Editing the Performance

We are currently working on editing our shots from our x2 days of performance filming into our sequence of narrative, keeping the different threads on x2 separate timelines in order to simplify the process. The computers we have been using are extremely clogged up and therefore take a great deal of time in order to operate on final cut. Thus rendering files has become an extremely time consuming job and has majorly slowed down our production. We are concentrating on stringing together the entire song through performance clips, even though around 50-60% of the final music video will be narrative based, purely because we want to leave all our options open in terms of our overall style  and shot range. Something which has proved particularly challenging is lip synchronisation, mainly because our lead male singer (Bing) harmonises 'The Vaccines' song and has trouble enunciating his speech, singing at times as though he were a ventriloquist. We had to be extremely brutal in choosing the selection of clips & spent a great deal of time moving the audio along the time line / slowing it up or speeding it down, in order for his vocals to match the rhythm of the song. We are aware at times that the narrative/performance is perhaps incongruous to the audio, though we planned to sustain this effect in order to make our piece as abstract and surreal as possible. In fact today when editing my co-worker said "If we hadn't made this, I would have no clue what it was about", and my response was..."yes but that doesn't matter" - simply because we aimed for a basic thread of intertextuality & historical references, but even if our audience members do not understand the intended plot, they will still (hopefully) be able to gain pleasure from viewing our piece, which is after all our key aim - along with selling 'Suburban Typo' as a commercialised industry product.