Insane January Vidding Project (IJVP) - Day 1!
Welcome to Day 1 of my Insane January Vidding Project! Don't forget, this year I'm joined by pipsqueaky, dualbunny, f1renze, sweetestdrain, and linzeems, all of whom have put their own spins on the project, and are coming up with some awesome vidlets. :)
For my own project, since this is the first day, let me tell you how it's going to go down: each day for the next 15 days, I am vidding (roughly) one minute of a different song previously selected by the studio audience. The fandom, and in some cases the character, relationship, or episode, have also been selected by the person who picked the song. I have tried very hard to adhere to specific requests, although I can think of one situation where I may not get as gen as the requester wanted.
The point of this year's IJVP, for me, is to try new, potentially crazy, things with Final Cut Pro. It's similiar to last year, where I was just trying to figure out the program, although this year I'm hoping to make my brain think differently while putting a vid together. So the chances for ridiculous looking crap are a lot higher this year, and they were pretty high last year. My apologies to those of you who have given me your beloved ideas. Heh. While I'm trying to make good quality vids, the intent is not quality but experimentation.
Anyhow, I'll post a new vidlet each day, as well as just the section of lyrics that I used (if there are lyrics at all) and a bit about my thought process. I'll also talk about what I think worked and didn't in each vidlet, and then get into the specific technical tricks that I used, so that I can use them later if they end up looking neat.
As with many of my posts, I'm filing these away into my memories in their own category, so if you want to come back later, they'll be there. Since I finally know how to export to DivX AVI (thanks laurashapiro!), I'll be exporting all the vidlets into AVI format this year. Should I be in a rush and for whatever reason forget how to export to DivX, I'll let you know if the file type changes.
So! Enough pre-emptive talk, let's get this thing rolling.
The first vidlet was suggested by pipsqueaky, it's a Braveheart vid to Kanye West's, "Jesus Walks."
For those of you who are just here for the vids - please right-click and 'Save Target As.'
Jesus Walks (6 MB)
Please let me know if you're unable to play the vidlet.
Lyrics
We at war
We at war with terrorism
racism
but most of all
we at war with ourselves
Jesus walks
God show me the way because the Devil's trying to to break me down
Jesus walks with me
You know what the Midwest is?
Young and restless
Where restless niggaz might snatch your necklace
And next these niggaz might jack your Lexus
Somebody tell these niggaz who Kanye West is
I walk through the valley of the shadow where death is
Well mama, I know I act the fool
But I'll be gone til November I got packs to move
I hope
Jesus walks
God show me the way because the Devil's trying to to break me down
Jesus walks with me
The only thing that I pray is that my feet don't fail me now
My Thoughts; What Works; What Doesn't
When Pips suggested this vid, I knew I had to make it, because frankly the idea is genius. It shouldn't work, there are so many strikes against this pairing of music and movie, and yet, IMO, it works perfectly. I could have done the whole song, so in order to help me focus, I decided to narrow it down to just what led Wallace into his first battle, and then the end hints at the fact that he's got so much left to do. If I would have done this as a full vid, I think I would have ended with the shot of his hand letting go of his dead wife's handkerchief, shot from below so it's looking up into the sky.
I think the lower saturation effect works really well for the beginning part, matching the somber, marching beat of the music. I also like the brief, higher saturated clip of Wallace's wife shoved in-between Wallace killing the man who killed her. That's actually my favorite part of the vidlet. Miraculously, I feel like the rippling effect also works fairly well, especially since it speeds up with the music. The section from :30-:33 works well for me to; I think the cutting on each syllable turned out nice and gave it some nice movement. And I really like the end.
The :14-:16 second section doesn't work for me and I really wish I could have thought of something else to highlight what's going on musically there. In my head it really is more super-fast, almost flashing cutting between the funeral as young Wallace and the funeral as Older Wallace but I couldn't get that to work the way I wanted and the transitions that I settled for just don't do it for me. :42-:43 I just couldn't get cut right. I know there are syllables there I was trying to follow and I just couldn't get them to work to my satisfaction.
What I Learned
On the first clips, I used Desaturate Lows, with "Apply Below" set to 50; "Softness" set to 50; and "Amount of Desaturation" set to 100. At :14 there's an additive dissolve, followed by a clock wipe dissolve at :15 and then another additive dissolve at :16. The shot of the wife at :19 has a clip with Desaturation of -74 (since there is no saturation option) applied, and then that clip was copied (with the desat applied) and placed directly on top, then given a Gaussian Blur filter set to Luminance channel and radius 12, and then the clip composite mode is set to Screen.
The ripple effect starting at :24 is Pond Ripple keyframed with settings from radius 0-100, Ripple 3-3, Amplitude 12-12, Acceleration .78-3.25, and High Light and Decay 0-0.
The clip at :31 has Motion Blur with 325% blur, and 2 Samples, same with the clip at :34.
The end clip starting at :59 also has Motion Blur, this time 182% with 4 samples. It also has a keyframed Color Offset filter with Red, Green, and Blue set from 0-256.
And, uh, that's it! We watched "Barrel Bear" for Wonderfalls, so I hope to talk about it and "Muffin Buffalo" soon. But IJVP may preclude other talk for the next two weeks.
ETA: Because this is a learning project, you are welcome and encouraged to comment on these vids with elements you thought worked, ones that didn't work, and lessons to be taken from the particular vid, including suggestions on how to cut differently or even the way you would have handled a section.
For my own project, since this is the first day, let me tell you how it's going to go down: each day for the next 15 days, I am vidding (roughly) one minute of a different song previously selected by the studio audience. The fandom, and in some cases the character, relationship, or episode, have also been selected by the person who picked the song. I have tried very hard to adhere to specific requests, although I can think of one situation where I may not get as gen as the requester wanted.
The point of this year's IJVP, for me, is to try new, potentially crazy, things with Final Cut Pro. It's similiar to last year, where I was just trying to figure out the program, although this year I'm hoping to make my brain think differently while putting a vid together. So the chances for ridiculous looking crap are a lot higher this year, and they were pretty high last year. My apologies to those of you who have given me your beloved ideas. Heh. While I'm trying to make good quality vids, the intent is not quality but experimentation.
Anyhow, I'll post a new vidlet each day, as well as just the section of lyrics that I used (if there are lyrics at all) and a bit about my thought process. I'll also talk about what I think worked and didn't in each vidlet, and then get into the specific technical tricks that I used, so that I can use them later if they end up looking neat.
As with many of my posts, I'm filing these away into my memories in their own category, so if you want to come back later, they'll be there. Since I finally know how to export to DivX AVI (thanks laurashapiro!), I'll be exporting all the vidlets into AVI format this year. Should I be in a rush and for whatever reason forget how to export to DivX, I'll let you know if the file type changes.
So! Enough pre-emptive talk, let's get this thing rolling.
The first vidlet was suggested by pipsqueaky, it's a Braveheart vid to Kanye West's, "Jesus Walks."
For those of you who are just here for the vids - please right-click and 'Save Target As.'
Jesus Walks (6 MB)
Please let me know if you're unable to play the vidlet.
Lyrics
We at war
We at war with terrorism
racism
but most of all
we at war with ourselves
Jesus walks
God show me the way because the Devil's trying to to break me down
Jesus walks with me
You know what the Midwest is?
Young and restless
Where restless niggaz might snatch your necklace
And next these niggaz might jack your Lexus
Somebody tell these niggaz who Kanye West is
I walk through the valley of the shadow where death is
Well mama, I know I act the fool
But I'll be gone til November I got packs to move
I hope
Jesus walks
God show me the way because the Devil's trying to to break me down
Jesus walks with me
The only thing that I pray is that my feet don't fail me now
My Thoughts; What Works; What Doesn't
When Pips suggested this vid, I knew I had to make it, because frankly the idea is genius. It shouldn't work, there are so many strikes against this pairing of music and movie, and yet, IMO, it works perfectly. I could have done the whole song, so in order to help me focus, I decided to narrow it down to just what led Wallace into his first battle, and then the end hints at the fact that he's got so much left to do. If I would have done this as a full vid, I think I would have ended with the shot of his hand letting go of his dead wife's handkerchief, shot from below so it's looking up into the sky.
I think the lower saturation effect works really well for the beginning part, matching the somber, marching beat of the music. I also like the brief, higher saturated clip of Wallace's wife shoved in-between Wallace killing the man who killed her. That's actually my favorite part of the vidlet. Miraculously, I feel like the rippling effect also works fairly well, especially since it speeds up with the music. The section from :30-:33 works well for me to; I think the cutting on each syllable turned out nice and gave it some nice movement. And I really like the end.
The :14-:16 second section doesn't work for me and I really wish I could have thought of something else to highlight what's going on musically there. In my head it really is more super-fast, almost flashing cutting between the funeral as young Wallace and the funeral as Older Wallace but I couldn't get that to work the way I wanted and the transitions that I settled for just don't do it for me. :42-:43 I just couldn't get cut right. I know there are syllables there I was trying to follow and I just couldn't get them to work to my satisfaction.
What I Learned
On the first clips, I used Desaturate Lows, with "Apply Below" set to 50; "Softness" set to 50; and "Amount of Desaturation" set to 100. At :14 there's an additive dissolve, followed by a clock wipe dissolve at :15 and then another additive dissolve at :16. The shot of the wife at :19 has a clip with Desaturation of -74 (since there is no saturation option) applied, and then that clip was copied (with the desat applied) and placed directly on top, then given a Gaussian Blur filter set to Luminance channel and radius 12, and then the clip composite mode is set to Screen.
The ripple effect starting at :24 is Pond Ripple keyframed with settings from radius 0-100, Ripple 3-3, Amplitude 12-12, Acceleration .78-3.25, and High Light and Decay 0-0.
The clip at :31 has Motion Blur with 325% blur, and 2 Samples, same with the clip at :34.
The end clip starting at :59 also has Motion Blur, this time 182% with 4 samples. It also has a keyframed Color Offset filter with Red, Green, and Blue set from 0-256.
And, uh, that's it! We watched "Barrel Bear" for Wonderfalls, so I hope to talk about it and "Muffin Buffalo" soon. But IJVP may preclude other talk for the next two weeks.
ETA: Because this is a learning project, you are welcome and encouraged to comment on these vids with elements you thought worked, ones that didn't work, and lessons to be taken from the particular vid, including suggestions on how to cut differently or even the way you would have handled a section.