My final project for this semester in Experiment screen is really typical of my editing style. I’ve never really gotten into the process of going out and capturing lots of consistent content and my videos usually consist of chopped up clips and images from lots of different sources and older footage I find on my computer from backing up old phones and such. I think on reflection I go into the process of editing with more of a focus on visual style and certain effects or editing tricks I’d like to pull off instead of having a clear and solid plan of exactly what I’m making, this again is very evident in my film as it swings all over the place with loosely linked segments as I started off with core ideas to go with audio and I create the middle point or the vivid section I can imagine inside my head and work backwards from there filling gaps and making stuff up as I go.

There has been a really strong A$AP ROCKY influence to my edits basically since he released the L$D music video. Rocky’s videos are among the most creative and polished I’ve ever seen, and in a never ending ocean of Sound Cloud rappers waving blunts around on phone cameras or indie bands filming themselves running around on a beach somewhere it’s refreshing to see something different (at least from a large act) the consistent amount of effort and style put into each video is really impressive and it’s something I’d like to work towards.

 

 

Other well known videos that employ a similar style or as least incorporate the use of stereo gifs are Mura Masa’s ‘What If I Go?’ video and of course Lil Yachty’s ‘Broccoli’ which was cited as one of my earlier influences for this project.

The big learning curve for me when trying to make this sort of stuff isn’t even creating the effects themselves but doing it in a consistent and visually pleasing way. I guess this is easier when you have a team working on projects like this but I sometimes feel like my ambitions to make really cooked cool looking stuff outweigh my actual means to do so in a way that produces a polished end result. While I’m relatively satisfied with my final product for this assignment I still feel like I have a lot of improving to do with my own dedication and development when it comes to furthering my knowledge and skills in this area. Getting more into the practice of meticulously planning what I want my end product to be and then making sure I have all of the consistent material or footage to create it could be really beneficial so I don’t end up winging it all the time like I usually do. I think also instead of always working by myself on this sort of thing it could be really good for me to get into the swing of working with other people in a crew with equipment. It’s something I really enjoy when I do it and I’ve helped on the set of other individual or group projects but have never hired actors, locations asked anyone else to help me film or set up lighting etc for any of my personal work.

I will write more on the process of making this project in particular in my final submission and reflection post, but I also recognized the difficulty in doing technical creative stuff like this without a plan. When you’ve got a time limit but you’re not feeling any inspiration or drive to work on something like this you tend to cut corners or have the attitude that “it looks good enough” and “not every frame has to be nice to look at” which can result in just producing something that’s underwhelming… This of course also is linked to my poor organisation and time management, something else I have to work on.