Comments | bigmamag: Essay on Vidding

bigmamag

Essay on Vidding

Jun 14, 2007 15:17

Well, I did end up writing, though not fiction. I wrote an essay on what makes a good vid and what makes a bad vid with a good dosing of thoughts on vidding itself. It's mainly focused in the Harry Potter fandom, but I think every fandom can be included as well. This must be the first essay I've written for fun and not for an assignment, though ( Read more... )

vidding, writing

Comments 10

mkitty3 June 14 2007, 23:09:21 UTC

Big fat WORD on everything!

bigmamag June 15 2007, 02:33:28 UTC

Thanks, not like you needed to read it. ;)

morgandawn June 15 2007, 01:05:15 UTC

wheee. a meta post on vidding.

bigmamag June 15 2007, 02:47:19 UTC

Well, hello and welcome to my journal. I know, I'm a virgin in meta and it was my first time. Not too bad, heard second time is better. :D

frances_veritas June 15 2007, 06:26:05 UTC

Great, great essay. You were absolutely spot on with everything. You touched on every pet peeve that I have when I watch and make videos.

The only little thing I disagree with was this:

1.) Talking head syndrome. This is when you see the movie characters talk and have a conversation but we don’t know what they are saying because of course it’s a music video. This is very distracting as we have seen the movies and know what they are talking about, which distracts from the theme of your video. It’s okay to have clips of characters talking, but don’t overdo it.I don't know if you meant when people tend to linger on clips with the characters talking forever or if you meant you should try not to use clips with the characters talking if you can prevent it ( ... )

bigmamag June 15 2007, 12:16:01 UTC

Oh, I most definitely meant when people linger on clips of them talking forever, like you see Harry, Ron and Hermione talking at a table and we watch them for a whole ten or fifteen seconds. You know, this one goes right along with the extended clip one. Hmm, maybe I should edit that one because it DOES sound like I'm dismissing all talking. I just hate it when you watch a vid and it's not even an important scene but you have the characters having an all out conversation that has no meaning to song or even conveys emotion. I manipulate talking all the time in a vid, not the 'slow it down to make it look like Harry is singing with the lyrics' way, but having a scene where there maybe IS high tension and Harry shouting or something like it ( ... )

bananainpyjamas June 21 2007, 05:30:14 UTC

Found this through veni_vidi_vids. Hope you don't mind me popping in. :)

This was a great essay! I totally agree with almost everything except for the bit about clips of characters talking being encouraged/unavoidable. There are tons of vids out there containing no talking at all (including most of my own), so I don't think avoiding it is as hard as some make it out to be. Obviously it depends on the fandom, as soap operas and dramas present a real challenge in this regard, but most heavily-vidded fandoms contain dynamic enough source that with some effort and creativity you can par it down to just a few isolated lip flaps, or eliminate it altogether.

bigmamag June 22 2007, 00:06:15 UTC

Mostly when I wrote this I was thinking of bad, bad vidders, so I was lenient on some things like characters talking and all that. I personally try to use no clips of talking in my own vids or at least if I use even a little talking, it strictly matches what the music is trying to get across, like if I want to demonstrate anger and I use a scene with intense anger, I may use Harry shouting, which is technically talking, but it agrees with the music. But yeah, I personally don't like talking a lot, but I don't break my back making sure lips don't move, ya know?

buffyann June 21 2007, 08:06:57 UTC

I'm here through the newsletter as well. It's a very nice essay, I enjoyed reading it a lot.
It was very clear. I agree with most of it.

I pretty much agree with bananainpyjamas on the "talky faces". They ARE avoidable. I've seen lots of incredible vids that don't use them. It's entirely possible with most of the fandoms.

Very itneresting essay though, thanks for sharing. :)

bigmamag June 22 2007, 00:12:35 UTC

I think it's easier to avoid them when you have lots of footage, like if you vid for tv shows with lots of episodes. I agree that it's entirely possible to avoid those "talky faces" in most fandoms, because now that I vid for the Supernatural fandom, I noticed that, since every episode has Sam and Dean, making a vid without them talking is a snap. Vidding something lik a Harry/Draco video presents a much greater challenge because there is very limited footage of them.

Very interesting stuff, you people are causing me to think. :p