New Dr Who Music Video: Ghost by Morgan Dawn (VVC Premiere)
This premiered at Vividcon this weekend. It is on the con DVD set.
Song: Ghost
Artist: Live
Fandom: Dr Who
Format: 20MB DivX file (both PC & Mac compatible)
Summary: The Doctor & Rose learn that some people can haunt you forever.
Permament streaming version at AO3
Ghost from Fan Fandom on Vimeo.
Vid by Morgan Dawn. Premiered at the 2005 Vividcon vid show.
Password: thedoctor
You can view a streaming version of the vid here. If you'd like a high quality download drop me a note.
Edited: I actually had to scroll through my mailbox to help my overtaxed memory, but thanks to the following who were my betas/collaborators:
gattagrigia (for crucial help on reshaping the song into a more narrative structure),
laurashapiro (color, color and more color!), and
permetaform (beats are our friends).
And a special thanks to xlorp for patiently walking into the room every 15 minutes when I called out: "oooh, look at this clip. And this clip. And this clip....Oh look! Another clip."
Some random technical comments. I’ve never offered any comments before on a vid. It seems time consuming, somewhat self-reflective, and boring. But never let it be said, I was afraid to be boring. Or self-absorbed.
On Song Structure
"Ghost" by Live is a 5min song, with several repeated choruses and stanzas. I knew I needed to cut it. After my first cut, I contacted (a fellow vidder and Dr Who fan) and asked her what else needed to be cut. She suggested we take out all the choruses except the last one. I also trimmed the beginning and snipped off the instrumental bridges and the end. Don’t be surprised if you don’t recognize the song - after editing, it comes in around 2 min 53 sec. But it makes a stronger narrative. Go betas! (or collaborators - I just cannot think of people as fish. They are more like partners in crime - oops, vidding).
On POV
The vid starts off in the Doctor’s POV. In the last stanza, I shifted the POV to Rose - now the Doctor is her "ghost." POV's shifts are tricky - particularly when you don’t evenly divide the song into sections. Here, I reserved only the last stanza for Rose - matching the female singer's voice with Rose's POV. I hinted at Rose's presence (as a possible POV character) earlier when I used a matte frame image of the Doctor & Rose holding hands and superimposed it over a long shot of the Dr, Rose and the Tardis. This is the first time in the song that the female singer's voice bleeds through clearly and I wanted to make her presence known.
On Color
A few people commented on the color of the clips. I used the same source as the rest of the world - the wonderful avi files from bittorent. I did do some color correcting - the most dramatic changes are the clips using the Daleks, where I applied what I call the "copper" filter - it turns metal more bronzy and adds a greenish undertone. This was to match the show's use of green for the Dalek's weapons. I also (with Laura’s help) used the color corrector to change a ceiling panel and its lighting to blue to match the surrounding clips. I washed out a few clips & added a "glow" filter to soften one of the Rose clips. And that was pretty much it (besides the normal lightening/darkening I do for every vid).
I was fortunate that the clips I selected carried their own built-in color scheme - blue and gold. And once I picked up on this, it helped me in the final selection of clips.
Clip Choice
Not much to add there, except the scenes with the Doctor running down a burning hallway are from a BBC trailer. Unfortunately, the BBC logo is a huge boomingly loud red thing, so I needed to do a lot of matting, shifting, zooming etc. I was not completely successful in eliminating the logo - but in the end, allowed the 80/20 rule to kick in. I could not physically afford to spend another 3 days trying to remove a smallish 2x2 area. Bad BBC.
Aspect Ratio Woes.
I listened to fans moaning about aspect ratio issues and thought - oh that will never impact me. Ha ha. You can hear the universe laughing behind my back. Since my external capture card no longer imports, I was stuck with DVD ripping. I had almost completed the vid, before I discovered that my aspect ratio adjustments were still off (even using the ones recommended by other editors.) I resorted to the low tech method - placing post-its on the screen to mark the 4 corners I wanted. And adjusted the ratios step by step. And they match nothing known to man. More evidence that the BBC is not of this earth.
Song: Ghost
Artist: Live
Fandom: Dr Who
Format: 20MB DivX file (both PC & Mac compatible)
Summary: The Doctor & Rose learn that some people can haunt you forever.
Permament streaming version at AO3
Ghost from Fan Fandom on Vimeo.
Vid by Morgan Dawn. Premiered at the 2005 Vividcon vid show.
Password: thedoctor
You can view a streaming version of the vid here. If you'd like a high quality download drop me a note.
Edited: I actually had to scroll through my mailbox to help my overtaxed memory, but thanks to the following who were my betas/collaborators:
gattagrigia (for crucial help on reshaping the song into a more narrative structure),
laurashapiro (color, color and more color!), and
permetaform (beats are our friends).
And a special thanks to xlorp for patiently walking into the room every 15 minutes when I called out: "oooh, look at this clip. And this clip. And this clip....Oh look! Another clip."
Some random technical comments. I’ve never offered any comments before on a vid. It seems time consuming, somewhat self-reflective, and boring. But never let it be said, I was afraid to be boring. Or self-absorbed.
On Song Structure
"Ghost" by Live is a 5min song, with several repeated choruses and stanzas. I knew I needed to cut it. After my first cut, I contacted (a fellow vidder and Dr Who fan) and asked her what else needed to be cut. She suggested we take out all the choruses except the last one. I also trimmed the beginning and snipped off the instrumental bridges and the end. Don’t be surprised if you don’t recognize the song - after editing, it comes in around 2 min 53 sec. But it makes a stronger narrative. Go betas! (or collaborators - I just cannot think of people as fish. They are more like partners in crime - oops, vidding).
On POV
The vid starts off in the Doctor’s POV. In the last stanza, I shifted the POV to Rose - now the Doctor is her "ghost." POV's shifts are tricky - particularly when you don’t evenly divide the song into sections. Here, I reserved only the last stanza for Rose - matching the female singer's voice with Rose's POV. I hinted at Rose's presence (as a possible POV character) earlier when I used a matte frame image of the Doctor & Rose holding hands and superimposed it over a long shot of the Dr, Rose and the Tardis. This is the first time in the song that the female singer's voice bleeds through clearly and I wanted to make her presence known.
On Color
A few people commented on the color of the clips. I used the same source as the rest of the world - the wonderful avi files from bittorent. I did do some color correcting - the most dramatic changes are the clips using the Daleks, where I applied what I call the "copper" filter - it turns metal more bronzy and adds a greenish undertone. This was to match the show's use of green for the Dalek's weapons. I also (with Laura’s help) used the color corrector to change a ceiling panel and its lighting to blue to match the surrounding clips. I washed out a few clips & added a "glow" filter to soften one of the Rose clips. And that was pretty much it (besides the normal lightening/darkening I do for every vid).
I was fortunate that the clips I selected carried their own built-in color scheme - blue and gold. And once I picked up on this, it helped me in the final selection of clips.
Clip Choice
Not much to add there, except the scenes with the Doctor running down a burning hallway are from a BBC trailer. Unfortunately, the BBC logo is a huge boomingly loud red thing, so I needed to do a lot of matting, shifting, zooming etc. I was not completely successful in eliminating the logo - but in the end, allowed the 80/20 rule to kick in. I could not physically afford to spend another 3 days trying to remove a smallish 2x2 area. Bad BBC.
Aspect Ratio Woes.
I listened to fans moaning about aspect ratio issues and thought - oh that will never impact me. Ha ha. You can hear the universe laughing behind my back. Since my external capture card no longer imports, I was stuck with DVD ripping. I had almost completed the vid, before I discovered that my aspect ratio adjustments were still off (even using the ones recommended by other editors.) I resorted to the low tech method - placing post-its on the screen to mark the 4 corners I wanted. And adjusted the ratios step by step. And they match nothing known to man. More evidence that the BBC is not of this earth.