NEW VID - Maneater
Holy crap, you guys. I can't believe I haven't posted a brand new vid since November. But I assure you this vid was worth waiting for! This is actually kind of a cracktastic masterpiece that I have a very unhealthy love for. I don't care if you give a shit about Harry Potter or not, this vid WILL make your day. Probably. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.
Music: Hall & Oates
Source: Harry Potter movies 1-4
Genre: CRACK. Crackity McCrack.
Summary: Harry and Mouthoil can't sort out their feelings for that dastardly woman Professor Snake...
Warning: Vid is not work-safe, use headphones!
Download: [here] (48MB, xvid)
password: snake
This vid is my entry to DragonCon's YA Lit Vidding Contest next month. Thank god they allow adult themes and profanity. Lovely banner graphic and icon courtesy of la_cspan, who fucking goes to SCHOOL HERE.
She'll only come out at night
The lean and hungry type
Nothing is new, I've seen her here before
Watching and waiting
She's sitting with you, but her eyes are on the door
So many have paid to see
What you think you're getting for free
The woman is wild, a she-cat tamed by the purr of a Jaguar (NICE LYRICS, GUYS)
Money's the matter
If you're in it for love, you ain't gonna get too far
Ohh, here she comes
Watch out boy, she'll chew you up
Ohh, here she comes
She's a maneater
I wouldn't if I were you
I know what she can do
She's deadly man, and she could really rip your world apart
Mind over matter
The beauty is there but a beast is in the heart
Ohh, here she comes
Watch out boy, she'll chew you up
Ohh, here she comes
She's a maneater
Audio Editing
Audio commentary excerpts from Wizard People, Dear Reader by Brad Neely, which is a work of art not to be missed. la_cspan, to whom this vid is dedicated, described the commentary additions as "the finger you slip in your boyfriend's ass while you're blowing him." If only all my vids received such glowing commendations.
When I first had the idea for this vid, I knew right away there was going to be some massive audio editing necessary. For starters, the vid clocks in at 4:30, almost two minutes of which is instrumental and another minute is repetitive choruses. I also knew I had to finagle the commentary over the instrumental section(s), but they weren't quite where I needed them to be.
The original structure of the song is this:
1-minute instrumental intro
1st verse
1st chorus
4-bar instrumental
2nd verse
2nd chorus (identical to 1st)
1-minute instrumental bridge
3rd chorus (with backup vocals) repeat to end
The first thing that had to go was the 2nd chorus. I only needed two, and I wanted to keep the one at the end with all the extra vocals in it ("WATCH OUT!") I tried moving the bridge between the 1st chorus and the 2nd verse, but the instrumentation was too different and it just wasn't meshing. What I ended up doing to get an instrumental section there (for the 2nd bit of commentary) was duplicate the intro and insert it. Here's what the final song structure looks like:
1-minute instrumental intro
1st verse
1st chorus
1-minute instrumental intro
2nd verse
3rd chorus (with backup vocals) repeat to end
Much better! I spent some time with fades to blend the transitions and make it as seamless as possible. I then had to lower the volume of the instrumentals by 50% to make room for the commentary volume. But proud as I was of that, it was nothing compared to the pure joy I felt when I added the commentary.
You see, I had roughly estimated that the commentary sections would fit (by the numbers, there was about 2 extra seconds of space to work with). I wouldn't have spent all that time cutting up the song if I didn't think it would work. But holy crap. They fit PERFECTLY. The first commentary section is actually two separate pieces from different chapters. (The second part starts with "who the fuck is that woman?") I only had to take out one little, unnecessary bit ("ouch!) to make it fit. It was magnificent. The second commentary section is what really worried me, though, since there didn't seem to be any extraneous dialogue in there. Imagine my squee, then, when it proved it was BORN TO BE THERE without any magic tricks needed. Amazing. I had tears in my eyes from laughing just listening to my creation. And now la_cspan listens to it every day on her ipod, and I recite the commentary over the original version when no one's listening.
Video Editing
The crappy part about making any HP vid is that you have such ridiculously limited source to work with. Yes, I'm serious, four 2.5 hour movies is NOT enough. Not nearly. Too many characters, too much age-jumping, too many different color palettes. Alan Rickman has about 3:15 combined screentime across the entire fucking series. I knew this would be challenging, and it was. I ended up using almost every single shot he's in, since many of them weren't usable at all. And I imagine that every other Snape vid out there looks exactly like this, but I don't care! This is my crack. Mine mine mine. But you can have some.
I actually started this vid back in April in the midst of Starbuck vid madness. I was trying to take a break from the serious brain drain of that vid, but I just didn't have the energy for how difficult it was. Making something out of nothing is HARD, you guys. [whines] I had the audio, but there just wasn't enough video. I threw everything I had on the timeline just to have something there, and I put it away for 3 months. I dug it back out a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by how much I had to work with. Time had worked its magic, and I had the distance and perspective I needed to dive back in. Two drafts later, here we are, and I'd say 70% of the clips are exactly where they were when I first laid them down. I should trust my instincts more.
That said, I will be redoing this vid. Not because I'm displeased, because I'm not, but because the 5th movie has OCCLUMENCY, OMG and I about had a fit in the theater when I saw how much usable footage there was. But the DragonCon deadline is approaching, and I can't walk away from this vid a second time without some kind of product to show for it, so I said fuck it and finished the bastard. For now.
So, uh, if I were to try and explain some kind of narrative...um...it's basically a lot of literal clip placement by which Harry has a verse/chorus and Draco has a verse/chorus and then it comes back to Harry (because dude, it always comes back to Harry). And they can't figure out what the fuck is going on with this woman, but they can't take their eyes off her! And had they the wisdom of the many (many) men that came before them...well...they'd probably just stick to fucking each other, which I'm a big fan of, now that you mention it. Note that I am NOT a Snape/Harry or Snape/Draco shipper. I think this vid kind of backs that up, since there's so much emphasis on the fact that they need to get the fuck away. Heh.
Comments and feedback are deeply appreciated! Please rec/pimp like mad if the mood strikes! Enjoy!
Music: Hall & Oates
Source: Harry Potter movies 1-4
Genre: CRACK. Crackity McCrack.
Summary: Harry and Mouthoil can't sort out their feelings for that dastardly woman Professor Snake...
Warning: Vid is not work-safe, use headphones!
Download: [here] (48MB, xvid)
password: snake
This vid is my entry to DragonCon's YA Lit Vidding Contest next month. Thank god they allow adult themes and profanity. Lovely banner graphic and icon courtesy of la_cspan, who fucking goes to SCHOOL HERE.
She'll only come out at night
The lean and hungry type
Nothing is new, I've seen her here before
Watching and waiting
She's sitting with you, but her eyes are on the door
So many have paid to see
What you think you're getting for free
The woman is wild, a she-cat tamed by the purr of a Jaguar (NICE LYRICS, GUYS)
Money's the matter
If you're in it for love, you ain't gonna get too far
Ohh, here she comes
Watch out boy, she'll chew you up
Ohh, here she comes
She's a maneater
I wouldn't if I were you
I know what she can do
She's deadly man, and she could really rip your world apart
Mind over matter
The beauty is there but a beast is in the heart
Ohh, here she comes
Watch out boy, she'll chew you up
Ohh, here she comes
She's a maneater
Audio Editing
Audio commentary excerpts from Wizard People, Dear Reader by Brad Neely, which is a work of art not to be missed. la_cspan, to whom this vid is dedicated, described the commentary additions as "the finger you slip in your boyfriend's ass while you're blowing him." If only all my vids received such glowing commendations.
When I first had the idea for this vid, I knew right away there was going to be some massive audio editing necessary. For starters, the vid clocks in at 4:30, almost two minutes of which is instrumental and another minute is repetitive choruses. I also knew I had to finagle the commentary over the instrumental section(s), but they weren't quite where I needed them to be.
The original structure of the song is this:
1-minute instrumental intro
1st verse
1st chorus
4-bar instrumental
2nd verse
2nd chorus (identical to 1st)
1-minute instrumental bridge
3rd chorus (with backup vocals) repeat to end
The first thing that had to go was the 2nd chorus. I only needed two, and I wanted to keep the one at the end with all the extra vocals in it ("WATCH OUT!") I tried moving the bridge between the 1st chorus and the 2nd verse, but the instrumentation was too different and it just wasn't meshing. What I ended up doing to get an instrumental section there (for the 2nd bit of commentary) was duplicate the intro and insert it. Here's what the final song structure looks like:
1-minute instrumental intro
1st verse
1st chorus
1-minute instrumental intro
2nd verse
3rd chorus (with backup vocals) repeat to end
Much better! I spent some time with fades to blend the transitions and make it as seamless as possible. I then had to lower the volume of the instrumentals by 50% to make room for the commentary volume. But proud as I was of that, it was nothing compared to the pure joy I felt when I added the commentary.
You see, I had roughly estimated that the commentary sections would fit (by the numbers, there was about 2 extra seconds of space to work with). I wouldn't have spent all that time cutting up the song if I didn't think it would work. But holy crap. They fit PERFECTLY. The first commentary section is actually two separate pieces from different chapters. (The second part starts with "who the fuck is that woman?") I only had to take out one little, unnecessary bit ("ouch!) to make it fit. It was magnificent. The second commentary section is what really worried me, though, since there didn't seem to be any extraneous dialogue in there. Imagine my squee, then, when it proved it was BORN TO BE THERE without any magic tricks needed. Amazing. I had tears in my eyes from laughing just listening to my creation. And now la_cspan listens to it every day on her ipod, and I recite the commentary over the original version when no one's listening.
Video Editing
The crappy part about making any HP vid is that you have such ridiculously limited source to work with. Yes, I'm serious, four 2.5 hour movies is NOT enough. Not nearly. Too many characters, too much age-jumping, too many different color palettes. Alan Rickman has about 3:15 combined screentime across the entire fucking series. I knew this would be challenging, and it was. I ended up using almost every single shot he's in, since many of them weren't usable at all. And I imagine that every other Snape vid out there looks exactly like this, but I don't care! This is my crack. Mine mine mine. But you can have some.
I actually started this vid back in April in the midst of Starbuck vid madness. I was trying to take a break from the serious brain drain of that vid, but I just didn't have the energy for how difficult it was. Making something out of nothing is HARD, you guys. [whines] I had the audio, but there just wasn't enough video. I threw everything I had on the timeline just to have something there, and I put it away for 3 months. I dug it back out a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by how much I had to work with. Time had worked its magic, and I had the distance and perspective I needed to dive back in. Two drafts later, here we are, and I'd say 70% of the clips are exactly where they were when I first laid them down. I should trust my instincts more.
That said, I will be redoing this vid. Not because I'm displeased, because I'm not, but because the 5th movie has OCCLUMENCY, OMG and I about had a fit in the theater when I saw how much usable footage there was. But the DragonCon deadline is approaching, and I can't walk away from this vid a second time without some kind of product to show for it, so I said fuck it and finished the bastard. For now.
So, uh, if I were to try and explain some kind of narrative...um...it's basically a lot of literal clip placement by which Harry has a verse/chorus and Draco has a verse/chorus and then it comes back to Harry (because dude, it always comes back to Harry). And they can't figure out what the fuck is going on with this woman, but they can't take their eyes off her! And had they the wisdom of the many (many) men that came before them...well...they'd probably just stick to fucking each other, which I'm a big fan of, now that you mention it. Note that I am NOT a Snape/Harry or Snape/Draco shipper. I think this vid kind of backs that up, since there's so much emphasis on the fact that they need to get the fuck away. Heh.
Comments and feedback are deeply appreciated! Please rec/pimp like mad if the mood strikes! Enjoy!