ramble on vids, fics, and bad taste
ficbyzee's post on literal clip coices in vids got me thinking about vids, and why so often the most lauded ones leave me cold when someone's very first vid with audio left in and aspect ratio changes can make me squee.
For me, over-literalness is so far down the list of annoying vid things. I like vids that make narrative sense, and lyrics are part of that narrative sense - but a lyric match isn't necessarily literal, it can be sarcastic (which I like) or metaphorical, and a literal match can cause the vid to make less narrative sense (as I learned trying to make Drive My Car).
Still, the trouble with most vids I don't like - apart from hating the song - is when they don't seem to be going anywhere. I don't care how pretty the vid is, if it's a generic love song set to generic pictures of the characters loving each other, it goes into my trash can before the first minute is over. Not to mention clips that drag on forever - say what you want about literal matches, but at least they force the vidder to make a clip break once in a while.
I want to know why those particular clips are in the vid, and why that particular song is chosen, and I want the answer to last me those minutes it takes to watch the vid. "X and Y love each other" or "Z is unhappy" last all of two seconds.
Obviously, a good vidder can take me along every step of the way without ever stepping into literal interpretations of the lyrics, but if I'm to pick a vidder who isn't that good, I'll pick the didactic over the mumbler every time.
Which leads to another issue: some people claimed in the comments that over-literalness is a beginner's mistake. And that kind of makes me twitchy, because I can see how things would so easily veer over to the other side - beginners making even more vague, boring vids, experienced vidders making supposedly layered, metaphorical vids that may be just that or may be (to me) just prettier vague, boring vids, no one making squee-worthy moments such as first!Spike taunting Spike to the lyrics "talking to myself in public", because OMG literal!
Let it be noted that I didn't get the sense that ficbyzee was trying to be normative at all and that I'm just being overprotective and kind of paranoid. But the bottom line is, if I'm having bad taste, is it then not reasonable for other people who have bad taste to continue executing that taste, so that together we can enjoy ourselves more?
Like OCs in fanfic. I love OCs, writing them and reading about them, but the fear of Sueism means that people who have some skill will try to avoid OCs because we're supposed to be here for the canon characters (even if we're not). Which in its turn mean that of the OCs out there, an even higher percentage will be Mary Sues, because Suethors are rarely deterred by questions of quality. Even I, loving the OC with the love of all loves, whine in fear when they take over my brain, and have been known to browse past fics just because the pairing is "X/OFC".
Remarque claimed that it's always the wrong people who feel guilty. I suppose similarly, one might claim that it's always the wrong people who listen to creative guidelines.
For me, over-literalness is so far down the list of annoying vid things. I like vids that make narrative sense, and lyrics are part of that narrative sense - but a lyric match isn't necessarily literal, it can be sarcastic (which I like) or metaphorical, and a literal match can cause the vid to make less narrative sense (as I learned trying to make Drive My Car).
Still, the trouble with most vids I don't like - apart from hating the song - is when they don't seem to be going anywhere. I don't care how pretty the vid is, if it's a generic love song set to generic pictures of the characters loving each other, it goes into my trash can before the first minute is over. Not to mention clips that drag on forever - say what you want about literal matches, but at least they force the vidder to make a clip break once in a while.
I want to know why those particular clips are in the vid, and why that particular song is chosen, and I want the answer to last me those minutes it takes to watch the vid. "X and Y love each other" or "Z is unhappy" last all of two seconds.
Obviously, a good vidder can take me along every step of the way without ever stepping into literal interpretations of the lyrics, but if I'm to pick a vidder who isn't that good, I'll pick the didactic over the mumbler every time.
Which leads to another issue: some people claimed in the comments that over-literalness is a beginner's mistake. And that kind of makes me twitchy, because I can see how things would so easily veer over to the other side - beginners making even more vague, boring vids, experienced vidders making supposedly layered, metaphorical vids that may be just that or may be (to me) just prettier vague, boring vids, no one making squee-worthy moments such as first!Spike taunting Spike to the lyrics "talking to myself in public", because OMG literal!
Let it be noted that I didn't get the sense that ficbyzee was trying to be normative at all and that I'm just being overprotective and kind of paranoid. But the bottom line is, if I'm having bad taste, is it then not reasonable for other people who have bad taste to continue executing that taste, so that together we can enjoy ourselves more?
Like OCs in fanfic. I love OCs, writing them and reading about them, but the fear of Sueism means that people who have some skill will try to avoid OCs because we're supposed to be here for the canon characters (even if we're not). Which in its turn mean that of the OCs out there, an even higher percentage will be Mary Sues, because Suethors are rarely deterred by questions of quality. Even I, loving the OC with the love of all loves, whine in fear when they take over my brain, and have been known to browse past fics just because the pairing is "X/OFC".
Remarque claimed that it's always the wrong people who feel guilty. I suppose similarly, one might claim that it's always the wrong people who listen to creative guidelines.