vidding update

[hexenmeister]

I signed up for C6D Big Bang! Ahhh! It's my first time signing up for any kind of fandom challenge thing.

Inspired by vidbigbang, I've decided to vid Fraser to a song that's 5 and a half minutes long. Is this a bit much for a novice? Maybe so! But the song/concept has sunk its teeth into my brain and it's the only thing I'm excited about making right now. So here we go. It's a big undertaking, but I think I can do it. I'm happy to have, through the big bang, a group of people also working on labor-intensive projects who will encourage me to actually finish the thing. Hopefully someone out there will be willing to beta the vid as well, and I'll start finding a revisions/feedback process that works. (Right now that process seems totally shrouded in mystery to me!)

In the interest of understanding the form better, I've been watching a lot of vids lately, including ones from fandoms I'm not actively in and source material I haven't watched. Some of my favorites from this week's (ish) round of vid discovery:

I Think I'm by ClawR (All the Star Trek series. "What does it mean to be whatever you are?")
Hymn by theletterelle (Black Swan. "A hymn to the glory of becoming.")
Blood//Water by maristu (Black Panther. "What's your alibi?")
Blank by Lim ("a Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes vid to Neopolitan Dreams by Lisa Mitchell")

The Long-Form Ones:
Horse also by Lim (Peaky Blinders vid about Tommy Selby. Almost 10 minutes long)
Live Through This: A Supernatural Vid Album by sisabet and sweetestdrain ("fuck you, make me real." Twelve vids about the women of Supernatural. Almost 40 minutes long!!)

I'm also reading some from this Fanlore Timeline of Vidding Meta. I'm trying to think critically about what makes the vids I love work especially well, and pay close attention to the structure of the longer ones. It's hard to stay in an analytic mindset though, even on a rewatch, and not get lost in all the !!!!!feeelings!!!! they give me!

nonetheless, here are a few reflections on what I've learned (phrased as reminders to myself for this big bang project):

• don't get too literal-minded about the lyrics
• you can redefine almost any word by associating it repeatedly with an image
• where you can, choose an image that is visually striking; something that speaks for itself even with no plot context
• the cut wants to happen a bit before the associated sound or lyric
• it's OK to let the footage breathe
• relatedly: brains need time to process a shot and its meaning.
• I'm still trying to wrap my head around why some images seem to take a lot more time for my brain to process than others, and whether there are handy rules that apply across the board. (Like... maybe I need less time to understand what I'm seeing when there are bright colors and motion? Or when it's scary or exciting? Or, possibly, I'm making that up.)

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

There's also the weird thing about vidding from a closed, not-very-long canon, especially one that's as old as Due South, which is all the footage ends up becoming very familiar... I don't know how people deal with that.

For super-fast cuts that I found very well done and effective, but too fast for me to mentally process all of them, check out Scribe's Ordinary Day (available on AO3).

Also, I am aware that state of the art / fashion / received wisdom about vid style evolves, and do, for example, someone told me that overly literal is considered passe', and I've noticed vid have gotten into fast cuts like movies have. But it's also the case that there will always be viewers with d fashioned tastes... :)

[hexenmeister]

I'm definitely thinking about the familiar-footage problem. Like Sisabet said, Luminosity did a lovely thing with recontextualizing familiar clips in Dirty World. Right now, I'm trying to rewatch whole episodes in search of new clips that aren't already in my mental library. I'm also planning to mess around with different ways to superimpose images onto each other. (At the same time, I'm trying not to trip too hard about retreading familiar territory and just... tell the story I want to tell as best I can).

I think with my note about "getting too literal" with the lyrics, it's less about disliking it when clips correspond literally to lyrics. It's more about reminding myself that I can use stuff that doesn't fit into that narrow constraint.

I love Ordinary Day! heart eyes.

[desireearmfeldt]

That all sounds very wise.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

[writedragon]

You touched on something really important: the feels. The best vids take an idea or a feeling and heighten it, pushing as far as they can. It’s like a meta-analysis, but visual rather than merely verbal. I’m so glad you joined the BB and can’t wait to see what you come up with!

[hexenmeister]

Yes, the feels are of the utmost importance! I'm majorly getting into my feels as I lay clips down on the timeline. I'm like... not sure how much it will make other people feel anything. But it's making me so emotional about caribou.
Thanks :) I'm happy to be doing the BB with you!

[writedragon]

Bahaha! SO emotional about caribou. Love it. If you feel something when you create it, your viewers will feel it too. We don't have control over what, exactly, but if your heart's in it, it'll evoke something. Have fun!!

[feroxargentea]

(Irrelevant sidetrack: caribou actually make me slightly cross, because I once wrote a whole fic and got every animal name wrong -- I'd used all the European names instead of the North American ones, and the translation was a nightmare. You don't even want to know how confusing elk can be. By the end I was tearing my hair out, "Why can't caribou just be reindeer??")

[hexenmeister]

Oh no! That does sound frustrating.

[feroxargentea]

you can redefine almost any word by associating it repeatedly with an image

And you can redefine an overly familiar image/clip by associating it with unexpected lyrics. Always fun!

where you can, choose an image that is visually striking; something that speaks for itself even with no plot context

Yes! A couple of my favourite dS vids were apparently made by a non-fan (for a friend) after watching the entire thing on mute - just *looking* at it. I dunno if that's true but it's a good story.

Like... maybe I need less time to understand what I'm seeing when there are bright colors and motion? Or when it's scary or exciting? Or, possibly, I'm making that up.

Not sure (I know nothing about vids!) but a rush of fast cuts seem to work okay at the climax of a song, esp if it's footage of motion, lots of kinetic energy, as long as all the movements are in the same direction. You don't really need to process each clip then, only the overall flow.

[hexenmeister]

Yeah! Good points. The distinction between creating a coherent sense of flow vs. expecting the viewer to understand what's happening in any given clip feels like an important one.

Holy crap, that is some great vidding lore. Are the vids in question around the internet somewhere?

[feroxargentea]

I think they were these two: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176698 and https://archiveofourown.org/works/176699, but oh gosh, please don't trust my memory, it's a very hazy thing! Maybe I'm thinking of some other vid...

[hexenmeister]

Agh I had seen Out Here but I hadn't seen the commentary tracks for it!! They are great!

Looks like heresluck did watch due South, but kept this fact secret from sisabet and renenet so the vid would be a surprise. Which is such a sweet story :')

[clevermanka]

I'm just always so impressed by people who have the courage to take on vidding. Go, you! Looking forward to seeing your work!

[hexenmeister]

Aw, thanks!

[luzula]

Very cool, good luck! \o/

[hexenmeister]

Thank you! (I've definitely been thinking about my Leaving Home feelings as I make some parts of this one.)

[sisabet]

I think a Fraser vid to a 5:30 song sounds perfect - he is a complex guy and you need time to really explore that when the mood strikes. As long as you still have things to say while you are laying clips - your song isn’t too long.

I feel like Lum’s recent vid Dirty World really explored 20 year old heavily vidded source in fresh ways: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17938229

Watching vids is a great way to level up and you’ve picked some great ones listed. I also recommend sweetestdrain’s Land - https://archiveofourown.org/works/7185902

[hexenmeister]

Thank you so much for the advice and the rec-- these are both wonderful.

Land and Horse both use the same song, and it's a cool one to see 2 different takes on. It works super well for pacing and metaphor because it moves in chaotic waves and keeps building on its central images.

(Also yesss, I loved how Dirty World recontextualized familiar clips!)

[hexenmeister]

Also, I'm loving the things Land does with superimposing different scenes onto each other.

[juniperberry]

1) YAAAAAY! I'm so glad you're having so much fun learning to vid!

2) I don't know if you've seen this vid (and it's Hannibal, so obligatory gore warning), but the pacing and editing have always struck me as pretty fab, and you might enjoy it from an editing/vidding standpoint if not for the actual content. :D

Hannibal: Glitter and Gold

[hexenmeister]

:) Thanks for the rec! I hadn't seen it. Yeah, the flow between clips is SO GOOD. Also wow, I am really amazed at how they integrated the action audio into the song's percussion.

[juniperberry]

Yesss, the flow is lovely and the timing of the audio to the beat is just perfect. I have the song downloaded, and aside from being twice as long (which is fine, I think editing songs for vids is an art), I have to say I do miss those glass-shattering sounds accompanying the beat....

Yay, I'm glad you liked it! That particular vidder does some excellent work.

[thisaintbc]

aaaahhhh, I'm so excited for this!! I love your playlists on tumblr & I'm really intrigued to see how you line up visuals with music--I feel like each vidder has their own style that feels kind of related to their understanding of the music, if that makes sense, and I feel like you've been doing cool interesting things with music so far!

(On a tangential note I'm also really pumped that someone else in the fandom is excited about character study playlists, so please feel free to hit me up if you ever wanna talk music ^_^ although be aware that my taste in music is, uh, I think "daddish" might be the best term.)

[hexenmeister]

eeee, thank you!

I love your taste in music! I got drunk with my housemate the other night and we listened to some of your country music recs and enjoyed them IMMENSELY.

[thisaintbc]

aaww, thank you *blushes* I'm glad you enjoyed them! <3