Meta: If Yoda Could Teach You Vidding
I've posted about this before. But to me vidding - like most art - is all about the choices we make. Each choice impacts your audience and shapes their likes/dislikes of your vid. It is not about 'Rules' or 'Vidding The Right Way' or 'Quality Vidding' or "My vid is bigger better than your vid". It is all about understanding that what you do *with your vid* will cause other people to react *to your vid.*
Here is how it works folks. Take notes as there will be quiz later.
When you start making a vid you have the 100% hypothetical audience who loves and adores the vid and wants to have its babies. Your first step is to pick the fandom. You lose 10% of the audience - they're just not going to watch that Fandom X vid. You pick a pairing or a character. There goes another 10%. Then you pick the song - this one is a biggie - pick country western and you're likely to lose 70% of the remaining audience. Pick a rap song or heavy metal or Linkin Park and your numbers may not be much better. Bottom line: every song choice will whittle away a portion of your audience.
So by now, with careful selections - you're lucky to have 60% of your audience remaining. You're actually doing quite well (pause to pat yourself on your back).
But you have yet to make a single edit. If you cut too fast on the beat, some of your audience will fall over into seizures. Cut too slowly your audience will start to snooze. Ignore the lyrics and the dynamics of the song and cut just anywhere? Your audience will just be confused. Didn't edit the song? Too many notes!! You edited the song - but the audience really wanted to hear all hundred choruses of "bottles of beer on the wall?" Either way there goes another 15%.
How about if you add effects? Use too many white flashes or fades to black? Random POV shifts? You didn't use *any* effects? Boring. There goes another 15%.
So where are we? Somewhere around 30% of the audience is still hanging in there watching your vid. We're almost done. Because the last question is 'how did you distribute your vid?' Blurry Youtube version? WMV file with funky aspect ratio? "I only vid for Macs - Quicktime should be good enough for anyone". How about: "No I will not stream, you need to send me a certified letter before I'll send you the password to my website so you can download." Whew, there goes another 15%.
And now you've arrived at your destination! An entire 15% of your audience is watching your vid, loving it and wanting more. Congratulations, you've just made a vid.
But if you wonder why the rest of the world has failed to appreciate your brilliance? It's all about the choices, baby. And rather than railing against the vid, the vidder or the audience, I find it far more productive to realize that with every choice you gain an audience and you lose an audience. It's almost Zen-like.
[A Dreamwidth post with
comments | Post or read on Dreamwidth| How to use OpenID]
Here is how it works folks. Take notes as there will be quiz later.
When you start making a vid you have the 100% hypothetical audience who loves and adores the vid and wants to have its babies. Your first step is to pick the fandom. You lose 10% of the audience - they're just not going to watch that Fandom X vid. You pick a pairing or a character. There goes another 10%. Then you pick the song - this one is a biggie - pick country western and you're likely to lose 70% of the remaining audience. Pick a rap song or heavy metal or Linkin Park and your numbers may not be much better. Bottom line: every song choice will whittle away a portion of your audience.
So by now, with careful selections - you're lucky to have 60% of your audience remaining. You're actually doing quite well (pause to pat yourself on your back).
But you have yet to make a single edit. If you cut too fast on the beat, some of your audience will fall over into seizures. Cut too slowly your audience will start to snooze. Ignore the lyrics and the dynamics of the song and cut just anywhere? Your audience will just be confused. Didn't edit the song? Too many notes!! You edited the song - but the audience really wanted to hear all hundred choruses of "bottles of beer on the wall?" Either way there goes another 15%.
How about if you add effects? Use too many white flashes or fades to black? Random POV shifts? You didn't use *any* effects? Boring. There goes another 15%.
So where are we? Somewhere around 30% of the audience is still hanging in there watching your vid. We're almost done. Because the last question is 'how did you distribute your vid?' Blurry Youtube version? WMV file with funky aspect ratio? "I only vid for Macs - Quicktime should be good enough for anyone". How about: "No I will not stream, you need to send me a certified letter before I'll send you the password to my website so you can download." Whew, there goes another 15%.
And now you've arrived at your destination! An entire 15% of your audience is watching your vid, loving it and wanting more. Congratulations, you've just made a vid.
But if you wonder why the rest of the world has failed to appreciate your brilliance? It's all about the choices, baby. And rather than railing against the vid, the vidder or the audience, I find it far more productive to realize that with every choice you gain an audience and you lose an audience. It's almost Zen-like.
[A Dreamwidth post with
comments | Post or read on Dreamwidth| How to use OpenID]