How to Make Vids - The easy way
How to Make Vids - The easy way
Are you tired of asking "How can I make vids?" over and over again and only getting that same old "Get the DVDs, do the ripping" answer? Been looking for an easier, more effective way of finding clips and using them?
Well, this is the guide for you!
Here you will learn how to get the best clips at the market right now and pass them off as your own so you can fool anyone who watches your vids and impress even the longest running vidders out there.
Shall we begin? Ok, then.
Step 1: Finding the song
Nearly every single song out there has a theme to match. Sometimes, they match even more than one! Take Linkin Park's "Numb", for example. I can come up with 4 different themes for it just in the Harry Potter fandom (Harry, Draco, Sirius... actually, it's just 3), imagine all the possibilities!
Don't go nuts trying to come up with something different and creative, let other people do that. Here we're talking about the easy way: think up a song, the first one that pops in your mind for a certain theme. Use it! Remember: using a song more than once doesn't mean you're repetitive or uncreative. It just means the song's too good. Besides, no one ever gets tired of watching different videos set to the same song. Don't let other people have all the fun, join in and vid it too!
Step 2: Finding the clips
Most of those annoying, by-the-book, overly-critical vidders out there say you've got to take the scenes straight from the source, which means ripping all your DVDs to get the clips you need. Bullshit! They say it's the best way to get quality footage. Bullshit! They say it's wrong to take the scenes from other videos. I say different!
Why should we spend hours finding programs, downloading them, buying the DVDs, ripping them, using up all the free space on our computer just for a single bloody video? We're not trying anything professional here, are we? We're doing this just for fun! And spending days just to get the scenes takes all the "fun" out of this. Next time one of these bloody complaining vidders tell you to go through this boring process, just say "Hey, YOU do it, then! I've got more important things to do with my time! kthnx"
Besides, 10 vidders spend days ripping their DVDs for the same scene, and that's just pathetic! There's no difference between the scenes. I mean, there are a few more frames used by this or that vidder, but we're talking about miliseconds here, no one really notices it! If they all took the absolute same scene, no one would see any difference.
So here's what you should do. You probably have a few vids downloaded at your computer already, don't you? Use them! Get those scenes! They've got good quality, they're perfectly edited already, so why should you go through all that trouble when someone else already did? Ok, so a good amount of quality is lost from multiple savings, but everyone can still see it's Buffy and Angel in that particular scene, can't they? Why should you get so caught up on the details? You'll only get a perfect image quality on the DVDs anyway.
However, lets speak frankly here: don't be stupid. Of course you have to get the scenes from good quality videos. If you don't know where to find those, then here's a good tip: go for the more popular vidders, take their videos, then check their links for other music video websites and keep going, you'll get some pretty good footage out of this. You don't really need to keep track of all the places you got videos from, just get all the ones you can find with decent image quality. The movies are the same, the scenes are the same. If one of those nosy vidders come to you complaining you used scenes from their videos, just ignore them and they'll go away. They stole from the movies in the first place, didn't they?
You will notice, though, that some of the scenes you find have what is called a watermark. That's how we call that annoying little sign that usually goes on the bottom right corner of the screen on some videos. That's another take by those other vidders to try and take the fun from your vidding. That is also a pathetic attempt at claiming property over a certain batch of clips, which we've already seen is just wrong since they're all stolen from the movies anyway. So don't be intimidated by those. You know what? If a clip has a watermark, choose that one over an un-watermarked one. That should teach those thieves a lesson!
Step 3: Editing
So now we've come to the easiest part of all: the editing. It's really easy, since all those other vidders you got the videos from already did it for you. But that doesn't mean you're not doing anything. Au contraire! The real trick comes in merging the editing with the music you picked earlier. That's the real trick and that's what those bloody vidders don't get. That's the true key to vidding: mixing things up. You get a really cool sequence that has been previously edited (sometimes they seem like they're made just for you!), and you set it to a song you picked. It couldn't be easier!
Don't mind the details. If some of the clips from the edited sequence you're taking don't really fit the rest, just leave it that way. Again, no one pays attention to details. Take anyone who's ever watched a vid and ask them the exact order the clips in a particular sequence and you'll see what I mean. They just can't remember! Especially on those really cool fast-paced sequences, with one new scene every second. It's just a whole bunch of scenes thrown together with no real point anyway, what difference does it make when other people get to use them? You could probably have come up with something exactly like that anyway if you had the time. And if you're really convinced of that, take a whole video, don't change it, perhaps just the song (but that's your choice) and just change the credits at the end. Ok, so maybe you didn't make the vid, but you had the same idea, didn't you? This should count for something.
ETA: My good friend Jenn also pointed out something important.
In vidding there's something we call "ghost frames". Windows Movie Maker (which should be your editing program of choice, by the way) loves those. When you cut a vid that's been edited already, sometimes there are frames of the following clip left in the one you're using. They're "ghost frames" 'cause they don't show up at your project, and yet they're there in your video. Theorically, they're not meant to be there.
But that's saying from the point of view of the darn annoying vidders. In reality, you should always aim to have the more ghost frames as possible! They make your vid jumpy, exciting and new.
Those othes say they're distracting and they mean lousy editing, but then again, why should you give a damn about what they say? They have them watermarks, and we find them distracting. They can keep their marks, we keep our frames.
Step 4: Sharing
Now that you've got your video, it's time for sharing it. There are many free hosting websites out there. The best ones are of course YouTube and MySpace, where you can share them with other people just like you, meet new people, make new friends. And if you meet other vidders such as yourself, you can all share your scenes and videos so that you can create even more. The more you vid, the better!
The best thing about those places however is that if one of those pathetic vidders we mentioned earlier stop by claiming property, you can simply delete their comment or their private message and carry on with your life. This should teach them never to steal from the movies again!
So there you have it. 4 easy steps to happy, stress-free vidding.
Maybe if all vidders were like this, the world would be a better place, with everyone sharing. The other bloody vidders, all they ever do is complain about things. All they want is to disturb your vidding peace. If they do it, then spoil their so-called "fun" (if that's what they call days of ripping and editing) and just don't listen to what they say. They call this "clip theft", we should call it "clip recycling". After all, you're obviously just improving their "work" anyway.
So just sit back and enjoy the vidding!
Are you tired of asking "How can I make vids?" over and over again and only getting that same old "Get the DVDs, do the ripping" answer? Been looking for an easier, more effective way of finding clips and using them?
Well, this is the guide for you!
Here you will learn how to get the best clips at the market right now and pass them off as your own so you can fool anyone who watches your vids and impress even the longest running vidders out there.
Shall we begin? Ok, then.
Step 1: Finding the song
Nearly every single song out there has a theme to match. Sometimes, they match even more than one! Take Linkin Park's "Numb", for example. I can come up with 4 different themes for it just in the Harry Potter fandom (Harry, Draco, Sirius... actually, it's just 3), imagine all the possibilities!
Don't go nuts trying to come up with something different and creative, let other people do that. Here we're talking about the easy way: think up a song, the first one that pops in your mind for a certain theme. Use it! Remember: using a song more than once doesn't mean you're repetitive or uncreative. It just means the song's too good. Besides, no one ever gets tired of watching different videos set to the same song. Don't let other people have all the fun, join in and vid it too!
Step 2: Finding the clips
Most of those annoying, by-the-book, overly-critical vidders out there say you've got to take the scenes straight from the source, which means ripping all your DVDs to get the clips you need. Bullshit! They say it's the best way to get quality footage. Bullshit! They say it's wrong to take the scenes from other videos. I say different!
Why should we spend hours finding programs, downloading them, buying the DVDs, ripping them, using up all the free space on our computer just for a single bloody video? We're not trying anything professional here, are we? We're doing this just for fun! And spending days just to get the scenes takes all the "fun" out of this. Next time one of these bloody complaining vidders tell you to go through this boring process, just say "Hey, YOU do it, then! I've got more important things to do with my time! kthnx"
Besides, 10 vidders spend days ripping their DVDs for the same scene, and that's just pathetic! There's no difference between the scenes. I mean, there are a few more frames used by this or that vidder, but we're talking about miliseconds here, no one really notices it! If they all took the absolute same scene, no one would see any difference.
So here's what you should do. You probably have a few vids downloaded at your computer already, don't you? Use them! Get those scenes! They've got good quality, they're perfectly edited already, so why should you go through all that trouble when someone else already did? Ok, so a good amount of quality is lost from multiple savings, but everyone can still see it's Buffy and Angel in that particular scene, can't they? Why should you get so caught up on the details? You'll only get a perfect image quality on the DVDs anyway.
However, lets speak frankly here: don't be stupid. Of course you have to get the scenes from good quality videos. If you don't know where to find those, then here's a good tip: go for the more popular vidders, take their videos, then check their links for other music video websites and keep going, you'll get some pretty good footage out of this. You don't really need to keep track of all the places you got videos from, just get all the ones you can find with decent image quality. The movies are the same, the scenes are the same. If one of those nosy vidders come to you complaining you used scenes from their videos, just ignore them and they'll go away. They stole from the movies in the first place, didn't they?
You will notice, though, that some of the scenes you find have what is called a watermark. That's how we call that annoying little sign that usually goes on the bottom right corner of the screen on some videos. That's another take by those other vidders to try and take the fun from your vidding. That is also a pathetic attempt at claiming property over a certain batch of clips, which we've already seen is just wrong since they're all stolen from the movies anyway. So don't be intimidated by those. You know what? If a clip has a watermark, choose that one over an un-watermarked one. That should teach those thieves a lesson!
Step 3: Editing
So now we've come to the easiest part of all: the editing. It's really easy, since all those other vidders you got the videos from already did it for you. But that doesn't mean you're not doing anything. Au contraire! The real trick comes in merging the editing with the music you picked earlier. That's the real trick and that's what those bloody vidders don't get. That's the true key to vidding: mixing things up. You get a really cool sequence that has been previously edited (sometimes they seem like they're made just for you!), and you set it to a song you picked. It couldn't be easier!
Don't mind the details. If some of the clips from the edited sequence you're taking don't really fit the rest, just leave it that way. Again, no one pays attention to details. Take anyone who's ever watched a vid and ask them the exact order the clips in a particular sequence and you'll see what I mean. They just can't remember! Especially on those really cool fast-paced sequences, with one new scene every second. It's just a whole bunch of scenes thrown together with no real point anyway, what difference does it make when other people get to use them? You could probably have come up with something exactly like that anyway if you had the time. And if you're really convinced of that, take a whole video, don't change it, perhaps just the song (but that's your choice) and just change the credits at the end. Ok, so maybe you didn't make the vid, but you had the same idea, didn't you? This should count for something.
ETA: My good friend Jenn also pointed out something important.
In vidding there's something we call "ghost frames". Windows Movie Maker (which should be your editing program of choice, by the way) loves those. When you cut a vid that's been edited already, sometimes there are frames of the following clip left in the one you're using. They're "ghost frames" 'cause they don't show up at your project, and yet they're there in your video. Theorically, they're not meant to be there.
But that's saying from the point of view of the darn annoying vidders. In reality, you should always aim to have the more ghost frames as possible! They make your vid jumpy, exciting and new.
Those othes say they're distracting and they mean lousy editing, but then again, why should you give a damn about what they say? They have them watermarks, and we find them distracting. They can keep their marks, we keep our frames.
Step 4: Sharing
Now that you've got your video, it's time for sharing it. There are many free hosting websites out there. The best ones are of course YouTube and MySpace, where you can share them with other people just like you, meet new people, make new friends. And if you meet other vidders such as yourself, you can all share your scenes and videos so that you can create even more. The more you vid, the better!
The best thing about those places however is that if one of those pathetic vidders we mentioned earlier stop by claiming property, you can simply delete their comment or their private message and carry on with your life. This should teach them never to steal from the movies again!
So there you have it. 4 easy steps to happy, stress-free vidding.
Maybe if all vidders were like this, the world would be a better place, with everyone sharing. The other bloody vidders, all they ever do is complain about things. All they want is to disturb your vidding peace. If they do it, then spoil their so-called "fun" (if that's what they call days of ripping and editing) and just don't listen to what they say. They call this "clip theft", we should call it "clip recycling". After all, you're obviously just improving their "work" anyway.
So just sit back and enjoy the vidding!