Signal Boost: A bit of vidding meta -- cutting and synching

[thenewbuzwuzz]

I went on a Fanlore binge, originally because was wondering if "vidlet" is a term that people tend to use, or if it's just me. I suppose kids these days call short fanvids "edits", but I hate that with a passion, because it seems so ambiguous. And maybe most folks would just call them vids even if they're less than a minute, but the amount of effort is dramatically different than for a full song video, so it just makes sense to me: fic - ficlet, vid - vidlet. Anyway, I dove into Fanlore and ended up at this only tangentially related Dreamwidth post by marnanightingale. It's about stuff that I was SORT OF already doing, some of the time, when I vid. Makes me want to watch some vids now and see if people really time clip transitions to the beat more than to lyrics. Also makes me want to take notes for future vidding. :)

marnanightingale posted: A bit of vidding meta -- cutting and synching

See, I used to do lights for live music acts, and while you won't necessarily learn anything about music doing that, the one thing that you absolutely must learn is how to find the beat of a song within the first few bars and hang onto it for dear life through any number of distractions; the singer can forget a verse, the guitarist can fall over drunk, the drummer can break a stick, somebody can pour cold beer down your back, half of your grid can short out, but you MUST stay on that beat until the end of the song.

And you must be able to take that beat and transform it into a light show that works, on the fly, using whatever lights you've got; it needs to come into your brain as music and come out your fingers as a thing of visual beauty. Ok, as a visual thing that does not suck.

When I started vidding, I think that is the one thing that saw me through any amount of technical ignorance, got me past any number of mistakes, and generally allowed me to pull off a vid I'm still not ashamed of on my first try; I can keep the beat, and I was already predisposed to think of a clip as a collection of variously coloured moving lights, with informational content.

So for what it's worth and with much disclaiming, here is

Ye Olde Lighting Tech's Guide To Cutting And Synching Footage

Comments

[hannah]

Oh, absolutely they do! It was how pretty much everyone in fandom made vids for a long time.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Fair, going with the beat does seem like a good idea in general. I just haven't paid that kind of attention to it -- it's been more of an afterthought to me.

(also, all the good news I have for you about that thing I'm supposed to be making for you is that I just got my other things out of the way and I'm prepared to focus on it)

[tei]

This is intriguing to me, from a standpoint of knowing nothing at all about vidding- has the style changed, and people make them differently now?

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Good question! I'm curious too. What I've noticed myself is that some vidders in recent years like to use dialogue a lot, keeping the audio of the original clips -- which I suppose de-emphasizes the music, and sometimes they end up using comparatively long clips to get through the whole line of dialogue.

There are also these short "edits", like this or this, which I think might be somehow connected to Instagram? I feel like some (but not all!) of those tend to have less of a strong concept, apart from 'this ship/character/show is cool, so here are some glamorous shots of them'. But to be fair, I haven't paid enough attention to this format to really get how it works.

[tei]

Ah dialogue! Haha I don’t watch a ton of vids, so I’ve only seen that in the vids of one friend and I assumed that was just their personal style 😂

[thenewbuzwuzz]

It does seem to be a broader trend. Actually, yourlibrarian pointed it out to me one time when I was vent posting about a Spuffy vid whose audio went something like this:
*soothing country music*
Buffy: Ask me again why I could never love you!
*soothing country music*

[hannah]

Yes. So very much yes.

[yourlibrarian]

I've absolutely seen "vidlet" used and agree about "edits." My understanding of edits, even if used only in a video sense, is that it was a way of cutting together movies or TVs to isolate a particular character or storyline.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

"it was a way of cutting together movies or TVs to isolate a particular character or storyline"
Interesting! :)) You mean like a supercut?

[yourlibrarian]

Haha, maybe?

[double_dutchess]

That was an interesting read, thank you for digging that up! I'm pretty sure you already know I'm a very lyrics-oriented vidder myself, so I do tend to cut on new lines, and not on beats. But of course not doing one clip per line, because that would get really slow and boring. And I do try to take the beats into account at least at little bit, because if you totally disregard them it's not going to look right. But mostly it's limited for me to synching the most obvious movements to the most obvious beats, and just doing whatever the rest of the time. I'm feeling very unsystematic now!

Oh and yeah, I think vidlet is absolutely an accepted term to use for short vids. Agreed about "edits" by the way, this is not a word I would associate with vids myself. It seems more of an instagram term to me (but of course I'm totally behind the times when it comes to vidding trends and terminology ;-)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

"And I do try to take the beats into account at least at little bit, because if you totally disregard them it's not going to look right. But mostly it's limited for me to synching the most obvious movements to the most obvious beats, and just doing whatever the rest of the time."
See, that's exactly how I roll! Wonder where I get that from. <3 Mixing it up seems like a reasonable approach to me - taking the beat into account, but not trying to have it rule everything. I don't know. I'm new to this whole thing.

I don't know if I've actually seen many vids that follow the beat so consistently. Not sure I'd notice. That "Glitter & Gold" Marvel thing is cut on the beat, and that must be part of what makes it so satisfying to watch. Maybe it depends on the song and the vid whether it needs to be that rhythmical? But I do think I want to try this out for my next foray into vidding.

[double_dutchess]

Maybe it depends on the song and the vid whether it needs to be that rhythmical?

Yes, I would say so. Glitter & Gold has a clear and strong beat so ignoring it would really not look right, but for slower songs with a less noticeable beat I think it's less crucial to cut to the beat (though no doubt it will make the vid look better if you do it).

Do you already have something in mind for your next foray? I think it's great that you are starting out to do your own vids!

[thenewbuzwuzz]

I have one verse of a song and one whole song in mind for Spuffy. And then there's our old project that's on hiatus, of course, for some future time. :)

Thank you! I'm having fun.

[double_dutchess]

I have one verse of a song and one whole song in mind for Spuffy.

Looking forward to those!

And then there's our old project that's on hiatus, of course, for some future time. :)

Erm, yes... I definitely want to get back to that one, but not in the very near future, I'm afraid. I really have to work on my FTH project now, which I'm *really* behind on -- and TBH not confident I will be able to finish it before the deadline :(

[thenewbuzwuzz]

"not in the very near future"
Oh, absolutely! I still have two FTH projects myself. Best of luck with yours!