The Big IJVP Round-Up and Conclusion Post!
Following in f1renze's footsteps, because I really enjoyed hers, here is the Stunning Conclusion to my IJVP. We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll learn and grow.
First, here are direct links to each vidlet, as well as links to the original posts. All of the vids are DivX AVIs.
Day 1: Jesus Walks (6 MB) - Braveheart (gen) - for pipsqueaky - direct link - original post
Day 2: Head Over Feet (6 MB) - Angel (Doyle/Cordy) - for wolfling - direct link - original post
Day 3: Rain Come Down (18 MB) - Battlestar Galactica (gen) - for brynnmck - direct link - original post
Day 4: Not So Usual (18 MB) - Firefly (Simon&River) - for countessmary - direct link - original post
Day 5: Just A Toy (15 MB) - Buffy (Spike/Dru & Angelus) - for river_boat - direct link - original post
Day 6: More (17 MB) - Horatio Hornblower (Archie/Horatio) - for asta77 - direct link - original post
Day 7: Sing For Absolution (11 MB) - Angel (Fred/Wes/Illyria) - for xanphibian - direct link - original post
Day 8: If You Were Here (18 MB) - Farscape ("Crichton Kicks") - for bheerfan - direct link - original post
Day 9: Orbiting Jupiter (19 MB) - Battlestar Galactica (Starbuck&Adama) - for _par_avion - direct link - original post
Day 10: Thank You For The Music (18 MB) - Buffy ("Once More, With Feeling") - for eva_mac - direct link - original post
Day 11: Something Stupid (18 MB) - Firefly/Serenity (Mal/Inara) - for agent_rouka - direct link - original post
Day 12: The Sun Always Shines On TV (18 MB) - Doctor Who (Nine/Rose) - for fer1213 - direct link - original post
Day 13: Completely (8 MB) - Angel (Wes/Angelus) - for laurashapiro - direct link - original post
Day 14: Time (15 MB) - Battlestar Galactica (Laura, Laura/Lee) - for k_julia - direct link - original post
Day 15: I Put A Spell On You (13 MB) - Carnivale (Justin/Iris) - for vagabondage - direct link - original post
If you have any comments, questions, or critiques, please feel free to leave them here or on the original posts. IJVP is an opportunity for me to learn and grow a little as a vidder, and your comments help that.
Speaking of learning and growing, what did I learn and how did I grow?
That's a good question, especially since what I learned was not really what I intended to learn when I started the project this year. I actually had intended to vary my cutting style more this time, to try using longer clips and shorter clips than I normally do, to attempt to play with movement more. The problem with that is that because of the time crunch of getting a vidlet done every day, I had trouble breaking out my standard style. I needed to cut in a way that was more familiar to me so I could finish before midnight. There is some of that in "Jesus Walks" and "I Put A Spell On You." They both have a stronger sense of definitive cuts than the way I normally vid which tends to be, as laurashapiro once mentioned, more organic. I don't usually pay specific attention to where and when I cut beyond how it works to keep the vid moving. It's like when I write, I don't ever pay much attention to starting a new paragraph, I just start one where it feels right. Cutting vids is the same way for me.
Of course now I'm hyper-aware of paragraphs. Heh.
So because I didn't explore the cutting aspect as much as I wanted, I ended up focusing more on effects used to support the music, which was quite the eye-opening lesson for me. In IDVP I was just throwing effects on there because I wanted to see what they would do. I started the same in IJVP, but it became less about "what cool trick does this do" and more about "how can I use an effect to bring out what I'm hearing in the music." Often I'll try to use internal clip movement to match sounds - which, now that I think about it, is probably why Battlestar Galactica and I get along so well when vidding - and having the effects do that work instead required me to go a level deeper when visualizing the sounds. I think I really succeeded in some cases and failed pretty hard in others, but I'm very happy with that lesson and it's something I will be able to apply beyond IJVP.
I refined my ability to make audio edits, although you can't really tell that on "More" and one or two others, but for the most part they went very smoothly. I learned to appreciate the audio in general - "The Sun Always Shines On TV," for instance, was a lot of fun for me because the vid ended up paying homage to the 80s feel of the music; the same happened with "More." And the brilliant thing was that the source ideas I was given for both of those *also* fit the particular time period of the sound, so thank you, ladies. :) In fact, all of the songs and vid ideas worked beautifully; there wasn't one where I was left feeling, "why did they pick this song for this show?" And I also got to actually play a bit with audio filters; in retrospect I wish I would have used them on "I Put A Spell On You," because I think that would have upped the creep factor, but I like how they affected "If You Were Here."
Finding the emotion of each vidlet was a good exercise for me. I feel like my vids rarely ever get emotional, that they're very narrative, very "look at this point I'm making!" and happen to hit emotions only secondarily. By being limited to a minute, I could focus more on emotion and mood, and while the few mood-only pieces were excruciating for me because of the way my vidding mind works (I still approach vidding more like a writer than a painter), they were a great opportunity to grow those skills. I feel like I hit some pretty solid emotional moments; "Not So Usual" and "Rain Come Down" are my two favorite emotional vids; NSU because of that quick shift from smiling to tears on "and it's fine, 'cause she's with me now"; and "Rain Come Down" just generally had a strong emotional pull for me. "I Put A Spell On You" was probably the most difficult vid to make work emotionally because creepy is hard, and don't let anyone tell you any different. There are lots of ways to make people laugh and cry, but very few to make them shiver. Fortunately for me, the source and the song for that vidlet were both inherently creepy.
The vidlet I'm happiest with, that I can watch and have almost no quibbles with, is probably...gah, that's hard. I'm still awfully pleased with "Jesus Walks," and "Time" actually turned out better than I had hoped and hit a lot of the points I wanted to make. The vidlet I'd most like to re-do is probably...hm, this is hard, too. Probably "Completely," which I feel like could be even darker and more seductive than it was. I don't feel like the vidlet lived up to the potential of that song. I got too brainy while making it. I needed to let go more emotionally.
And this wouldn't be an SDW post without a poll. You don't have to select your vidlet for any of these, and if you didn't watch them all, you're still free to vote. :)
Poll The IJVP Round-Up Poll!
And finally, because I was really amused by Flo's, here are SDW's IJVP 2006 Awards! First up are awards presented to vids because of the process of creating them, not because of the vid itself.
The vidlet that...
Made me dance in my chair with glee: "More"
Made me want to stab the computer: "The Sun Always Shines On TV"
Made me want to stab myself: "Orbiting Jupiter"
Made me revise an idea about a character or storyline: "Not So Usual"
Made me squeal like a teenage girl : "Something Stupid"
Challenged my aesthetics - narrative: "Sing For Absolution"
Challenged my aesthetics - cutting style: "Jesus Walks"
Benefitted most from "what does this do?" syndrome: "I Put A Spell On You"
And now, awards for the final product!
Best Use Of Overlay To Bring Characters Closer Together Even Though They Only Had The One Kiss, Curse You PTB: "Head Over Feet"
Best Use Of Cheesy Disco-Style Effects To Make You Dance: "The Sun Always Shines On TV"
Best Use Of Fireworks: "More"
Best Use Of Daddy Adama: "Orbiting Jupiter"
Best Use Of Cell!Sex: It's a tie! "Time" and "Completely"
Best Use Of Blue Demon Goddesses: "Sing For Absolution"
Best Use Of Irony In The Service Of Angst: "Thank You For The Music"
Best Use Of Gratuituous Bikini-clad Aeryn: "If You Were Here"
Best Use Of Scenes Of Bodies Floating In Space: "Rain Comes Down"
Best Use Of Incest: Another tie! "Not So Usual" and "I Put A Spell On You" (Hee hee)
Best Use Of Throat Cutting: "Jesus Walks"
Best Use Of Dancing: "Something Stupid"
Best Use Of Human Hearts As Presents: "Just A Toy"
Thank you all again for your patience, your support, your enthusiasm, your willingness to point out when things didn't work, your willingness to point out when things did work, and your day-to-day awesomeness in general. I really enjoyed IJVP (now that's it done - hee), and I'm so glad I was able to share it with all of you. Extra special thanks to f1renze, dualbunny, and pipsqueaky, who not only are also doing their own projects, but found time to support me on mine. Y'all's vids are first on my list of Things To Do now that I have my evenings back again. :)
(PS - Thanks, f1renze for the icon!)
First, here are direct links to each vidlet, as well as links to the original posts. All of the vids are DivX AVIs.
Day 1: Jesus Walks (6 MB) - Braveheart (gen) - for pipsqueaky - direct link - original post
Day 2: Head Over Feet (6 MB) - Angel (Doyle/Cordy) - for wolfling - direct link - original post
Day 3: Rain Come Down (18 MB) - Battlestar Galactica (gen) - for brynnmck - direct link - original post
Day 4: Not So Usual (18 MB) - Firefly (Simon&River) - for countessmary - direct link - original post
Day 5: Just A Toy (15 MB) - Buffy (Spike/Dru & Angelus) - for river_boat - direct link - original post
Day 6: More (17 MB) - Horatio Hornblower (Archie/Horatio) - for asta77 - direct link - original post
Day 7: Sing For Absolution (11 MB) - Angel (Fred/Wes/Illyria) - for xanphibian - direct link - original post
Day 8: If You Were Here (18 MB) - Farscape ("Crichton Kicks") - for bheerfan - direct link - original post
Day 9: Orbiting Jupiter (19 MB) - Battlestar Galactica (Starbuck&Adama) - for _par_avion - direct link - original post
Day 10: Thank You For The Music (18 MB) - Buffy ("Once More, With Feeling") - for eva_mac - direct link - original post
Day 11: Something Stupid (18 MB) - Firefly/Serenity (Mal/Inara) - for agent_rouka - direct link - original post
Day 12: The Sun Always Shines On TV (18 MB) - Doctor Who (Nine/Rose) - for fer1213 - direct link - original post
Day 13: Completely (8 MB) - Angel (Wes/Angelus) - for laurashapiro - direct link - original post
Day 14: Time (15 MB) - Battlestar Galactica (Laura, Laura/Lee) - for k_julia - direct link - original post
Day 15: I Put A Spell On You (13 MB) - Carnivale (Justin/Iris) - for vagabondage - direct link - original post
If you have any comments, questions, or critiques, please feel free to leave them here or on the original posts. IJVP is an opportunity for me to learn and grow a little as a vidder, and your comments help that.
Speaking of learning and growing, what did I learn and how did I grow?
That's a good question, especially since what I learned was not really what I intended to learn when I started the project this year. I actually had intended to vary my cutting style more this time, to try using longer clips and shorter clips than I normally do, to attempt to play with movement more. The problem with that is that because of the time crunch of getting a vidlet done every day, I had trouble breaking out my standard style. I needed to cut in a way that was more familiar to me so I could finish before midnight. There is some of that in "Jesus Walks" and "I Put A Spell On You." They both have a stronger sense of definitive cuts than the way I normally vid which tends to be, as laurashapiro once mentioned, more organic. I don't usually pay specific attention to where and when I cut beyond how it works to keep the vid moving. It's like when I write, I don't ever pay much attention to starting a new paragraph, I just start one where it feels right. Cutting vids is the same way for me.
Of course now I'm hyper-aware of paragraphs. Heh.
So because I didn't explore the cutting aspect as much as I wanted, I ended up focusing more on effects used to support the music, which was quite the eye-opening lesson for me. In IDVP I was just throwing effects on there because I wanted to see what they would do. I started the same in IJVP, but it became less about "what cool trick does this do" and more about "how can I use an effect to bring out what I'm hearing in the music." Often I'll try to use internal clip movement to match sounds - which, now that I think about it, is probably why Battlestar Galactica and I get along so well when vidding - and having the effects do that work instead required me to go a level deeper when visualizing the sounds. I think I really succeeded in some cases and failed pretty hard in others, but I'm very happy with that lesson and it's something I will be able to apply beyond IJVP.
I refined my ability to make audio edits, although you can't really tell that on "More" and one or two others, but for the most part they went very smoothly. I learned to appreciate the audio in general - "The Sun Always Shines On TV," for instance, was a lot of fun for me because the vid ended up paying homage to the 80s feel of the music; the same happened with "More." And the brilliant thing was that the source ideas I was given for both of those *also* fit the particular time period of the sound, so thank you, ladies. :) In fact, all of the songs and vid ideas worked beautifully; there wasn't one where I was left feeling, "why did they pick this song for this show?" And I also got to actually play a bit with audio filters; in retrospect I wish I would have used them on "I Put A Spell On You," because I think that would have upped the creep factor, but I like how they affected "If You Were Here."
Finding the emotion of each vidlet was a good exercise for me. I feel like my vids rarely ever get emotional, that they're very narrative, very "look at this point I'm making!" and happen to hit emotions only secondarily. By being limited to a minute, I could focus more on emotion and mood, and while the few mood-only pieces were excruciating for me because of the way my vidding mind works (I still approach vidding more like a writer than a painter), they were a great opportunity to grow those skills. I feel like I hit some pretty solid emotional moments; "Not So Usual" and "Rain Come Down" are my two favorite emotional vids; NSU because of that quick shift from smiling to tears on "and it's fine, 'cause she's with me now"; and "Rain Come Down" just generally had a strong emotional pull for me. "I Put A Spell On You" was probably the most difficult vid to make work emotionally because creepy is hard, and don't let anyone tell you any different. There are lots of ways to make people laugh and cry, but very few to make them shiver. Fortunately for me, the source and the song for that vidlet were both inherently creepy.
The vidlet I'm happiest with, that I can watch and have almost no quibbles with, is probably...gah, that's hard. I'm still awfully pleased with "Jesus Walks," and "Time" actually turned out better than I had hoped and hit a lot of the points I wanted to make. The vidlet I'd most like to re-do is probably...hm, this is hard, too. Probably "Completely," which I feel like could be even darker and more seductive than it was. I don't feel like the vidlet lived up to the potential of that song. I got too brainy while making it. I needed to let go more emotionally.
And this wouldn't be an SDW post without a poll. You don't have to select your vidlet for any of these, and if you didn't watch them all, you're still free to vote. :)
Poll The IJVP Round-Up Poll!
And finally, because I was really amused by Flo's, here are SDW's IJVP 2006 Awards! First up are awards presented to vids because of the process of creating them, not because of the vid itself.
The vidlet that...
Made me dance in my chair with glee: "More"
Made me want to stab the computer: "The Sun Always Shines On TV"
Made me want to stab myself: "Orbiting Jupiter"
Made me revise an idea about a character or storyline: "Not So Usual"
Made me squeal like a teenage girl : "Something Stupid"
Challenged my aesthetics - narrative: "Sing For Absolution"
Challenged my aesthetics - cutting style: "Jesus Walks"
Benefitted most from "what does this do?" syndrome: "I Put A Spell On You"
And now, awards for the final product!
Best Use Of Overlay To Bring Characters Closer Together Even Though They Only Had The One Kiss, Curse You PTB: "Head Over Feet"
Best Use Of Cheesy Disco-Style Effects To Make You Dance: "The Sun Always Shines On TV"
Best Use Of Fireworks: "More"
Best Use Of Daddy Adama: "Orbiting Jupiter"
Best Use Of Cell!Sex: It's a tie! "Time" and "Completely"
Best Use Of Blue Demon Goddesses: "Sing For Absolution"
Best Use Of Irony In The Service Of Angst: "Thank You For The Music"
Best Use Of Gratuituous Bikini-clad Aeryn: "If You Were Here"
Best Use Of Scenes Of Bodies Floating In Space: "Rain Comes Down"
Best Use Of Incest: Another tie! "Not So Usual" and "I Put A Spell On You" (Hee hee)
Best Use Of Throat Cutting: "Jesus Walks"
Best Use Of Dancing: "Something Stupid"
Best Use Of Human Hearts As Presents: "Just A Toy"
Thank you all again for your patience, your support, your enthusiasm, your willingness to point out when things didn't work, your willingness to point out when things did work, and your day-to-day awesomeness in general. I really enjoyed IJVP (now that's it done - hee), and I'm so glad I was able to share it with all of you. Extra special thanks to f1renze, dualbunny, and pipsqueaky, who not only are also doing their own projects, but found time to support me on mine. Y'all's vids are first on my list of Things To Do now that I have my evenings back again. :)
(PS - Thanks, f1renze for the icon!)