Editing To Audio

Creating a visual sequence to a piece of audio offers much room for experimentation and interpretation, however it is vital to reflect the mood and atmosphere of the track correctly. This can be done in many ways; the lyrical content may be presented in an obvious manner, or the ambience of the composition can be illustrated symbolically.

In this instance, I chose a selection of vividly graphic clips which express the tone of the music and correspond to the tempo and rhythm, such as paint drips, ink in water and flashing lights. I edited these in such a way that they were responsible for representing the various elements of the beat, such as the kick and snare. This worked effectively, by authentically creating a visual manifestation of the audio. The most challenging aspect that I faced whilst doing this, was cutting the clips precisely in time to the track, however this allowed me to strengthen my editing skills through trial and error.

I also decided to incorporate a variety of dance sequences, in order to add a contemporary feel and portray the music from an alternative perspective. A majority of the shots involved quite a classic form of dance, whereas the audio has an opposing tone. This, however, resulted in a contrasting balance between the audio and visual, which worked particularly well because the shots fir the pace of the song.

As well as placing various clips side by side in the form of a montage, I also made use of layering videos on top of each other. Whilst doing this, I wanted to ensure that it wouldn't get too visually complex and hard to digest for the viewer, therefore when layering I chose to have at least one clip which was relatively simple.

Overall, this task gave me an opportunity to explore my editing skills, as well as allowing me to experiment way of representing meaning from audio through a sequence of visuals. I particularly enjoyed the rhythmic element, which was a prominent aspect as as result of editing to audio. I look forward to using the skills I developed in doing this and applying them to other projects.