Why I edit and how it began...

I've been video editing for as long as I can remember, it all began when the LG Cookie mobile phone was released and the video recorder had a feature that allowed you to speed up your footage and put it to music. I'd go out with my friends and spend time dancing around making those kind of videos for fun.

This then progressed to editing picture slideshows for my friend's Birthdays, making sure the cuts fit the beats of the song. Eventually I switched to editing video footage instead of images and this is where it all began for me.

In 2015 a group of us went to a festival in Belgium called Rock Werchter and instead of taking photos I decided to video the experience. I remember the camera I had at the time wasn't great at filming so I had to borrow a camera off another in the group because hers allowed you to zoom as you recorded - beneficial when you're my height at a concert.

When we got back from the festival I had all this footage but nothing to do with it because I didn't have a laptop efficient enough for video editing - this is where I told my parents I needed a laptop for the upcoming years at sixth form (which to be fair I did) but I know deep down it was primarily because all I wanted to do was make a video out of the footage I'd recorded at the festival...

September 2015 came round and I bought myself a new laptop - an apple mac. The joy I had uploading my footage to iMovie to start editing the festival video, I stayed up until 3am that night to finish the video because I was so excited to get it done and show everyone what I had created. Once I'd edited one long video I didn't want to stop, I still had loads of footage I hadn't yet used so I decided to make edits that were short enough to upload to instagram. Once I'd uploaded a few videos I decided I wanted my instagram account to be a place to post only video edits. I deleted all of my image posts and this is where I started to record more footage to create more videos for my account.

It's quite funny to watch my old footage back. In June earlier this year a few friends came to stay with me in Falmouth and we started watching some of my old footage - with sound. I never used to incorporate the audio footage from the recordings into my edits so I never really cared about what was being said in the background. When I was first starting out with videoing my friends obviously weren't used to it and they'd always pose for pictures - this is where you hear a very young squeaky sounding Emily say "I'm filming", which then later on progressed to "I'm filming - do something cool!". Now it's nice to know that I've progressed to a point where my friends are so accustomed to me filming them that they no longer stand still and awkwardly smile at the lens, they now either talk to the camera or dance for it.

Anyway, within my first year of sixth form I studied Media Studies, a class in which you have to complete annual coursework - my favourite part - the opportunity to edit a video! In my first year of this course for our coursework we had to promote an Artist by creating posters and a promotional video. My love for artist Steven Wilson was blossoming at this particular point in my life and I had a strong attachment to the song 'Lazarus' by Porcupine Tree (one of Steven Wilson's many bands) so I decided to create a music video for it. After researching into the meaning of the song I compiled together a storyboard set at a train station nearby. I used boyfriend (at the time) Laurence as my protagonist who was grieving for the loss of his mother. With some help filming from friends we had shot the footage within a day and by night I was already at my laptop editing it. The video was coming together but it was definitely missing something. Within the official music video for the song the band include old home videos, something I didn't have as my parents didn't record footage of us growing up. However, it just so happened that Laurence's parents had recorded his upbringing and had actually dug it all out around the time we were filming. Laurence sent over some footage and I edited it in, creating the video that I not only used for my Media coursework but I also sent off to a small film festival category within the Cambridge Film Festival itself. This was a long shot, I'd never entered a film festival before and it was a motivational speaker that our sixth form had brought in who told me to send it off. I remember I was on my last day of holiday with my parents and Laurence when I received an email saying my piece had been shortlisted for the competition and was in the final four. It wasn't long after that I was invited to a small cinema in Cambridge to pick up a small award for getting a 'Special Mention' for my film. Thinking back to it, being only 16 at the time this was actually quite something and it's what lead me to do Film here at Falmouth University.

Since this experience, my editing skills have progressed. For my second year studying Media I created a campaign video for male mental health awareness - a video I unfortunately ended up losing due to accidentally deleting a whole editing file whilst trying to free up storage on my laptop - a lesson I have learnt and something I will always loathe - storage problems. I've also continued to post video edits of my experiences - primarily festivals - on my instagram account for two years and am this year completing a module within my Film course on Post Production. Editing for me is something I don't see stopping for a long time, writing this now I'm actually off to edit a promotional video for the company my Dad works for and after that edit the footage from our holiday this year to Croatia.

I see real beauty in filming the happiness of my friends and family and these videos I create will always remind me of things I've done in my life and a lot of the time they perfectly sum up the experience.

Video editing is something I'd really love to take on as a career, I've always said my dream job would be a YouTuber but I need to learn to use copyright free music before I can start anything like that - whoops!

p.s I've linked the video 'Lazarus' that I sent off to the film festival below (click on the image). There are lots of things I'd change now, having completed a year at uni studying Film, however I'll always be proud of this video and what it achieved.

Link to Lazarus Video