“Eat It Up!”
How I Edited TCN Pulse’s Cover of Spaghetti By LE SSERAFIM
By: Ella Naegele
4/13/26
Filming Video Precautions
As the leader of this dance cover for TCN Pulse, I was responsible for organizing a videographer and making sure we had all the equipment to film. Unfortunately, because the gimbal we use to film covers is old and has began to break down, most of the time there are major issues with get the camera to calibrate and behave like it should. Because it was acting up so badly during the filming of this Spaghetti cover, we had to film the cover on the gimbal while it was off. By doing this, the camera was unable to stabilize itself and some parts of the footage seem wobbly. Although there are several tools to lessen the effects of non-gimbal use for videos like these, it is probably worthwhile to work on obtaining a good quality, working gimbal.
How Did I Go About Stabilizing the Footage?
When I got my footage back, I immediately put some clips on my timeline in Davinci Resolve to see how easily it would be to stabilize it.
I first utilized the “Stabilization” feature in the video inspector area. By adjusting the cropping ratio, smoothness, and strength of the stabilization, I was able to get to a sweet spot for each clip that I had on my timeline. Each different mode has their own strengths and weaknesses, and I just looked at the outcome of each to see which one worked the best with my footage.
I added two black bars above and below my footage. Usually this helps me with centering footage by giving me more space to zoom in without cropping off the sides of the footage in the aspect ratio of my edit. As well as this, when I used the zoom option underneath the stabilization inspector area, there was certain parts that would be cropped out based on the stabilizing the feature did. While using this in tandem with key-framing my zooms and positions of the footage throughout the timeline, I was able to get a smoother outcome of the footage that was once very shaken.
My Reflections On This Edit
By the end of editing this cover, I definitely felt as though a new gimbal will be needed in the future as I take over the position as head of videography and production for TCN Pulse. We already are in the process of ordering a new one, as we talk to the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) about using the club funds for equipment that will work more smoothly. In all, I think I have a much better understanding of how to use the stabilization feature in Davinci Resolve and comfortability with making keyframes look more natural within moving footage. As I continue editing more TCN Pulse covers, I want to research more about color correcting as I don’t know too much about how to achieve good coloring while editing LOG footage. While we usually shoot all of our covers in LOG, I never really know what exact type of LUTs are best for each cover. I noticed when viewing the cover on youtube in anything less than 1080p the colors clump together in a pixel-like format and the footage seems a little grainy. I researched about this and found that it was because I brought the exposure up too high, yet when I changed the footage to a darker LUT the video looked to moody and did not fit the concept. In the future I will research more about color correcting and hopefully be able to execute it stronger on my next edit.