30 Days of Vidding: Days 26-27

[frayadjacent]

Day 26: What is the oddest (or most fun) thing you've had to do for a vid?

Well, I can't think of anything odder than the act of vidding itself (that I've done for a vid, that is), so I'll go with "most fun". 

I'd say it was learning to do jump/stutter cuts, freeze frames, and time-toggling* for "Tightrope".  Actually, I learned to do jump cuts in an as-yet unfinished vid, but I had no idea how to do freeze frames or especially time-toggling.  I ended up watching giandujakiss's "Origin Stories" over and over, trying to figure out what they did and copy it.  That vid just has so much style, and I really wanted to emulate that, even though the mood and point of the two vids are totally different.  It was really cool to figure that out a bit.

I'm not sure I'd say the process itself was always super fun, but I was pretty darn delighted with the results.  One of my favorite clips from "Tightrope" uses all three.

Day 27: Where is your favorite place to vid? Where would be your perfect vidding spot?

At home, for starters.  I'm way too self-conscious to vid in public. 

If I could fashion a perfect vidding spot, it would have:

• A super ergonomic desk, keyboard, and trackpad set-up.
• Pretty good speakers.  (I actually don't think it'd be a good idea for me to vid with a great sound system, since most people are going to be watching the vid with just their computer speakers.  I might be too tempted to match the motion to elements of the music that are hard to pick out under those circumstances.)
• A nice tray where I can put food and beverages without risking spilling them on my vidding system.
• A good way to block excess sunlight. 
• No intruders!  What I need most of all for vidding is to not be distracted.

*Eh, I have no idea if that's what it's called.  What I mean is that thing where you change the speed of the clip partway through so that the motion matches the music. 

Day 1: How did you first get into vidding, and what was the first fandom you vidded? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
Day 2: Name the fandoms you've vidded in, how many vids you've made in each fandom, and whether you plan to vid in them again.
Day 3: For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to vid?
Day 4: Do you have a "muse" character or fandom that speaks to you more than others? Who are they, and why did that character/fandom became your muse?
Day 5: If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a vid, what did you do about it?
Day 6: When you vid, do you like vidding a certain kind of male or female archetype? (Credit to Dualbunny for that one!)
Day 7: Have you ever had a vid (of yours) change your opinion of a character?
Day 8: Have you vidded with original source? If so, why did you use original source?
Day 9: Pairings: For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your favorite pairings to vid?
Day 10: Pairings: Have you ever tried to vid a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
Day 11: Genre: do you prefer making certain genres of vid? What kind do you tend to vid the most?
Day 12: Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" vid of a favorite media source but set in a different fandom? (I.e., attempted to bring the 'feel' or 'mood' of one source to a different fandom, like the zombie Mary Poppins vid.)
Day 13: Do you prefer canon or fanon when you vid (canon shots vs. using shots out of context; AU vs. canon)? Has vidding for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
Day 14: Ratings: how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever vidded higher than you're comfortable with? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the vid you're making is G-rated instead?
Day 15: Warnings: What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a vid?
Day 16: Summaries: Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
Day 17: Titles: Do you try to use something different than the song? Why or why not?
Day 18: Where do you get the most inspiration for your vids from?
Day 19: When you have vid ideas, do you sit down and start vidding right away, or do you write down the idea for further exploration later?
Day 20: Do you ever get ideas inspired from other people's stories, vids, or art in the same fandom?
Day 21: Sequels: Have you ever created a sequel to a vid you made, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
Day 22: Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
Day 23: When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
Day 24: Betaing: How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your vid? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
Day 25: Music: Do you listen to music while you rip source? Do you listen to your vid song immediately before vidding, months before vidding, or just while working on it?
Day 26: What is the oddest (or most fun) thing you've had to do for a vid?
Day 27: Where is your favorite place to vid? Where would be your perfect vidding spot?
Day 28: Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether vidding together, or having an artist or writer work on a piece about your vid?
Day 29: What is your current project or projects?
Day 30: Do you have a favorite vid you've made? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!

Comments

[thirdblindmouse]

I admire people who sit down and look at vids they haven't made and figure out how the vidder got the effect and then figure out how to replicate that. Is a stutter cut the thing you do at 1:07-1:08 with the clock and Buffy's face? How do you do that? Do you chop it up into pieces and intersperse them and sometimes blend them together by hand? Or are those two solid tracks with which one is visible varying? Or a third option?

(I wish someone would invent a universal language of vidding so it would be easier to communicate cross-platform.)

[frayadjacent]

I know what you mean about cross-platform language!

Yeah, I think that's an example of a stutter cut? I also take "stutter cut" to mean a bunch of jump cuts together without a lot taken out between each (maybe even just a few frames, a la lilly_the_kid's vid Dillaudid).

Anyway, I did that the second way you mentioned: I put the two clips on two different tracks and varied the opacity of the top clip, which was the clip of Buffy's face. If I remember correctly, I had the opacity go from 100% to 0% over the course of a few frames -- basically however many it took to match the rhythm of the song -- then only keep it at 0% for one frame and jump back to 100% the next frame. I don't know how much difference that made but I liked it better than some other things I tried.

When I study vids like that, especially on a technical level, I look at them in Streamclip and go through the parts I'm interested in frame-by-frame, which helps a lot. That's how I figured out stutter cuts -- I did that with obsessive24's "Bachelorette", which does a similar sort of stutter cut at the beginning.

But the method doesn't help me when I'm trying to figure out something that uses fancier techniques -- hence my cry for help in understanding "morphs" last week. :D

[thirdblindmouse]

Oh, varying opacity! That's smart. I'll try that next time I need stutter cuts (I've basically avoided songs that required them before).

MPlayer let's me step through frame-by-frame, which makes me very happy.

[frayadjacent]

Stutter cut songs are so fun for vidding! *sends stuttery vibes your way*