moving pictures and music in harmony

Today I feel compelled to share a quick lesson on editing film footage with music. Although it may seem elementary, a simple marriage of sight and sound, it can make the difference between an awesome experience and an audience’s lackluster indifference. In the spirit of showing instead of telling, let me start by showing you my latest edit I have decided to call “batrock.”

In the video above, you will notice Chinese Batman on a snowboard in hot pursuit of Chinese Joker on skis, then a similar scenario followed by a dangerous base jump, concluded by a news report about a serious Batman going about his day, cheering people up. Essentially, I repurposed these fan-made / cosplay / extreme sports scenarios to align with a raw and original rock ‘n roll score that needed visuals. To my surprise, the footage and the music lined up very well and only required a little snipping and moving to land in the right spot. This pleased me enough to throw it up on YouTube and reminisce about some musical movie experiments I have tried before.

When I started editing video clips, it came from necessity. As an ambitious young actor with a laptop and a few video clips, I decided to cut my footage down to two minutes, add a pounding rock score and create my first show reel… back before YouTube even allowed high quality video uploads.

Having learned a thing or two about filmmaking in school, it was now time to turn theory into action by filming, editing and sometimes scoring my own movies. This soon turned into my first job as a videographer and editor for a small but enterprising theater in Los Angeles. I learned how to consolidate hours of footage into a couple of minutes and sync it with an appropriate musical score. Once I got this art down to a science, it became easier and quicker to “trim the fat” from my videos and give the audience a satisfying experience.

After that job ended, my creative work naturally gravitated towards documentaries which almost always needed musical accompaniment. A few examples:

Sometimes, however, the sounds and music can be found within a real life scene and all you need to do as an editor is find it and overlay it on top of the right visuals. Usually you can cut together all the essential clips to make your point and then find the sounds from the scene which best support those visuals. This creates a more authentic experience for the viewer by immersing them in the sights and sounds from that moment. For example:

When I got really ambitious, I created entire short films where the music was an integral part of the story. In some cases, the music was incidental but still important to set the tone and transition from one scene to the next. Some examples:

In my most extreme case, I documented a controversial historical event, set it to music and soon got kicked off of social media just for the audacity of being there. In this case, being a “citizen journalist” was no excuse for the crime of documenting reality.

There is no textbook-type lesson here, only an appeal to let your creativity, spontaneity and diligence guide you until you create something that is satisfying to watch over and over. Whether you want to make a digital scrapbook of memories, a music video, a comedy, an action-thriller movie or even a groundbreaking documentary of cultural importance, it is essential to make a harmonious marriage of sights and sounds.

I once heard somebody say that in time people will forget small details but they will always remember how you made them feel. Movies are no different. The viewer will always remember how they felt unless they were completely bored. Once you have intelligently designed your story, the quickest way to move your audience is by carefully picking film and score elements that evoke powerful feelings. No matter the genre or style, the right sights and sounds will take your idea from a theory to a memorable reality. So stop telling everyone about your genius ideas and start showing them, one video and audio clip at a time.

-Matthew