A Cassandra by Any Other Name Smells Like a Rose. Or a Doctor.
Happy New Year!
Ahem.
I'm just about to head out for a celebration, and to wake myself up after playing D&D until 8 in the morning, I decided to go looking for Doctor Who videos on youtube. Randomly, I've been stuck on "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran, so I tried looking for Doctor Who videos of that. There were a ton of them, but I only bothered watching two, and only one didn't look like it was a Tooth and Claw summary. Which is disappointing, what with the whole Bad Wolf thing. The only one that did use something more than Tooth and Claw footage... was okay. But the two I saw made me want to list my video pet peeves.
1. DON'T recycle footage!
Unless you're doing a crack video, don't use the same images over and over. Every line and every image don't need to match up perfectly. Use some other shots and spread your material over the important parts of the song. It's okay to recycle very short clips--maybe one or two seconds--for emphasis, but any longer and you risk being boring. If you do have to repeat a longer clip, use some kind of innocuous visual effect, like a color change/black and white/glow effect/something. But that leads me to...
2. Don't use obnoxious visual effects!
Zooming in and out using widescreen footage is the worst, but random blinking is also disruptive. Once in a blue moon these effects work, but not often. They get distracting.
3. Don't match lyrics to what looks like it's going on in the clip rather than what's actually going on. Use the original meaning of the clip.
Or, in layman's terms, for all you thick wannabe whovians, DON'T USE THE DOCTOR/CASSANDRA CLIP FOR A ROSE/DOCTOR SHIPPING VIDEO. It looks like a Rose, it smells like a Rose, but it's not a Rose. And on this topic in general, a good music video should make you think about the piece in question. A music video that's a fanfic is only decent at best. But music videos that aren't meant to be funny should tie into, become part of, the story the show told. They should clarify and interpret it. Not change it.
4. Don't let your music video eat pears.
5. Don't make music videos busy.
It's okay to use some down shots during musically or lyrically "busy" parts of the song. Less is more.
6. Don't use the description to tell me which character in the show is which character in the song.
If you're smart enough to watch Doctor Who, you're smart enough to figure out who's who.
7. Don't take one very personal song and make it about a whole episode, scattering it among different characters. Much.
You notice that most songs, especially love songs, have a first person narrator? You notice that most first-person narration books, and even a lot of third person ones, focus on one character? You notice that third person pieces that focus on multiple characters pick ONE at a time, they're usually dealing with some very lofty concept or complex plot. If you're going to pick a song that's about a relationship, about a conflict, and THIS IS MOST SONGS, focus on one person or one pairing, and one person's perspective. If you have to switch, switch between verses, use a different character for every verse, and bring it all together as the song ends. It's okay to use these songs for a whole episode summary or a season summary, but ONLY if the lyrics really, really fit, and you try to either have ONE perspective for the video or cover EVERYTHING. If you do come across a "big" song that covers a lot of different things, like say "Land of Confusion," then be careful to either have the whole thing out of one character's "eyes" or to cover everything equally.
8. Don't do a shipping video with a character and multiple others, unless the theme of the video is jealousy or the one character being promiscuous.
This goes back to the Doctor/Cassandra theme, but unless you're doing a video to "Say my name" by Destiny's Child or something like that, don't use all of the Doctor's companions AND Reinette AND Cassandra in a love song. Exception: Martha and Donna videos can have brief references to Rose, for reasons of jealousy and such. But really. Keep focused! It's like... haven't you all ever learned anything about thesis statements!
9. Don't pick a song that has nothing to do with your video unless it's really, really funny.
To use an example from another fandom, I once saw an Ash Ketchum video for Pokemon to "U + UR Hand" by Pink. It was meaningless drivel and while it was interesting to watch, but I tuned out the words. I've seen this a bit in Who fandom, but don't just pick your favorite song and your favorite clips and put them together. That's boring for everyone else.
Anyway, if anyone outside of my tiny f-list is reading this, you're probably wondering who I am. I'm not a music video maker. I don't have the software or the clips. But I am an avid viewer of music videos, and an English major to boot, so I know something about getting my point across.
Maybe someday, I'll link to a bunch of good Who videos (and maybe a few non-who videos) and explain WHY they're good. But for now... I have places to be. Happy new year!
Ahem.
I'm just about to head out for a celebration, and to wake myself up after playing D&D until 8 in the morning, I decided to go looking for Doctor Who videos on youtube. Randomly, I've been stuck on "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran, so I tried looking for Doctor Who videos of that. There were a ton of them, but I only bothered watching two, and only one didn't look like it was a Tooth and Claw summary. Which is disappointing, what with the whole Bad Wolf thing. The only one that did use something more than Tooth and Claw footage... was okay. But the two I saw made me want to list my video pet peeves.
1. DON'T recycle footage!
Unless you're doing a crack video, don't use the same images over and over. Every line and every image don't need to match up perfectly. Use some other shots and spread your material over the important parts of the song. It's okay to recycle very short clips--maybe one or two seconds--for emphasis, but any longer and you risk being boring. If you do have to repeat a longer clip, use some kind of innocuous visual effect, like a color change/black and white/glow effect/something. But that leads me to...
2. Don't use obnoxious visual effects!
Zooming in and out using widescreen footage is the worst, but random blinking is also disruptive. Once in a blue moon these effects work, but not often. They get distracting.
3. Don't match lyrics to what looks like it's going on in the clip rather than what's actually going on. Use the original meaning of the clip.
Or, in layman's terms, for all you thick wannabe whovians, DON'T USE THE DOCTOR/CASSANDRA CLIP FOR A ROSE/DOCTOR SHIPPING VIDEO. It looks like a Rose, it smells like a Rose, but it's not a Rose. And on this topic in general, a good music video should make you think about the piece in question. A music video that's a fanfic is only decent at best. But music videos that aren't meant to be funny should tie into, become part of, the story the show told. They should clarify and interpret it. Not change it.
4. Don't let your music video eat pears.
5. Don't make music videos busy.
It's okay to use some down shots during musically or lyrically "busy" parts of the song. Less is more.
6. Don't use the description to tell me which character in the show is which character in the song.
If you're smart enough to watch Doctor Who, you're smart enough to figure out who's who.
7. Don't take one very personal song and make it about a whole episode, scattering it among different characters. Much.
You notice that most songs, especially love songs, have a first person narrator? You notice that most first-person narration books, and even a lot of third person ones, focus on one character? You notice that third person pieces that focus on multiple characters pick ONE at a time, they're usually dealing with some very lofty concept or complex plot. If you're going to pick a song that's about a relationship, about a conflict, and THIS IS MOST SONGS, focus on one person or one pairing, and one person's perspective. If you have to switch, switch between verses, use a different character for every verse, and bring it all together as the song ends. It's okay to use these songs for a whole episode summary or a season summary, but ONLY if the lyrics really, really fit, and you try to either have ONE perspective for the video or cover EVERYTHING. If you do come across a "big" song that covers a lot of different things, like say "Land of Confusion," then be careful to either have the whole thing out of one character's "eyes" or to cover everything equally.
8. Don't do a shipping video with a character and multiple others, unless the theme of the video is jealousy or the one character being promiscuous.
This goes back to the Doctor/Cassandra theme, but unless you're doing a video to "Say my name" by Destiny's Child or something like that, don't use all of the Doctor's companions AND Reinette AND Cassandra in a love song. Exception: Martha and Donna videos can have brief references to Rose, for reasons of jealousy and such. But really. Keep focused! It's like... haven't you all ever learned anything about thesis statements!
9. Don't pick a song that has nothing to do with your video unless it's really, really funny.
To use an example from another fandom, I once saw an Ash Ketchum video for Pokemon to "U + UR Hand" by Pink. It was meaningless drivel and while it was interesting to watch, but I tuned out the words. I've seen this a bit in Who fandom, but don't just pick your favorite song and your favorite clips and put them together. That's boring for everyone else.
Anyway, if anyone outside of my tiny f-list is reading this, you're probably wondering who I am. I'm not a music video maker. I don't have the software or the clips. But I am an avid viewer of music videos, and an English major to boot, so I know something about getting my point across.
Maybe someday, I'll link to a bunch of good Who videos (and maybe a few non-who videos) and explain WHY they're good. But for now... I have places to be. Happy new year!