project remaster: Atropine, Come On, Superstar
As always, vids are at paper cup.
"Atropine" and "Superstar" got remastered (and slightly revised) for VividCon; the revisions to "Come On" were slightly more substantial.
All three have been remastered with at least VCD-quality source; the two Faith vids are now all-DVD source.
Atropine
This one is, as several intrepid souls pointed out to me in feedback, a fairly slow vid, and there were a couple of places in particular that were *really* slow. There were also, as vrya and others pointed out, a couple of badly timed cuts and transitions. So I knew I wanted to fix the timing on a couple of dissolves, and also to try to move things along a bit more in the slow bits. I wanted to do even more of the things the vid was already doing - notably the interpolation of flashback parallels into the vid's main timeline - and I also wanted to see whether I could apply some of what I learned about motion while making "Superstar." I also got hung up for a long time on relatively minor questions about how much more fire to add, and what kind, and where, and for how long; and whether Warren needed to make his cameo appearance. For a fairly straightforward project, this one turned out to be pretty time-consuming, and I'm still feeling slightly ambivalent about it. But hey: crackly blue fire!
Come On
"Come On" needed a complete source overhaul. I'd used some DVD source in the original, but I'd captured it all at 352x240 with a fairly crappy codec. This time around: 720x480, lossless codec. The difference isn't particularly striking in the online version, but it sure does show in the for-TV version. I also knew that I wanted to fiddle around with the last section; somebody (and I suck for no longer remembering who) pointed out that the dissolve from real-Buffy to Faith-in-Buffy's body didn't actually make any sense, which made me huffy for about 45 seconds before I realized that . . . well . . . she was exactly right. I didn't know what I wanted to replace it with, but, hey, there's always something, right? So I IMed about it with renenet, talking through possible S3 eps to cut into that section, with the primary criterion being that whatever clip I chose had to work with the Faith-pulling-away-from-Buffy moment from "Enemies." And then we came up with something and I pulled two sections of the vid apart and hacked them back together with a lot of re-timing, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
Superstar
DVD source, man. It's my new chocolate-covered holy grail. renenet even mailed me the relevant AtS S1 DVD disc so I could clip from "5x5" and "Sanctuary." I ::heart:: her. Also, I still love this vid, even though it is The Vid That Ate My Life. It is still the best vid I can make (until I finish the next one, I hope), and it still trips my trigger every time I watch it, so I didn't have much to add . . . except this one tiny bit of source that I overlooked the first time around and couldn't resist sneaking in there. I'm not even sure it's an improvement, but it's just so cool. Well, maybe only if you're looking at it frame by frame. But I *was* looking at it frame by frame, so, you know. If you don't notice it I won't be hurt. *g*
And now, to the relief of my long-suffering computer, I can start archiving a lot of this stuff to CD and deleting vast acres of files off my hard drive . . . because until I do, I can't start capturing DVD source for the next vid. And I really want to see this next vid. So let's hope I can get the pictures on the screen to match the pictures in my head. Think happy vidding thoughts at me, people.
"Atropine" and "Superstar" got remastered (and slightly revised) for VividCon; the revisions to "Come On" were slightly more substantial.
All three have been remastered with at least VCD-quality source; the two Faith vids are now all-DVD source.
Atropine
This one is, as several intrepid souls pointed out to me in feedback, a fairly slow vid, and there were a couple of places in particular that were *really* slow. There were also, as vrya and others pointed out, a couple of badly timed cuts and transitions. So I knew I wanted to fix the timing on a couple of dissolves, and also to try to move things along a bit more in the slow bits. I wanted to do even more of the things the vid was already doing - notably the interpolation of flashback parallels into the vid's main timeline - and I also wanted to see whether I could apply some of what I learned about motion while making "Superstar." I also got hung up for a long time on relatively minor questions about how much more fire to add, and what kind, and where, and for how long; and whether Warren needed to make his cameo appearance. For a fairly straightforward project, this one turned out to be pretty time-consuming, and I'm still feeling slightly ambivalent about it. But hey: crackly blue fire!
Come On
"Come On" needed a complete source overhaul. I'd used some DVD source in the original, but I'd captured it all at 352x240 with a fairly crappy codec. This time around: 720x480, lossless codec. The difference isn't particularly striking in the online version, but it sure does show in the for-TV version. I also knew that I wanted to fiddle around with the last section; somebody (and I suck for no longer remembering who) pointed out that the dissolve from real-Buffy to Faith-in-Buffy's body didn't actually make any sense, which made me huffy for about 45 seconds before I realized that . . . well . . . she was exactly right. I didn't know what I wanted to replace it with, but, hey, there's always something, right? So I IMed about it with renenet, talking through possible S3 eps to cut into that section, with the primary criterion being that whatever clip I chose had to work with the Faith-pulling-away-from-Buffy moment from "Enemies." And then we came up with something and I pulled two sections of the vid apart and hacked them back together with a lot of re-timing, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
Superstar
DVD source, man. It's my new chocolate-covered holy grail. renenet even mailed me the relevant AtS S1 DVD disc so I could clip from "5x5" and "Sanctuary." I ::heart:: her. Also, I still love this vid, even though it is The Vid That Ate My Life. It is still the best vid I can make (until I finish the next one, I hope), and it still trips my trigger every time I watch it, so I didn't have much to add . . . except this one tiny bit of source that I overlooked the first time around and couldn't resist sneaking in there. I'm not even sure it's an improvement, but it's just so cool. Well, maybe only if you're looking at it frame by frame. But I *was* looking at it frame by frame, so, you know. If you don't notice it I won't be hurt. *g*
And now, to the relief of my long-suffering computer, I can start archiving a lot of this stuff to CD and deleting vast acres of files off my hard drive . . . because until I do, I can't start capturing DVD source for the next vid. And I really want to see this next vid. So let's hope I can get the pictures on the screen to match the pictures in my head. Think happy vidding thoughts at me, people.