For my project I chose to embark on producing, filming, and editing a music video for my band Diluvio AZ. Over the last year we had been in the studio recording our first full length album and we chose to put out our song “American girl” as the new single for the record. This song incorporates a Mariachi intro which was written by Angel Duran and our vocalist Alejandra Karlet. We feel the song does an excellent job describing who we are as a band while also shining light into our Mexican-American heritage. Which is why I felt that embarking on a project where we can show who we are as a band is important. And what better way to do that then with a music video! We have also been preparing for a summer tour to Mexico City so this single couldn’t come at a better time. 
 
We chose to film the Video in a few distinct settings over two consecutive days to get all the shots we needed. The first day we traveled to Nogales AZ and filmed right along the border fence. Then we crossed into Mexico and recorded in Nogales Sonora as well. The next day we were scheduled to film in Tucson however, the weather became a big issue which put a halt to our plan. Also one of the members in the mariachi had a family emergency so that also became an issue for filming. We had no other choice and were forced to postpone the session and reschedule for the following weekend. These were just a couple of many delays that became really stressful for us because we had taken days of work in order to film for that weekend. Regardless,  I had to make the most of the situation so that we could stay on schedule so I began editing the shots we had already gotten throughout the following week. I compiled a basic skeleton for the film and discovered that we were missing some very important shots of our back up vocalist singing his parts so when the following weekend came we were better prepared to film the scenes that we needed. 
There was also another major issue that I feel was completely my fault, while we were filming on the border we felt pressed on time. Since the border patrol was basically watching our every move and we didn’t take the time to make sure that the four cameras we used were properly white balanced and set up. So while we were editing we had to do some major color correction. This was a huge learning experience for me and was very time consuming. At first it was a real hassle but little by little it started getting easier. It also helped that Edwin Cordova who was our main film director had a better understanding of how to edit and fix color issues so, he really came in handy then when I got stuck on a trying to fix some shots. 
I still don’t feel that the project is completely done and the video still needs some minor detailing before our new scheduled release on Cinco de Mayo but we have come along way in this short amount of time and created something I’m very proud of. 
 

This week we have been hard at work editing the new Music Video for American Girl. It may seem like an easy task but it is incredibly time consuming. Don’t get me wrong, we’re having a blast editing and using a lot of random B-roll shots that we took. They really add an extra lawyer of sweetness to this project, which we hope will give an in-depth look as to who we are as a band. It’s been fun digging through the huge pile of footage that we took.  The sad part is that we can only use two minutes and 37 seconds of it. Yes! The song is that short. But so are some of the other best thing in life. (LOL) and If it was any longer would it even be punk?  But in all seriousness, sometimes I which the song was a little longer so that we could show some of the amazing shots that we wont be able to use.   

As for the more technical aspect of the edit. We began to work with Final cut pro which used to be the best editing soft wear out there but in recent years has been overshadowed by Premier Pro. We were running into issues importing all the footage from different cameras into Final Cut and finally just decided to take the plunge and experiment with Adobe’s Premier Pro. So learning a new soft wear has been a little challenging but little by little it became abundantly clear that Adobe has a better video editing program. It allows for a so much flexibility in editing. However, we are still trying to figure out how to color correct. While using different cameras we encountered an issue where each camera had a different color tone to it. It’s not a big difference but if we want this project to look professional we really need to color correct this issue. And like I said before, this is very time consuming.
So while we figure out all the technical issues, We hope you’ve enjoyed these insight pictures on what the video editing process looks like.  Tune in next week for another update!