Lost Video Island

[ebizmybef74]

Hi I’m Liz (some of you know me but I still felt like introducing myself) and I’m a generally new vidder. If you look at my vids you’ll see that they’re not all that great (well nothing special, at least).

Anyways, I would really love to improve my videos so I was wondering if anybody could tell me how they prefer to “prep” for a video when an idea comes in their head. Maybe a thread has already been posted like this similar to this one. I just have trouble getting ideas from my head into a video. It seems like sometimes my thoughts in my head don’t really get expressed in the making of the video.

Ahhh I’m probably making no sense and people are wondering why I am wasting web space (is that the word I’m thinking of?) on this. But if there is at least one soul out there who understands what I’m saying, I would grately appreciate any advice!

Thanks
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[Aislynn]

Hellooooo Liz! Not really stalking you...much. You know how I love to answer questions like this but I'll try not to make this as hugomondo a post as I could.

Generally I hear a song and get a "spark" of an idea (though occasionally I'll think of an idea then go shopping for a song but that's much more rare in my case ). I almost always go looking for a copy of the lyrics so that I can start getting an idea of what I'll be trying to visually interpret. This gives me something I can really look at and see if there are repetitive choruses or an impossible-to-vid verse or something that I want to make sure to cut out.

I usually have one or two scenes I know I'm going to want to use for certain lyrics by this point, so I try to start building from there. I always put the song on my Walkman cassette player (I'm so retro... ) and listen to it over and over again, just absorbing the feel, noting the distinctive music patterns or sounds and trying to figure out what those sounds "look" like to me and how I'm going to visually interpret them.

Meanwhile, I start thinking about two major things: the story and the gimmick. I've always found that if I have a basic story that I want to cover in a vid, it makes it easier to chose the clips as I go along. I try to load the best clips towards the end of the vid (and I also try to figure out what my final shot is going to be ahead of time if I can so that I don't use it too early in the vid then have to try to pull it out and replace it -- a much easier task in Vegas than in WMM but it's still a good practice no matter what editing program you're using, I'd think... ).

The gimmick can be many things but usually has to do with trying to pick what sort of effects I'm going to use so that they have a purpose and support the story. All of my vids have a gimmick: "Vertigo" has the polar bear animations, "How Soon Is Now" has the lightning effect, "Wanted Dead or Alive" has the western theme, etc. You don't have to do animations or anything like that to have a gimmick, IMO. "Paint It Black's" gimmick is the use of WMM's threshold effect to emphasize certain lyrics.

Now, I have no idea how anybody else does this process, but that's what I go through as I'm starting a vid. Which is probably why it takes me a thousand and one years to do a vid! I try to assign meaning to every clip choice when I can and that can make you completely nutty.

Anyway, I don't know that any of this is helpful to anybody who doesn't share my completely crazy creative thought processes... But there you have it, just in case it helps!

[cylune]

Hi Liz!

If you're relatively new to vidding, then what does that make me?? I'll always be grateful to you for being the first one to ever comment on my first vid! And I still consider Sayid singing 'Arabian Nights' the funniest thing I ever seen in a vid.

Now how do I prep for a vid... I plan. I plan every single second of the vid. I put the lyrics in a word document, then in between the lyrics I insert the musical part (e.g. 30 seconds intro/ 20 seconds guitar solo / impossible-ending-that-just-doesn't-end-and-that-I have-to-cut-because-it's-going-to-get-really-boring).

Then I listen to the song over and over again... scenes from the show just comes naturally after a while.

When I've listen to the song enough times, I write down the clips I want to include in the vid for each lyrics/musical part. Sometimes the final product ends up being totally different than what I had planned (like Two Worlds) but most of the time it's as I had envisioned (like Precious).

Hope it helps!

*Listening to Phil Collins' Against all Odds again* gonna start with the planning soon...
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[ebizmybef74]

Thank you Aislynn so much for your quick response! (and trust me, no post is too big for Aislynn) I understood everything you were saying and I can't wait to try out your techniques to see if they help me, which i'm sure that they will) Thanks again!

Cylune, I really liked your idea of putting the lyrics in a word document so thanks for the advice! (I also loved your "Losing my Religion" Vid...I feel so special being the first person to comment on your first vid! )

Thanks again guys, you have no idea how much this has helped me!
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[xXAngelicEvilXx]

I'm a newb too...working on my fourth video. My videos have been alright so far, but it's like Aislynn said, my ideas usually come from hearing a song and then I start thinking "hey...this would actually work!" I try not to go only for lyrics, but for sound too. I made a mess up on my last vid, because the vid should've gone more to a slow tempo then the fast-paced one I had. Anywho, I'm still taking small steps and since Sony Vegas is still relatively new to me, each time I make a new vid, I experiment with a couple or a few new effects or transitions each time, that way I'll slowly familiarize myself with the program. So what I would have to say for good vidding

1) Know what you want and go for it

2) Know your movie editing program. If I had known more about mine, my vids probably would've been a bit better, but I'm willing to sacrifice that so I don't overwhelm myself because Sony Vegas seems to be a bit complex

3) Think thoroughly about what you want to do with the vid and how you want to interpret the vid with the song you've chosen

P.S. If you preview it and you start feeling goosebumps..then you know it's an excellent vid.