Happy Wednesday all,
I love video editing, it gives me great joy in transforming raw video footage into a polished final output. This blog I am getting into why I love what I do – editing videos and the process of it.
But before I get into why I love editing, let me share the three stages of filmmaking.
Pre-Production
First stage is the pre-production, where we plan the film’s storyboard and script, the production of the film (i.e. production shoot schedule and budgeting), and securing resources (including cast, crew, location and equipment). In my opinion this is the most critical stage, without a good script & storyboard, no matter how good the other stages are, it just will not resonate with the audience.
Production
Second stage is the production, this part fascinates me the most, especially when watching behind the scenes of various film productions.
This stage is where the shooting and recording begins with all the planning and resources done in the previous stage. It is the stage with the largest number of crew members.
Post-Production
Third stage is the post-production, it is here that all the recordings from the Production stage come together to form the final film. This process can get very time consuming depending on what is needed.
It includes reviewing all clips, joining them together and adding sound & visual effects.
So why do I love the editing/post-production stage of filmmaking?
I believe that how a film turns out is dependant on every stage discussed above. It is however the post-production that is the most intriguing to me. It is this one stage where you work with the available footage and then apply your creativity to change, merge & enhance each clip into a FILM. This process gives me the ability to manipulate the story of a video or film project in the way that I may see fit.
To better explain this, I want to revisit my two Garba Ghar Ma video projects. Whilst I did plan some parts of the storyline for both projects and shot some pre-planned shots, it was how the clips were composed that portrayed two different stories.
The first video, started with a BANG!!! From showing some quick highlights of myself getting ready to the dancing and the prayers. The fast cuts of the highlights along with the beginning portion of the music builds the energy and hype of the event. Once the upbeat part of the music died down, I decided to transition from the highlights to the setting up of the main white tent, which was the one of the centrepieces in bringing the group together. Then from the tent making we go to introducing all the other folks that were there to the longer cuts of the various dances that occurred that night. This blended in well with slow part of the music, since the viewer’s attention would be captured from the highlights. There was also other additional clips of the train dancing movement and even the main group photoshoot, showing everyone coming together on this special occasion.
With this video, I loved that it was short and gave us a quick summary of the event.
I did however wish I could have told a story, which the first video did not – it was simply around showing highlights of the event.
In the second video, I aimed to do more visual storytelling of the second garba event. Where instead of showing the quick highlights of the event like the last one, I decided to go chronologically from the messaging of the garba round 2 idea, to setting up, to the main event and then the closing off with the dandiyas brought down.
The messaging part was the hardest of all to edit, but one of my favourite pieces in the whole video. It brought context on why and how this event came to happen again. Post that I showed myself getting ready followed by the setting up of the area from the lights to the white tent. This then transitioned to the completed decorated set on the night, and was sync’d to start when the vocals in the background music score started. Compared to the first garba video, this one puts more emphasis on the murti of Durga. This was because I wanted the exhibit to the viewers that this event has more purpose than just the dancing and the people there. In the sense this was all done for Durga mata. Which was also emphasised with the long cuts of the prayers that the group are doing for her. And then I used the timelapse of the group photoshoot to build up to the main event of dancing!!!! The Dancing scenes started in sync with the chorus of the background music score. Once the instrumental part began, I focused to the food that everyone brought in and showing highlights of all the folks at the event. Syncing with the background music score, as soon as the singer’s voice came in, I switched to the dandiya and the train dancing clips. For the closing scene, I utilised the clip I had taken running through the Dandiya pairs, however I reversed it to give it a very different feel and using this method to portray the event had come to an end.
If you are interested in the behind the scenes of the second garba video, see below video which has some interesting insights. 😁
Whilst the two events are both for Garba, both videos tell a different story and gives us a different perspective each.
This is why I love editing, I can compile different footages along with utilising various editing tools and techniques to create a story that I want to tell to my audience. It is like creating on screen magic from the comfort of my desk.