Vidding style
I've been thinking a lot lately about vidding and the way that I vid, the way that I put ideas together and the way other vidders seem to do it. I've been thinking about other vidders' vidding styles and how to identify them. And I've been thinking about my own (perceived) lack of definitive style, or just my lack of ability to identify my own style yet.
It hit me that vidding style is not just about how you cut a vid. It's not just whether you tend to use lots of shorter clips, or effects, or movement, or intercutting. It's also about how you develop your ideas from start to finish. About what those ideas seem to be, about what types of vids and stories you seem to want to tell. Not what fandoms, but what basic elements seem to draw you in and emerge from your vids.
So I tried to apply that to my own vids to hash out what I think my style is.
I want to say that this is all very off-the-cuff, and going into this I don't feel like I have a vidding style yet. I feel like I'm still trying to incorporate too many different ideas and methods while not holding on to anything that is essentially 'mine.' I'm hoping that this gives me an idea of what thread holds my vids together as one body of work. Also, this is not saying "my style is worse (or better) than other styles," I'm just trying to figure out what the heck it is.
The first thing I have to note about my vids and my vid ideas is that I am heavily, heavily lyrics driven. Especially in the early vids, the music is secondary. A lot of vidders seem to respond to music differently than I do, they experience it in a very right-brained, artistic way that doesn't come naturally to me. I came into vidding from a writing background, and part of experiencing music for me is what the lyrics are saying and singing along with them. I haven't quite figured out how to hear what the music itself is saying, although that's something that I am actively working on now. But lyrics are a big part of the way that I develop ideas, and the way that I cut my vids, especially in my early vids, where I tend to cut on the lyric all the time.
Coin-Operated Boy was a departure for me because I tried to focus on the music, although I frequently still cut on the lyric. I tried to play up the sounds that were underneath it in the music, which is what gives the song (and the vid) it's deeper meaning. Because if you just go by the lyrics, you're missing out on some of the deeper angst in the song. So I'm pleased with the vid in the sense, although when I watch it now I realize just how uneasy and jarring the song and cuts are and I always feel sort of "uh" after I watch it, which is the whole point of the vid, but it makes it not that fun to watch. Heh.
Back to ideas - my ideas flow out of the lyrics, and what they're saying. Take my recent BSG vid idea. I wasn't looking for an idea, I just was listening to the song because it was new and new music = crack, and a section of lyric jolted me and drew this connection to Kara and Kobol's Last Gleaming part 1. So then I listened to the song again and let the lyrics play out and let them draw images from the show in connection and that's when I knew it would work. Then, and this is the new part for me, I paid attention to the sound of the song and it was perfect as well, and suggested movements and atmosphere that were very fitting for BSG.
The idea itself is very narrative, as my ideas pretty much always are. And I think that's because of my lyric reliance. I don't think any of my vids are really just "emotion" vids...maybe "US of Spike," which has no narrative whatsoever. And 'Muppet Babies.' Those are both comedies, and much less structured ideas than my other vids. The less I storyboard and plan an idea beforehand, the less narrative my ideas seem to be.
Where was I? Style. So far, my style seems to be lyrically driven. The lyrics are always important in my vids, which is a problem for a lot of people because they don't pick up lyrics on first viewing and so the images often don't seem to connect. Especially in my early vids, it was all about the right image for the lyric, regardless of what clips came before or after. This is also something I'm now working on, trying to provide a more cohesive theme for the stanza at least, so that you could watch the vid with the sound off and sort of get the point. I'm having a lot of trouble with this technique, though, see above re: lyrics driven. I'm trying to envision the stanza as a thought in its entirety, and to not necessarily feel the need to shape the vid lyric-by-lyric, but emotion by emotion. However it is made easier by something laurashapiro said once, which is that you can have a lyric about a door and then show the actual door after that lyric is done and the audience will still draw the association because the lyric implanted that door-ness already. That was a lightbulb moment for me, and is going to play into one of my FS ideas.
Something I'm doing while developing the BSG vid (and did for 'ATPiML,' 'Exile,' and 'Plowed' before dropping it for some reason) is try to address the overall emotion I'm going for in a section of the song, rather than try to structure for specific lyrics. It's really hard though. Heh.
One thing I know I do a lot, because it's something that I love and is one of the only visual tricks that I'm good at it, is drawing parallels between visually similiar scenes. 'What You Wish For' (ab)uses this in the door scene between Willow/Oz/Tara. I also used it in, 'So Far Away,' I think with Buffy and Spike and the doorway. (Apparently I've got a thing for doors.) I've most recently used it in 'If I Had It All,' although not a single person mentioned it so I think the clips went way too fast. But at the end, there is a montage of Wesley-throat-knife moments from Season 1/2/3 of Angel. I'm inordinately fond of that section of the vid, too. Hee.
Structurally, I would love to bookend every single vid I've ever made, because I love bookended images. Love. I have to restrain myself from doing it all the time. It shows up in 'IIHIA,' as well as 'I Believe,' with the Buffy Smile. Most of my ideas start out with bookends and I make myself change the opening shot. Heh. But I do it because bookending scenes, to me, it a very specific meaning that you're giving to the vid. In the two ways I've used it so far, it's been to signify that these events are what led up to this moment or these are the thoughts this character is having here.
I suppose visually I bookended 'Your Woman,' with the clips of Andrew talking. And 'So Sad, So Lonely' was definitely bookended with those black & white shots of Spike. So there is a type of visual bookending you can do. Hm. I only just realized this. And you can also use visually similar scenes that don't have to be from the same place in the fandom's scenes. (Does that make sense? Like, you could bookend with the B&W shot of Spike with his arms thrown wide and end with Spike draped over the cross in 'Beneath You.')
The other thing I know I love to do is intercut, which I blatantly stole from heres_luck. I used that a lot in 'Plowed,' with purpose! :) I also used it in 'Kate' and 'COB' and, where I think it was most successful for the viewers, in 'Red Oyster Cult.'
Finally, getting away from the ideas of it and just looking at the way I cut vids, I notice that I love to have movements happen on beat. I'm constantly making movements, both slight and exaggerated, fall on beat. Basically all of my vids have this happen at least once, even in the slower ones like 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' (where, for instance, Spike throws Harmony down on the bed on the very subtle beat there). I also love cross-fades, but I tend to save those for slow vids because I feel like they fit the mood better. The key is to not overuse them in those same vids.
Where does all this leave me? A bit schizophrenic, I think. The elements that seem to be in every vid are: Lyrics-driven and movements on beat. But I don't know how to make that into some sort of idea about my vidding 'style.' Those are sort of just my vidding qualities/methods. Which means all of this may have been for naught.
This is where you all come in.
I want to know - do you think you have a vidding style? How would you define it? Has it always been this way or is this recently that you've developed this style? Did you purposefully try to shape your style a certain way? And anything else the very smart folks on my flist might want to share, because I am stumped. :)
It hit me that vidding style is not just about how you cut a vid. It's not just whether you tend to use lots of shorter clips, or effects, or movement, or intercutting. It's also about how you develop your ideas from start to finish. About what those ideas seem to be, about what types of vids and stories you seem to want to tell. Not what fandoms, but what basic elements seem to draw you in and emerge from your vids.
So I tried to apply that to my own vids to hash out what I think my style is.
I want to say that this is all very off-the-cuff, and going into this I don't feel like I have a vidding style yet. I feel like I'm still trying to incorporate too many different ideas and methods while not holding on to anything that is essentially 'mine.' I'm hoping that this gives me an idea of what thread holds my vids together as one body of work. Also, this is not saying "my style is worse (or better) than other styles," I'm just trying to figure out what the heck it is.
The first thing I have to note about my vids and my vid ideas is that I am heavily, heavily lyrics driven. Especially in the early vids, the music is secondary. A lot of vidders seem to respond to music differently than I do, they experience it in a very right-brained, artistic way that doesn't come naturally to me. I came into vidding from a writing background, and part of experiencing music for me is what the lyrics are saying and singing along with them. I haven't quite figured out how to hear what the music itself is saying, although that's something that I am actively working on now. But lyrics are a big part of the way that I develop ideas, and the way that I cut my vids, especially in my early vids, where I tend to cut on the lyric all the time.
Coin-Operated Boy was a departure for me because I tried to focus on the music, although I frequently still cut on the lyric. I tried to play up the sounds that were underneath it in the music, which is what gives the song (and the vid) it's deeper meaning. Because if you just go by the lyrics, you're missing out on some of the deeper angst in the song. So I'm pleased with the vid in the sense, although when I watch it now I realize just how uneasy and jarring the song and cuts are and I always feel sort of "uh" after I watch it, which is the whole point of the vid, but it makes it not that fun to watch. Heh.
Back to ideas - my ideas flow out of the lyrics, and what they're saying. Take my recent BSG vid idea. I wasn't looking for an idea, I just was listening to the song because it was new and new music = crack, and a section of lyric jolted me and drew this connection to Kara and Kobol's Last Gleaming part 1. So then I listened to the song again and let the lyrics play out and let them draw images from the show in connection and that's when I knew it would work. Then, and this is the new part for me, I paid attention to the sound of the song and it was perfect as well, and suggested movements and atmosphere that were very fitting for BSG.
The idea itself is very narrative, as my ideas pretty much always are. And I think that's because of my lyric reliance. I don't think any of my vids are really just "emotion" vids...maybe "US of Spike," which has no narrative whatsoever. And 'Muppet Babies.' Those are both comedies, and much less structured ideas than my other vids. The less I storyboard and plan an idea beforehand, the less narrative my ideas seem to be.
Where was I? Style. So far, my style seems to be lyrically driven. The lyrics are always important in my vids, which is a problem for a lot of people because they don't pick up lyrics on first viewing and so the images often don't seem to connect. Especially in my early vids, it was all about the right image for the lyric, regardless of what clips came before or after. This is also something I'm now working on, trying to provide a more cohesive theme for the stanza at least, so that you could watch the vid with the sound off and sort of get the point. I'm having a lot of trouble with this technique, though, see above re: lyrics driven. I'm trying to envision the stanza as a thought in its entirety, and to not necessarily feel the need to shape the vid lyric-by-lyric, but emotion by emotion. However it is made easier by something laurashapiro said once, which is that you can have a lyric about a door and then show the actual door after that lyric is done and the audience will still draw the association because the lyric implanted that door-ness already. That was a lightbulb moment for me, and is going to play into one of my FS ideas.
Something I'm doing while developing the BSG vid (and did for 'ATPiML,' 'Exile,' and 'Plowed' before dropping it for some reason) is try to address the overall emotion I'm going for in a section of the song, rather than try to structure for specific lyrics. It's really hard though. Heh.
One thing I know I do a lot, because it's something that I love and is one of the only visual tricks that I'm good at it, is drawing parallels between visually similiar scenes. 'What You Wish For' (ab)uses this in the door scene between Willow/Oz/Tara. I also used it in, 'So Far Away,' I think with Buffy and Spike and the doorway. (Apparently I've got a thing for doors.) I've most recently used it in 'If I Had It All,' although not a single person mentioned it so I think the clips went way too fast. But at the end, there is a montage of Wesley-throat-knife moments from Season 1/2/3 of Angel. I'm inordinately fond of that section of the vid, too. Hee.
Structurally, I would love to bookend every single vid I've ever made, because I love bookended images. Love. I have to restrain myself from doing it all the time. It shows up in 'IIHIA,' as well as 'I Believe,' with the Buffy Smile. Most of my ideas start out with bookends and I make myself change the opening shot. Heh. But I do it because bookending scenes, to me, it a very specific meaning that you're giving to the vid. In the two ways I've used it so far, it's been to signify that these events are what led up to this moment or these are the thoughts this character is having here.
I suppose visually I bookended 'Your Woman,' with the clips of Andrew talking. And 'So Sad, So Lonely' was definitely bookended with those black & white shots of Spike. So there is a type of visual bookending you can do. Hm. I only just realized this. And you can also use visually similar scenes that don't have to be from the same place in the fandom's scenes. (Does that make sense? Like, you could bookend with the B&W shot of Spike with his arms thrown wide and end with Spike draped over the cross in 'Beneath You.')
The other thing I know I love to do is intercut, which I blatantly stole from heres_luck. I used that a lot in 'Plowed,' with purpose! :) I also used it in 'Kate' and 'COB' and, where I think it was most successful for the viewers, in 'Red Oyster Cult.'
Finally, getting away from the ideas of it and just looking at the way I cut vids, I notice that I love to have movements happen on beat. I'm constantly making movements, both slight and exaggerated, fall on beat. Basically all of my vids have this happen at least once, even in the slower ones like 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' (where, for instance, Spike throws Harmony down on the bed on the very subtle beat there). I also love cross-fades, but I tend to save those for slow vids because I feel like they fit the mood better. The key is to not overuse them in those same vids.
Where does all this leave me? A bit schizophrenic, I think. The elements that seem to be in every vid are: Lyrics-driven and movements on beat. But I don't know how to make that into some sort of idea about my vidding 'style.' Those are sort of just my vidding qualities/methods. Which means all of this may have been for naught.
This is where you all come in.
I want to know - do you think you have a vidding style? How would you define it? Has it always been this way or is this recently that you've developed this style? Did you purposefully try to shape your style a certain way? And anything else the very smart folks on my flist might want to share, because I am stumped. :)