Planning Editing Styles - Miss Miller

Planning Editing Styles

A variety of editing styles is imperative when creating a successful music video as it makes the video enjoyable and interesting to watch and keeps the focus of the audience. The different types of editing techniques can also give an idea and connote different emotions to match with the narrative or personality of the artist which will ultimately guide the audience into understanding the hidden messages that the artist wants to portray through the lyrics and music video as indie artists usually perform about personal experiences.

The first editing technique that we have planned to include in our music video is an element of montage editing which is a series of shots edited together in a fast paced manor. We have decided to use the montage editing technique for our market scene where our artist and her female love interest are pictured walking round a market together. We have decided to include shots of the different stalls, the people at the market, local surroundings and also our artist and her love interests facial expressions. We have decided to use this type of editing technique as it will create excitement and interest for the audience. This type of editing technique will also represent our artist in different ways to the audience. For example, it could portray our artist as someone who is going through a journey with her loved one, which portrays the fast paced editing as a tool to narrate the time flow of their relationship. It could also represent her as having fun and being lost in time as the fast paced motion expresses her as relaxed and being free to do what she wants. This is conventional to the indie genre as the artists are usually portrayed in a way that portrays them as a role model to the target audience which is relatable for them. This almost encourages them to look up to the artist and aspire to be more like them and forget about their own problems they may be dealing with. The narrative of our music video is about a failed relationship which is causing the artist extreme heartbreak, the style of our music video will be a narrative style based music video that will show flashbacks of the positive and negative times of the artists relationship. With the editing technique of these flashbacks being of a montage style editing it could represent to the audience that the good times in the artists relationship flashed before her eyes and everything that was good in their relationship faded away very quickly. This could ultimately create sympathy for the artist and make the audience see her as an ordinary girl who is going through a hard time in her broken relationship which is a realistic scenario for most of the target audience. They could therefore relate to this situation as they have experienced similar feelings and emotions and for this reason they may be able to build a relationship with the artist. If the audience feel as though they can understand the artist then they are more likely to want to follow her as an artist and look deeper into more of her material and the indie genre that she is from which is promoting herself and the genre. This type of editing technique in some ways challenges the conventions of the indie genre as the indie genre usually focuses on editing techniques such as filters and slow editing to maintain the focus on the artists talent. These techniques are used to capture the moments that tell the audience the narrative and the hidden feelings of the artist and also makes it simplistic for the audience to understand which will make them feel closer to the artist.


The next editing technique that we have decided to include in our music video is slow editing. We have decided to use this editing technique in our field scene which shows the artist and her loved one dancing in the coloured smoke and making memories with each other. We have decided to use a slow editing technique for this scene in our music video as we believed that it would capture the most significant moments of the artists situation and relay to the audience the emotions that the artist has as the slow paced editing will give them enough time to deeply understand the narrative and the concept. We have also decided to use the slow paced editing on the smoke scene as the coloured smoke will be clearly identified and this will connote different characteristics of the artist. For example, it will portray the artist as having a rebellious side as she messes about in the smoke with her girlfriend. This is something that the target audience of teenagers could relate to as this is conventional to this type of target audience. The slow paced editing will represent the artist as a gentle and down to earth as it will show her taking her time understanding and reminiscing on the good times of her relationship which will make the audience feel at ease and relaxed as they learn the personal anecdotes of the artist. With these types of characteristics being portrayed from the editing technique it will make it easier for the audience to be able to relate to the artist and build a relationship with them as they can empathise with the artist and the situation as they may have experienced similar situations and experiences themselves. This type of editing technique is conventional to the indie genre as it allows the audience to interpret the different feelings the artist feels about this situation which gives the video a sense of realism as they are getting true and personal information about the artists life which represents the artist as being open and free to who they are and expressing themselves in a true light. It also connotes the artists vulnerability as the slow editing portrays to the artist that things aren't as positive and exciting as it would connote with a faster paced editing.


The third editing technique that we have planned to use in our music video is a fade transition and a fade to black effect. We have planned to use the fade transition in between shots that are portraying flashback images of her relationship when the relationship was good between her and her girlfriend. Our main aim in using the fade transitions between shots is to make our video flow with ease and create a sense of professionalism. We also aim for our music video to make sense to the audience in hope that the fade transition will portray to the audience that this indicates a memory and a previous experience that the artist is almost dreaming about in the narrative. We want there to be a strong definition between the present shots and the previous shots which are expressed as memories. These shots will portray the artist as heartbroken and vulnerable as we will plan to put in a shot of the artist singing after these flashback shots to show her as almost reminiscing on these memories as she is singing the song. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists usually write songs about their own personal situations to relate to their target audience as these are usually conventional situations that may effect the teenage target audience. The editing technique of fade transitions is conventional to the indie genre as it is a simplistic and a clean technique that doesn't make the music video look too over the top and exaggerated which is not conventional to the indie genre. This editing technique also represents the artist as a person who reminisces on life and finds these sort of situations emotionally draining which therefore presents her as an emotionally unstable person which could be relatable for the target audience and they could therefore understand the difficult emotions she is facing. This could help the artist to gain loyal and caring fans as they begin to watch their material to see how the artist deals with the situations which could give them inspiration for their own personal situations. The audience may feel as though they can deal with these situations because the artist can and this will overall help their lifestyle which will encourage them to watch the artist more.


The final editing technique we have decided to use is filters. We have decided to use a sepia effect to give our music video a vintage and dated effect. We have decided to use the sepia effect when the artist is looking at a photo album filled with pictures and memories from her broken-down relationship. We have also decided to use a black and white filter on parts of our music video as this effect is conventional to the indie genre to represent memories and previous experiences that the artist may be thinking about or reminiscing. We have decided to use the sepia effect as it will portray to the audience that these pictures are from the past indicating that the relationship is no longer the way it used to be and that the artist must be feeling heartbroken about it due to her looking at the old pictures in a fragile way. This will represent the artist as someone who is just like an ordinary girl just like the target audience which will make her more relatable. This is because this is a common situation to go through for many teenagers which is the majority age group of the target audience. They may gain comfort and closure from understanding even artists and celebrities go through these situations and this may make them feel as though they fit in and can handle these situations the same way that the artist can. They may also feel like they are not alone when the artist is performing some of the same activities that the audience did when they was going through this situation. This will help the audience to understand the artist is very much like themselves and they can continue to watch her with confidence that they are not alone. This is ultimately promoting the artist and helping her to gain trustworthy fans.
The black and white filter that will be used to indicate a memory to the audience which will help them gain a further understanding into the narrative and gaining a clearer understanding of the artists emotions about this feeling. For example the black and white filter shows the audience that this is a dull and lifeless moment and the lack of colour makes the audience focus more on the characters facial expressions as there are no distractions to take the attention away from them. This effect also portrays the artist as feeling empty and almost lifeless as this situation has taken a huge toll on her and changed the way she feels about her girlfriend and their relationship. This is conventional as the theme of isolation and heartbreak is generic in the indie genre as it is a realistic and relatable genre which allows the target audience to look up to and inspire to the artist and the way in which they handle the situations.


The target audience can build a relationship with the artist through our different uses of editing techniques. The different editing techniques portray different artist representations to the audience which allows them to represent different personalities to the audience which may make them more relatable for the target audience. For example, our slow editing technique will portray our artist as gentle and humble which will make them seem more open and reliable to the target audience. Yet our montage editing will give the artist an element of fun and will make more relatable for the younger target audience who are more rebellious. I believe that the audience will be able to recognise the different personlaities that the artist is portraying which will therefore make it easier for them to understand the narrative and build a relationship with the artist.