editing a music video, best approach?

[John Pale]

Look up multiclip in the Help manual.

Way better than stacking them.

[David Roth weiss]

[John Pale] “Look up multiclip in the Help manual.

Way better than stacking them.”

Absolutely!!! Plus, its easy, and this is a terrific opportunity for Ben to learn something thats really good to have in one’s arsenal.

“No job is worth doing more than once…”

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

[Ben Oliver]

while i do enjoy the multiclip aspect for many things,

for editing a “music video” i dont. I always tend to shift things about when i edit, on purpose. guitars dont have to be spot on a lot of the time. same with some drum hits. multiclip is great for “live” type things.

what i usually do, is exactly what you did, stack everything up, synced with the camera mic. I keep that timeline, and start a new timeline, and copy past everything n there. then, i just start to tear it apart. it can get confusing, but that I do, is as i cut, i start to tear the pieces i dont need away. I can always go back and grab it from the saved, “sync” timeline. Most music videos are under 5 minutes, so u can always back sync from the end, or sync from the begining.

eventually, when i get a good cut going, and nearng what I feeel to be the version i want to show the label or the band, or the person paying for it, i make an A/B edit. I cut out everything that isn’t needed, so I have two video tracks of alternating video, and that is it. no video hiding under anuything, everything, frame on.

as the band, label, whoever, etc, needs changes, I work on top of this, adding tracks as I need, and grabbing video from my saved, “sync” timeline” Heck, make a few copies of that timeline, its important.

thats pretty much how I work, it’s done well.

check out one of my newer videos,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tc1rLwBpVY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Espin%2Ecom%2Ffeatures%2Fband%5Fof%5Fthe%5Fday%2F2007%2F02%2F070226%5Fthesterns%2F

shot with p2cards, 720p, hd!

-ben

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[John Pale]

Basically what I would do is a basic rough edit using multiclip. This is basically just an assembly of the performance….then you will “tear it apart” as Ben said. Instead of the maelstrom of clip blading and moving that Ben suggests, I would match frame from the sequence back to the multiclip (s) to find bits I want to take out of sync, and then cut those in. But ultimately its all about what you are comfortable with and how your brain works to be creative. Ben’s way works well for Ben. There is no right and wrong if the results are good. Play around with different workflows until you find what you like best.

[Ben Oliver]

exactly, everyone has there own way, no one is right. i’d listen to what some peopl ehave to say, and try a lil of everything out.

i’ve always found it hard to begin, find a way to start editing, once I get into that, i find a rythem and just need to sit and do the job. ive edited a bunch of music videos, and each of them required a slightly different approach.

youll figure it out

-ben

[Chris Poisson]

FWIW, before multiclip using multiple viewers was a big help. Still is at times for lots of things.

Have fun!

[Ben The camera guy]

do you guys know how many streams of multiclip angles fcp can handle at one time? i have about 30 full song takes but of those i wanna only use 10 or so…

[David Bogie]

Most of the footage will not be used so look carefully at your junk takes and extract (with the blade tool) only the few seconds you are likely to use. Lock that track so it doesn’t move in time and turn it off. Basically forget it till you really need the image.

Editing music videos is n o different from editing any other fast-paced job. You need to do most of the work to tell your story, use the images that reflect your goal. Then go back and rip into it.

Save your work!
Each edited sequence should be evaluated carefully, name them or number them clearly. Then make duplicates of them, rename the copies, and start tweaking.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Ben Oliver]

make sure you sync and work with everything, you’ll be surprised how much footage you will use, even from “bad” takes.

[Mike Flippin]

I agree with Ben for the most part. The stacking method works best & offers much more creative flexibility over the MultiClip feature because there are always gonna be “dead spots” where nothing from any take looks good at a particular TC & you can slip a clip in there, and, there are always gonna be a few “hot” spots where the action or whatever is killer & you have to use it, so you can slip it in somewhere else. Because the nature of music is pretty repetitive, and with hed/close shots that dont show actual fingers of guitar players, there are a lot of cool clips that can be put almost anywhere… as long as they are in “beat-Sync”… I do that all the time & no one ever knows… and you cant do that with multi clip… MC only lets you show any part of each clip at the actual TC point… and while that works alot of the time, you will be surprised how much you will “slide” clips around… keep the flexibility & use the stack method… but stay on top of it as wit can get overwhelming.

Herse my process to further demonstrate… Also, check out my most recent video on youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmS4keLLEr4 – , already has almost 130, 000 views & a 5 star rating. You can see how my technique looks in final.
In particular, the drum roll is a “slip” clip, as well as many, many others…. see if you can tell.

I have edited dozens of HDV Music Videos with about12-18 takes of the performance, plus various spot closeups of guitar solos, etc… in special locations, and of course, the narative (the story shots that will wrap around in the performance).

I start like Ben and stack up all performance tracks in a sequence I call “Sync_Master” in a particular order so they are sync’d up (V1 is the first long shot, V2 would be 2nd long on the dolly, V3 3rd long on dolly/gimble, V4 medium dolly pan, V5 Med Dolly Pan & Crash, etc… moving in closer as you move up in the track numbers… just makes it easier to know where you are later on. also, the solos are usually just the solo, & I drop those in place & sync, since they dont have the start count.

Then, I copy a;; the tracks & paste into a new Seq… called “First Cut” … this leaves all the full length sync’d clips in place on the Sync_Master for future use.

I run through each track solo & cut out everything than I dont like & know I wont use, leaving just the “Choice” cuts. When finished, I have just the best clips and everything else is cut oput… I watch it & see what I have, turning on & off tracks to get a good idea.

Then, I start fine tuning , adjusting to the beat untill its all tight.

And here is the IMPORTANT part… you will be able to grab clips from other parts of the song to fill in any gaps where you is either nothing, or, to use really cool parts from other takes… this is really easy when you use the stack method.

Then, I tighten up all the narative to all the inserts are tight & nice.

Then I copy all the cluts from all the tracks from the “Firts Cut” and paste into the @nd Cut sequence. Then I drag all the clips down to just 2-3 tracks so its more maneagable, but allowing me some flexibility on areas of difficulty or something (there are always a few of those spots where just not sure or happy with yet).

Then I skip 2 tracks up & paste start pasting in the Narative clips that tell the story, and adjust them.

Then you play around with it for a while longer & your done.!

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