Action Match

In order to edit the action match seen above, the footage was opened in Serif Movie Maker and placed on the video track.

Next the footage was selected and the trim tool was clicked, opening the window (left).

By using the gage on the viewing panel, the footage could be watched by the millisecond, thus allowing the clips to be edited with precision.Once the correct section had been selected, I clicked the ‘Trim start’ tool which crops the clip according to the gage arrow.

I then played the clip again, ensuring that the action was occurring relatively close to the beginning of the crop. By doing this it would make sure the that the clip remained interesting to the audience.The yellow bar shows the current trimmed footage, therefore you don’t have to watch the unnecessary (navy) areas.

When selecting the point to cut the footage I had to be very specific because the action math effect meant that the next clop would have to align almost perfectly to ensure a seamless, fluid transition.The pose I decided to cut the footage on was as the actress began to look to the right. By cutting on a stationary pose it meant aligning the next clip would be much easier than dealing with the actress moving abruptly.

As with the previous cut, I positioned the gage arrow so that the actress was in the correct place and pose, then using the ‘Trim End’ button the footage was further cut so that all that is left is the finished clip.

As you can see, the next (left) clip follows a similar course of action, with the singer facing in the same direction and is positioned within the same place as the previous shot.I followed the same procedures as before, using the arrow tool to trim the footage appropriately.

Once completed, I placed the two trimmed sections of footage onto the video track which will allow them to be viewed together.I had to zoom into the track to ensure the two clips were placed beside one another with no gap or overlapping which will effect the fluency of the transition. After playing the clips together any alterations for positioning or run time can be added.

These are stills from the footage which act as the match-on-action. As you can see, both shots need to be similar in order to make this transition effective.Below is the point of cross-over where both the images blur/merge before continuing. This blend can be enhanced by using the cross-fade effect to stretch out the time they overlap and also fade the intensity to enforce the idea of merging.