fray-adjacent

Previous years: 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

Vids I made in 2017

Electric Lady (Steven Universe, premiered at VidUKon in June)
Airplane (Xena, September)
Partition (Buffy theVampire Slayer, November)

Favourite

Partition — I enjoy re-watching it, and it’s a different sort of vid, with a different take on Buffy, than I have done in the past.

Least Favourite

Airplane — it’s a fine vid, but it’s my weakest Xena vid IMO. I had a lot of trouble getting something that went with the music like I wanted on the bridge. And I struggled a little with conceptualising it — at first it really was a Gabrielle vs Horses vid, but that was too narrow a concept for an entire vid so it became about the discomforts of travel, but I’m not sure how well the second half connects to the first half.

Most Successful

Partition, I think, in that I saw a few people reccing it. Electric Lady in terms of comments though — I got some really lovely comments on it on DW and at VidUKon.

Most Underappreciated by the Universe

I secretly hoped Electric Lady would take off on youtube because I think it’s better than a lot of the Steven Universe vids I’ve seen out there. (Not all of them of course! Becca’s SU vid, for example, still blows my mind every time I watch it.) Alas, that didn’t happen.

Most Fun to Make

Electric Lady, before my laptop was stolen (see below).

Hardest Vid to Make

Electric Lady, because I was about halfway finished with it when my laptop was stolen. I’d had Premiere installed on my laptop from my previous job, but when I bought my new laptop I couldn’t get it back. I ended up remaking Electric Lady in Lightworks. Now, I’m sure Lightworks is a lovely program, and it’s fantastic that it’s free. But as someone who was just trying to (re) make a vid and wasn’t actually interested in learning new software, it was very frustrating in some ways. It wasn’t just small differences along the lines of those I discovered when I switched from Final Cut Pro 7 to Premiere, but major differences in the workflow that I really struggled with.

Not long after I finished, I decided to splurge on a subscription to Adobe CC even though the cost and subscription program piss me off. I get the educational discount because I work at a university, and I do use Illustrator for work so I can kinda justify it on those grounds. So the work I’d done on Airplane and Partition — both of which I had started in 2015! — was mostly not lost, thanks to my backups.

Also Partition because the process of making it made me so angry at the source that I almost lost all motivation, when it was 90% finished.

The Things I Learned This Year

Back up my vid projects! Keep my laptop upstairs and not where thieves can see them (only helps with middle of the night robberies, but still).

Also, put more effort into vids. Resist the urge to just post it because I’m sick of working on it. It’s the difference between having a vid I rewatch for years to come and almost never rewatching it. This isn’t good advice for perfectionists, but I am definitely not one of those.

Planning for Next Year

My goal is three vids again this year. I managed it last year, which I’m so pleased about because I only made one vid in 2016 and two in 2015. But two of the three vids I made in 2017 (Airplane and Partition) had significant work done on them in previous years. So making three vids again this year is still a step up in productivity.

Also, Xena Warrior Podcast has inspired me to  return to my Xena vid plans, and has also given me courage to go ahead and make one or two of the darker Xena vids I’ve thought about. Not all vids need to appeal to everyone. More than any other fandom, I vid Xena so I can have the kind of vids I want to watch, and sometimes I want to watch a vid that explores the sad and difficult parts of that show.

These are all questions from thirdblindmouse, via the vidding meme.

What's the best vidding advice you've ever come across? (goodbyebird also asked this)

To watch and study vids that I love, and figure out what makes them work for me. In my early days of vidding I did this often, and for a few vids I even watched the whole thing basically frame by frame and took down notes. That was how I realized, for example, that Bachelorette's intro goes through all the themes explored in the rest of the vid, basically giving an overview of the vid in the first 20 seconds. And that Nicky uses a fade to black between each section of the vid -- and nowhere else, I believe.

I don't do this as much anymore, except that I recently studied shati's vid "Boulevard of" while making "Become You", because I wanted to emulate both some of her cutting techniques, which I love, and the way she continued to revisit specific moments in the show throughout the vid as a way to drive home the themes.

I also remember reading the advice to read vid meta, which I would do anyway because it interests me. It helps with excitement and inspiration as well as learning tricks of the trade.

Do you use any tools, like clip notes or storyboards?

It depends on the vid. For example, my next vid in Xena Vid Series from Hell has a complete timeline of clip notes -- an extended marker describing what will go in each section. And I believe it does not yet have a single actual clip on it. Conversely, my current WIP, an Orphan Black vid, has no markers and a ~70% full timeline because the structure of the song is such that it's kind of obvious -- to me anyway -- what goes where, and because I've been able to import all the episodes directly into Premiere, which has changed my workflow quite a bit from what I usually do.

I used to always storyboard but I haven't done that in a while.

I also keep a vidding journal -- a trick I learned from kiki_miserychic -- where I scribble down ideas as they come to me. I carry it everywhere! It is an excellent tool and I highly recommend it. It occurs to me that I could also use a notes function in my smartphone for this, but personally I like having the written journal.

Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your vids being canon compliant?

Hmmm. I'd say I keep my vids compliant with my head-canon, which generally would not directly contradict canon or even stray much from it. But part of being in fandom for the last few years is that I've gotten much more comfortable with the general taking liberties with canon, especially if femslash is involved. So I might do it someday?

Actually, I for a couple years I had "Fire Door" saved as a Veronica Mars AU-ish vidsong. The idea was for a season 1 AU of sorts where in the end Veronica rejects both Logan and Duncan, along with all the other 09-ers. But I didn't envision it taking liberties with canon so much as a criticism of canon. At any rate, it's now and forever a Tyra vidsong, and I'm quite happy with it that way.

ETA: it occurred to me that another way to interpret the question is whether I use clips in their canon context, which is maybe a more useful way to think about this for vidding -- as opposed to writing fic, which this meme was originally designed for. And for that, I am very much happy to use clips out of context, but they'd still be supporting my reading of canon, as opposed to going totally AU. In fact when I am clipping/vidding I sometimes get too visual and don't consider the context of the clip enough. If it's not a well-known clip that's fine, but for famous moments it's almost impossible to divorce the clip from its context. I'm better at this than I used to be but my first vid or two contained some very famous clips in moments where they didn't work at all.

There is a very cool discussion about vidding -- process, tech, tips, you name it -- at wiscon_vidparty's vidding workshop.  Check it out!  This is such a great idea and I hope it keeps happening. I would have *loved* to come across this when I started vidding or in my first year as a vidder.  I love coming across it now!

A lot of people are talking about their vidding process, most of which are similar to mine in the finding/discovering song --> re-watching and/or clipping --> song editing --> vid editing --> beta process, but I've discovered (and rediscovered) that it really helps me to combine the clipping and video editing.  Because clipping is so boring!  I.e., I set myself a goal for a number of episodes to clip, then once I finish I reward myself by laying some of those clips on the timeline!  It helps with motivation.  Plus, I usually get a lot of ideas when I clip and it helps to enact at least some of those ideas right away rather than writing them down or taking mental  notes that don't get acted upon for days to months. 

Also, according to heresluck, an initial rule of thumb for matching motion to a beat is to have the explosion, fist-hitting, etc happen three frames before the beat (then adjust as needed).  WHOA.  I usually line these things up on the same frame as the beat, and I wonder if this is part of why I often feel like my timing is a bit off-looking.  I am definitely going to try this out.  If it works I will be glad to have a solution/bitter I didn't realize this ages ago.

I haven't been around DW much, and my fannish mode has generally been a bit different lately. ( Cut for navel-gazing about recent non-participation on DW )

Anyway, I'm honestly considering just clearing out my inbox and starting fresh, with sincere apologies to people who left comments for me and never got a response.

In other vidding news:  I've been vidding like mad the past week or so.  I'm making a Xena vid that is really trying to explore moral and thematic questions -- and take positions and make arguments about said questions -- more so than probably any other vid I've made.  I've been really digging the process of making it.  I think because, unlike with my Buffy vids, Xena is still quite fresh and new for me and I feel really excited about what I want to say about it.  Also, with Buffy vids I have the constant feeling that every idea I've ever had has already been done, and probably better.  But to be honest I haven't found even half a dozen Xena vids that I like.  I'm sure there were tons back in the day but they seem to be gone or at least beyond my ability/motivation to find them.  So I actually feel like I can make a contribution? Anyway, one of the cool consequences of my vid farr is that I'm finally learning how to use After Effects a teensy bit because my excitement for the vid is overpowering my laziness.

*Yes I am watching Farscape and one of the zillions of DW posts I've written in my head the past 6 weeks is how utterly I've fallen for Aeryn Sun, and about my predictable lack of response to John and the Aeryn/John pairing.

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. 

( 30 Questions )

Day 17: Titles: Do you try to use something different than the song? Why or why not?

I usually use the song title, unless it just doesn't work for me at all.  Most notably, the song (or should I say "piece"?  I don't get non-pop music.) used for "The Island" is called "Little Jonathan/The Wall".  Not a good vid title.  So I named it after a chapter in the book that the movie was adapted from (The Black Stallion).  Because my vid was basically documenting the events over the course of that chapter.

Day 18: Where do you get the most inspiration for your vids from?

The songs.  I know a lot of people will have a vid idea and look for a song, but sometimes I do the opposite: I have a song I really want to vid, and I look for an idea that'll work for it.  "A Thousand Miles" and "Everywhere" are both examples of this. 

The only time I've had an idea and looked for a song was for Festivids.  And even then I wasn't so much looking for a song for a specific idea as a song that generally seemed to fit the source and the recipient's wishes.  After I narrowed it down to a few songs I found I had pretty different ideas for all of them, and I chose partially based on which idea I liked best.

Most of the time, though, it's just listening to a song that gives me a vid bunny.  Usually for a source that I'm actively excited about.

Of course, watching something that's really beautifully or interestingly filmed will make me want to vid it.  But that doesn't lead to ideas, as my lack of Veronica Mars vids will attest. (Mars Investigations has got to be one of my favorite sets of all time, and I love love love the way they light it.)

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?

Ha!  I most certainly do not start vidding right away.  I'd say the turn-around between getting an idea and actually starting editing is at least 6 months on average.  Because I'm usually working on another vid, and/or other things are happening in my life, and then I have to acquire source and sometimes I have to re-watch and then there's the little question of motivation.  Again, Festivids is really the only exception.

( All 30 days of questions )

I swear, every vid I make I remember halfway through that I don't have to clip everything before I start editing.  And each time it is a goddamn revelation.  This time around, I'd been clipping for months, and I wasn't hating it, but I sure wasn't loving it.  Then I realized, hey, I have a lot of clips here.  I could throw those things on a timeline and have a lot more fun than I am right now.  Maybe even learn a thing or two about my new vidding software while I'm at it.

And it goes both ways -- editing gives me the motivation to keep clipping, but clipping gives me ideas for the vid.  It's a good back and forth.  I lose a little time by editing stuff that I end up replacing later once I discover better clips, but I bet I make that time up just by having more vid farr.  Plus it makes the experience overall more fun, which might have something to do with why I'm doing this in the first place?

So in the last two days I've filled up about 2/3 of the timeline for Sekrit Vid.  It's been a lot of fun!  I've been toying around with it a lot, moving between different parts of the vid, trying stuff out in one section till I get tired of it, tightening edits in another until I'm happy enough with it, for now anyway.  I'm still not sure what exactly I'm going to do with the other third, but hey, that's what clipping is for.  And that's my next task, as I've nearly exhausted the clips I have. 

And I'm doing it all in a spiffy new program -- Premiere Pro CS6, which came with my new laptop that came with my new job.  Mostly it's a lot like FCP 7, but prettier to look at.  I LOVE (really, really, a lot) that I can scrub through a preview of clips with the icon view -- it saves me soooo much time.  There's still a few kinks.  When I double click on a clip in the timeline to open it in the viewer (or whatever Premiere calls the monitor on the left), I keep expecting the viewer playhead to be on the same frame as the sequence playhead was.  I've found this is only the case maybe half the time?  I'm sure there's a reason for the discrepancy, but I don't know it yet.  It sounds like a small thing but it does slow down my fine-editing process -- I guess I need to adjust that part of how I work.  

I checked out Adobe's official "Classroom in a Book" for Premiere, and so I'm also learning some things I aught to know by now -- like what alpha channels and chroma keys are -- and I'm excited to use them.  Eventually.  Same with After Effects and all that.  Fancy titles and whatnot are exciting, but I bet I'll get the most use out of AE's de-noising effects, stuck as I am on shows that started in the 90s.

I listened to some of my current & future vidsongs on my run today, and had a couple of revelations:

1. My Angel WIP, which I'd nearly given up on because the song doesn't build and I was starting to feel like the vid doesn't go anywhere, is totally salvageable.  I just need to edit the song!  At 3.5 minutes it is too much song for what I'm trying to say, but at ~2 minutes it will work fine.  And now that I attended heresluck and nestra's audio editing panel, I'm more confident I can!  (I'd already edited the audio some to get it down to 3 1/2 minutes, but now I'm ready to get in there with a mf-ing chainsaw.  First chorus and second verse will likely not survive the Wrath of Fray.)

2. I worked out some point-of-view issues I'd been struggling with in visualizing a Xena vid that I hope to make but haven't started yet.  I knew I wanted multiple points of view, but I wasn't sure how to go about it.  But I listened to the song once and really focused on that aspect, and it became totally clear how to structure the POV, thanks in part to greensilver and sweetestdrain's "A Matter of Perspective" panel. (kass's panel notes.)  \o/

Now I just gotta make the damn things.  :/

(Also, I am posting this in part because of the discussion during joyo's panel on motivation.  I'm thinking maybe if I post about my works in progress I'll be more motivated to finish them?)

I finally figured out that, just because MPEG Streamclip doesn't want to open mkvs, doesn't mean I can't force it to.  So I'm spared the step where I use Handbrake to convert MKV to MP4 -- which I then clip into MOV.    Hooray!

Of course, the conversion is super slow, but I think that's just because the files are large, not because of the file type?  Well, anything that opposes my tendency to overclip is probably a good thing anyway.

So yeah, I'm vidding!

I'm all registered and paid up for Vividcon!  !!!   I'm thrilled!  I can't wait to meet so many of my favorite vidders, and attend panels, and dance at Club Vivid, and watch SOOOO many vids.  \o/

And yesterday I finished clipping for my Club Vivid vid!  I'd been clipping for, like, a month and a half.  I cannot wait to open up Final Cut and start laying down clips.  But first I need to work a bit more on organizing them.  My focus for this vid will be developing my skills at working with motion -- both internal and external -- so I want to at least do some level of categorizing clips along those lines.  I already have the basic thematic structure of the vid storyboarded as well as a few points in the vid where I know exactly what clip I want.  So most of the rest of the vid will be built around those parameters, with motion as a (probably the) main determinant of clip choice within that framework.

And finally, tightpresent closed for offers/requests last night, which means my assignment is coming soon!  Time to start ripping my TSCC DVDs.  Hooray!

My first vidding meme!  Because my first year vidding.

( My vids )
( The meme )