Success!

After about 5 hours of work, I have finally finished mixing the audio for the edit. I have managed to take the track from 3:17 seconds up to 4:15 seconds which is just about the length I needed. Very pleased.

Progress

After hitting some technical issues yesturday with the audio, I have found a solution to the problem. To make the song long enough to last throughout the entire film, I have cut the song up, and and looping the small instrumental segment just after the chorus of the song. This way, it is not an obvious loop and I can retain the good sound quality.

Editing audio

Technical issues.

Editing is all going well on the video side of things. I now have plenty of footage so it's not just cutting it down and editing together. However, on the audio side of things I am having some problems. I have chosen a song which I feel will be really good for the edit, but I do not think it is going to be long enough. I have seen similar edits where the makers have had similar problems and they have removed the lyrics, and looped some of the instrumental segments to make up some extra time.

I have researched all over the Internet on how to remove the lyrics from the song, and have had no successive results yet. Many of the tutorials are using Audacity, but when I tried with Audacity I still have traces of lyrics left and am left with really bad sound quality. I have also searched high and low for a pre-existing instrumental version of the track and am having no luck with that either.

I have a technical lesson on Thursday morning where I will speak to Joe Darlow, the media technician to see if he can offer me any advice.

Style and image

Now, skiing is becoming more and more style orientated, trick wise and dress wise. Hip hop is a big thing within freestyle skiing at the moment, especially within the videos. Many of the video and films made are using hip hop sound tracks. Athletes are dressing in baggier clothes, which is not only stylish now but also practical as you can achieve a greater range of motion in bigger clothing.

Knowing this, I have chosen to use a hip hip track within my short film which which follows the generic conventions for this genre on film.
Here is the music video to the track I have chosen to use:

Music

Finally sorted a track now for the film. After lots of research and conversations with my teachers, we managed to come to the conclusion that even though I have heard nothing back from the artist after contacting them, I am still able to use their work. This is because they have no official website, or way of contacting them, or their record label, there is no copyright symbol anywhere within his work, and his work is hosted mainly on the internet for user download, rather than for purchase.

Rainy day

Full on into the editing now. It's starting to pull together and look much more like what I had planned. Still some more footage to come later this week - Huge event happening at Chapelfield Shopping centre in Norwich where the crew is riding an urban setup in jam format in front of a few thousand people. Should be so awesome. Looking forward to it.

Inside Sport

Documentary presented by Michael Johnson about downhill skiing on the run up to the Winter Olympics.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/inside_sport/8493937.stm

Nine Planets Hip Hop

After some research, I have found a song which I think is the best yet. I have contacted the artist on their Myspace page as they have no website themselves, but have been advised by a friend in the music industry that the best way to gain copyright permission is to contact the artist's record label. I researched on the Internet, and have found that Nine Planets Hip Hop, an independent record label support DL Incognito's music. So I have contacted them to see if I get any responses.

DL Incognito

I have contacted another music artist to ask for permission to use one of their songs. I have emailed Dl Incognito who is an underground hip hop artist from Canada who's music is proving to be very popular within the target audience of my film. I just hope I get a reply this time!

Last night.

Got another 8 minutes of decent footage at the slope, and organised a trip to an event in Milton Keynes where I am meeting other riders from around the UK to film some more. Golden opportunity to get some more footage of other riders in a different location. Road trippp!

Editing is coming along nicely

Plan:

Film Plan:

Titled intro
Group interview - what is skiing to you?
Time lapses and traveling shots
hiking / lift / feature intro shots
Shots
Talking / interviews
changing location shots
Shots
Talking / interviews
Location shots
Shots

Film plan:

During editing over the past few hours, I have found it difficult to order the clips so they follow on from each other. So, what I have done is created a film plan and am now editing to that. It is much looser than a storyboard, but outlines the basic principles of the edit so I have a clearer idea when editing.

Footage

I've been editing for a few hours now, and have realised that I am going to need some more good quality footage. I am currently planning a small road trip around a few ski slopes in the UK during half term to hook up with some of my friends and get some more film for the edit.