vid commentary: "Window of Opportunity"
sdwolfpup asked about "Window of Opportunity," and specifically about the effects and transitions.
history
I got the idea for this vid on April 30, 2004, and finished it the first week of July, which meant it took me just over two months start to finish (not counting subsequent remastering, of course). This rapidity was unusual for me, to say the least, since although the actual laying-of-clips more often than not goes fairly quickly, I usually have to let the idea marinate for quite a while - a year or more, in some cases - before I can start to make the jump from idea to implementation.
process
The storyboard for this one is hilarious, partly because it's so empty (I'd just finished making "Cat-Scan Hist'ry, in which I'd been consciously trying not to over-plan, and some of that spontaneity carried over to "Window") and partly because the stuff that's there is... mostly wrong, because the entire last third of the vid was about Jaye and Eric. Thank god for renenet's ability to keep calmly insisting that I redo it, despite the temper tantrums that ensued. I mean, Eric the bartender! She made me cut Eric the bartender!
Clearly I'm still not over this, despite knowing that the vid is better for it. Heh.
commentary
[intro]
The new title, mimicking the viewfinder effect, is mine. The viewfinder effects at the beginning and end of the vid are part of the source, but the first one picks up in the middle of a sequence, so I actually had to track matte the viewfinder frame ahead of the one I used. Well, that's a lie; I didn't do anything as complicated as a real track matte, because I am much too lazy (why do you think I avoid special effects in the first place?). I just slapped down a chunk of black video in track two and motion-controlled it (four keyframes).
The superfast pan from the fountain around to the store is also the show's, although I sped it up even further (about 250%) and then slowed it down (to about 60%) to hit the Wonderfalls store sign on the beat and linger there for a split second. As we go through the doors there's actually a cut to a different shot, which blurs and swings around and then lands on Jaye; again, it's all in the original source and I just cut them together.
I'm on vacation from the measurement of quality
backing away from sleepy hollow front lawn of tranquility
just singing in my head and wreaking havoc with authority
I've fallen out the window of opportunity
I'm amused that sdwolfpup thought the yearbook page effect (where it flies in to cover the trailer park) was mine; in fact it's in the source, although I added the zoom in on Jaye's name and picture to make the transition to the next shot (a push in on Jaye) feel smoother.
The superfast zooming through people to the fountain at the end of the verse is, again, directly from the show. The show really does have a particular style, which happened to mesh very well with the bouncy-yet-blasé music, so I kept those distinctive elements wherever I could.
Incidentally, this isn't the real first verse of the song; the first verse is about shoplifting, which is actually part of what made me think about Jaye but which didn't lend itself to vidding because it's a very specific narrative. So it got the axe.
falling
sorry
falling
from grace
QUARTER!!!
...yeah, that's pretty much all I have for this section. I just love that quarter.
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
This section has some of the only intercutting in the whole vid. Quarter! Wax lion! Quarter! Wax lion!
It's good to be easily amused.
when the going gets tough, I get sleepy
caught snoozing on the endless escalator of prosperity
I'm not afraid of succeeding nor am I of trying, but
to say I knew exactly what I'm doing would be lying
Once again, the effect sdwolfpup thought was mine, where everything slides off to the left after Jaye grabs the alarm clock? That's the show. Hee. But the one at the end of the verse, where everything moves off to the right, is a combo: the transition after Jaye glares at the bear is in fact a wipe, but not to the clip that follows it in the vid, so I made a motion transition to match the transition in the source.
I love Jaye's facial expressions in this section.
disproving all belief in my ability
I'm kind of hanging in the sub-basement of my maturity
and chipping away at my employability
you see I've fallen out the window of opportunity
I think the camera-fight and eyeroll on "sub-basement of my maturity" and bottoms-up shot consumption on "chipping away at my employability" are probably my favorite clip choices in the whole vid. (Except, of course, for the quarter.) I'm just sayin'.
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
After putting together the first chorus with the eagle and the wax lion, I figured I should just stick with the animals for the rest of the choruses as well. It helps that the chorus has no words to work around.
happy tune in time with irresponsibility
I'm dancing on the muddy slope of financial security
and squandering cheerfully my nicey-nice conformity
I've fallen out the window of opportunity
I take it back; anything with the cow creamer is my favorite clip choice. "Do you believe that you alone have the power to silence the creamer?" ::cracks up::
And hey, more intercutting! Which, come to think of it, I recall deciding to do because I didn't know what else to do here and I needed setup for the baby shot in the "falling..." section.
paint the tree and eat the leaves
until it's bare and old
in my life I know not why
I bite the hands that hold
Tried for a bit of melancholy here (in terms of color and relative stillness), largely because of the music but also to set up the unbelievably cheap joke that follows.
falling
sorry
falling
from grace...
See? Cheap joke. I giggle every time. It helps that the "sorry" sounds like "soaring"; silly Canadian singer! Hee.
The left-to-right blurred-pan transition to the newspaper is, once again, the show. The one that immediately follows it, where we slide from Jaye looking annoyed to the lovesick ass, is half mine; the bit where Jaye in the store slides down is the show, but then I dissolved in the clip of the lovesick ass with a motion blur to make it look like part of the sliding effect.
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Last bit of intercutting (guess I used more of that than I thought; interesting), and of course last shots of the animals. I'm really pleased that I managed to squeeze in the penguin and the chameleon, since I'm quite fond of both of them. And, as I mentioned, that last viewfinder effect is, once again, the show.
So the upshot is... almost all the effects are the show's, and the ones that aren't are specifically designed to blend in with the ones that are. I mean, why bother pulling my hair out over the tech when I could just, you know, borrow the effects that already exist?
Which is a substantial portion of my vidding philosophy in a nutshell, really: make the source do the work for you.
history
I got the idea for this vid on April 30, 2004, and finished it the first week of July, which meant it took me just over two months start to finish (not counting subsequent remastering, of course). This rapidity was unusual for me, to say the least, since although the actual laying-of-clips more often than not goes fairly quickly, I usually have to let the idea marinate for quite a while - a year or more, in some cases - before I can start to make the jump from idea to implementation.
process
The storyboard for this one is hilarious, partly because it's so empty (I'd just finished making "Cat-Scan Hist'ry, in which I'd been consciously trying not to over-plan, and some of that spontaneity carried over to "Window") and partly because the stuff that's there is... mostly wrong, because the entire last third of the vid was about Jaye and Eric. Thank god for renenet's ability to keep calmly insisting that I redo it, despite the temper tantrums that ensued. I mean, Eric the bartender! She made me cut Eric the bartender!
Clearly I'm still not over this, despite knowing that the vid is better for it. Heh.
commentary
[intro]
The new title, mimicking the viewfinder effect, is mine. The viewfinder effects at the beginning and end of the vid are part of the source, but the first one picks up in the middle of a sequence, so I actually had to track matte the viewfinder frame ahead of the one I used. Well, that's a lie; I didn't do anything as complicated as a real track matte, because I am much too lazy (why do you think I avoid special effects in the first place?). I just slapped down a chunk of black video in track two and motion-controlled it (four keyframes).
The superfast pan from the fountain around to the store is also the show's, although I sped it up even further (about 250%) and then slowed it down (to about 60%) to hit the Wonderfalls store sign on the beat and linger there for a split second. As we go through the doors there's actually a cut to a different shot, which blurs and swings around and then lands on Jaye; again, it's all in the original source and I just cut them together.
I'm on vacation from the measurement of quality
backing away from sleepy hollow front lawn of tranquility
just singing in my head and wreaking havoc with authority
I've fallen out the window of opportunity
I'm amused that sdwolfpup thought the yearbook page effect (where it flies in to cover the trailer park) was mine; in fact it's in the source, although I added the zoom in on Jaye's name and picture to make the transition to the next shot (a push in on Jaye) feel smoother.
The superfast zooming through people to the fountain at the end of the verse is, again, directly from the show. The show really does have a particular style, which happened to mesh very well with the bouncy-yet-blasé music, so I kept those distinctive elements wherever I could.
Incidentally, this isn't the real first verse of the song; the first verse is about shoplifting, which is actually part of what made me think about Jaye but which didn't lend itself to vidding because it's a very specific narrative. So it got the axe.
falling
sorry
falling
from grace
QUARTER!!!
...yeah, that's pretty much all I have for this section. I just love that quarter.
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
This section has some of the only intercutting in the whole vid. Quarter! Wax lion! Quarter! Wax lion!
It's good to be easily amused.
when the going gets tough, I get sleepy
caught snoozing on the endless escalator of prosperity
I'm not afraid of succeeding nor am I of trying, but
to say I knew exactly what I'm doing would be lying
Once again, the effect sdwolfpup thought was mine, where everything slides off to the left after Jaye grabs the alarm clock? That's the show. Hee. But the one at the end of the verse, where everything moves off to the right, is a combo: the transition after Jaye glares at the bear is in fact a wipe, but not to the clip that follows it in the vid, so I made a motion transition to match the transition in the source.
I love Jaye's facial expressions in this section.
disproving all belief in my ability
I'm kind of hanging in the sub-basement of my maturity
and chipping away at my employability
you see I've fallen out the window of opportunity
I think the camera-fight and eyeroll on "sub-basement of my maturity" and bottoms-up shot consumption on "chipping away at my employability" are probably my favorite clip choices in the whole vid. (Except, of course, for the quarter.) I'm just sayin'.
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
After putting together the first chorus with the eagle and the wax lion, I figured I should just stick with the animals for the rest of the choruses as well. It helps that the chorus has no words to work around.
happy tune in time with irresponsibility
I'm dancing on the muddy slope of financial security
and squandering cheerfully my nicey-nice conformity
I've fallen out the window of opportunity
I take it back; anything with the cow creamer is my favorite clip choice. "Do you believe that you alone have the power to silence the creamer?" ::cracks up::
And hey, more intercutting! Which, come to think of it, I recall deciding to do because I didn't know what else to do here and I needed setup for the baby shot in the "falling..." section.
paint the tree and eat the leaves
until it's bare and old
in my life I know not why
I bite the hands that hold
Tried for a bit of melancholy here (in terms of color and relative stillness), largely because of the music but also to set up the unbelievably cheap joke that follows.
falling
sorry
falling
from grace...
See? Cheap joke. I giggle every time. It helps that the "sorry" sounds like "soaring"; silly Canadian singer! Hee.
The left-to-right blurred-pan transition to the newspaper is, once again, the show. The one that immediately follows it, where we slide from Jaye looking annoyed to the lovesick ass, is half mine; the bit where Jaye in the store slides down is the show, but then I dissolved in the clip of the lovesick ass with a motion blur to make it look like part of the sliding effect.
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Last bit of intercutting (guess I used more of that than I thought; interesting), and of course last shots of the animals. I'm really pleased that I managed to squeeze in the penguin and the chameleon, since I'm quite fond of both of them. And, as I mentioned, that last viewfinder effect is, once again, the show.
So the upshot is... almost all the effects are the show's, and the ones that aren't are specifically designed to blend in with the ones that are. I mean, why bother pulling my hair out over the tech when I could just, you know, borrow the effects that already exist?
Which is a substantial portion of my vidding philosophy in a nutshell, really: make the source do the work for you.