vid commentary: vidding process

[heresluck]

ghost_lingering had a couple of general questions about my vidding process, including the arcane and mysterious "clip databases" to which I occasionally refer.

Comments

[vrya]

every show should come with a pre-assembled database exactly like this! Which is my way of saying, wow, you are awesome and that is exactly how I would love to vid! except for the part of me that would be working on the clip database thinking, oh no, what if after all this work, I don't end up finishing a single vid from the source? And the other part would be saying, stupid access, why won't it let me paste in screencaps for visual reference? I guess Excel might be used in a pinch...

[heresluck]

I should have guessed you'd like this crazy idea, you database fiend, you. *g*

...that is exactly how I would love to vid! except for the part of me that would be working on the clip database thinking, oh no, what if after all this work, I don't end up finishing a single vid from the source?

Yeah, I can see how that could freeze some people up; it is a LOT of work. The flip side is that now I know how much faster and easier it is to make a vid once the database is already completed, and even faster to make a SECOND vid (or, presumably, a third) once the database is done. So for me it's an investment that has been paying off, and will do so even more, I think, once I start working on, say, the Farscape database (for which I have three ideas, all of which I can be thinking about and planning for as I rewatch).

[vrya]

So for me it's an investment that has been paying off, and will do so even more, I think, once I start working on, say, the Farscape database (for which I have three ideas, all of which I can be thinking about and planning for as I rewatch).

yeah, that's a very good point. efficiency and art rubbing shoulders? What a beautiful thing!

[laurashapiro]

I remain enthralled by your process and horrified by how much extra time it would take me to do the same thing. (: I long to work from a clip database, but I *so* don't want to make one!

[heresluck]

I long to work from a clip database, but I *so* don't want to make one!

For what it's worth, I feel the same way -- if I could possibly work from a database without the work of building it, I would, believe me. *g*

But what I've come to realize is that for me it's actually not "extra time"; I would rewatch the show anyway, and while, yeah, this takes a little longer, it makes the vidding go SO MUCH FASTER, and I am always so pleased to be able to find shots I would never have remembered and probably wouldn't have stumbled across in the course of random clipping. Vidding still takes me a long time, obviously, but more of that time can go into conceptual work and decision-making rather than the frustrating mechanics of simply trying to FIND CLIPS, especially when I don't already know the source well -- and these days, because I am watching (and planning to vid) more shows, I am doing much less obsessive-rewatching-just-for-fun, so I really don't know my source that well in most cases

[laurashapiro]

I definitely see your point, especially when working with source you don't know well. I'll have to try your method sometime, when I'm not trying to learn brand new software (Motion, aieee!).

[gchick]

Thanks so much for all the detail -- I'm one of those people who's kind of eternally stuck between "I'm too scatterbrained to remember what I was looking at that inspired me" and "... but I'm never going to get around to the kind of logging I know would work for me." This may be just the thing to make me go *do* the thing.

[heresluck]

One thing that really helped me was starting small; the first database I made was for the movie Donnie Darko (less than two hours of footage), which allowed me to see just how helpful it was going to be (answer: for me, VERY) with relatively little work upfront.

[sapote3]

The internal motion and external motion database sort, first, makes crazy good sense, and second, explains a lot. I might start doing that, because I take extensive sourcewatching notes anyway, so really, how much harder would it be?

Don't answer that question, and also, why is this our hobby?

[heresluck]

If you figure out why this is our hobby, TELL ME.

The ability to sort by motion is probably the single most useful thing about the databases, at least for me. And yeah, for those of us who take a lot of notes anyway... I find that it's really nice to have my notes all organized and in one place and with comparable info for each entry.

[heresluck]

Making a clip database is without question a lot of work. But I would rather do a lot of productive work than do a lot of useless flailing and tearing out my hair; I do enough of that anyway when I'm vidding. *g* I am completely in awe of people whose visual memories allow them to recall particular clips and where those clips are in which ep, but I have had to accept that, as much as I would love to have that ability, I just don't; this is the best way I've found to compensate.

And yeah, those opening shots of Peter are probably the most overvidded shots in the show -- and with good reason.