Planning Editing Styles - Miss Miller

Within a music video, it is essential to include a variety of editing styles to ensure that interest is upheld throughout. This enables the audience to stay engaged and intrigued in what they are watching, also keeping the attention obtained all the way through. Particular editing styles can also help portray an intended emotion, for example a black and white filter can reflect a negative, sombre tone or atmosphere or alternatively, it could symbolise events from/reflecting of the past. Editing ensures that the video makes sense and flows in a way in which the audience can follow and understand. Using a variety of editing techniques prevents the flow of clips from becoming repetitive and uninteresting as variation is applied to the video in a way that prevents attention being taken away from the content. Other editing styles such as jump cut or montage can help to emphasise a particular image(s) as they tend to highlight their presence within the scene. The audience are able to acknowledge this outlining and further understand reasoning as for why something has specifically been reinforced. We have discussed 4 different editing styles that we will be using within our music video - each being fairly different in order to create variation.

Within our music video we will frequently use a black and white filter in the performance scenes. This helps to illustrate that the artist is unhappy during these particular scenes which show her in the present day. Typically, a black and white filter is used to help reflect the past, however, we want to represent the artist in such a way that portrays her as feeling negative and we have found that by using a black and white filter on these particular performance scenes, we are able to achieve this. The monotone nature of the black and white filter results in quite a bland influence on the scene. The lack of resplendent colour symbolises the lack of positivity and goodness within the artist's life at this time. Therefore, this influences the emotion of the scene and represents the artist in a particular depressing and negative way - a representation that we intend to create. By only applying the filter to the performance scenes, a clear contrast is created between those and the narrative ones. During the narrative scenes, the artist is portrayed happily hanging out with their friends when they were younger, which is not only visually contrasting but also in the emotion side to the artist. The black and white filter will be applied to the performance scenes which are when the artist is playing the piano and also when the artist is performing on stage. The use of the black and white filter is conventional to the genre of soul as it is still used to reflect past as it contrasts with the past narrative shots and therefore, even though not in the typical way of demonstrating it, it still does as it shows how happy the artist was in her past. It also creates a sombre mood and atmosphere to the scenes in which the filter is applied, which is conventionally used in soul genre videos in order to create the same effect. The emotion of the artist is mirrored in the filter and this negative, sad emotion is the generally most favourably one used by the artist in soul genre music videos. The black and white filter helps to represent the artist as being depressed, sad and generally negative about the life they lead and the emotion in which they are expressing. Their outlook on life is represented as lacking positivity in any form and also a lacking of hope in which they seek. 


Another editing technique in which we will use in our video is overlapping/layering of shots. This technique will be used to help interlink the different style scenes of the music video as contrasting scenes will be overlapped. For example, we will use this effect to overlap the shots of London streets with the artist performing on the piano and stage which will reflect the success of the artist. Also, it mirrors the complex life of the artist - especially as the london shots will be fast-pace edited. Having these shots overlapped and merged on-top of each other symbolises how the influence of London and fame is having a complex influence on the life of the artist. This editing effect will also be used on the shots of the artist with her friends when she was younger and the performance ones also. This will help to display and emphasise the contrast in emotions that the artist is expressing, demonstrating how much happier she was perceived as being when she was younger. The use of the overlapping of shots isn't necessarily common and conventional within the soul genre, however, it reflects the past in the way in which we are using it which does make it conventional. Most soul genre songs have much underlying emotion and along with the reflection of the past, the editing technique helps to display how the artist is reminiscing on when she was younger and happier. The layering nature of the shots also mirrors the layering and thickening amount of emotions that the artist feels, as well as the extent of them, and so this builds a relationship with the audience as they are able to witness these thoughts at the same time. It also helps us to merge different colours within the video for example, the performance scenes contrast with the narrative scenes in terms of colour and lighting also. This allows us to represent the artist in a particular way. The general representation of the artist that we want to create is associating them with being nostalgic of their childhood. By using this editing technique we are able to demonstrate the artist's feelings and how they are reminiscing on the past which represents them as being quite emotional. As well as this, it causes them to also be represented as attached, as although the past is now gone, she still thinks about it and in a positive way.

Fast timing of shots is a further editing technique that we will be including within our music video. We will be using this on the London scenes to make the city appear to be moving quickly and so, cars, buses, bikes etc will be moving in a fast motion. The reason in which we have chosen to apply the technique to these shots is because it helps to demonstrate the complexity of the artist's life in the present day. As well as this, it further symbolises the quick rise of the artist's fame. The editing technique allows the intricate detail of the scene to be lacked however, it still enables you to see what is going on. This makes it unconventional as a slower timing of shots is more conventional as it is more raw, exposed and demonstrates more detail. However, we're using these edited shots to overlap the normal time ones and so, it won't be going too against the conventions of soul. The fact we are also not using them on the artist performance shots makes it slightly more conventional because if we were to use it on these shots, it would be difficult for the audience to retrieve the emotion in which the artist is expressing. This would be because the fast-paced nature of the technique doesn't allow enough time for the audience to acknowledge the expressed emotion, therefore, this is why we have not chosen to do it on these particular shots. The technique helps to represent the artist as having a hectic lifestyle that has been achieved in a short period of time. It illustrates how much her life has changed since when she was younger, especially as some of the narrative shots of the artist and her friends would have been edited to be timed slower. Because of this vast contrast, it helps to emphasise the hectic lifestyle of the artist and represents them as busy and successful - especially as the shots are of London, which is the capital city and artist's associated with this location are seen as being more successful as they are likely to be more famous than others in low-key small towns.  

A fourth editing technique in which we will be using in our music video is slow timing of shots. This will be used throughout the video in the narrative shots with the artist and their friends and also the performance shots on stage, as well as the artist performing in London. This editing technique allows the more intricate detail of the shots to be captured which enables the emotion that the artist expresses to be perceived a lot more accurately and makes it more easily readable and understandable for the audience. It also allows us to manipulate the technique and develop it in a unique way rather than just simply slowing down a clip. For example, we will be doing this in our video through the way that we will record the artist performing to the camera in London to the track that would have been sped up. When it comes to editing, we will slow down the clip until it reaches a point where it is in time with the original timing of the track. By doing this, it makes the scene quirky and different in the way that the artist is shown to be miming in normal time, however, what is around them is slower than normal speed and acts in a way as if the clip was just simply slowed down. This reflects the way in which the artist feels that nothing is changing in their life and that they feel exempt and different from everyone else around them. This demonstrates a lacking in connection with others around her at this time in her life and so, lack of sociability can lead to depression and sadness, as well as being linked to lacking quality of life - reflected in the way the artist feels. The more simple slow timing of shots in which we will be using is simply slowing down the clips, will be used also throughout including during the narrative scenes where the artist is seen with her friends when they were younger and supposedly in their hometown. The slow timing of shots will take place during the laughing in these scenes and any signs of happiness reflected from the artist. By slowing this down, it emphasises the emotion that is being expressed and further reinforces how much happier the artist was back then before they became famous. This type of editing is conventional to the genre of soul because in soul genre music there is a lot of emotion that needs to be portrayed to the audience, due to the fact that the basis of most of the songs are related to personal experiences. By ensuring that the artist can reflect this emotion across in a clear and accurate way, the audience can feel connected to the artist as they are more likely to feel empathetic towards them. The slow timing of shots allows this to happen as the audience are able to focus more on what is going on in the scene and take more notice of the emotions that are being illustrated. This editing technique helps to represent the artist as overall feeling negative about their life how it is now and makes them feel like an 'outsider' as opposed to other people. They feel like they are going at a different pace to others and that other people don't take notice of her as in some of the London slow-timed shots, the people are seen to be just walking past the artist, demonstrating no acknowledgement of her presence within the scene. She therefore is represented as sad, depressed and negative as a summary, and the slow timing of shots emphasises this representation. 

The target audience are able to build a relationship with our artist through the editing styles in which we have specifically selected. This is through the way they help to reflect different emotions or thoughts and feelings of the artist that may not have been initial without the inout of using these particular techniques. For example, the slow timing of shots helps to emphasise the emotion of the artist whilst the layering of shots illustrates the build up and capacity of feelings in which the artist has. By using techniques such as these, the audience are able to understand and connect with the artist more as they feel that the artist is being more open with them, allowing them to understand the emotions being exposed. The general emotion that the audience can retrieve from the artist is a negative one and so, the audience also feel sympathetic towards the artist. Due to the fact that soul genre songs are based on personal experiences, it makes the artist more relatable to the audience as some situations may reflect similarity within particular audience members. The way in which the editing techniques that we have chosen emphasise these makes it further relatable to the audience as it also symbolises the intense impact it would have had on the artist as well as the audience. Therefore, this makes them feel more connected to the artist and allows a relationship to be created between them and the audience. This planning of editing styles has also helped me ensure that my music video is successful as it helps to illustrate what particular emotions need to be emphasised or reflects where interest is needed to be upheld. It lays out the options of which we will use and where, which, when it comes to editing will save time and ensure that we can use the editing techniques in the appropriate places in order to create the intended effects.