A Vidder's Journal - Day One
I just had a thought. A rare thing, yes, I know, but I had one, and I thought I should probably act on it before I forgot to remember to do it.
Um... yeah...
I fielded a lot of questions in Chicago this year about how to actually make a music vid. I answered as best I could (much harder than I thought it would be, honestly, without a computer in front of me to illustrate exactly what I was describing), but I know I didn't do a good enough job. I ended up referring almost everyone who asked to the Kawoosh forums, because there are detailed threads there on everything from ripping your first DVD to your first release.
And just now (or rather, five minutes ago, while I was mopping the bathroom floor... yeah, I have thoughts at the oddest times... moving on) it occurred to me that I really *can't* tell someone how to make "a" music vid. The best I can do is tell someone how *I* make a music vid. So that's what I've decided to do.
This is a vid that I'm starting from scratch, and every time I work on it, I'll post here, describing what I'm doing and how it's being done. I just want everyone to remember that there are as many ways to make a vid as there are vidders to make them. The way that works for me might not work for you, while the way, say, switch842 makes them would be perfect. The important thing to remember about vidding is that it's all about you - your ideas, your editing, your interpretations and, most importantly, your style. If me posting this is going to possibly help at least one person who's on the fence reach inside and find that they really can do this, then I've done my job, and I'll be happy.
So, with all that said...
A Vidder's Journal: Day One - Music Selection/Storyboarding
One of the most common questions I was asked in Chicago (right behind the very general, "How do you make a music video?") was, "How do you start? Do you decide the kind of vid you want to make and then pick the music, or do you hear a song and then pick scenes that fit?"
And the oh-so-definitive answer is... both.
For example, when I first heard K's Choice's song "Not an Addict", I immediately thought of "Need". I listened to it again, and more scenes jumped into my head. I listened again (vidding, you will find, is a very annoyingly repetitive process for me), and by the third time through, I had about 50% of it storyboarded in my brain. When I can see that much of a vid in my head after only three listens, I know it's one that I just have to make, so I usually do (or at least, I start them, even if I never finish them {I've got a Mambo SG-1 vid around here somewhere that's been half done for three years...}). So in King of Denial's case, the music definitely dictated the vid.
On the flip side, I knew the minute I watched Prometheus Unbound that I just *had* to vid the D/V scenes (and this was way back when D/V didn't even exist). I spent the next two days on a search for the "perfect" song for it. I knew that the focus was going to be on how much they hated each other, so the first song I tried was "She Fuckin' Hates Me" by Puddle of Mudd. I didn't think it fit as well as I wanted, so I kept looking. I just happened to hear Simple Plan's cover of "Happy Together," and that was it. Suddenly, instead of a literal look at the episode, I was doing a sarcastic one. So You and Me (or Me and You?) is the other side of the coin, where the episode dictates the vid.
The vid I'm starting today follows neither example, in that I decided on a particular song that didn't exactly jump out at me as "fitting" any one episode or plot line, and then started thinking about how to make it work. Now, in most instances, you want to avoid doing this, because it lends itself to forcing scenes into lyrics that don't work... kind of a "square peg, round hole" thing. But if you storyboard carefully, you should be able to avoid problems.
This entire video's conception is an enigma for me, because I knew not only the song, but the subject matter/pairing long before I could actually visualize anything in my head. The story behind it is long and complicated, and if you read my previous rant about a ripper named Ms. FU, you'll understand it. The condensed version is this: she ripped Stay With Me, threw in a few extra scenes, put a new song behind it, and called it "her" J/D vid. So I decided that I'd make one of my own, without ripping myself, to show her exactly how it should be done.
The song I'm doing is "Where'd You Go?" my Fort Minor, one of my new favorite bands now that I know that it's another project for Mike Shinoda, whose voice and lyrical style I absolutely adore (You know him too, if you've ever heard of an obscure little band called Linkin Park... He's the rapper.).
So with the music selection out of the way (gee, wasn't that easy?) we move on to storyboarding.
Storyboarding is, IMO, probably the single most important step in effective vidding. If you sit down in front of your editing software without any idea where you're going, your vid actually will look like a rambling, non-cohesive, jumbled up, confusing piece of crap. Storyboarding is where you decide just exactly what your point is - why are you making this video in the first place? And I beg of you, please, have a point. Because if you don't have a point, then, well... what's the point?
*headdesk*
Anyway, moving on...
As I mentioned above, I already know that the pairing is going to be J/D. A quick listen to the lyrics (and a more in-depth study of the reason it was written) tells you that it is about the hardships endured during serious relationships with people whose jobs keep them away from home for long stretches of time; the first time I heard it, my impression was that the male voice is talking to his wife/girlfriend/SO, who I imagined to be a rather successful musician of some sort. So the basic plot of the song is: one person is gone and the other person is hating that they're never home. Boiling it down even further, it's about the pain of being left behind.
And this is a J/D vid. Ready-made plot, if ya ask me.
So now comes more of that wonderful repetition thing. I listen to the song over and over and over and over and... you get the point. And right now, I can see almost every single scene that's going to go in it. A few of these might have to be adjusted, especially once Ms.3M the Wonder!Beta gets her hands on it, but for now, I know what my rough-in is going to look like.
I've even decided on what my main effect (ie - the one editing trick that will be repeated throughout the vid on several different clips) is going to be. A hint on what it will be - it's going to be used on the "where'd you go?" lyrics and, in reverse, on the "come back home" lyrics.
So now that I can "see" the scenes in my head, it's time to figure out which episodes they're in. For me, in my freakishness as episodic encyclopedia for all things Stargate, this isn't hard. (And no, I'm not bragging. I actually do think this is a rather bizarre, freakish, and *so* not normal ability that I'm ashamed I can do it some times.)
Anyway, I look up to where my Stargate DVDs are oh-so-conveniently arranged, in order, 8 inches above my head, and I start pulling down the ones I'll need.
Definitely need Fire and Water, Shades of Grey, Meridian, Revelations, Abyss, Full Circle, Fallen, Lost City, Origin, 200 and The Shroud.
With those episodes pulled, I'll spend the rest of the day sitting down with a copy of the lyrics and a pencil, writing down which episode/scene goes with which lyric, so that when I finally get to the editing phase, I'll have a clear outline of what I'm doing to get where I'm going.
The time involved in the actual written storyboarding varies from vid to vid. This one will probably take less than an hour because it's a simple, straight-forward, and FX-light vid. By way of comparison with my older vids: the longest I've ever spent on this step was for Wake Me Up Inside - the storyboarding phase on that one took about six weeks. Never Wake Me Up took about three weeks. Eight Years On took approximately 10 days.
I've actually accomplished quite a bit for the first day, and I'm about three days ahead of schedule. Tomorrow, I'll walk you through ripping the DVDs and preparing the .avs scripts for them.
Um... yeah...
I fielded a lot of questions in Chicago this year about how to actually make a music vid. I answered as best I could (much harder than I thought it would be, honestly, without a computer in front of me to illustrate exactly what I was describing), but I know I didn't do a good enough job. I ended up referring almost everyone who asked to the Kawoosh forums, because there are detailed threads there on everything from ripping your first DVD to your first release.
And just now (or rather, five minutes ago, while I was mopping the bathroom floor... yeah, I have thoughts at the oddest times... moving on) it occurred to me that I really *can't* tell someone how to make "a" music vid. The best I can do is tell someone how *I* make a music vid. So that's what I've decided to do.
This is a vid that I'm starting from scratch, and every time I work on it, I'll post here, describing what I'm doing and how it's being done. I just want everyone to remember that there are as many ways to make a vid as there are vidders to make them. The way that works for me might not work for you, while the way, say, switch842 makes them would be perfect. The important thing to remember about vidding is that it's all about you - your ideas, your editing, your interpretations and, most importantly, your style. If me posting this is going to possibly help at least one person who's on the fence reach inside and find that they really can do this, then I've done my job, and I'll be happy.
So, with all that said...
A Vidder's Journal: Day One - Music Selection/Storyboarding
One of the most common questions I was asked in Chicago (right behind the very general, "How do you make a music video?") was, "How do you start? Do you decide the kind of vid you want to make and then pick the music, or do you hear a song and then pick scenes that fit?"
And the oh-so-definitive answer is... both.
For example, when I first heard K's Choice's song "Not an Addict", I immediately thought of "Need". I listened to it again, and more scenes jumped into my head. I listened again (vidding, you will find, is a very annoyingly repetitive process for me), and by the third time through, I had about 50% of it storyboarded in my brain. When I can see that much of a vid in my head after only three listens, I know it's one that I just have to make, so I usually do (or at least, I start them, even if I never finish them {I've got a Mambo SG-1 vid around here somewhere that's been half done for three years...}). So in King of Denial's case, the music definitely dictated the vid.
On the flip side, I knew the minute I watched Prometheus Unbound that I just *had* to vid the D/V scenes (and this was way back when D/V didn't even exist). I spent the next two days on a search for the "perfect" song for it. I knew that the focus was going to be on how much they hated each other, so the first song I tried was "She Fuckin' Hates Me" by Puddle of Mudd. I didn't think it fit as well as I wanted, so I kept looking. I just happened to hear Simple Plan's cover of "Happy Together," and that was it. Suddenly, instead of a literal look at the episode, I was doing a sarcastic one. So You and Me (or Me and You?) is the other side of the coin, where the episode dictates the vid.
The vid I'm starting today follows neither example, in that I decided on a particular song that didn't exactly jump out at me as "fitting" any one episode or plot line, and then started thinking about how to make it work. Now, in most instances, you want to avoid doing this, because it lends itself to forcing scenes into lyrics that don't work... kind of a "square peg, round hole" thing. But if you storyboard carefully, you should be able to avoid problems.
This entire video's conception is an enigma for me, because I knew not only the song, but the subject matter/pairing long before I could actually visualize anything in my head. The story behind it is long and complicated, and if you read my previous rant about a ripper named Ms. FU, you'll understand it. The condensed version is this: she ripped Stay With Me, threw in a few extra scenes, put a new song behind it, and called it "her" J/D vid. So I decided that I'd make one of my own, without ripping myself, to show her exactly how it should be done.
The song I'm doing is "Where'd You Go?" my Fort Minor, one of my new favorite bands now that I know that it's another project for Mike Shinoda, whose voice and lyrical style I absolutely adore (You know him too, if you've ever heard of an obscure little band called Linkin Park... He's the rapper.).
So with the music selection out of the way (gee, wasn't that easy?) we move on to storyboarding.
Storyboarding is, IMO, probably the single most important step in effective vidding. If you sit down in front of your editing software without any idea where you're going, your vid actually will look like a rambling, non-cohesive, jumbled up, confusing piece of crap. Storyboarding is where you decide just exactly what your point is - why are you making this video in the first place? And I beg of you, please, have a point. Because if you don't have a point, then, well... what's the point?
*headdesk*
Anyway, moving on...
As I mentioned above, I already know that the pairing is going to be J/D. A quick listen to the lyrics (and a more in-depth study of the reason it was written) tells you that it is about the hardships endured during serious relationships with people whose jobs keep them away from home for long stretches of time; the first time I heard it, my impression was that the male voice is talking to his wife/girlfriend/SO, who I imagined to be a rather successful musician of some sort. So the basic plot of the song is: one person is gone and the other person is hating that they're never home. Boiling it down even further, it's about the pain of being left behind.
And this is a J/D vid. Ready-made plot, if ya ask me.
So now comes more of that wonderful repetition thing. I listen to the song over and over and over and over and... you get the point. And right now, I can see almost every single scene that's going to go in it. A few of these might have to be adjusted, especially once Ms.3M the Wonder!Beta gets her hands on it, but for now, I know what my rough-in is going to look like.
I've even decided on what my main effect (ie - the one editing trick that will be repeated throughout the vid on several different clips) is going to be. A hint on what it will be - it's going to be used on the "where'd you go?" lyrics and, in reverse, on the "come back home" lyrics.
So now that I can "see" the scenes in my head, it's time to figure out which episodes they're in. For me, in my freakishness as episodic encyclopedia for all things Stargate, this isn't hard. (And no, I'm not bragging. I actually do think this is a rather bizarre, freakish, and *so* not normal ability that I'm ashamed I can do it some times.)
Anyway, I look up to where my Stargate DVDs are oh-so-conveniently arranged, in order, 8 inches above my head, and I start pulling down the ones I'll need.
Definitely need Fire and Water, Shades of Grey, Meridian, Revelations, Abyss, Full Circle, Fallen, Lost City, Origin, 200 and The Shroud.
With those episodes pulled, I'll spend the rest of the day sitting down with a copy of the lyrics and a pencil, writing down which episode/scene goes with which lyric, so that when I finally get to the editing phase, I'll have a clear outline of what I'm doing to get where I'm going.
The time involved in the actual written storyboarding varies from vid to vid. This one will probably take less than an hour because it's a simple, straight-forward, and FX-light vid. By way of comparison with my older vids: the longest I've ever spent on this step was for Wake Me Up Inside - the storyboarding phase on that one took about six weeks. Never Wake Me Up took about three weeks. Eight Years On took approximately 10 days.
I've actually accomplished quite a bit for the first day, and I'm about three days ahead of schedule. Tomorrow, I'll walk you through ripping the DVDs and preparing the .avs scripts for them.