Feat. the music of Moon Taxi
Keep it Going!
In October, 2018, Cincinnati’s, Revel, hosted a charitable wine tasting to benefit The Ken Anderson Alliance, which assists adults with developmental disabilities. Some of my home city’s most generous philanthropists were in attendance, Including my parents. I am so proud of the great work they have been doing. Earlier this summer my father, Eric handed me the footage from this event (courtesy of Anthony Breen), and asked if I could compile a 1-2 minute promo video.
This was a huge honor, and also a unique challenge. For one, I had never edited a video from scratch. For hobby I have made roughly a dozen music videos / montages, which I have shared on this blog. In all such videos I borrowed the work / editing of Hollywood’s best. This is the first time I can take credit for 100% of the editing, although I must acknowledge several people who have directly assisted me here: my father Eric, my personal film and animation liaison, Audrey, and my girlfriend, Becky ~ Your encouragement and creative suggestions have been enormously insightful and helpful ~ Thank you! And thank you to my older sister, Juli, and brother-in-law, Joe, for inspiring the music selection. They also helped organize this event.
This is also the first video I have edited on my new software, Adobe Premiere, which is considered an industry standard. Prior I was using Apple iMovie, which lacks certain features that I needed for this project. I simply cannot wait to make my next music video, armed with this powerful new tool. Shoutout to For Tyeth, who’s ascension in graphic design has inspired me to begin honing my craft of video editing. Star Wars lovers I implore you to check out his creative lightsaber designs.
I have begun the road to becoming a professional film/video editor. I have much to learn still. And that makes me happy. It gives me plenty to look forward to. Leveling up now, The Perfect Game.
E.F.
Experience Film 
“I have begun the road to becoming a professional film/video editor”. If you ask me, you are already there! 😊Job well done, I would say!
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Thanks for the encouragement, Michel! 🙏 I did learn a TON on this project. However, it took me a long time and many drafts to complete. I’m going to keep learning and practicing to get faster, especially!
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This is a very slick presentation E.F. great job! I like how you used the changes in tempo in the music to syncopate the footage or add fades/wipes etc (one example is when the bartender handed out 2 or 3 glasses you fractionally paused the footage to match the beat of the music).
And in this week of celebrating the Moon landings, I’ll paraphrase the great Neil Armstrong and say you have taken “one small step for man, one giant leap for E.F.” in your road to success!
p.s. and thank you for the kind words and shout-out.
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I am so glad you noticed the syncopations! 🙌 There sure are a LOT of ways to miss the beat in a Bad way. But Sometimes I try to accentuate that off beat with a hand wave or head nod, for instance, to save an edit from feeling cliche. It can also prevent a person from looking awkward or contrived. And sometimes I only realize that once I’ve tried it the other way first haha
Ahh yes, the Quick-draw bartender! Took me MANY tries, and stress ball squeezes to get that one right 😆 Had to combine jump cuts and speed ramps. A feat I could never have pulled off using my old software.
🚀🌕✨🎬💯
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Hello again, ah well, I used to be a member of a cabaret act and operated the stage lighting and I would manually sync the lighting patterns to the music so I notice little timing tricks like that!
I think Blender has similar editing controls, there are some effects functions that can be used to speed up/down video clips, but it can be tricky doing such small scale edits. (I have progressed into animations in Blender now as well as doing the 3D modelling – hopefully you’ll get to see a few short clips in upcoming posts).
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That’s neat about lighting cabaret. I’ll bet that was fun / challenging.
Would love to see the animations! I’ll be on the lookout.
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Hi E.F. I have done two small 4second clips already. One was of my TY Silencer hilt based on the Kylo Ren starfighter, and the second was for the “Annihilator” saber based on the Star Destroyer. They aren’t mind blowing but considering my laptop is more than 12 years old getting it to do animation was an achievement.
(And the cabaret act was a challenge as I was also dressed in full costume. But the technique wasn’t too far from playing a keyboard really.)
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