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

[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!