Vividcon 2010 Panel Notes
Here are my panel notes for Vividcon 2010. These are all of the panels except Teaching With Vids and Town Hall (which I hope other people have some notes on). This was made much easier this year by having a laptop I could actually bring to panels and typing it out as I went along. Still, people can talk very fast so I obviously missed some things and nothing is typed up perfectly. If you notice any mistakes, please let me know so I can correct them or add more to comments that I didn't get everything from. Most vids have the LJ name of the vidder and the ... usually means I missed things in between.
In Soviet Russia, Vid Edits You
-Sergei Eisenstein: these guys worked in silent film period, in russia it was about revolutionary work so films were political
-metric montage: the editing follows a specific number of frames, cutting to the next shot no matter what is happening within the image, this montage is used to elicit the most basal and emotional reaction of vid (timing)
-clip: Sergei Eisenstein's october: used editing to express actual firing machine cuts...
-vid example: pluto (by rowena-beginning): editing was all about timing, flashes were in her head to chart journey, timing and theme worked and was perfectly in sync (metric = timing of clips)
-rhythmic montage: includes cutting based on time but using visual composition of the shots along with a change in the speed...
-battleship potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein: movement within shots, soldiers walking on left marching on beat to music, people running away in other motion, baby carriage rolling down the steps like marchers
-ex. like my very own by jarrow: actual motion from adama juxtaposed with kara's, specifically walking down the hallway chasing her, not in the show but was able to create
-example: the good, the bad and the ugly: tension builds with cutting, the music was static, editng was medium to closeup to extreme closeup, rhymic montage, tension builds so feel uncomfortable and want the gun to go off
-ex. Pluto (end of vid): editing went from slow build to culmination, to fight at the end, when is it going to end
-tonal montage: uses emotional meaning of the shots, not just manipulating temporal or rrhythmic , more emotional complex messages
-battleship potemkin.: feel sad because of the editing, movie shifted with shots of boats/sunlight and then come back to being dead
-ex. care to stay (tearful_eye): all the shots of the sky, theme of it matched death, suicide, sacrifice
-overtonal montage: culmination of everything for more complicated effect
-ex. mother: vsevolod: ice melting and then uses ice as a means to escape, important thematic
-ex. dust and water (tearful_eye): waits for time lord whole life and he never comes back: timing important with distinct cutting, motion in the shots, tonal with music choice that was perfect for them and then thematically worked because timelord with repeating shots and clock with waiting
-intellectual montage: conscious creation of new ideas when two shots or images are cut together to form a new idea or object
-ex. strike by Sergei Eisenstein: people shooting strike workers with juxtaposition of bull slaughter, together it becomes more meaningful with workers being slaughtered and herded like cattle
-ex. Effigy by obsessive24: horse from russian film, gwen juxtaposed with paintings of camelot, together gwen is the horse rising
ex. filthy mind by sol_se: believe all the characters are all there because all the cutting worked with each other, action each way...
-Lev Kuleshov, kuleshov effect: in his view, cinema consists of fragments and the asembly of those fragments...
-different shots, same reaction shot: new meaning through editing, projected new emotions onto him when saw different things
-ex. hitchcock clip: women holding a baby in arms, he smiles=kindly man, sympathetic, now put in of a girl in bikini, same clip of smile=now lecherous, no longer benign
-ex. what we had by cherryice: martha reacting to doctor hugging master, in original was moving head to avoid laser and changes meaning of her head movement, same with jack
-ex. lightning field by bradcpu: kara reacts to r/k sex but juxtaposed sad look changes meaning
-second experiment: starving man + soup vs. prisoner + escape route, then switched reaction shots. same meaning?
-ex. hollywoodgrrl doctor who vid: how long are you going to stay, its a lie, what happens if rose is asking the doctor and then their dialogue switched, meaning if it's still a lie because they wont stay together
Paging Dr. Vidder
-the vid can take it somewhere else completely
-sometimes a character doesn't make sense in canon but you can frame it so it does make sense, casual effect, something happens in history makes logical sense but you have to find it, always there, nothing happens in a vacuum, but does in the show
-ex. here i dreamt i was an architect by kuwdora: explanation of how sylar relates to women, mother figures, how pattern is repeated, leads to violence
-viewpoint in vid is not the message source is telling you, obsessive 24 used minor characters and did it as their pov, effects how we see the source, rebuild canon by choosing different narrator, not the one you typically have (main characters), songs for the narrative allows us to do that, make sure the visuals/song connect so you can take what people know of the source and make them see it completely differently
-slow down ghandi by obsessive24: used a framing device, execution, came back at end, conversation of two characters talk about what happened in between
-lost the show: vids can piece back together a narrative, many stories going on at the same time for each character, with flashbacks, can be difficult to vid esp. since dont always know the whole story, can rely on emotions
-ex. La marée haute by buffyann: used external source of waves, vid build like a wave, goes back and forth in time, metaphor of waves, used the logic of desmend's character, so much going on but what matters is his heart, came back to the same objects, the images that were really important to him, shows early on in the vid what is really important to him so when she goes back to the photograph you get it...also returns to the poster which is exactly what he's about, where does he find honor and adventure, where can he find both or can he
-went beyond canon, the doctor cant be human in alternative reality but in vid, it makes sense for milly, ex. suicide note by hwg, its au but it explores what happens in canon, doesnt fix but shows why that might not work, fix the show by showing how wrong the show is
-millylicious's displaced: twisted relationship with claire's power which explains how she relates to other people, similiar to cutting herself on show (jumping from brige), imposing self-harm, she loses power to feel pain which made her feel human, if they hurt her, she'll seek out that relationship so she'll feel she belongs.
-third person pronoun, valid ways to approach story (focus only part of character)
-by choosing specific focus, you can raise something and make people focus on a specific part of something, microscope
-part of making a character study vid, your choice, not too narrow
-any character is complex so you have to pick a starting point and it helps you express other things
-makes it different from the entire show, look what you missed, harder to do when focused on the entire character (or else long)
-have to carefully construct argument, narrower the focus, the stronger the argument
-what a nation or person will choose to remember, im this person because the people before me did this...vid that explored wider context ex. all is full of love by obsessive24 with use of external source to show all the things character has seen and how the character relates to life
-ex. right in two by rhoboat, didnt like it went outside of canon and didnt like the point, can explain the narrative
-shows are made in a particular universe but also creaters are influenced by outside world, you need to go outside to explain things, the show might not have made it clear in itself
-ex. almost done real by carlymegan w/ neverending story: takes heres the context of growing up with series but comments on outside world
-ex. Effigy by obsessive2: juxtaposes merlin's representation with past source of her (pictures), comments on source, shows how show messed up traditional stories, so many arthurian legends and it shows all the other legends of it
-food for thought: cut a scene different, skip over things you didnt like, recut scenes so it made sense and was awesome, dont need to stick with canon but can fix the narrative you dont think worked
Vidding as Choreography
-ex. swan lake clip-matthew bournes: fanfic of fanfic, written in 1800s, choreography was lost?, then it was handed down so movements havent changed but Matthew Bournes changed the music a little bit but changed it to a gender bending AU, this was filmed on stage, not Tchaikovsky music but vidded it to chinese song
-timing worked almost the same, timed well, did they get dancers to dance with chinese song (no)
-most dancers have a breath, they have different rhythm, dancers count in 8 not 4, need more space to fill in that time, vidders have opposite perspective, the amount of time you take to do 10 things in music is short, music is surpringly translatable so dancing can pick up the larger form
-reason to pick: when we look at dance, we're conditioned to think of things as dance b/c of performance, we are bringing meaning to movement but vidding is dance even if we dont think about it that way
-emotional texture comes from glances, from touch, from sense of difference, everything else is context in the style, extending hands in a line = yearning is something specific to style, context is important ie extending arms at bus stop not sexy
-dance vocab has been created, for us also with fic, within vidding, things have been given meaning, when vidders edit clips, we practice our dance
-Batsheva dance clip: unique duet, they use bollywood film song, audience wouldnt understand it but get that its a love song, it really shows not just the slash aesthetic but the way that dancing is choreography, no ones making out, no ones stripping, no overt stripping gesutre
-intense bonding shown by them mirroring each other
-weight sharing, to show vulnerability and relative strength, really gendered, andercentric thing is charged because tension is seen so a lot of choreography is violent versus two women which is read as homosocial, dancing is male gaze, must have women with other men to put into context of why men are interacting so there's a reason two men are together within proximity, -is someone being thrown or being held, vids use this with violence scenes and hurt scenes and show with violence: theyre touching each other!
-different frames with m/m and f/f because of the different ways they are choreographed
-one night fandom: using metaphor as elaboration on the same scene
-bhava (emotion) gestured, bhava is what a dancer does when they're emoting something, rasa: what an audience gets from it, juice doesn't work w/o the audience, not the actors job to embody it for themselves, the gesture will invoke something from the audience, rasik: someone who appreciates the juice, not everyone can get it just like fandom, sometimes not meant to be gotten w/o inside information
-when vidders are choreographing their vids, they're speaking to people who get it, the tiny references might not be gotten, the layers come from physical reaction to seeing it not just intellectual
-ex. clip of indian dance; he's portraying a woman in it, its culturally specific but gestures of longing and sadness are doing in a gendered way, he didn't need to cross dress to be a woman just like woman switch between a man or woman and there's no indication of that change, just like songs are sung by different gender in a pov of vid
-gestures are directed to someone that they arent in the source or what the source may not have wanted to say about that body
-in indian classical dance, it does not tell a full story its kind of like an atmospheric vid/drabble, theyre still pining for their lover, may remember times past or describing beauty but nothing happens and also, its not new, familiar with every story and also familiar with metaphor, not going there for the newness, different aesthetic, in vidding we are looking at something we already know, we are looking for the beauty in it, a lot of vidding is in it, for the unvidded clip or say something new about the clips, theres an idea of appreciating embellishment and metaphor in just seeing the performance
-you dont ever see the choreographer's vision because its always interpreted through the dancer, just like vidders are dancing but we wont see the vidders dance we'll see it through the bodies that are dancing
-different between theater director and choreographer but in terms of choreographer you have to be a good dancer (not universal), you need to feel the movement in the body itself, the emotional dance already experience through fic or talking about show so we'll already performed the dance so now we can translate it through these other bodies
-ex. The taxonomy of hotness by wickedwords and sherrold: chains tied up, fannish gesture just like many dances wont mean something unless you know
-batsheva clip: same way we give a lot of emotion and intent into parts of body (hips), can be stripped away by adding space and making it flat, with just one person and music clearly choreography for it, it would have read differently like someones doing something strong with their hips including bodie's virtuolosity, its vague, theyre not doing it for each other, choreographer's choice of music, spacing and lighting just like vidders
-like vidders, about guys or we'll go really fast (fast clips) and stop at one thing, one moment hand on the rose thats important moment (longer clip) just like space in dancing, dance is still like a screen, in balcony, core dancers bring sense of rhythm like in vidding, clips of people put together very quickly, create sense of wholeness, 30 people doing one thing like girls with guns
-ex. us by lim: helps make sense that you can't tell what people are doing, adding textures, the dots theme as dance, see it as fannish references are happy but you look at the big picture so you arent irritated at not being to see it
-also with dance like to sit up front so can see expressions but sitting back can help get you more of a thought of whats going on as a whole
-us is a good example of postmodern to vidding, shares aesthetic with trying to render the body mundane
-weight sharing, find physical moments where people support another, hold them from danger and from their vulnerability, also hugs
-each movement in dance clearly has a meaning that i dont know but can clearly see like ...like vids cant see whats going on and know something is, can recognize the language, can recognize the intent
-enlightening on clip choice, two men together evokes a sort of power and a woman as a diffuser, look two guys in a shot together, open up ideas of why you pick one clip other than another clip
-how men translate violence versus women nurturing, like two men arguing and then they kiss (torchwood), but have been watching this in vids for years, coding that
Structure Redux
-i do a lot of intercutting with scenes, weave them all together so it'll make sense
-dualbunny vids: scene, scene, scene, previous scene, scene, previous scene, scene
-bookending to start to it, scenes fulfill what i want vid to be, i start with beginning or end (or middle) so it keeps me on task, might find something prettier but its a visual to do list
-i put in what i know goes where so i can work whats filled in, but then its okay to take it out if i have other stuff in, i am productive, helps: sometimes lyrically or metaphorically
-theres a clip thats wrong in i enjoy being a girl (by absolutedestiny), i put it first but doesnt fit tone, starbuck in dress and then turns around, seems out of place, auction vid im getting it done, still bothers
-other risk: get bored if put the good stuff down first
-at points where it doesnt make sense, have to keep going on it, let a part suck for awhile and then have an eureka moment and figure it out, then move around or delete and then it falls together, break up between lyrics/verses and choruses
-a lot has to do with genre, has to do with what kind of genre, ship vs. ensemble, is it oh arent they cute or is it unrequited longing
-ensemble vid: i use shots of every character thats going to be in the vid, first 9 clips = 9 characters, either end up as different indiduals per shot or as a group together in one shot
-strong arguments that flow, i have arguments and then dont touch them
-anchor clips: red dragon clips (history repeating by killabeez), strong visual pop that speaks visually/emotionally can help structure individual look
-music tells where storytelling goes, where an effect should go, etc
-some people are pickier/specific about songs, some people are more drawn to what songs to vid, those songs would make them easier to vid vs. pop songs
-effects: crossfades, zoom ins are crutch, used a lot, hard to not use something that works
-go back to a main clip multiple times
-lyrics are primary structure of my vids, each thoughts on each lyric written down
-think of intro, verse, etc, linear vidding, reason i want to do vid is the final shot, trying to get through vid to get through that final shot, i want this to happen in intro, i want you to feel this and then look through clips to find, throw everything at intro and then go back and chop until they fit
-intro is intro, the verses are relationship, chorus are things exploding, alternates between relationshp and plot and then bridge is exposition, depends on song structure, can fall back on pop song structure
-mark where the beats are so you can see where the long stretches are
-vid concise stories, arc last 12 episodes, first clip is from first and then the last clip from the last, focused on specific arc, transition
-third verse = huge plot dump, we have habits and get caught up in story/argument but theyre exactly the way theyre laid out in the show, use the predictable landmarks and thats where betas come in
-this is the story i want to tell in the verses, choruses, etc...also slave to the beat, this is the first/second line of the verse, want to do one clip per line, clip length was predictable, you could cut somewhere that wasnt on the beat
-repetition is important esp. in a chorus, come to the same line in a chorus...ex. dreams are not my home vid (by melina123) line in chorus ...i try to do repetition with difference
-experiment with putting random clips down around something but havent tied it up so not locked into anything...clip everything so have all the options, dont have to reply on how youve cut the song in the first place
-use pacing, longer clips for clips that are important..
-if theres long phrase even with a fast break, especially a break with something else, building tension and then long clip is cool
-song is everything, lyrics are important, repeated chunk of song/verse those chunks need to be parallel, first verse and last verse of out here by heresluck have similar kind of shots, jump cuts in same places, the test by heresluck: chorus has the exact same kind of clips, same kinds of motion, jumping off kirk clips, parallelism to structure, needs to have something to do with previous iterations
Concrit
-Lonely People by laurashapiro
-no lyrics (except known chorus)
-challenging vid to read because its complex, intelligent, choice must have been made, deliberate with color, effects with boxes/splits, having stuff happen at the same time, source knowledge will help, w/o must watch it a lot of times to really get, havent watched it a lot to get it, knew chorus was important but wanted to know how much doctor was important in this video, not much while eleanor rigby is a story of two people, wondering if father in lyrics was important with the doctor, the mundane manipulated lives of humans vs. aliens...great musicality in terms of the motion, everything thats going on,
-not the right feedback, its about rose and her family and missing people who leave, no one called out the moments for me, too many ideas
-everything has to be done with the visuals, in opening: this vid is all about rose in blue, and we dont have cues to understand the other people, we think we know what this is all about, having lyrics would let you switch to other people w.pronouns...people will pick up what this vid is about and then switching will make it hard to switch, rose is always a part of it...
-vid is luring the vidder into shes not lonely anymore...but wait, look at these other people who get left behind, linda, various people whose lives are effected...doctor was being complacent in what was happening?
-fatalism of doctor who but doesnt fix the problems...hes not helping all these other people
-hes causing all these people to die interpretations
-these other people are a part of rose's stories and dont pay attention to other people as much
-effects can confirm suspicions
-wipe looked like the block...only use it to seperate the two
-Death of a Superhero by akemi42
-started off crystal clear with setup with old tabloid, getting everything together with a picture but the lyrics after (i used to), already i am looking at the past and then you shift to the new generation with the same thing which was vid happy place where its about looking back on the shiny time and then when things go bad...and then after the murder, he sees the superhero instead of the gang but the other stuff i didnt see how it was supporting
-it felt like it was leaning to a sort of serial, character by character retrospective but it wasnt with bits of characters, with the middle, either it needed to be very strictly character by character or very paralleled, not just a mix, not sure if it was parallels or individuals, went off on tangentals, exactly the kind of thing betas are great for...oh youre making this vid about this and that idea is not what youre making this vid for, work more on structure because youre doing great things and so by the end, you can have the exact meaning which is there but need to reward audience while there is some hurdles...what is this vid really about? and when im transitioning to the next section, how can i show the audience that im switching focus, valuable analysis of watchmen, structural/timing tightening up
-dont know about watchman, got looking back at the past, it was going along, got they were connected
-theres a lot of history but you do a lot with it
-moodwise it was a great vid, put beginning together with the end sequence, the key image wanted the vid to be about, image of nostalgia ad and saw bullet going through it, the deadliness of looking back, the pureness of what we were doing
-struggled with what to do with ozzie, came in late, very hung up on lyrics, did structure but focused on lyrics
-like slow vids so can focus on whose who and whats going on
-didnt feel like when is this clip going to be over, the reason is used the internal motion to keep it interesting, can get away with longer clips
-pacing was perfect for the story you were telling, for tone, for nostalgia, mediative has a slower feel to it
-liked beginning but the younger characters arent coming back from the same place so cant use them the same place...what have i become, but not any better than before
-fangirl the look, the pacing and the motion, when he goes through the window on the crash, keep falling unlike many, pin fell on the next beat because that clip goes there, love the pacing because is like uhhh, vid is a smooth, flowing vid, it wouldnt work with frenetic clipping
-took us so long for comedian to fall, asked to do more with the parallels more, dwelling too long on scenes so the parallels werent quite together
-when stuck, ask for someone elses pov, dont worry about individual scenes, look for macro parts of scenes, the micro will be the rewards for the macro
-at end wanted it to look good rather than make sense
-felt like parts were paced good and others too slow because i didnt get what was going on so wanted it to move on
Defining Viddability
-it all depends on how hard you want to work
-it depends how attracted you are to a show
-how big an audience you want, harder canon that less people know will be harder
-aesthetics of hard to vid source: static, talky face, multi-camera sitcoms, no interesting angles
-the worst: static cameras and no internal movement, use cropping to create movement
-starsky and hutch: one long scene matched to a show, can use something and not cut it but needs the perfect scene/music
-lack of source: how many episodes, vid ready, minor character
-10-12 seasons makes it hard to vid because it takes so long to get source
-dont always have stuff going on in sitcoms
-too much good stuff can be hard
-one scene = one shot, hard to vid
-scully from different seasons can throw out of the vid
-source is little funded but its epic (Supernatural): bringing larger arc, bring outside footage
-annoying bugs = CW
-spent more time matching spn colors
-unviddable if its been vidded really well before: ex. mal/inara
-do you vid for yourselves or others?
-do it first for yourself but still want to entertain others
-clip burnout, can rework them but the clip has still been used so many times (spn)
-overvidded: someone already did it so i dont need to (oh thank you-check off)
-low quality source: rpf fandom, youtube clips are low quality
-never been released on dvd makes it hard to get good source, i dont care b/c love source
-old stuff will deal with low quality but not for recent stuff
-matters more if quality is consistent, dont want good quality with bad which bothers more than low quality footage
-depends on what song you use, song has 1980s feel so it fits the quality of the source vs. a song this year, it wouldnt match up
-i vid upbeat rock songs so i look for action stuff or for cvv cracky better
-the tone of the music needs to match the tone of the show
-deliberately choose song that doesnt match the source so its ironic or it changes your mind
-if song is long or needs fast cuts, gravitate toward longer footage so dont repeat clips
-with static source, use fast cuts
-depending on quality of source, can make static source move, can make it look natural or purposeful
-layering, masking and stuff like that
-use a lot of texts, screenshots of lj, layer it with vids/pictures
-framing devices ex. documentary, smaller in a frame
-multiple windows, PiP, minimize source quality
-sherlock: overlayed images from scene to another-interesting
-low quality source still: pan and zoom so itll be less jarring
-rpf britney obsessive24: low quality source made it effective, can not try to change it because this is how the rest of the world is looking at, the stalker quality works
-i dont vid action b/c i dont connect emotionally and so need that narrative resonance
-weird narratives, weird time, not obvious to other people, how to help?
-refine audience for clip: might never get people who dont watch show, but people who watch it are people youre making it for
-recruiter vids where you want people to watch and follow
-certain commonality, dont need to know the fandom unless its really estoteric, i can follow romance, etc...very specific set and tools ex. kuwdora's Paparazzi (Eli Roth) vid
-need to know vocab, dont see two guys love each other and have angst, now theres much more diverse...can see why its interesting but might not know why-are you vidding for fellow vidders: see how cool i can make this vid and im telling a story and must know audience, how do we tell it on two levels for context and not..now have to choose more
-vidding is much more spread out..one community may get the vocab and some might not
-get sort of idea of what vid is trying to say but watch and still know you're missing half the story
-vid small fandoms so i think of how to make it clear to others, its liberating not to make it clear to people who might not know
-how far are you going to push yourself to make it obvious or how much are you going to let it for others
-genre shows make it obvious ex. demons = turn into demons
-miss out on the interesting stuff which makes it harder to connect to vid
-its easier to get people to watch source for a smaller period versus big show...half comments were i have no idea of whats going on but i need to see this vid, show enough to get them interested
-i never think about viddability, i just want to make it for me, i want to make it emotional
-ex.vid idea, dresden files messed up book plotline
-source is so pretty that i want to vid it, pretty so i want to use these shots
-with fic i dont read fandom i dont know but most vids i dont know fandom=vid fandom
-youtube aesthetic is different, hard to get outside of style because you think things are wrong even though its just different, used to LJ aesthetic
-part of the reason there isnt a lot of crossover, amv best narrative WHAT?, the effects in this live action vid are amazing -what?
-started vidding on my own, people told shouldnt do something because it would mean something else so doesnt know what a culture sees it as
Race and Representation in Vidding
-acknowledge that everyone has race (raise your hand if you're white), we're making vids about bodies so there is always a race and all cultural context that comes with it, in ours, white bodies have become default as if they dont have race, there is nothing wrong in talking about whiteness as a race, focus on bodies of color, people of color
-the word racism is going to come up, many different kinds, aversive racism as well as intentional raciscm, recognizing problematic stuff, not putting on the malicious intent of creators and vidders
-majority of source thats being vidded is white dominant, characters of color are not well represented unless theyre crying, dying being saved, etc, there is a problem with the media were are consuming in media across the world
-aversive raciscm: raciscm that is not conscious but happens because of unconscious raciscm because of society...happens more than once ex. invisible people of color, they dont exist, if casting body asks for a character of color, w/o then its white
-within fandom, we're part of vidding community and theres been discussions of racism in the fandom at large, we think theres aversive racism in fandom b/c we are not divorced by society, we see it in fic and vids, we dont want to say because the source doesnt give us the oppurtunity
-making vids: choice of using poc and song choice
-does using hip hop songs for black characters perpetuate stereotypes?
-opposite problem with hip hop for white, took out the MLK parts and then thought about it afterwords, discussion of ian's vid with gone with the wind brought up issue
-for a long time, no hip hop and love seeing it spread through the vid but dont want to see hip hop only for black characters with no crossover
-i try to add irony so in leverage vid, donate semen and then parker has a wtf look so it takes sharpness of lyrics away
-when look at the history of music (important), theres a lot of cultural appropiation...blues, jazz and hip hop were appropiated from black people and now the white bodies dance to those songs on screen, important to know who has made the music and not to say it can only be those bodies but important to be aware
-think that some person from some culture will know what that music is, if you need a different sound, what effect will this have on a person who knows song and cultural context
-be conscious, make deliberate decisions, would he think this, would he do this, at core im a squeer and want to share love and want to make sure they would feel this too
-ex. Needs by tearful_eye: song choice was a problem because roles of characters were equivalent
-the song is in english and its a non-english source, i always think how do the different languages and accents mix with the source, song works but i noticed it
-noticed use of accordian in intro which is an instrument that is culturally connoted, its not actually reflected in culture of visuals, didnt know if it would be a statement in the vid itself, once it went into english, it disppeared more
-thought it was about the lack of representation of asians
-history of using asian women's bodies as sexual bodies that are available...warrior undercover as geisha..
-standard technique of drawing parallels and when drawing parallels in other cultures, it can make them all appear alike and that can become problematic
-took structural beauty, loved parallels and color and it came across who are individual women while still have similarities and sharing together actions
-where are you sourcing your characters of color from, love memories of a geisha: written by a white man and some japan/geishas dont like and wish it hadnt been written, the movie is even more problematic because chinese man = japanese man
-slumdog millionaire vid was great, multifandom vid with bollywood sources plus vid would distract because movie was clearly made by white man
-the vidder was clear she wanted to address the warrior/geisha context and when youre talking about cultures that dont get talked about then the same tropes could shown: warriors, geishas, sexual, doctors/geeks
-am i watching one movie or five, a lot of asian women together and it was hard to see the individual characters without a lot of the visual work distinguishing the seperate women, its seamless so it flows
-we take visuals out of context and rebuild what we want, if the movie is problematic and youre rebuilding those visuals, do those clips have weight...?
-potential to rebuild problematic sources and fix it
-gone with the wind vid didnt work, even though n word was removed, still knew it and had visuals of racial issues and clearly song was about a black man talking about a black women, song was too personal, liked parts of vid but couldnt take layer off
-talitha78 made white and nerdy: used lyrics that were not meant for that body but gave meaning i appreciated because it addressed issues of race in a complicated way
-what are the range of people who are watching this and what are they bringing to this vid, what cultural context
-a lot of music from white people is set as the white default of music,...
-using english songs for non-white/other culture source, know idea of what culture would sound like, vidder was trying to translate and speak to her peers in vidding community, want peers to understand language so sometimes it works and sometimes it jarring for people who are familiar with language thats being chosen
-sawatte by laurashapiro: two japanese characters + jpop, adored the vid, filled heart with glee, two poc interacting with soundtrack of language that they clearly speak
-slumdog vid by bananainpyjamas: set to different language than song, interesting song choice, dissonance was there but worked because the vidder knew what she was doing, it was giving it another dimension, recontextualizing bodies with other flavor which brings associations of bengali? singing, dont speak for anyone here, how do you translate and in the process of translation how are you choosing to address the people who dont need translation
-how is the best way to avoid cultural appropiation...not tell a story that isnt mine?
-get a collaborator who does know, find the emotional truth, can you tap into love...if we can find cultural appropiation fairy, better to take the risk, no way to prevent critiscm, we support it even if we have negative stuff to say about it, we still love the vids in show
-do research and have a good beta, if not familar with a source or song, research it and see source reviews as well as watch other movies/tv in that same cultural context so you're more in the sense of the people watching it..we love knowing the inside story for our shows so why not know the larger story
-slumdog: different history from movie, biggest thing to do, you cant make everyone happy, its an individual thing, dont be defensive, have respect for source and song
-dont like non-english songs are referred to an instrumental, find translation and have lyrics in mind
-good thing is that a poc vid doesnt need to be about racism, can be yay hardison but can also make vids about raciscm, origin stories does address this in btvs/ats but find a lot of things lacking in it, its really, really complex when addressing issues, the choices you make to further/subtract from argument, need to look at choices different, what are you allowing that body to do, what are people used to seeing this body do and i think people should make vids about race, need more celebtratory vids, want more multi-fandom COC vids
-want more vids about COC and being in this community is the way you get them, we want to see them
-worse to not have characters of color because of fear of messing up
-find those clips of characters that are minor, find moments where they are major
-most colors and lightings are there for white people and not black, which one are you choosing to make more beautiful: do your research, might make it come out, bodies are specific, how dark is that skin, what is allowed to be seen on stage and what shots are being used
Vid Reading Practicum
-how do we as vid watchers figure out what vids are doing, what do we grab onto to figure out whats its purpose is, what is the mood or emotional response, how is the vid doing these things, what are the patterns that we see
-character, pov, who am i supposed to be following, facial expressions, what am i supposed to get from this, stuff you get from motion and if we stopped to think about it we can step back enough into our process of understanding, where the vid directs our eye, what we're supposed to be looking at, what clips to what lyrics
-vid title = chorus, big clue, only hear the first time but had picked up on the mood
[two vids were shown in their entirely, people who didnt know the show spoke first and then the people who did know the show spoke)
-1 thing by sisabet: i dont really know this women but why does she love guns so much? havent listened to this song, all i had to go on was one thing leads to another, picked up a few lines where she held a clip longer, someones been lying to me, just b/c youre paranoid doesnt mean they're not out to get you
-clearly this central guy is who im following and all these people relate to everyone, its an action spy thing, lying to me, people get up from death, deception was more than i knew about
-i dont know but its a spy show and things blow up, main love interest, someones lying
-freeze frames: white men in sunglasses are not interchangable but couldnt tell them apart with quick text
-showing them characters so we know who we were, it was helpful and didnt get some laughing but then did it, the last shot really got as the last shot, everything falling out of control
-but i can see a lot of things are going on, there are trust issues like whoa, clearly there is a story but i know somethings going on, i couldnt describe those specific roles are
-the older woman, the vid got more serious at that point, song was slower, people represented parts of him, fiona was the sexy part and (his mom) was wiser
-the tone changed their and the tone of the music told me to not take things serious
-the intro labels set up a sly playful tone and then point of contact and then on the ground dead, shows it was underminded (?)
-tonal complexity of the song
-vidwatching for shows got a lot easier when you let go of the idea that you need to know the plot of the show, know real smile and fake smile
-unfamiliar shows are easier to get in an audience setting, people's reactions help parse whats going on
-incidental characters are familiar from other media, trisha/john mahoghny, helped differentiate the people because you know them
-didnt care about the plot enough to enjoy the vid
-vid cues us that following the plot is not important: so much is going on, things start happening, things blow up, if it wanted to know the plot then would slow down
-song's repetitive song which doesnt let up, keeps pulling itself along without making any real break points, no structure although many nice clips
-starts out introducing situation of the arc, you see the bad guys (labeled), set up michael's situation regarding what he's up against, then we see fiona the love interest focusing on her, then it swings into other main people like his mother and his friend, sam in the more emotional section, lying to you has a different weight when it's your mother versus antagonist (plus touch of fiona), pulls everyone into the plotty situational stuff
-didnt know anything but saw that structure quite clearly, didnt know why
-labels are a feature in the show, great touch that you're using very well
-great universe vid, gives you feel and tenor of the show
-got the feeling of going over my head, if i lower my expectations, dont need to know everything whats going on because it can get in the way of watching the vid
-reading levels is useful so you give permission to read at low levels
-vid: Etheric Messages by thuviaptarth (Fringe)
-armbodes on the head, cant tell if dreaming or hallucinating, always by herself with dead bodies around, an apolytic...
-still looks like she goes into a tank, she goes into an AU, theres a pattern with lights and theres some kind of alternative reality, she sees things that are not there, she had a test and passed and she wasnt happy about this and the kid was her
-this is a mystery and it appears she is an fbi agent trying to figure it out (or maybe she just thinks she is)
-flash of page of what we know of reality gives you permission to not take it for granted
-music gave no clues
-middle eastern music: it said, my god, it is written, predestined
-one place where i get it: line of text that say alternative reality and snowglobes collide together for those universes colliding, it made me intrigued because shiny things blowing up is less interesting than wanting to explore (solve) this mystery
-different mysteries that needed to be solved, lights and then shadow in the background and then there was leonard nimoy,
-didnt get anything, mood, creepy, was scared for her, reminded of darkness, darkness
-my notes are full of oh shit bears moments
-first theres oh shit ICK after wired up, then soon after is horrible looking guy like her, i dont want to know too much, lights wired to the c4 (oh shit bears), then oh shit science, what if we go too far in science, go beyond what mankind is supposed to know can we destroy ourselves through science
-the core of vidwatching is noticing stuff and thinking about what you noticed, the foundation of vid review, its harder to think about it when you know the source, you reach for the few things you can find when you dont know
-when you talk about vids, dont be afraid to state the obvious, may see different things, they may be thrilled that you saw it, the vidder isnt always sure it was obvious
-is she in the wrong place, not supposed to be there
Motion
-when talking about matching internal to internal vs. internal to external, gives you a sense of scope for the latter
-ex. so whatcha want by bradcpu: mix of internal and external, echoed downturn helps make motion less static
-with static source, add a lot of motion: jumpcuts, zooms, pans, transitions ex. vid with the backwards cup (millylicious spn vid), overlay clips or colors or textures, reverses, time remaps/toggles, multiple frames flying around
-use 3D, pan your shots, hard to use with live action
-ex. party in the midlands by millylicious: engaging use of the comic format, makes comic format less static, perceive having more scope and motion
-use stop motion to discard the motion in the clip, create own rhythms to work with music ex. tabula rose by hollywoodgrrl: create motion that is entirely seperate from clip, works with music to create mood of melancholy and regret
-way that a video moves can help convey emotion and mood, short and sharp clips has different feel than long slow clips
-to create anger or joy: compatibility = completing each others motions (joy) vs. pushing back, not complete (anger)
-joyful: good flow, clip to clip, build up to more and more happiness
-disconnected to create confusion mindset
-lots of changes in motion (confusion)
-spinning, shaky cam, lots of overlays showing the mind is going a lot of places...
-at end of pleasentville you have the camera motion going one way and then quickly changes, creates disconcerting feeling
-clausterphobia with lack of space
-edit so quick so cant process and you cant catch up so feel like them
-cut right before you think the motion would happen
-ex. beccatoria's war for your mind: urgency and immediacy, not quite angry but more frustration because it has smooth parts
-about to fall apart but it comes back together
-variation of the clip length so you violence of guns and face expressions of clips, shorter clips zooming in, snap looks, reaction has a sense of urgency
-motion to create mood: ex. out here by heresluck w/jump cutting when fraser's in a city alone and then its more continuous, ex. hollywoodgrrl's don't speak: rapidfire swinging motion to create inevitability, ex. street cafe by JKL: urgency all the way through b/c of fast editing, pulls you through, get sense of trying to figure things out, trying to stay ahead, ex. like my very own blood by jarrow: creates a mood, vertigo shows the anxiety, ex. circles by laurashapiro: steadicam shot shows the inner world shots that knows bartlet's secrets, ex. another sunday by jescaflowne: joyful, stop motion, animation to create
-working motion with music: compliment the music, create own rhythm, create counterpoint, do something different than whats going on, changes in rhythm, changing in timing, stacatto sections working in shorter clips, listen to music cues, use ascending tones, another instrument coming in for one refrain or more, mark out some of the changes in music, the big creshendos, places where instrumentation changes
-ex. charmax's unnatural selection: terminator stepping down on skull to music, highlight the smaller parts of music, the little weird sounds
-ex. rhoboat's ego: trill in music as he puts his hand down and recoils back
-vids that seem the most polished are the ones that hit those little grace notes, you can really appreciate that something happened on those little points
-ex. break teen spirit by bananainpyjamas: uses motion to build the density of the music, add more depth and weight that to me flesh it out, pacing done well, the car comes in with the slam together with shorter words along with pauses although theres still continuous motion, stretch it out so can still maintain that same amount of motion
-incorporate motion into storytellng: can be supportive of narrative, crossover vid of cherry's, used motion to use it smooth and continuous so the sources flew into each other, when does use of motion become part of your narrative and story that youre telling?
-can it help establish pov, not just flashbacks, it can put you in a characters head, create confusion, relief, etc
-ex. kikimiserychic's does cameron dream of electric sleep: overlays that create multiple lines of motion, machines process faster than humans, almost clitchy, time reversals
-ex. bradcpu's tear you apart: ...narrow down to the pov at the end that make effect
-integrate into storytellining: ex. obsessive24's Red Cliff : get sense of intensity, importance and how epic it is, very smooth shifts from the small and close and personal to the large and epic and impersonal to create a sense that it's all connected to give depth and scope and breadth, it helps generate music because the staffs come down on beats, etc
-awareness of the choices with motion
Hope that was helpful!
In Soviet Russia, Vid Edits You
-Sergei Eisenstein: these guys worked in silent film period, in russia it was about revolutionary work so films were political
-metric montage: the editing follows a specific number of frames, cutting to the next shot no matter what is happening within the image, this montage is used to elicit the most basal and emotional reaction of vid (timing)
-clip: Sergei Eisenstein's october: used editing to express actual firing machine cuts...
-vid example: pluto (by rowena-beginning): editing was all about timing, flashes were in her head to chart journey, timing and theme worked and was perfectly in sync (metric = timing of clips)
-rhythmic montage: includes cutting based on time but using visual composition of the shots along with a change in the speed...
-battleship potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein: movement within shots, soldiers walking on left marching on beat to music, people running away in other motion, baby carriage rolling down the steps like marchers
-ex. like my very own by jarrow: actual motion from adama juxtaposed with kara's, specifically walking down the hallway chasing her, not in the show but was able to create
-example: the good, the bad and the ugly: tension builds with cutting, the music was static, editng was medium to closeup to extreme closeup, rhymic montage, tension builds so feel uncomfortable and want the gun to go off
-ex. Pluto (end of vid): editing went from slow build to culmination, to fight at the end, when is it going to end
-tonal montage: uses emotional meaning of the shots, not just manipulating temporal or rrhythmic , more emotional complex messages
-battleship potemkin.: feel sad because of the editing, movie shifted with shots of boats/sunlight and then come back to being dead
-ex. care to stay (tearful_eye): all the shots of the sky, theme of it matched death, suicide, sacrifice
-overtonal montage: culmination of everything for more complicated effect
-ex. mother: vsevolod: ice melting and then uses ice as a means to escape, important thematic
-ex. dust and water (tearful_eye): waits for time lord whole life and he never comes back: timing important with distinct cutting, motion in the shots, tonal with music choice that was perfect for them and then thematically worked because timelord with repeating shots and clock with waiting
-intellectual montage: conscious creation of new ideas when two shots or images are cut together to form a new idea or object
-ex. strike by Sergei Eisenstein: people shooting strike workers with juxtaposition of bull slaughter, together it becomes more meaningful with workers being slaughtered and herded like cattle
-ex. Effigy by obsessive24: horse from russian film, gwen juxtaposed with paintings of camelot, together gwen is the horse rising
ex. filthy mind by sol_se: believe all the characters are all there because all the cutting worked with each other, action each way...
-Lev Kuleshov, kuleshov effect: in his view, cinema consists of fragments and the asembly of those fragments...
-different shots, same reaction shot: new meaning through editing, projected new emotions onto him when saw different things
-ex. hitchcock clip: women holding a baby in arms, he smiles=kindly man, sympathetic, now put in of a girl in bikini, same clip of smile=now lecherous, no longer benign
-ex. what we had by cherryice: martha reacting to doctor hugging master, in original was moving head to avoid laser and changes meaning of her head movement, same with jack
-ex. lightning field by bradcpu: kara reacts to r/k sex but juxtaposed sad look changes meaning
-second experiment: starving man + soup vs. prisoner + escape route, then switched reaction shots. same meaning?
-ex. hollywoodgrrl doctor who vid: how long are you going to stay, its a lie, what happens if rose is asking the doctor and then their dialogue switched, meaning if it's still a lie because they wont stay together
Paging Dr. Vidder
-the vid can take it somewhere else completely
-sometimes a character doesn't make sense in canon but you can frame it so it does make sense, casual effect, something happens in history makes logical sense but you have to find it, always there, nothing happens in a vacuum, but does in the show
-ex. here i dreamt i was an architect by kuwdora: explanation of how sylar relates to women, mother figures, how pattern is repeated, leads to violence
-viewpoint in vid is not the message source is telling you, obsessive 24 used minor characters and did it as their pov, effects how we see the source, rebuild canon by choosing different narrator, not the one you typically have (main characters), songs for the narrative allows us to do that, make sure the visuals/song connect so you can take what people know of the source and make them see it completely differently
-slow down ghandi by obsessive24: used a framing device, execution, came back at end, conversation of two characters talk about what happened in between
-lost the show: vids can piece back together a narrative, many stories going on at the same time for each character, with flashbacks, can be difficult to vid esp. since dont always know the whole story, can rely on emotions
-ex. La marée haute by buffyann: used external source of waves, vid build like a wave, goes back and forth in time, metaphor of waves, used the logic of desmend's character, so much going on but what matters is his heart, came back to the same objects, the images that were really important to him, shows early on in the vid what is really important to him so when she goes back to the photograph you get it...also returns to the poster which is exactly what he's about, where does he find honor and adventure, where can he find both or can he
-went beyond canon, the doctor cant be human in alternative reality but in vid, it makes sense for milly, ex. suicide note by hwg, its au but it explores what happens in canon, doesnt fix but shows why that might not work, fix the show by showing how wrong the show is
-millylicious's displaced: twisted relationship with claire's power which explains how she relates to other people, similiar to cutting herself on show (jumping from brige), imposing self-harm, she loses power to feel pain which made her feel human, if they hurt her, she'll seek out that relationship so she'll feel she belongs.
-third person pronoun, valid ways to approach story (focus only part of character)
-by choosing specific focus, you can raise something and make people focus on a specific part of something, microscope
-part of making a character study vid, your choice, not too narrow
-any character is complex so you have to pick a starting point and it helps you express other things
-makes it different from the entire show, look what you missed, harder to do when focused on the entire character (or else long)
-have to carefully construct argument, narrower the focus, the stronger the argument
-what a nation or person will choose to remember, im this person because the people before me did this...vid that explored wider context ex. all is full of love by obsessive24 with use of external source to show all the things character has seen and how the character relates to life
-ex. right in two by rhoboat, didnt like it went outside of canon and didnt like the point, can explain the narrative
-shows are made in a particular universe but also creaters are influenced by outside world, you need to go outside to explain things, the show might not have made it clear in itself
-ex. almost done real by carlymegan w/ neverending story: takes heres the context of growing up with series but comments on outside world
-ex. Effigy by obsessive2: juxtaposes merlin's representation with past source of her (pictures), comments on source, shows how show messed up traditional stories, so many arthurian legends and it shows all the other legends of it
-food for thought: cut a scene different, skip over things you didnt like, recut scenes so it made sense and was awesome, dont need to stick with canon but can fix the narrative you dont think worked
Vidding as Choreography
-ex. swan lake clip-matthew bournes: fanfic of fanfic, written in 1800s, choreography was lost?, then it was handed down so movements havent changed but Matthew Bournes changed the music a little bit but changed it to a gender bending AU, this was filmed on stage, not Tchaikovsky music but vidded it to chinese song
-timing worked almost the same, timed well, did they get dancers to dance with chinese song (no)
-most dancers have a breath, they have different rhythm, dancers count in 8 not 4, need more space to fill in that time, vidders have opposite perspective, the amount of time you take to do 10 things in music is short, music is surpringly translatable so dancing can pick up the larger form
-reason to pick: when we look at dance, we're conditioned to think of things as dance b/c of performance, we are bringing meaning to movement but vidding is dance even if we dont think about it that way
-emotional texture comes from glances, from touch, from sense of difference, everything else is context in the style, extending hands in a line = yearning is something specific to style, context is important ie extending arms at bus stop not sexy
-dance vocab has been created, for us also with fic, within vidding, things have been given meaning, when vidders edit clips, we practice our dance
-Batsheva dance clip: unique duet, they use bollywood film song, audience wouldnt understand it but get that its a love song, it really shows not just the slash aesthetic but the way that dancing is choreography, no ones making out, no ones stripping, no overt stripping gesutre
-intense bonding shown by them mirroring each other
-weight sharing, to show vulnerability and relative strength, really gendered, andercentric thing is charged because tension is seen so a lot of choreography is violent versus two women which is read as homosocial, dancing is male gaze, must have women with other men to put into context of why men are interacting so there's a reason two men are together within proximity, -is someone being thrown or being held, vids use this with violence scenes and hurt scenes and show with violence: theyre touching each other!
-different frames with m/m and f/f because of the different ways they are choreographed
-one night fandom: using metaphor as elaboration on the same scene
-bhava (emotion) gestured, bhava is what a dancer does when they're emoting something, rasa: what an audience gets from it, juice doesn't work w/o the audience, not the actors job to embody it for themselves, the gesture will invoke something from the audience, rasik: someone who appreciates the juice, not everyone can get it just like fandom, sometimes not meant to be gotten w/o inside information
-when vidders are choreographing their vids, they're speaking to people who get it, the tiny references might not be gotten, the layers come from physical reaction to seeing it not just intellectual
-ex. clip of indian dance; he's portraying a woman in it, its culturally specific but gestures of longing and sadness are doing in a gendered way, he didn't need to cross dress to be a woman just like woman switch between a man or woman and there's no indication of that change, just like songs are sung by different gender in a pov of vid
-gestures are directed to someone that they arent in the source or what the source may not have wanted to say about that body
-in indian classical dance, it does not tell a full story its kind of like an atmospheric vid/drabble, theyre still pining for their lover, may remember times past or describing beauty but nothing happens and also, its not new, familiar with every story and also familiar with metaphor, not going there for the newness, different aesthetic, in vidding we are looking at something we already know, we are looking for the beauty in it, a lot of vidding is in it, for the unvidded clip or say something new about the clips, theres an idea of appreciating embellishment and metaphor in just seeing the performance
-you dont ever see the choreographer's vision because its always interpreted through the dancer, just like vidders are dancing but we wont see the vidders dance we'll see it through the bodies that are dancing
-different between theater director and choreographer but in terms of choreographer you have to be a good dancer (not universal), you need to feel the movement in the body itself, the emotional dance already experience through fic or talking about show so we'll already performed the dance so now we can translate it through these other bodies
-ex. The taxonomy of hotness by wickedwords and sherrold: chains tied up, fannish gesture just like many dances wont mean something unless you know
-batsheva clip: same way we give a lot of emotion and intent into parts of body (hips), can be stripped away by adding space and making it flat, with just one person and music clearly choreography for it, it would have read differently like someones doing something strong with their hips including bodie's virtuolosity, its vague, theyre not doing it for each other, choreographer's choice of music, spacing and lighting just like vidders
-like vidders, about guys or we'll go really fast (fast clips) and stop at one thing, one moment hand on the rose thats important moment (longer clip) just like space in dancing, dance is still like a screen, in balcony, core dancers bring sense of rhythm like in vidding, clips of people put together very quickly, create sense of wholeness, 30 people doing one thing like girls with guns
-ex. us by lim: helps make sense that you can't tell what people are doing, adding textures, the dots theme as dance, see it as fannish references are happy but you look at the big picture so you arent irritated at not being to see it
-also with dance like to sit up front so can see expressions but sitting back can help get you more of a thought of whats going on as a whole
-us is a good example of postmodern to vidding, shares aesthetic with trying to render the body mundane
-weight sharing, find physical moments where people support another, hold them from danger and from their vulnerability, also hugs
-each movement in dance clearly has a meaning that i dont know but can clearly see like ...like vids cant see whats going on and know something is, can recognize the language, can recognize the intent
-enlightening on clip choice, two men together evokes a sort of power and a woman as a diffuser, look two guys in a shot together, open up ideas of why you pick one clip other than another clip
-how men translate violence versus women nurturing, like two men arguing and then they kiss (torchwood), but have been watching this in vids for years, coding that
Structure Redux
-i do a lot of intercutting with scenes, weave them all together so it'll make sense
-dualbunny vids: scene, scene, scene, previous scene, scene, previous scene, scene
-bookending to start to it, scenes fulfill what i want vid to be, i start with beginning or end (or middle) so it keeps me on task, might find something prettier but its a visual to do list
-i put in what i know goes where so i can work whats filled in, but then its okay to take it out if i have other stuff in, i am productive, helps: sometimes lyrically or metaphorically
-theres a clip thats wrong in i enjoy being a girl (by absolutedestiny), i put it first but doesnt fit tone, starbuck in dress and then turns around, seems out of place, auction vid im getting it done, still bothers
-other risk: get bored if put the good stuff down first
-at points where it doesnt make sense, have to keep going on it, let a part suck for awhile and then have an eureka moment and figure it out, then move around or delete and then it falls together, break up between lyrics/verses and choruses
-a lot has to do with genre, has to do with what kind of genre, ship vs. ensemble, is it oh arent they cute or is it unrequited longing
-ensemble vid: i use shots of every character thats going to be in the vid, first 9 clips = 9 characters, either end up as different indiduals per shot or as a group together in one shot
-strong arguments that flow, i have arguments and then dont touch them
-anchor clips: red dragon clips (history repeating by killabeez), strong visual pop that speaks visually/emotionally can help structure individual look
-music tells where storytelling goes, where an effect should go, etc
-some people are pickier/specific about songs, some people are more drawn to what songs to vid, those songs would make them easier to vid vs. pop songs
-effects: crossfades, zoom ins are crutch, used a lot, hard to not use something that works
-go back to a main clip multiple times
-lyrics are primary structure of my vids, each thoughts on each lyric written down
-think of intro, verse, etc, linear vidding, reason i want to do vid is the final shot, trying to get through vid to get through that final shot, i want this to happen in intro, i want you to feel this and then look through clips to find, throw everything at intro and then go back and chop until they fit
-intro is intro, the verses are relationship, chorus are things exploding, alternates between relationshp and plot and then bridge is exposition, depends on song structure, can fall back on pop song structure
-mark where the beats are so you can see where the long stretches are
-vid concise stories, arc last 12 episodes, first clip is from first and then the last clip from the last, focused on specific arc, transition
-third verse = huge plot dump, we have habits and get caught up in story/argument but theyre exactly the way theyre laid out in the show, use the predictable landmarks and thats where betas come in
-this is the story i want to tell in the verses, choruses, etc...also slave to the beat, this is the first/second line of the verse, want to do one clip per line, clip length was predictable, you could cut somewhere that wasnt on the beat
-repetition is important esp. in a chorus, come to the same line in a chorus...ex. dreams are not my home vid (by melina123) line in chorus ...i try to do repetition with difference
-experiment with putting random clips down around something but havent tied it up so not locked into anything...clip everything so have all the options, dont have to reply on how youve cut the song in the first place
-use pacing, longer clips for clips that are important..
-if theres long phrase even with a fast break, especially a break with something else, building tension and then long clip is cool
-song is everything, lyrics are important, repeated chunk of song/verse those chunks need to be parallel, first verse and last verse of out here by heresluck have similar kind of shots, jump cuts in same places, the test by heresluck: chorus has the exact same kind of clips, same kinds of motion, jumping off kirk clips, parallelism to structure, needs to have something to do with previous iterations
Concrit
-Lonely People by laurashapiro
-no lyrics (except known chorus)
-challenging vid to read because its complex, intelligent, choice must have been made, deliberate with color, effects with boxes/splits, having stuff happen at the same time, source knowledge will help, w/o must watch it a lot of times to really get, havent watched it a lot to get it, knew chorus was important but wanted to know how much doctor was important in this video, not much while eleanor rigby is a story of two people, wondering if father in lyrics was important with the doctor, the mundane manipulated lives of humans vs. aliens...great musicality in terms of the motion, everything thats going on,
-not the right feedback, its about rose and her family and missing people who leave, no one called out the moments for me, too many ideas
-everything has to be done with the visuals, in opening: this vid is all about rose in blue, and we dont have cues to understand the other people, we think we know what this is all about, having lyrics would let you switch to other people w.pronouns...people will pick up what this vid is about and then switching will make it hard to switch, rose is always a part of it...
-vid is luring the vidder into shes not lonely anymore...but wait, look at these other people who get left behind, linda, various people whose lives are effected...doctor was being complacent in what was happening?
-fatalism of doctor who but doesnt fix the problems...hes not helping all these other people
-hes causing all these people to die interpretations
-these other people are a part of rose's stories and dont pay attention to other people as much
-effects can confirm suspicions
-wipe looked like the block...only use it to seperate the two
-Death of a Superhero by akemi42
-started off crystal clear with setup with old tabloid, getting everything together with a picture but the lyrics after (i used to), already i am looking at the past and then you shift to the new generation with the same thing which was vid happy place where its about looking back on the shiny time and then when things go bad...and then after the murder, he sees the superhero instead of the gang but the other stuff i didnt see how it was supporting
-it felt like it was leaning to a sort of serial, character by character retrospective but it wasnt with bits of characters, with the middle, either it needed to be very strictly character by character or very paralleled, not just a mix, not sure if it was parallels or individuals, went off on tangentals, exactly the kind of thing betas are great for...oh youre making this vid about this and that idea is not what youre making this vid for, work more on structure because youre doing great things and so by the end, you can have the exact meaning which is there but need to reward audience while there is some hurdles...what is this vid really about? and when im transitioning to the next section, how can i show the audience that im switching focus, valuable analysis of watchmen, structural/timing tightening up
-dont know about watchman, got looking back at the past, it was going along, got they were connected
-theres a lot of history but you do a lot with it
-moodwise it was a great vid, put beginning together with the end sequence, the key image wanted the vid to be about, image of nostalgia ad and saw bullet going through it, the deadliness of looking back, the pureness of what we were doing
-struggled with what to do with ozzie, came in late, very hung up on lyrics, did structure but focused on lyrics
-like slow vids so can focus on whose who and whats going on
-didnt feel like when is this clip going to be over, the reason is used the internal motion to keep it interesting, can get away with longer clips
-pacing was perfect for the story you were telling, for tone, for nostalgia, mediative has a slower feel to it
-liked beginning but the younger characters arent coming back from the same place so cant use them the same place...what have i become, but not any better than before
-fangirl the look, the pacing and the motion, when he goes through the window on the crash, keep falling unlike many, pin fell on the next beat because that clip goes there, love the pacing because is like uhhh, vid is a smooth, flowing vid, it wouldnt work with frenetic clipping
-took us so long for comedian to fall, asked to do more with the parallels more, dwelling too long on scenes so the parallels werent quite together
-when stuck, ask for someone elses pov, dont worry about individual scenes, look for macro parts of scenes, the micro will be the rewards for the macro
-at end wanted it to look good rather than make sense
-felt like parts were paced good and others too slow because i didnt get what was going on so wanted it to move on
Defining Viddability
-it all depends on how hard you want to work
-it depends how attracted you are to a show
-how big an audience you want, harder canon that less people know will be harder
-aesthetics of hard to vid source: static, talky face, multi-camera sitcoms, no interesting angles
-the worst: static cameras and no internal movement, use cropping to create movement
-starsky and hutch: one long scene matched to a show, can use something and not cut it but needs the perfect scene/music
-lack of source: how many episodes, vid ready, minor character
-10-12 seasons makes it hard to vid because it takes so long to get source
-dont always have stuff going on in sitcoms
-too much good stuff can be hard
-one scene = one shot, hard to vid
-scully from different seasons can throw out of the vid
-source is little funded but its epic (Supernatural): bringing larger arc, bring outside footage
-annoying bugs = CW
-spent more time matching spn colors
-unviddable if its been vidded really well before: ex. mal/inara
-do you vid for yourselves or others?
-do it first for yourself but still want to entertain others
-clip burnout, can rework them but the clip has still been used so many times (spn)
-overvidded: someone already did it so i dont need to (oh thank you-check off)
-low quality source: rpf fandom, youtube clips are low quality
-never been released on dvd makes it hard to get good source, i dont care b/c love source
-old stuff will deal with low quality but not for recent stuff
-matters more if quality is consistent, dont want good quality with bad which bothers more than low quality footage
-depends on what song you use, song has 1980s feel so it fits the quality of the source vs. a song this year, it wouldnt match up
-i vid upbeat rock songs so i look for action stuff or for cvv cracky better
-the tone of the music needs to match the tone of the show
-deliberately choose song that doesnt match the source so its ironic or it changes your mind
-if song is long or needs fast cuts, gravitate toward longer footage so dont repeat clips
-with static source, use fast cuts
-depending on quality of source, can make static source move, can make it look natural or purposeful
-layering, masking and stuff like that
-use a lot of texts, screenshots of lj, layer it with vids/pictures
-framing devices ex. documentary, smaller in a frame
-multiple windows, PiP, minimize source quality
-sherlock: overlayed images from scene to another-interesting
-low quality source still: pan and zoom so itll be less jarring
-rpf britney obsessive24: low quality source made it effective, can not try to change it because this is how the rest of the world is looking at, the stalker quality works
-i dont vid action b/c i dont connect emotionally and so need that narrative resonance
-weird narratives, weird time, not obvious to other people, how to help?
-refine audience for clip: might never get people who dont watch show, but people who watch it are people youre making it for
-recruiter vids where you want people to watch and follow
-certain commonality, dont need to know the fandom unless its really estoteric, i can follow romance, etc...very specific set and tools ex. kuwdora's Paparazzi (Eli Roth) vid
-need to know vocab, dont see two guys love each other and have angst, now theres much more diverse...can see why its interesting but might not know why-are you vidding for fellow vidders: see how cool i can make this vid and im telling a story and must know audience, how do we tell it on two levels for context and not..now have to choose more
-vidding is much more spread out..one community may get the vocab and some might not
-get sort of idea of what vid is trying to say but watch and still know you're missing half the story
-vid small fandoms so i think of how to make it clear to others, its liberating not to make it clear to people who might not know
-how far are you going to push yourself to make it obvious or how much are you going to let it for others
-genre shows make it obvious ex. demons = turn into demons
-miss out on the interesting stuff which makes it harder to connect to vid
-its easier to get people to watch source for a smaller period versus big show...half comments were i have no idea of whats going on but i need to see this vid, show enough to get them interested
-i never think about viddability, i just want to make it for me, i want to make it emotional
-ex.vid idea, dresden files messed up book plotline
-source is so pretty that i want to vid it, pretty so i want to use these shots
-with fic i dont read fandom i dont know but most vids i dont know fandom=vid fandom
-youtube aesthetic is different, hard to get outside of style because you think things are wrong even though its just different, used to LJ aesthetic
-part of the reason there isnt a lot of crossover, amv best narrative WHAT?, the effects in this live action vid are amazing -what?
-started vidding on my own, people told shouldnt do something because it would mean something else so doesnt know what a culture sees it as
Race and Representation in Vidding
-acknowledge that everyone has race (raise your hand if you're white), we're making vids about bodies so there is always a race and all cultural context that comes with it, in ours, white bodies have become default as if they dont have race, there is nothing wrong in talking about whiteness as a race, focus on bodies of color, people of color
-the word racism is going to come up, many different kinds, aversive racism as well as intentional raciscm, recognizing problematic stuff, not putting on the malicious intent of creators and vidders
-majority of source thats being vidded is white dominant, characters of color are not well represented unless theyre crying, dying being saved, etc, there is a problem with the media were are consuming in media across the world
-aversive raciscm: raciscm that is not conscious but happens because of unconscious raciscm because of society...happens more than once ex. invisible people of color, they dont exist, if casting body asks for a character of color, w/o then its white
-within fandom, we're part of vidding community and theres been discussions of racism in the fandom at large, we think theres aversive racism in fandom b/c we are not divorced by society, we see it in fic and vids, we dont want to say because the source doesnt give us the oppurtunity
-making vids: choice of using poc and song choice
-does using hip hop songs for black characters perpetuate stereotypes?
-opposite problem with hip hop for white, took out the MLK parts and then thought about it afterwords, discussion of ian's vid with gone with the wind brought up issue
-for a long time, no hip hop and love seeing it spread through the vid but dont want to see hip hop only for black characters with no crossover
-i try to add irony so in leverage vid, donate semen and then parker has a wtf look so it takes sharpness of lyrics away
-when look at the history of music (important), theres a lot of cultural appropiation...blues, jazz and hip hop were appropiated from black people and now the white bodies dance to those songs on screen, important to know who has made the music and not to say it can only be those bodies but important to be aware
-think that some person from some culture will know what that music is, if you need a different sound, what effect will this have on a person who knows song and cultural context
-be conscious, make deliberate decisions, would he think this, would he do this, at core im a squeer and want to share love and want to make sure they would feel this too
-ex. Needs by tearful_eye: song choice was a problem because roles of characters were equivalent
-the song is in english and its a non-english source, i always think how do the different languages and accents mix with the source, song works but i noticed it
-noticed use of accordian in intro which is an instrument that is culturally connoted, its not actually reflected in culture of visuals, didnt know if it would be a statement in the vid itself, once it went into english, it disppeared more
-thought it was about the lack of representation of asians
-history of using asian women's bodies as sexual bodies that are available...warrior undercover as geisha..
-standard technique of drawing parallels and when drawing parallels in other cultures, it can make them all appear alike and that can become problematic
-took structural beauty, loved parallels and color and it came across who are individual women while still have similarities and sharing together actions
-where are you sourcing your characters of color from, love memories of a geisha: written by a white man and some japan/geishas dont like and wish it hadnt been written, the movie is even more problematic because chinese man = japanese man
-slumdog millionaire vid was great, multifandom vid with bollywood sources plus vid would distract because movie was clearly made by white man
-the vidder was clear she wanted to address the warrior/geisha context and when youre talking about cultures that dont get talked about then the same tropes could shown: warriors, geishas, sexual, doctors/geeks
-am i watching one movie or five, a lot of asian women together and it was hard to see the individual characters without a lot of the visual work distinguishing the seperate women, its seamless so it flows
-we take visuals out of context and rebuild what we want, if the movie is problematic and youre rebuilding those visuals, do those clips have weight...?
-potential to rebuild problematic sources and fix it
-gone with the wind vid didnt work, even though n word was removed, still knew it and had visuals of racial issues and clearly song was about a black man talking about a black women, song was too personal, liked parts of vid but couldnt take layer off
-talitha78 made white and nerdy: used lyrics that were not meant for that body but gave meaning i appreciated because it addressed issues of race in a complicated way
-what are the range of people who are watching this and what are they bringing to this vid, what cultural context
-a lot of music from white people is set as the white default of music,...
-using english songs for non-white/other culture source, know idea of what culture would sound like, vidder was trying to translate and speak to her peers in vidding community, want peers to understand language so sometimes it works and sometimes it jarring for people who are familiar with language thats being chosen
-sawatte by laurashapiro: two japanese characters + jpop, adored the vid, filled heart with glee, two poc interacting with soundtrack of language that they clearly speak
-slumdog vid by bananainpyjamas: set to different language than song, interesting song choice, dissonance was there but worked because the vidder knew what she was doing, it was giving it another dimension, recontextualizing bodies with other flavor which brings associations of bengali? singing, dont speak for anyone here, how do you translate and in the process of translation how are you choosing to address the people who dont need translation
-how is the best way to avoid cultural appropiation...not tell a story that isnt mine?
-get a collaborator who does know, find the emotional truth, can you tap into love...if we can find cultural appropiation fairy, better to take the risk, no way to prevent critiscm, we support it even if we have negative stuff to say about it, we still love the vids in show
-do research and have a good beta, if not familar with a source or song, research it and see source reviews as well as watch other movies/tv in that same cultural context so you're more in the sense of the people watching it..we love knowing the inside story for our shows so why not know the larger story
-slumdog: different history from movie, biggest thing to do, you cant make everyone happy, its an individual thing, dont be defensive, have respect for source and song
-dont like non-english songs are referred to an instrumental, find translation and have lyrics in mind
-good thing is that a poc vid doesnt need to be about racism, can be yay hardison but can also make vids about raciscm, origin stories does address this in btvs/ats but find a lot of things lacking in it, its really, really complex when addressing issues, the choices you make to further/subtract from argument, need to look at choices different, what are you allowing that body to do, what are people used to seeing this body do and i think people should make vids about race, need more celebtratory vids, want more multi-fandom COC vids
-want more vids about COC and being in this community is the way you get them, we want to see them
-worse to not have characters of color because of fear of messing up
-find those clips of characters that are minor, find moments where they are major
-most colors and lightings are there for white people and not black, which one are you choosing to make more beautiful: do your research, might make it come out, bodies are specific, how dark is that skin, what is allowed to be seen on stage and what shots are being used
Vid Reading Practicum
-how do we as vid watchers figure out what vids are doing, what do we grab onto to figure out whats its purpose is, what is the mood or emotional response, how is the vid doing these things, what are the patterns that we see
-character, pov, who am i supposed to be following, facial expressions, what am i supposed to get from this, stuff you get from motion and if we stopped to think about it we can step back enough into our process of understanding, where the vid directs our eye, what we're supposed to be looking at, what clips to what lyrics
-vid title = chorus, big clue, only hear the first time but had picked up on the mood
[two vids were shown in their entirely, people who didnt know the show spoke first and then the people who did know the show spoke)
-1 thing by sisabet: i dont really know this women but why does she love guns so much? havent listened to this song, all i had to go on was one thing leads to another, picked up a few lines where she held a clip longer, someones been lying to me, just b/c youre paranoid doesnt mean they're not out to get you
-clearly this central guy is who im following and all these people relate to everyone, its an action spy thing, lying to me, people get up from death, deception was more than i knew about
-i dont know but its a spy show and things blow up, main love interest, someones lying
-freeze frames: white men in sunglasses are not interchangable but couldnt tell them apart with quick text
-showing them characters so we know who we were, it was helpful and didnt get some laughing but then did it, the last shot really got as the last shot, everything falling out of control
-but i can see a lot of things are going on, there are trust issues like whoa, clearly there is a story but i know somethings going on, i couldnt describe those specific roles are
-the older woman, the vid got more serious at that point, song was slower, people represented parts of him, fiona was the sexy part and (his mom) was wiser
-the tone changed their and the tone of the music told me to not take things serious
-the intro labels set up a sly playful tone and then point of contact and then on the ground dead, shows it was underminded (?)
-tonal complexity of the song
-vidwatching for shows got a lot easier when you let go of the idea that you need to know the plot of the show, know real smile and fake smile
-unfamiliar shows are easier to get in an audience setting, people's reactions help parse whats going on
-incidental characters are familiar from other media, trisha/john mahoghny, helped differentiate the people because you know them
-didnt care about the plot enough to enjoy the vid
-vid cues us that following the plot is not important: so much is going on, things start happening, things blow up, if it wanted to know the plot then would slow down
-song's repetitive song which doesnt let up, keeps pulling itself along without making any real break points, no structure although many nice clips
-starts out introducing situation of the arc, you see the bad guys (labeled), set up michael's situation regarding what he's up against, then we see fiona the love interest focusing on her, then it swings into other main people like his mother and his friend, sam in the more emotional section, lying to you has a different weight when it's your mother versus antagonist (plus touch of fiona), pulls everyone into the plotty situational stuff
-didnt know anything but saw that structure quite clearly, didnt know why
-labels are a feature in the show, great touch that you're using very well
-great universe vid, gives you feel and tenor of the show
-got the feeling of going over my head, if i lower my expectations, dont need to know everything whats going on because it can get in the way of watching the vid
-reading levels is useful so you give permission to read at low levels
-vid: Etheric Messages by thuviaptarth (Fringe)
-armbodes on the head, cant tell if dreaming or hallucinating, always by herself with dead bodies around, an apolytic...
-still looks like she goes into a tank, she goes into an AU, theres a pattern with lights and theres some kind of alternative reality, she sees things that are not there, she had a test and passed and she wasnt happy about this and the kid was her
-this is a mystery and it appears she is an fbi agent trying to figure it out (or maybe she just thinks she is)
-flash of page of what we know of reality gives you permission to not take it for granted
-music gave no clues
-middle eastern music: it said, my god, it is written, predestined
-one place where i get it: line of text that say alternative reality and snowglobes collide together for those universes colliding, it made me intrigued because shiny things blowing up is less interesting than wanting to explore (solve) this mystery
-different mysteries that needed to be solved, lights and then shadow in the background and then there was leonard nimoy,
-didnt get anything, mood, creepy, was scared for her, reminded of darkness, darkness
-my notes are full of oh shit bears moments
-first theres oh shit ICK after wired up, then soon after is horrible looking guy like her, i dont want to know too much, lights wired to the c4 (oh shit bears), then oh shit science, what if we go too far in science, go beyond what mankind is supposed to know can we destroy ourselves through science
-the core of vidwatching is noticing stuff and thinking about what you noticed, the foundation of vid review, its harder to think about it when you know the source, you reach for the few things you can find when you dont know
-when you talk about vids, dont be afraid to state the obvious, may see different things, they may be thrilled that you saw it, the vidder isnt always sure it was obvious
-is she in the wrong place, not supposed to be there
Motion
-when talking about matching internal to internal vs. internal to external, gives you a sense of scope for the latter
-ex. so whatcha want by bradcpu: mix of internal and external, echoed downturn helps make motion less static
-with static source, add a lot of motion: jumpcuts, zooms, pans, transitions ex. vid with the backwards cup (millylicious spn vid), overlay clips or colors or textures, reverses, time remaps/toggles, multiple frames flying around
-use 3D, pan your shots, hard to use with live action
-ex. party in the midlands by millylicious: engaging use of the comic format, makes comic format less static, perceive having more scope and motion
-use stop motion to discard the motion in the clip, create own rhythms to work with music ex. tabula rose by hollywoodgrrl: create motion that is entirely seperate from clip, works with music to create mood of melancholy and regret
-way that a video moves can help convey emotion and mood, short and sharp clips has different feel than long slow clips
-to create anger or joy: compatibility = completing each others motions (joy) vs. pushing back, not complete (anger)
-joyful: good flow, clip to clip, build up to more and more happiness
-disconnected to create confusion mindset
-lots of changes in motion (confusion)
-spinning, shaky cam, lots of overlays showing the mind is going a lot of places...
-at end of pleasentville you have the camera motion going one way and then quickly changes, creates disconcerting feeling
-clausterphobia with lack of space
-edit so quick so cant process and you cant catch up so feel like them
-cut right before you think the motion would happen
-ex. beccatoria's war for your mind: urgency and immediacy, not quite angry but more frustration because it has smooth parts
-about to fall apart but it comes back together
-variation of the clip length so you violence of guns and face expressions of clips, shorter clips zooming in, snap looks, reaction has a sense of urgency
-motion to create mood: ex. out here by heresluck w/jump cutting when fraser's in a city alone and then its more continuous, ex. hollywoodgrrl's don't speak: rapidfire swinging motion to create inevitability, ex. street cafe by JKL: urgency all the way through b/c of fast editing, pulls you through, get sense of trying to figure things out, trying to stay ahead, ex. like my very own blood by jarrow: creates a mood, vertigo shows the anxiety, ex. circles by laurashapiro: steadicam shot shows the inner world shots that knows bartlet's secrets, ex. another sunday by jescaflowne: joyful, stop motion, animation to create
-working motion with music: compliment the music, create own rhythm, create counterpoint, do something different than whats going on, changes in rhythm, changing in timing, stacatto sections working in shorter clips, listen to music cues, use ascending tones, another instrument coming in for one refrain or more, mark out some of the changes in music, the big creshendos, places where instrumentation changes
-ex. charmax's unnatural selection: terminator stepping down on skull to music, highlight the smaller parts of music, the little weird sounds
-ex. rhoboat's ego: trill in music as he puts his hand down and recoils back
-vids that seem the most polished are the ones that hit those little grace notes, you can really appreciate that something happened on those little points
-ex. break teen spirit by bananainpyjamas: uses motion to build the density of the music, add more depth and weight that to me flesh it out, pacing done well, the car comes in with the slam together with shorter words along with pauses although theres still continuous motion, stretch it out so can still maintain that same amount of motion
-incorporate motion into storytellng: can be supportive of narrative, crossover vid of cherry's, used motion to use it smooth and continuous so the sources flew into each other, when does use of motion become part of your narrative and story that youre telling?
-can it help establish pov, not just flashbacks, it can put you in a characters head, create confusion, relief, etc
-ex. kikimiserychic's does cameron dream of electric sleep: overlays that create multiple lines of motion, machines process faster than humans, almost clitchy, time reversals
-ex. bradcpu's tear you apart: ...narrow down to the pov at the end that make effect
-integrate into storytellining: ex. obsessive24's Red Cliff : get sense of intensity, importance and how epic it is, very smooth shifts from the small and close and personal to the large and epic and impersonal to create a sense that it's all connected to give depth and scope and breadth, it helps generate music because the staffs come down on beats, etc
-awareness of the choices with motion
Hope that was helpful!