Professional & Critical Practice (Commission): Rough Cut Editing

When editing Alpha Weapons Academy's promotional video it was important to keep our discussions on the required inclusions in mind, the key features from my planning in mind and my prior research on promotional videos and the slight documentary style (and my research on this) in mind.

The process of editing the video was as follows...

• Selecting the most entertaining and representative clips from each segment of filming and placing them in script order in the Final Cut Pro timeline.
• Placing the answers from the interviewees into the timeline in script order
• Adding footage that connected to the interviewees answers, such as Dave (head instructor) comparing the technical class to the sparring class and adding two clips from each class
• Cutting down footage to currently get the video as close to the required 2-3 minutes length as possible
• Selecting a suitable soundtrack, I decided that rock music best suits the atmosphere of a weapons training academy. However I knew when searching that it needed to be low key music, rather than heavy rock, and have an upbeat tone to represent the fun and light-hearted atmosphere of the classes. After looking on Bensound, Purple Planet and Incompetech for royalty free music, I decided on Rumble by Bensound.
• Adding the soundtrack to the edit starting at an effective moment in the first clip, and having it at a low key volume to not overpower the footage.
• Adding lower thirds to the interviews and classes. I decided on a decaying 'paper' effect lower third in white, with the company's official font of Massacre (which I requested from Dave) to keep to a fitting brand for the academy, and used their main colour scheme of black, white and red. I then decided to add the company logo to the lower third for extra flair and representation of the company, using a transparent logo sent to me by Dave and adding 'Alpha Weapons Academy' in text. The end results are below...

Lower thirds

• Then realising that the student interviews were bumping up the length of the video to about 4-5 minutes long and were not greatly necessary to the film, I decided to cut them from the video.
• Cutting down clips and removing any unneeded footage to bring the length of the film to 3 minutes long.
• Cutting and mixing the sound track to extend it to be 3 minutes long.
• Deciding to add the company logo to the beginning of the video, introducing the sound of the next clip with it, then having that clip fade in for production value.

Opening image

• Creating the credits consisting of the company logo, address, phone number and Facebook page (as Dave advised that he would like this information - they also do not have a website yet). Followed by my role, my sound technician and music credits, and then the UCA end credit. Keeping the credits quick and simple, yet with the key information. Also slightly raising the soundtrack for this.

End credits

• Raising the sound of Dave's interview / voice-over and correcting any noise or messy mixes into the next footage, along with greatly lowering the sound of footage being mixed with Dave's voice.
• Colour correcting each individual clip by giving the tone a less green/yellow hue and one that's more realistic and neutral, fixing the exposure and raising the saturation. Also, adding a vignette edge effect to each clip to give the video a slightly higher quality appearance.

Before colour correction & vignette

After colour correction & vignette

Before colour correction & vignette

After colour correction & vignette

Before colour correction & vignette

After colour correction & vignette

With the end result of the rough cut being 3 minutes 25 seconds long it matched the criteria in length. But it also matched the criteria for everything else needed by the company for the promotional video, these being...

• A slight documentary style, nothing dramatic
• Information about who Alpha Weapons Academy are
• Information and visuals of the classes
• A large variety of footage on everything that happens during the classes
• All students and instructors being featured on film
• Contact information and brand representation

After a lot of work and effort on the rough cut and feeling pleased with the result, my next step was to get feedback on the video from Dave to complete the fine cut of the project.