In the Cut

    Editing the commercial was no easy task. My group had a shared idea to produce something truly valuable regardless of whether or not it was for school, so we took many creative liberties when editing. 

    First, we chose the shots we wanted to use. Because there were so many options, finding the perfect shot proved to be difficult. After we decided which takes would make the final cut, I trimmed each take so the commercial would fit the 30-second requirement. This mainly comprised of unnecessary still moments or the beginnings of actions. Cutting these bits made the commercial more seamless and natural. After getting all the unneeded parts out of the way, I put all the shots together into one video. In this state, it was much easier to tackle the auditorial and visual aspects that needed to be added.

     Now that the shots were together, I focused on the sound in the commercial. Due to the amateur level of our production, background noise was captured while filming. While this may be a detriment to other projects, it was perfect for ours in the beginning. We kept it in the shots that Joshua was not wearing the Beats. As a subtle way to advertise their noise cancellation, I muted all the other scenes.  In the second scene, when he turns on the Beats - a connecting noise is played to show that they are on. This piece of audio was not easy to implement. In order to produce the noise, I used a small microphone to record the noise from our prop. I had to record the noise as a video and then later split the audio from the video using editing software. I was then able to add the sound to the commercial. This touch really heightened the professionalism of our commercial. After the sound is played, the song “Hoe Cakes” by MF DOOM plays. To get the song, I did a similar procedure to before, instead using a screen recording of the audio. This song plays for the rest of the ad and helps the transitions from scene to scene. I edited the song a little so it would flow better with each scene, utilizing both the instrumental version and the clean version to create a clip of the song that would work well in the allotted time.

    After the audio was perfect, I moved on to adding the Beats logo and slogan to the ad. This was much simpler than the audio part. First, I got a png of the Beats logo and added the text "Up to 48 hours of battery life" to hone in on what aspect of the Beats we were advertising. I turned this into a video and then overlayed it over the commercial. To finish things off, I gave the video a fade-in effect so the logo would not have a harsh introduction. 

    This process comprised of much trial and error as I played with different editing software and effects to make the commercial perfect. All in all, I'm proud of what my team created.