lierdumoa | mmmm...vidding

So after a lovely day of vidwatching yesterday, I got the ~~worst~~ ~~best~~ worst vidbunny ever. Someone recommended to me

laurashapiro's Rook vid, which is a really beautiful X-Files vid, and I'd just heard Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" earlier in the day and I thought -- hey, some of those visual effects remind me of the bopping noises at the beginning of "Such Great Heights."

Hmmm, I wonder what kind of X-Files vid that song would make.

a;sdlfkjOMFGTHECHORUS

"They will see us waving from such great
heights, "Come down now," they'll say.
But everything looks perfect from far away,
"Come down now," but we'll stay..."

aa;wleknOMFGALIENSPOV

AND "THEY" IS MOULDER

::dies horrible death of laughing too hard::

Yet another vidbunny I came up with on the toilet. Not that I'd actually vid this. I lack the time or access to source. Eh, I suppose one would have to know the song to get the full hilarity of this situation, and have some fair knowledge of the show. You had to be there? I guess.

Oh yeah -- also, like, two very interesting vidding discussions cropped up in the entry of my last post and in

heres_luck's LJ. About process and perceptions of vidders.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: street noises

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

piper47.livejournal.com

I can't imagine trying to vid for a show you didn't watch. Like I've had ideas for Jossverse, but I've seen all of Buffy and most of Angel. I dunno... maybe it's just me, but I'd find it hard to vid something I wasn't invested in.

From:

lierdumoa.livejournal.com

I'd find it hard to vid something I wasn't invested in.

But just because I'm not invested in the fandom doesn't mean I'm not deeply invested in the vid. Editing is it's own artform. It's not simply the sum of its parts.

For example, when I made my Oz vid, to "Pretty When You Cry" by VAST, my fandom was, in effect, VAST. I was obsessed with VAST. And while most people look at my vid and see music accentuating images, I look at my vid and see images accentuating the music.

In fact, in my experience, it's easier vidding a fandom you have no emotional attachment to with music you love. Because then you can revel in your love of the music and not be filled with horrible angsty pain over the subject matter. And not be crying the whole time at your characters starcrossed love or the fact that they cancelled your show just when it was getting good.

Sometimes it's not even the music. Sometimes it's just the idea. If you get a really great idea you want to show everyone how great it is, and it doesn't matter if the music is fabulous or the source is riveting so long as the music and source are fabulous and riveting together.

From:

piper47.livejournal.com

I guess it's just a difference of opinion, but where I understand your point about being investing in your music, I don't understand how that works when you vid something you either don't care about or know nothing about.

For example, I know *nothing* about the X-files. I've seen about six or seven episodes, but for the most part I know no idea what happened in the nine seasons of that show. I couldn't vid it, I wouldn't even be qualified. I just don't know the characters. And while I might have deep musical connections to my favorite bands, just because one of their songs might work for TXF, I wouldn't vid it. I'd never be able to get the characterization right, or tell the story the way it needs to be told.

I just find it hard to vid/collage/write for a show you don't watch or know anything about, it seems impossible. Or if not impossible, that it'll just never be as great as it could be if you actually know who the characters are.

This in know way reflects your vids... I don't know much about your style or outcome of the vids themselves, but I'm just perplexed by this idea. I just can't imagine how something would turn out if you vidded a show you didn't really know about.

From:

absolutedestiny.livejournal.com

Not every video has to be a deeply felt expression of the characters contained in the source. Some videos are really just about the footage, its movement, its design - it's just a matter of knowing what your motivation for vidding is. If vidding is another form of fanfiction, then that's fine, but there's other types of vidding too.

From:

piper47.livejournal.com

No no, I get that there are different types of vidding. It's all about what you are vidding and how. You'd have to do some research at least though. No one blindly goes into a vid and that was kind of the point I was making. You'd at least have to know something about the show/movie or know someone who does so at least you have a better idea of what it is you are vidding.

From:

lierdumoa.livejournal.com

Allow me to explain to you how I made my Oz vid.

1) I heard the song. I knew it was about an incredibly angsty, abusive relationship.

2) I had heard that the tv show Oz featured an incredibly angsty, abusive relationship.

3) I went on

crack_van and read the show summary to make sure it fit with my idea. It did.

4) I read episode summaries and skimmed through episode transcripts to see which episodes I would need to make my vid work.

5) I downloaded a bunch of episodes I thought were relevant to my vid, and I watched them for scenes I could use.

6) I made my vid.

Thanks to my very fast internet connection at the time, I managed to go through this entire process in about two weeks. I didn't know much about the fandom when I got the idea for the vid, but I learned as I went. Generally, when I vid, I go with my instincts. If I have a general sense of a character/relationship/whatever and I suspect that a song fits with that subject, chances are, it does.

I'm not sure how you got the impression that I made my vid without doing any research. I said that I made the vid without being in the fandom. Certainly it is possible to understand the basics of a character dynamic without actually being part of the online community devoted to it.

Now, I think I can speak with authority in this matter. I've made vids where I was deeply emotionally attached and intimately acquainted with the source material, as well as vids where I was very much detached, and only fairly familiar with the source. I think my Oz vid is one of my best. It was the second vid I ever made, but I trusted my instincts in making it, and the vid was extremely well recieved by the Oz fandom. It's still my most downloaded vid.

From:

lierdumoa.livejournal.com

To me, a vidbunny is a very rudimentary concept. A vidbunny is not a vid. It is simply an idea of a vid. I can get an idea for a fandom I'm not in. Of course, if I choose to make a vid out of that idea, I will do the necessary research so that my subject matter is not misrepresented, but I'm not going to dismiss what could turn out to be a very good idea because I'm not sure about it. Rather, I will learn what I need to know so that I can become sure about it.

It is my belief that the average fan knows far more about a show than she actually needs to know to make a vid. I can get a vidbunny based on a very small amount of knowledge. I will learn more as I go along. I just need to have confidence that learning more will not invalidate what I have already learned -- that my instincts about a character will be confirmed. If my instincts turn out to be wrong, I'll halt vid production and the vid won't be made.

There are a few things about this conversation that are troubling me. First of all, that you are asking me about my vidding process in this post, rather than the post I made about vidding process. I am assuming you wished to have this conversation privately, but I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps you thought your comment was more relevant to this post because it was about a vidbunny for a fandom I'm not in. I hope you realize I meant this entire post purely in jest, and did not expect it to offend anyone. Secondly, saying that you would not consider yourself qualified to vid a show you knew little about seemed to imply that I am unqualified to vid for fandoms I am not in. Contending that you'd "never be able to get the characterization right, or tell the story the way it needs to be told" seemed to imply that I, in attempting to vid fandoms I am not in, am misrepresenting and insulting the characters.

You seem to be using passive agression to put me on the defensive. The only explanation I can think of for this is that I have somehow mistakenly said something to put you on the defensive. I never meant for any of my rambling about vidding process to be a value judgement on anyone else's vidding process.

From:

piper47.livejournal.com

This wasn't meant to be an attack and I'm sorry if it came out that way. I come from a fandom of *extremely* terrible vidders. So naturally, it was hard for me to understand how someone could vid for a show without really watching it or being involved in it, since in my fandom, people who watched the show for three years can't vid. That was the only point I made... and I was unsure if you were planning on researching it or not... that's why I was confused and was trying to wrap my mind around how someone could vid if they weren't invested or didn't know anything about what it was that they were vidding.

There are always exceptions and with the right research yeah it could be possible. The idea to me is still kind of foreign to me because I just have bad past fandom experience. So I really wasn't attacking you... it was just a general statement about vidding without knowing the show.

So... truce? ;)