Vidding the bridge

[frayadjacent]

I've heard a number of vidders say that the bridge is the hardest part to vid, and some even take it out of the song.  But when I get a vid idea, the bridge is almost always the clearest part of my vision.  It's a moment of transition, it connects whatever I'm trying to say in the introduction to the end.  It often builds toward a climactic moment in the song.  It's great for capturing change -- in the characters, in their relationships, in the story.  And it's gloriously free of any random awkward lyric that doesn't work and you hope people ignore.  It's almost always the thing that gets me excited to make a vid, and it's almost always the part where I see the clip choice most clearly when I'm first starting.

I'm interested if other vidders find this to be the case.

(Also, three posts in one day!  I think this is a personal record.)

Comments

[laurashapiro]

I agree with you 100%. Instrumental bridges intimidated me when I started, but I have almost never cut them. Just as they're vital to a song's structure, they're vital to a vid's, for all the reasons you mention.

[frayadjacent]

Word. Heh, they probably should intimidate me more, but instead they just excite me. :D

[sanguinity]

THEMATIC FREE SPACE.

Space to get done things that you needed to get done.

Actually, I feel the same way about musical intros and outros. THEMATIC FREE SPACE YAY.

[frayadjacent]

Oh, interesting. I find outros tough. Maybe outros are to me like bridges are to some other vidders? I rarely feel like I know how to end a vid.

But YES to the free space. Having lyrics is nice for helping to spark the idea and guide the general "point" of the vid, but the parts of the song that don't have lyrics are SOOO freeing. And feel easier, to me, somehow.

[sanguinity]

Depends on the vid, I think? I had trouble with both the bridge and outro in "Monkey's Paw," mostly because the whole vid was just riffing on a set of themes anyway, and there wasn't anything to do in the musical bits that I couldn't already do (and hadn't already done) in the verses/choruses. (Perhaps poor planning on my part, there? Note to self: in an open-ended riffing-on-themes vid, leave some ideas to riff on for the no-lyrics bits.)

Whereas for "Strange Angels" the outro was one of the simplest bits to figure out: I had a humongous final chunk of the vid's narrative that needed to be dealt with. And the original had over a minute of outro, finishing with a fade-out, so I could just vid what I needed to vid and then fade-out whenever I was ready: PERFECTLY LOVELY TO HAVE AS MUCH BLANK CANVAS AS I NEEDED. (Of course, "Strange Angels" had great chunks of counter-intuitive lyrics anyway, so YAY FREE SPACE anytime there weren't lyrics to contend with.)

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, makes sense. Ha, yes "Strange Angels" has some funny lyrics, but you handled them really well. I felt like I knew which ones to pay attention to and which ones to interpret...broadly. :D

[isis]

It varies for me! I like to shorten my songs for vidding (because I don't feel I can sustain a vid for longer than 2 minutes or so) and often a big hunk of the bridge is what's easiest to delete. But in other vids of mine the bridge serves a really important role in the transition, as you say.

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, once a vid gets past the 3 minute mark I find I don't quite know what to do with all the parts! And I can see how the bridge is one of the simplest places to cut. For some reason most of the time when I've edited a song for length, I've either just chopped off the end or taken out specific measures. In one case (I haven't made the vid yet, just edited the song!) I took out the second verse/chorus. But I can imagine there are cases where the bridge would be the best part to cut, especially if it's some long solo or something.

[chaila]

I almost always start out by going "OMG all this free instrumental space, WHAT WILL I PUT THERE oh noes," and then by the end of the vidding process it's usually my favorite part of the vid. So, it's sort of intimidating because it's so open, but once I get going I like for exactly that same reason?

[frayadjacent]

Heh, for me it doesn't always end up being my favorite part of the vid! But it's the part I often am most excited to make. Though that's really mostly the case if some sort of transformation (in a very broad sense) is part of the point of the vid. If that's the not the case then it's a lot less clear to me what to do with the bridge.

I was just thinking, the song "Tightrope" -- which you have also vidded*! -- doesn't have an instrumental bridge. Big Boi's rap plays a similar role musically, but it plays a different role in a vid, I think. It feels more like an interlude to tell a different aspect of the story, rather than a "bridge" to thematically join the beginning and end of the vid? (Lol can you tell I'm talking out my ass!) If I remember correctly, you used it to showcase a different character (Burt instead of Mary), and I did a somewhat similar thing for it. I can see an instrumental bridge filling a similar purpose but it seems like it would be trickier than it is with an interlude with a different vocalist.

*I made a Club Vivid vid to "Tightrope", so it's finished but not posted yet.

[shati]

I think the thing that makes me most excited to make a vid is usually a particular lyric/clip combo, or the musical climax, but once I'm actually vidding I love bridges, for all the reasons you list, and because usually I need something important and lyric-less to knit together the rest.

[frayadjacent]

True, that definitely excites me too, and is usually what sparks the idea in the first place.

[kiki_miserychic]

I enjoy vidding the bridges in my vid songs. I think of them like motifs in a way. Sometimes I section out something that I want to call specific attention toward, like a certain relationship with another character, or a specific arc, or a set of visual clip progressions. It's a little spice within the chorus and verses. It doesn't always work with my vid arc though, so I think I've edited bridges out before and I know I've shortened them.

[frayadjacent]

Makes sense! I've used bridges less to call attention to a different character, or aspect of a story, etc, and more as a moment of change. But that only works if the vid is presenting a narrative where something or someone changes. which isn't always the case.