Just a quick note about vids (since I've watched two hours' worth of Supernatural vids tonight)

[kate]

One of the things I've noticed about a lot of the vids I've been watching is that the songs are just Too. Damn. Long. There are a lot that start out strong but then either end up losing coherency in the middle or repeating clips over and over. Seriously, if you only have a couple minutes' worth of material, why are you choosing a song that's four and a half minutes long? Cut out the bridge if it doesn't fit. Do you really need twelve choruses? No, of course not! I find it funny that a lot of vidders (and this is just youtube, I don't believe this is anywhere near the best and the brightest of fandom, Festivids has shown me quite clearly that there are vidders who do this sort of thing, and do it well) don't think to cut the song up the way they cut clips up. You have to have an ear to do it, because you can't just mash two parts of a song together unless they work harmonically (or unless you're looking for a jump cut, which, musically is a little weird, but I'd love to see someone make work), but I imagine that most vidders have a pretty good ear, it's part of the job to make the clips and the music work together.

ETA: This wasn't really me bemoaning the entire vidding community, though I grant you it sounds like it (it was 2:30am, please cut me a teenie bit of slack). ESPECIALLY since I don't do this. I don't generally criticize (another reason this post is even here - I would never have posted this if I had been sober non-sleep-deprived). I certainly don't critique things I don't do, which, at least for now, and likely for a long time yet, is all vidders ever - even the people who made the vids I don't particularly like are obviously waaaaaaaay ahead of me, as I've never even tried it. This was me making an obvservation about vids that I was watching on one particular medium (one I think is maybe similar to FF.net in some ways? as it seems that the vids are generally of a lower quality than those of, for example, Festivids, a lot of which were hosted on vimeo and other sites (my vimeo experiences in general have been quite lovely!)). And busaikko points out below that editing music is harder than I think (which is not a surprise to me, not at all), and that a lot of folks don't have the time or resources to be able to do it effectively. If I figure out how to do it, I am going to make a giant meta post on how to edit music, because I want people to be able to do this so they can tell the stories they want to tell and aren't constrained by their resources. /ETA

I pretty much intend to edit my songs, probably fairly early on in the process and maybe some later, if there's clip trouble. I have a feeling I will be editing the shit out of the music a lot to accommodate my ideas (I tend to have ideas for parts of songs, with other parts of those same songs that are completely inappropriate for the concept).

So anyway - rec me some vids? I'm stuck on Supernatural at the moment, so of course I'd love some truly amazing stuff there (any pairing or RPF (also any pairing) or gen of either), but I won't turn down any suggestions for amazing vids. I only have a couple that come to mind, but My Brilliant Idea by lim (SGA, McShep) is my favorite to date. Plus lots of multi-fandom things by thingswithwings because xie's amazing. Also, I just recced cupidsbow's Red Right Hand, Dean/Castiel.

Comments

[kate]

<3333 Thank you! :D :D :D

Not a vid person? Neither is soleta, though I'm not sure why, she's very visual. Maybe it's the mashup of music and scenes? Comic books are like that for me, the art/writing mashup just doesn't work for me.

And your Dean/Castiel rec is the reason for this post! I had it open in a tab and watched it, I dunno, a dozen times or so before I started clicking on the links on the side, and went through a gigantic Supernatural vid-fest. That's when I realized that soooooooooooo many of the vids use a really limited set of clips. I feel like I could write down the top twenty soulful looks between Dean and Cas and 90% of the vids would have them. It makes it difficult to tell another story, as they're all using the same material. (Obvs, my sampling is not a true sampling and is way skewed, etc.etc.etc.)

[clavally]

I am extremely picky about songs, which is funny because 2 of those vids I recc'd to you, the SPN and the SGA, I'd never heard the songs before, but after I saw the vids they become favorites for awhile. The song really has to resonate with the visuals for me. And maybe part of it is because there are only so many clips they can use? Once I see them in one vid that I like, it feels wrong to see them in another...

[kate]

Ah, yeah, I totally feel you. If the music doesn't work for me, the vid doesn't work for me, no matter how masterful. I like lots of music so that part's easy, but matching the music to the canon and vice versa is what really makes a vid for me.

That's interesting; I think after a certain point last night I really became tired of all the S4-7 Dean/Cas clips because they were just all the same. And I know there's not an infinite amount of Dean and Cas in the world and some of their moments are just really awesome and useful, but I wish there was more variety. Also the ability to completely cut Sam out of some of the vids was remarkable to me; he's such an integral part of the show (and in my mind, even the Dean/Cas relationship) that I'm just sort of stunned.