Meta: Editing Tricks and Treats

[callmeonetrack]

So I'm busily working away on my third vid and I think I've hit a plateau of sorts. I've produced two fairly literal vids that I'm quite happy with, without using many effects or fancy cutting tricks. With this particular vid, I decided to work with clips first before deciding/applying music to it (which is the opposite of how I usually work),

Comments

[0mindthegap0]

This probably isn't terribly helpful for what you're asking, but the most useful advice I could think of is to not be too hung up on effects. Some vids have really stylish, sophisticated effects, but may overlook the basics, which kind of does my head in. a) rhythm and timing of clips b) having some sort of greater point

[callmeonetrack]

Ooh, lots of neat new info for me to ponder. Because I'm somewhat of a newbie would you clarify two things: "hard cutting" and "intercutting between scenes"? I think I know what you mean by these (hard cuts mean right on the beat? and intercutting means taking one scene and chopping it into pieces? Or does that mean using two distinct sequences and cutting back and forth between only those two for a montage?)

Definitely going to look into adjusting the fade. I don't think what I want is actually a fade but more of a burst or smashcut (my words fail me) and I don't really know how to create that between scenes short of using black or white flashes as fade ins or outs.

I should probably spend more time looking into vidding/editing tutorials. But usually I'm too eager to just get in there and mess around with it.

[0mindthegap0]

Hard cut = just a simple cut between clips with no transitions, since about 90% of all prepackaged transitions are bollocks. Except for comedy purposes. And talking of which, you can also go overboard with staring at waveforms to put all the cuts on beats too, which can get redundant after a while. It's sort of a balance thing, like how in writing you're supposed to have lots of sentences of varied length/structure.

That said, it still kinda depends on the song, and there are no hard and fast rules for all music, just recurring trends that tend to work and make life easier.

And yes, intercutting basically entails taking longer scenes and cutting them into smaller pieces to alternate. Say, if a clip's particularly important and you want to include a good length of it without dragging the overall pace down.

And I'm a newbie too : ) Just with slightly more non-viddish editing experience. It is quite scary to jump in there, so yay for solidarity.

[0mindthegap0]

Oh, and while I'm at it, for quicker pacing, jump cuts are also your friend. That's where you take just one scene and chop bits out, causing the movement/composition to suddenly 'move' or shift a bit somewhere else in the frame. If that makes any sense.

*is rubbish at explaining things*

[sabaceanbabe]

For me, the "next level" in vidding is paying more attention to the music than I do to the lyrics. I'm trying on my latest vids-in-progress to match my clips and cuts more to the beat of the music than to the beginning and end of a particular lyrical line, which is allowing me to use several different clips that convey a similar meaning, rather than trying to use one longer clip to say what I want to say

[callmeonetrack]

The intercutting isn't something I've tried much yet, I think I will have to think more about that. I can see how that could be really effective in multi-character vids.

Yeah I have the newish tendency to leave clips a bit longer than I should, so I'm working on that too.

I don't really want to use more effects so much as get better at cuts and use more clever cutting techniques, I think.

[littleheaven70]

I always think that effects are slightly over-rated, personally. I've seen some outstanding vids with very cleverly-used effects, but as the previous poster said, the vid itself has to be solid first. Some of the greatest vids I've ever seen had nothing more than hard cuts (or very short cross-fade transitions) and clever adjustment of clip speed

[sabaceanbabe]

I am completely in love with overlays. :)

[callmeonetrack]

Since you mention the vid being solid first, do you generally construct your vid start to finish and then tinker with cuts, add effects and generally pretty it up? Or do you plan in advance while choosing clips to correspond to music exactly how you're going to treat each one?

Overlay--nice. Something else I haven't tried. (Not sure if you can in WMM either).

I think I might have to compile a list of possible cutting/techniques, because choosing the clips to correspond to lyrics comes naturally and instinctively to me (I'm a storyteller/writer by nature) and the vid/visuals are all new. I might need a cheat sheet until I can train my mind on how to think visually.

[littleheaven70]

Hmmm, it's a bit of an organic process, but normally I do my effects afterwards, concentrating first on just getting the cuts in the right place and any internal motion accents on the corresponding musical accent. Then I'll preview for pacing, adding internal motion where it's needed, by way of pan or zoom, and any transitional or clip effects.

I'm also a transformed fanfic writer and I tend to vid very literally to the lyric, which is something I am trying to move beyond. Not to the extent of disregarding the lyric, but taking a more holistic approach to the entire theme of the piece.

If you're looking to upgrade from WMM to something with a few more options, I recommend Sony Vegas. The basic Movie Studio has loads of extras and is very reasonably priced - I think around $50.

[sweetiejen]

I'm not big on effects myself. I concentrate more on the story I'm trying to tell. I focus on parallels, hard/timed cuts, and lyrical interpretation. I avoid talky face at all costs. There are PLENTY of videos out there that are faves of mine that have absolutely no effects, or minimal ones at best. Overlays are usually the most effect-y I get, but I don't recall if you can do that in WMM. Playing with the speed of clips can work too, depending on your subject matter and the song.

^ probably just repeated what everyone else mentioned, but that's my two cents nonetheless! Good luck. :)

[callmeonetrack]

Talky face is quite annoying. I hear you on that. I only like it when it manages to synch up or if it's important for the story.
Thanks for the feedback!

[beccatoria]

I'm not a fan of effects. I mean, I've started using them a little more now, though largely just in terms of colour, clip speed, jump-cutting etc

[callmeonetrack]

beccatoria, you are my vidding Obi-Wan!

Thanks (again) for all the excellent info. I'm tempted to fiddle around with grabbing the flash-like custom effect, but I think I'm going to work more on cuts first instead. (I do have Vista and making WMM crash more is something quite unappealing for now.)

I tend to talk about any kind of manipulation of the clip as an effect, so that's probably been inaccurate language on my part. I too am most interested in how to affect clip speed as my usual frustration comes from having a clip that is too long to synch up the internal movements. This is the first vid I'm attempting jump cuts in, and sometimes they look good, sometimes they look jerky. I'm working on that.

I also have not done much with coloring (only increasing brightness at times). And I often wish there were better ways to zoom or pan or simply focus on one part of a clip without it getting completely fuzzy and indistinct.

I'm definitely going to keep in mind the "less is more" motto here though.

[beccatoria]

Ha! It's so weird to be in a position of offering advice - I still feel like a newbie myself, though I guess that's inaccurate by now.

If it helps, my program doesn't crash any more than usual and I have the Shader FX and a couple of other effects installed. Installing a few isn't going to cause anything to crash, just installing like...thirty-five will. And you can always uninstall them if it starts running poorly. Because the effects either come with installers or are as simple as dropping a few files into a certain folder, you can install and uninstall based on the needs of your vid if you're having trouble running it.

Also you are correct that any manipulation of the clip is an effect although generally people tend to refer to effects on the clips themselves as, um, effects, and the way you cut between clips (usually hard cuts, fades, or overlays) as transitions. Your original post made it sound like you were interested in different ways of transitioning between clips other than those three options and really, there

[callmeonetrack]

First, I have to say: Holy crap re: your newest vid. I watched it and had NO IDEA that you did that by hand (assumed it was some sort of custom effect to make it look film-like). Looks incredibly seamless so from one control freak to another I say kudos to you and it totally paid off.

Second, thank you also for the painstaking description of how to speed up part of a clip but not the whole thing. (I need blow-by-blow at this point.) Your point on how to make them invisible is a total revelatory "of course!" moment, and probably one I never would have come to on my own.

Re: panning and zooming, I wish there was a way to simply crop clips and not lose quality. Perhaps there is a way to reframe something and I'm just clueless on it.

I'm really trying to take my time to finetune/polish this vid up, rather than getting all impatient to slap it up like I usually do. I appreciate all the info!