Guess who is almost done editing 😜

If you guessed me, you would be very much CORRECT 💃👏. Did it take me an entire day? Maybe, but I've got an almost final product on my hands now. My opening and movie final feel real. Like a tangible thing that I will be turning in for my final exam.

But anyway, let's talk about everything I did today, and what I have left to do in terms of editing. 

So, today I put all the clips I filmed on that stressful day last week into Adobe Premiere Pro and set to work on cutting down my raw footage. That raw footage amounted to over 5 minutes of video so I definitely had some work to do. My preferred method of editing includes going clip by clip in order and ensuring every clip and those that come before it are perfect before bringing the next clip into the timeline. I don't know if this is the most efficient method of editing but it's how I've always edited and I like to believe it makes sure I pay attention to every detail.

Once I had edited every single clip into the timeline and looked at the time stamp, I was horrified to see that I had a whole 36 seconds over 2 minutes. Did I stare out the window and contemplate life? Yes, but only for a brief moment! That's when I vented for a bit to my friend and went right back into it, cutting away everything that I felt was out of place and unnecessary. I didn't look at the final time stamp until the end to make sure I wasn't cutting out necessary clips just to make it shorter, I went clip by clip and slowly started chipping away at the length of my opening. 5 seconds here, 3 seconds there, and voila, my opening was 2 minutes and 6 seconds long. YAYYYY! A round of applause for me for making that work.

My confidence was at an all-time high. My spirits were soaring. Then I reached the audio editing portion of my day and wanted to rip the hair out of my scalp :)

For one, when filming, I hadn't exactly thought through what the audio in my opening would be, and I thought that most, if not the entire opening, would have music over it. So, when I was filming, I didn't take any care to get my voice out of the clips I would be using. As a result, I had a 2-minute long video, with me periodically saying "Go!" into my phone's microphone. This was a big problem because now I had to go in and cut out every instance of me or the actors talking when we shouldn't be during a take. This took an embarrassing amount of time and I'll spare you from knowing what my failed attempts consisted of, but I eventually realized I could go into audacity, cut the noise of chatter and people walking around the library from a couple of clips, and use that audio to cover up anything unwanted, and it would blend seamlessly with the existing background noise already in the clips. So it's official, I'm a genius, my project is awesome, and totally do-

Music.

UGH. 

I knew from the moment I woke up today that finding royalty-free music was going to be a pain, but now the moment was upon me and I was dreading it. But, I took a snack break and got right into finding royalty-free music that fit the vibe. The first problem I encountered was finding a website to get a song from. I first tried one website, downloaded two songs, and realized that without a premium subscription, the music would have audible watermarks (that's a thing???) throughout the song. So that was a no-go, which meant I had to pivot away from that. I found a new website that didn't put audible watermarks on their royalty-free music (thank god) and searched for a while for a song I liked. This was actually very difficult because every song I listened to sounded like the background music to a Chloe Ting workout tutorial and was giving me quarantine trauma flashbacks. Another problem is that royalty-free music also has a tendency to lack lyrics, which I did not want because what 16-year-old walking to the library is listening to high-energy instrumentals? Not any that I know, and not any in my movie. I eventually figured out how to filter the website to show me lyrical pop songs, and this is where I felt that all hope was not lost. I found a song I felt matched the vibe I was going for... Crush! by MAYBE. Even the name is fitting for my movie.

I also like how upbeat the song is, making it a good contrast to the darker themes that would have existed throughout the rest of the film. Once I cut the song to have the right parts playing during the corresponding clips, I felt good about finally shutting my laptop and calling it a day.

I reviewed my opening and checked with some friends to make sure it was actually good and I feel satisfied. I'm still considering doing the little cartoon animations, but that's a problem for another day.