone placed in the middle, monotonous colour tones & colourful).
One of the struggles Arina and I encountered was the editing of the souvenir section.Originially, in Arina's amazing cut of the music video, we both felt the souvenir section (as bellow) felt weird and that the cuts were too quick to actually see details of the setting as well as the symbolism of the costume concept.
I then began experimenting with different styles and editing for the souvenir section.
Here is my attempt on an animation style of the footage:
However, I felt that the animation style didn't fit too well with the rest of the concept/narrative, if there were other parts of the music video with animation style it would have probably made more sense and reflected each other.
I switched direction and focused on the movement of the shots.
One of the reasons to why this is tricky to edit is that the beat of the music is fast and a flow between different shots has already been established so the beat for these souvenir footage has to be relatively rapid. Although this would have been prevented if we had good footage of me lip-syncing in this scene, then the cuts could be slower. But one of the issues is that because the filming at Ikea was very much rushed, the footage we have of me lip-syncing were unstable (not in an impactful or effective way). Hence to resolve this, instead of having quick cuts, I added flashing special effects and different movement to one shot. The cuts were still on beat but the total time for each clip is slightly longer and still possesses movement which allows the audience to pay attention to the mise en scene.
1st screenshot: I adjusted the scale so that the frames were more focused and the transition movements were bigger to create a more dramatic effect.
2nd screenshot:I lowered the saturation, exposure and also color graded so that the footage looks colder and more metallic, generating a rusty feeling matching the industrial, storage setting.
3rd screenshot: is me trying out the 'night vision'special effect. However I didn't use it because it looked too chaotic.
The souvenir section used in the final music video.
The ending:
Here is the ending for the rough cut:
Both Arina and I felt a bit unsure about the ending as it seemed drop in energy, it felt lacking elements while looking a bit messy.
Here is my first attempt on ameliorating the ending:
However, I didn't like this version either because it seemed more chaotic and there were too many elements.
I removed the x-ray special effects and overlapping footage of me with the veil over my head, and instead extended the underwater footage so the theme of water is more consistent.
For the underwater shot, I added a grainy 'Bad TV' effect with blurred and glitched effects to create a distorted layer of my character's new identity now swimming in a dark space.
I also mirrored the footage of Arina and I to intensify the feeling that both our characters have fully integrated and are now in unity(highlighted by the clean single underwater shot.
I further accentuated the complex and fractured feeling by adding a glass block effect on to the mirrored footage, suggesting the multi-faceted identity of an individual.
I increased the exposure and 'Bad TV' effect towards the end by raising the amount in fractions and finally, dissolving the exposed footage to a white image.
This is the final version of the music video ending:
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