Vidder's Diary
Sep. 5th, 2007 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
switch842So, this is inspired by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brihana25's post yesterday about vid making. I, too, have gotten some questions about making videos, so I thought I would offer my own view in counterpoint to hers. As she said, though, I cannot tell you how to make a video, I can only tell you how I do it. Maybe it works for you, maybe it doesn't. There really isn't a right or wrong way to do this.
I think I'll do this by talking you through a couple of the videos I have made as I have used a couple different techniques (you can find them all here as it might be helpful to view them to know what I’m talking about). I'll also be talking about the programs I use and offering opinions on certain things. Please keep in mind, this is only my opinion and what I think doesn't work may work just fine for you. This is not intended to be a bashing of any one type of process or anything like that. This is just me, letting you know how I do it. :-)
So, first and foremost is how do I decide what song I’m going to vid. For me, it’s easy, I just let the song tell me it wants to be vidded. That probably sounds odd, but that’s kind of how it works. I hear a song and, eventually, it will start screaming, “Vid me! Vid me!” and I’ll start seeing scenes in my head. If I can see enough, I know I’ll have to sit down and make it.
So, now I have the song. But, before I can sit down and start gathering clips, there are a few things I need to figure out:
1) What type of video is this? Is it a literal video or will it be more figurative?
2) Who is the “I” and who is the “you”? Who is the “I” telling the story to/about?
3) What is the point of the vid?
4) What is the pacing of the song?
So, let’s answer these questions with a couple different examples. First up, All American Girl.
1) This is definitely a literal video. The song is telling a definite story – how Samantha Carter is the All American Girl. With this in mind, I know I need to find clips that will match perfectly with the lyrics.
2) This one is a little trickier. To me, the “I” is all the men in Carter’s life. I think it came out more as Jack, which is fine as he is the main man in her life. But, THIS IS NOT A SHOP VIDEO! LOL. It just kinda came out that way. So, then Carter is the “you” and the story is being told about her.
3) The point is to sort of point out and exaggerate the All American-ness of Sam. Her amazingness and all that stuff.
4) The reason I keep this in mind is so I know if I need clips that move or clips that are more stationary, etc. This song was rather quick paced so I knew I would need a lot of short fast clips. But, there are some parts where the song slows down, so I needed to keep those in mind while I was thinking about the clips to use. I would need to make sure I had a clip long enough to fit those slower places.
For another look at this, we’ll go to Hide and Seek.
1) This one is a bit of both. It starts out being literal, but as the song goes on, it gets a little more figurative with the lyrics, so that’s the direction the video had to take. But the overall emotional feeling is still consistent, so it works.
2) The “I” in this case is pretty much the entire Liberty Avenue Gang. They are relating a story to us, the viewer. So, we are the “you.”
3) It may seem odd or something, but the point of this was to “showcase” the violence that had happened to everyone over the years. I was a little hesitant in making this one, actually because of the subject matter. But the song just wouldn’t leave me alone.
4) This song is much slower and more mellow than All American Girl. But, because of the subject matter, I did something a little different. There are lots more fast paced clips than you would expect to keep that sense of urgency that the subject matter needed.
And now this is getting long so I shall continue tomorrow. Or the day after…. :-) Please let me know if you have any questions or anything like that.
brihana25's post yesterday about vid making. I, too, have gotten some questions about making videos, so I thought I would offer my own view in counterpoint to hers. As she said, though, I cannot tell you how to make a video, I can only tell you how I do it. Maybe it works for you, maybe it doesn't. There really isn't a right or wrong way to do this.I think I'll do this by talking you through a couple of the videos I have made as I have used a couple different techniques (you can find them all here as it might be helpful to view them to know what I’m talking about). I'll also be talking about the programs I use and offering opinions on certain things. Please keep in mind, this is only my opinion and what I think doesn't work may work just fine for you. This is not intended to be a bashing of any one type of process or anything like that. This is just me, letting you know how I do it. :-)
So, first and foremost is how do I decide what song I’m going to vid. For me, it’s easy, I just let the song tell me it wants to be vidded. That probably sounds odd, but that’s kind of how it works. I hear a song and, eventually, it will start screaming, “Vid me! Vid me!” and I’ll start seeing scenes in my head. If I can see enough, I know I’ll have to sit down and make it.
So, now I have the song. But, before I can sit down and start gathering clips, there are a few things I need to figure out:
1) What type of video is this? Is it a literal video or will it be more figurative?
2) Who is the “I” and who is the “you”? Who is the “I” telling the story to/about?
3) What is the point of the vid?
4) What is the pacing of the song?
So, let’s answer these questions with a couple different examples. First up, All American Girl.
1) This is definitely a literal video. The song is telling a definite story – how Samantha Carter is the All American Girl. With this in mind, I know I need to find clips that will match perfectly with the lyrics.
2) This one is a little trickier. To me, the “I” is all the men in Carter’s life. I think it came out more as Jack, which is fine as he is the main man in her life. But, THIS IS NOT A SHOP VIDEO! LOL. It just kinda came out that way. So, then Carter is the “you” and the story is being told about her.
3) The point is to sort of point out and exaggerate the All American-ness of Sam. Her amazingness and all that stuff.
4) The reason I keep this in mind is so I know if I need clips that move or clips that are more stationary, etc. This song was rather quick paced so I knew I would need a lot of short fast clips. But, there are some parts where the song slows down, so I needed to keep those in mind while I was thinking about the clips to use. I would need to make sure I had a clip long enough to fit those slower places.
For another look at this, we’ll go to Hide and Seek.
1) This one is a bit of both. It starts out being literal, but as the song goes on, it gets a little more figurative with the lyrics, so that’s the direction the video had to take. But the overall emotional feeling is still consistent, so it works.
2) The “I” in this case is pretty much the entire Liberty Avenue Gang. They are relating a story to us, the viewer. So, we are the “you.”
3) It may seem odd or something, but the point of this was to “showcase” the violence that had happened to everyone over the years. I was a little hesitant in making this one, actually because of the subject matter. But the song just wouldn’t leave me alone.
4) This song is much slower and more mellow than All American Girl. But, because of the subject matter, I did something a little different. There are lots more fast paced clips than you would expect to keep that sense of urgency that the subject matter needed.
And now this is getting long so I shall continue tomorrow. Or the day after…. :-) Please let me know if you have any questions or anything like that.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-06 02:27 pm (UTC)This is really great, Kerri. I'm going to enjoy reading about your methods. You made really good points about choosing a narrator/"you" and "I" and the pacing of the song.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-06 02:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-06 10:23 pm (UTC)You inspire me all the time, Bri.