Vidding rambles - Just because

[starrylizard]

I'm putting this here, so as to not spam permetaform's LJ with a very long comment. Ignore it if you like :p


I recently made my very first vid, thus making fist step in the transition from non-vidder to vidder-newbie. I basically made the SGA Ghostbusters vid for fun (because the idea for it was lodged in my brain long before I had any idea how to make it) and in order to learn how to use Windows Movie Maker. Thankyou to the people who pointed out a few newbie mistakes that I made, in particular the extra frames I left in and a few things that apparently don't work as well as I thought they might. Your feedback was appreciated and anyone else who wants to jump in and give me more, please do. (Keep in mind that I am a beginner, but one with a very thick skin... so have-at-it! ...constructively! *grin*)

The thing that bothers me most about my own little newbie vid and often about other people's vids too, is that the song is rather long and repetitive, to the point that I thought about cutting it down. I definitely think that toward the end of the vid I have some scenes that don't fit too well with the music, but as I was saying, I only made it for fun and learning purposes, so I'm wasn't too fussed and overall thought that it worked fairly well for the crack!idea that it was.

Which brings me to my point... (yes there is one...sort of. *grin*) The reason I was actually determined to keep the whole song with the vid, was that as a person who is almost a non-vidder, I often keep my favourite vids in WMP on my computer and just listen to the song. Then when I'm bored and in between tasks at my computer, I might switch over and happily watch the vid that goes along with the song. When I download a vid, with a short piece of music, I may marvel at the vidding excellence, but the likelihood of me watching it again is fairly small...unless it's absolutely mind-blowing in some way, or I decide to show it to a friend.

Anyway, I was curious as to whether other people do the same thing as me. I've only recently begun to download vids outside of the SGA fandom, but within it, I've found there are many vids that manage the feat of keeping my interest for the whole song, or at least most of it... and many that don't.

Incidentally, I also recently stumbled on newkidfan's awesome SGA promo vids and I finally understand the emphatic attachment that some people seem to have to short vids. They really can have a much higher impact/wow factor, and when I try to look at things from a vidding perspective, I think I'd rather try some short pieces.

As someone who downlaods and watches lots of vids, there is really only one thing that will make me discard a vid out of hand and that's bad sound quality. I hear people moan about picture quality, and sure if you have high quality clips to work with, then by all means use them; it looks far better and I will download the larger version if there's a choice, but if a person can't even be bothered to buy, copy or download a reasonable MP3 file of the song that they are using...well that just annoys me to all hell and makes the vid look cheap and nasty no matter what.

So there's my slightly odd and most likely completely unnecessary spiel about a subject I know little about, and I choose to end it...NOW!

So, any comments? *smirk*


Oh and check out the new vidder_weekly, if you're into vidding.

Comments

[sakuracorr.livejournal.com]

I only keep really good vids, and I don't in general care one way or the other about song length, though there are very definitely vids that get too long, and I find myself not even watching at the end.

I haven't ever ran into bad sound quality myself.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I thought it might just be a personal oddity of mine and maybe it is. I have a great nack for procrastination and I think my vid-hoarding may be all part of it. :p I do love having full songs with good vids to them though. Like I said, smaller, but really good are fine too, but they have to be really good and to the point, or why cut the song short or make the vid at all. hehe!

[permetaform]

I know what you mean about keeping vids for their songs, sometimes I would just stuff all my fave vids into winamp and play it without the video. The thing is tho, if your vid idea don't fit the full length of the song (or the song is 8 minutes long, which has happened to me before), it would be a stronger vid in general if the song was trimmed.

But for instance, for Welcome Home there was NO WAY I was gonna trim that song, because I was vidding it *for* the song. But for Soy - The *Other* White Meat the idea itself was fairly straightforward and I cut the song down by half.

It all depends on whether you're more vidding the song for the song *itself* or whether you're more vidding a story *using* a song; all vids are a combination of both reasons I think, but sometimes it more one reason than the other.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Oooh I loved your welcome home vid. :D

It all depends on whether you're more vidding the song for the song *itself* or whether you're more vidding a story *using* a song; all vids are a combination of both reasons I think, but sometimes it more one reason than the other.
Yeah I can see that. Just never really thought about it before. I find it facinating. I certainly wouldn't choose an 8min song to vid in full in the first place though. :D

Also I was thinking of making an SGA Kavanagh-centric vid (mental I know...it's a sickness with me), but that would have to be pretty short, due to the limited number of clips, so there are many reasons to cut a song down when you think about it.

Do you know if there is any meta in your big list on the best way to cut a song...not the technical how to use the program, but more where in a song is a good place to cut it, so that it's not totally obvious that you did so? I would assume that you'd do it after the chorus and tack on the songs fade-out perhaps... Just wondering, because that would be another reason why a newbie like me would be reluctant to shorten a song.

[permetaform]

Do you know if there is any meta in your big list on the best way to cut a song...not the technical how to use the program, but more where in a song is a good place to cut it, so that it's not totally obvious that you did so? I would assume that you'd do it after the chorus and tack on the songs fade-out perhaps... Just wondering, because that would be another reason why a newbie like me would be reluctant to shorten a song.

ohhh, y'know, I'm not sure there is.

General rules of thumb I use for song editing:
1) avoid breaking up transitions: A transition in a song is hard to reproduce, so cut before or after it
2) try to maintain the number of beats in a measure: A measure will feel "off" if it doesn't equal the number of beats in other measures (ie. cut exactly in the middle of a measure/verse/chorus for best effect)
3) 1 frame makes a *difference* like whoa in audio editing, make sure your cuts on the beat are *clean*
4) if the transition between two pieces of music you stuck together doesn't work, sometimes it's fixed by a blend. Play with audio transitions or audio keyframes.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Yup, if and when I try this, there will most likely be questions floating your way.