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#Post#: 1750--------------------------------------------------
Video Making 101
DIR By: IrisRainbow
Date: December 7, 2010, 1:50 pm
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Here's a guide I found, that I thought might be of some use to
someone who would like to get more tips on making a neat video.
[center]Vidding 101:
A Beginner’s Guide to Making a Video
Tutorial by AlcoholicPixie
Welcome, students, to Vidding 101! I’m Kayla, your Workshop
Leader, and in this class we’ll be covering the basic principles
of vidding.
[size=18pt]So you wanna make a video, huh?
Well, making a video isn’t as easy as it looks. First of all,
you have to think of an idea, and then find a song. Or you might
hear a song, and it’ll just give you the idea. The process is
different for everybody. But your song and idea have to fit
together, and trying to find the right combination can be harder
than you might think.
Let’s say you’re ready to make a video. What do you do next?
Well, let’s start with talking through some things to think
about during the process of beginning your video.
Song Choice & Originality
Music is a vidder’s best friend. I cannot stress that enough.
Try listening to the lyrics of a song and imagining clips with
the lyrics. Do those clips you’re imagining fit the lyrics? Do
they fit your idea? What if you have a song, but only the bare
bones of an idea? Listen to the lyrics of the song: do they tell
a story? Do they develop? Does the song progress in a way that
you could match using clips? Choose a song that suits your idea
and the message you are trying to put across.
Your music choice can make or break your video. Try to steer
clear of choosing a song just because you like it, or with
really obvious lyrics. That’s easy—why not challenge yourself?
Try and find a song by a band you don’t really listen to, or
maybe from a different genre of music than you normally prefer.
Make up lyrics you think would fit your video, type them into
Google and see what you come up with.
No matter the song you choose, take into consideration how you
will make your video fresh and original—repeating what others
have created is boring! Does your song give you a way to examine
an aspect of your chosen subject in a way that few people have
before? Are there some elements in the song you want to utilise
for clip changes, or effects? We’ll get to that later, but it’s
something you could already be thinking about
Clip Length & Relevance
Let’s face it—we’re all human, and as a general rule, humans
have short attention spans. Regardless of how good your
characters look in lingering shots or when they’re having
conversations with other characters, few people will have the
patience to watch a video that uses clips that are 10 seconds
long, especially if those clips have no real relevance to the
song/music. If you’re going to do that, your viewers might as
well watch an episode of the show on mute while listening to
their iPods.
As a general rule of thumb, try not to let your clips run longer
than four or five seconds, if you can help it. Unless you’re
using an action sequence with a lot of quick cuts (and sometimes
even then), after this amount of time clips can lose their
relevance and/or become a little boring. Though your video is
your vision, your job is also, to a certain degree, to keep your
viewer engaged.
The clips you use need to be relevant to your song and your
idea. You shouldn’t feel the need to exactly match clips and
lyrics together—for instance, if a line in the song mentions a
tree, you don’t necessarily need to use a random shot of a tree
(unless, of course, it’s relevant to your video). Try to look at
the deeper meanings of lyrics, and use clips that match—but be
careful not to stray from your overall idea. Sounds difficult,
right? You’ll develop that knack of looking at both the smaller
and bigger pictures at once, and until then, have fun, and never
be afraid to try using a slightly abstract clip. If you think it
fits, chances are that others will see that, too
Editing, Effects & Aesthetics
Of course, finding a great song and using relevant clips to tell
your story is only the beginning. The next step is editing
everything together. The best method of editing all depends on
your song, and personally, I like to listen to a song on repeat
before even opening up my editing program. Spend time getting to
know your song, get a feel for it and really listen to the peaks
and troughs. Listen for sections where it speeds up or slows
down, gets happier or sadder, gets quieter or more powerful,
because these changes in the music should dictate how you edit
your clips together. Of course, if the music slows down that
doesn’t necessarily mean your editing should slow down—on the
contrary, if you can strike a balance between a slower song and
faster editing, you’re already onto something special. My point
is, take time to learn the pacing and dynamic of your song, and
it’ll tell you what your editing should be like.
All this isn’t to say that your editing should just be made of
cuts and fades. Effects can add to your video in a way that a
simple cut or fades sometimes just cannot. When it comes to
transitions and effects, sometimes less is more, sometimes more
is great! It all depends on the song you’re using. Your editing
and use of effects should match the pace of your song—if it’s a
slow song, you might want to use minimal effects, focusing on
your story and the mood/feel of the clips themselves. For songs
with a faster pace, have fun with all of the different effects
around! And when it comes to beat use, try not to worry about
hitting every beat—unless you’re trying to create a psychedelic
mood, of course We’ll be covering beat use and movement in a
later class, so I won’t say too much here
The main, overarching point of this section is that you
shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. Vidding is a creative
pastime, and it’s a way of expressing yourself—never be afraid
to branch out! What you’re making is a vision all your own, and
if you focus on using clips and effects to your advantage—but
not going over the top—then you’ll end up with something
great![/center]
#Post#: 1751--------------------------------------------------
Video Making 101: Adding Depth and Emotion
DIR By: IrisRainbow
Date: December 7, 2010, 1:56 pm
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[center]Speak To Me: Narrative and Emotional Depth
Tutorial by coastal5
So you’ve got a song and an idea, what now? How do you bring
alive that vision you see inside your head, to make sure you
fulfil it’s storytelling and emotional potential?
_________
Simply put, every category of video whether an AU, character
study or even a montage, requires some form of narrative
structure and to get the most out of your narrative you need
emotional influence — what good is a story if it doesn’t make
people feel something, right?!
Therefore, the two of these: narrative and emotion, go hand in
hand. Neither will have total impact without the other.
Ideally, before you begin, you should ask yourself the Who?
What? When? Where? Why? and How? of your story/theme. The
answers will help form your narrative arc and are the
foundations upon which to create your video.
Telling a story, exploring an aspect of the show or it’s
characters and conveying/adding emotional depth are multifaceted
endeavours that jointly rely on the following vidding elements,
key factors which Kayla touched upon in her Vidding 101 tutorial
and which I will now discuss in depth.
Which brings us to our first topic:
What is a narrative, and how to maintain it
The narrative is the telling of the story or idea, the golden
rule of which is to have a beginning, middle and end.
An AU, being a fictional story, relies heavily upon this whereas
a montage, perhaps, is more lenient (expressing, often, only a
theme) but nonetheless reliant on a basic structure, the
composition of which will help you to carry your narrative
throughout the video. Each stage calls for specific elements
that are designed to formulate, express and resolve your
story/theme, captivating your viewer as you take them on a
journey.
It is often told from a point of view (POV), if not one of the
characters, then yours — how it is you relate to the subject
matter.
Maintaining your narrative is all about ensuring that it’s both
measured and sustained throughout the length of the video, as
well as kept in focus. You want to gradually build upon your
story/theme, deepening the viewer’s interest as you go along;
you also want to avoid unnecessary tangents or switching
perspectives (unless intentional) that derail the main focus,
thus confusing the viewer.
The Beginning
Your beginning is crucial; typically it sets the stage for
everything that follows — the Who? What? When? Where? Why? and
How? Generally you are introducing your viewers to whom or what
the story/theme revolves around and you are establishing a
premise, as well as emotion.
Your aim here is to draw in and/or “hook” people, you want to
capture their attention so they’ll stay watching to find out
what happens.
Eg. In From The Ashes and Shades of Grey (an AU and character
study respectively), you’ll notice that I began each one with a
“hook”. In From The Ashes it was the car accident that becomes
the basis for Dean’s coma, thus his memory loss, culminating in
his journey to re-evaluate his life. In Shades of Grey it was
Bela’s past, the instigation for my study on why she became the
person she was.
Both these hooks are aspects of interest and play a role in the
foundations of the story I proceed to convey.
Dialogue is also another direct and useful tool in capturing
attention and signalling the intent of your story/theme, eg/ Why
Save Me. By opening with that specific dialogue from 1x12, I’m
communicating to the viewer that the theme will revolve around
faith, specifically Dean’s.
The middle
The core of your video is the development of the Who? What?
When? Where? Why? and How? Now is the time to provide the
answers to those questions: the details and explanations
(exposition), strengthening your focus on characters and
characterisation, elaborating on your premise.
To progress your story/theme you need to peel away the layers of
it and expose what’s beneath the surface.
Eg/ From The Ashes — the questions I asked myself were: what are
the repercussions of Dean’s accident? What had happened to him
in his past? Who else is affected, and how?
By answering these questions I began to construct a past and
present for Dean, a past that included the death of John, Mary
and Sam, as well as a more recent and progressively neglectful
one with Lisa and Ben 2:26-39, 4:02-04; neglectful, because Dean
is struggling with survivor’s guilt and grief 0:40-47, 1:19-25,
1:51-2:12, 3:24-39. This in turn is exacerbated by the accident
(having to relive his losses) whilst dealing with his coma
imaginings 0:18-22, 0:37-39, 1:38-40 etc, which are reiterated
throughout the video in conjunction with the attempts to save
Dean’s life.
As your layering expands your story, it shouldn’t detract from
it. Everything should remain relevant to your central idea.
The end
This is the climax of your narrative; you need to express some
type of outcome or reaction to everything that’s gone before.
Eg/ From The Ashes — having survived his accident, the
culmination of Dean’s journey is that he re-evaluates his life
and he learns to let go of the past 4:20-51.
In some instances there may be a natural end, eg/ Shades of
Grey, by way of Bela’s death.
Your viewer should, at this point, have understood a coherent
story/theme.
Endeavour to finish strongly, you don’t want to negate good work
by letting your story fizzle out right at the end. Make your
ending be an exclamation mark rather than just a full stop.
To successfully carry your narrative throughout the video there
needs to be a cohesiveness between the aforementioned structure
and your song and clip choice. It is through the latter two that
you’ll be able to emphasise and add emotional depth.
The importance of song choice - how music and lyrics play a role
It cannot be underestimated how important a role your song
choice plays (musically and lyrically) in translating and
carrying not only your narrative, but the desired emotions
within it. It is the underlying thread that ties everything
together.
The song is generally the viewer’s most immediate indicator of
what to expect — for instance, you’re not going to use a hard
and fast song to express a tender and sad story.
Ask yourself what it is you’re wanting to communicate and what
you want the viewer to feel when they watch your video. Your
song choice should reflect these answers.
Musically
Music has a significant effect on the mood of your video. How
often have you heard a song and known exactly what sort of video
— angsty, comical, action packed…you’re to make? There’s often
an instantaneous reaction that happens and the most successful
videos are the ones that recognise the potential emotional
impact and use it to their advantage.
Unfortunately, videos where the vidder has not fully understood
their music can often suffer from aspects such as, ie/ mistimed
editing, laboured pacing.
From a fast and hectic rhythm to a slow and introspective one,
pacing is a huge part of being able to communicate the emotion
within a video.
As Kayla mentioned, take the time to learn how your music sounds
— take note of the light and shade within it, “those peaks and
troughs, the sections where it speeds up or slows down, gets
happier or sadder, gets quieter or more powerful”.
Use these dynamics to echo the same ones within your
story/theme; use them to help emphasise and pitch the same
emotional peaks and troughs.
Lyrically
Some of the best videos out there are the ones that lyrically,
seem to voice our unspoken thoughts, re: characters or
storylines. We’ve all heard that song to a video where we’ve
remarked how perfectly tailor-made it seems for the subject
matter.
Sometimes we’re lucky enough to have those fall in our lap,
other times it takes a lot of searching. In choosing a song,
strive for as much compatibility from the lyrics as possible.
It’s all well and good to have the perfect chorus but if the
verses stray from the story you’re wanting to tell (or vice
versa), you’re going to have a hard time maintaining a solid
connection for the viewer when there’s no lyrics/narrative for
them to relate to.
Of course, there’ll always be room for interpretation.....so
long as you can justify it.
Ask yourself, do the lyrics help tell your story? Do they
provide development and character insight, allowing you to peel
away those all-important layers?
Many vidders begin by printing out the lyrics to their song and
personally, I can’t begin a video any other way.
It’s helpful to understand the format of your lyrics, to note
which lines stand alone, which relate to the next and of course,
the overall structure.
With space to jot ideas down between each line, I’ll listen to
the song repeatedly, getting a feel for the musicality,
picturing clips to fit the lyrics, ideas forming in my mind’s
eye as a rough draft starts to take shape.
As amazing as some lyrics are, clip choice can make or break
them.
Note: Occasionally, a problem will arise whereby one has THE
perfect song, were it not for some repetitive lyrics or a
lengthy instrumental section — usually in this circumstance
we’re talking about songs that run for several minutes.
Either one can threaten to hamper your video with drawn out
minutes and in such a case, where possible, don’t hesitate to
edit your song to suit yourself.
To discover the fine art of song editing, stay tuned for Kayla’s
tutorial on it in the coming days!
Clip choice: interpretation and relevance
As with your song, scene choice is every bit as important, if
not more. This is the visualisation of your story/theme!
The interpretation and relevance of your clips goes hand in
hand.
By interpreting your narrative/lyrics you are providing meaning
and symbolism; you’re attributing to your clip choices
relevance, which in turn evokes emotion.
You not only want your clips to reflect the lyrics of your song
and theme of your story, you also want them to relate from one
to the other. By creating a relationship between your chosen
clips, with concepts such as symbolism and parallels.....even
reiteration, eg/ From The Ashes — interspersing scenes of the
accident (2:43-45, 2:59-3:01, 3:40-43), and in Shades of Grey —
the interspersed clips of Bela walking down the hall (0:51,
1:07-09, 1:44-51), you’re building upon a connection that can
assist the development of your story and the emotion therein,
creating an overall cohesiveness.
There’s an occasional risk that people can sometimes be too
literal in their interpretations.
If a lyric refers to “home”, by all means use a clip of a house
if it’s relevant to your story but alternatively, “home” could
also mean people — those who are most important in one’s life.
Think outside the box a little.
Word for word interpretations can sometimes be a sign that you
don’t have an overall conceptual idea for your lyrics — unless,
of course, it’s a method particularly relevant to your video.
These too-literal interpretations often disconnect the viewer
from the thread of the story which in turn, negates any
opportunity to create emotion. Alternatively, too-abstract clips
can have the same result. We all love a video that not only
matches appropriate clips with lyrics but also puts an original
spin on them and makes you think, "Wow! I never would have
thought of using that clip for that lyric, that's really
clever!"
There exists a happy medium between the two!
Bringing interpretation and emotion to your story requires you
to look for the deeper meaning behind the lyrics and in your
clip choices.
When it comes to the more intensely emotional videos it’s not
necessarily about finding the most visually angst-ridden clip,
it’s about attributing to your choices a significance and
thoughtfulness. It’s how you use them.
Don’t just take clips on face value, consider their context
within the greater scheme of things — whose perspective it is,
the circumstances surrounding it, is there a history behind it,
and so forth. Reflect on all the elements within it and use them
to help expose the intricacies of your character(s) and story.
Ask yourself what emotions can be represented by the clip? What
can you say with this clip? What significance can be placed upon
it?
By finding that deeper connection to your clip, a deeper emotion
will evolve.
Going back to the structure of the video, your very first clip
choices are some of your most important — you want to make a
good first impression. You want to draw people into your video,
not alienate them at the very start with talking heads or a
scene choice that drops the viewer into an unestablished
situation. Take into account what “hook” you might be using and
consider what scenes are on offer that will help put your best
foot forward.
There’s a time and place for taking heads but as a general rule,
they do prove quite distracting. Often, a look can say SO much
more; as they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words!
Finding that perfect look, though not always easy, is definitely
worth the time and effort when it helps convey an emotion that
would otherwise be lost to distraction with flapping mouths.
Overall, be confident in your choices and support them. The
relevance of your clips should not invite doubt. Unless
intentional, there shouldn’t be any ambiguity to them; ideally,
you want to express your story clearly and without confusion.
Each and every clip should connect to your story.
Aesthetic influences - how effects & transitions can enhance
emotions
Some of the best videos I’ve seen have used minimal effects
(simple cross fades and fades to black), however, that is not to
say effects and transitions don’t have a place in helping
persuade and emphasise emotion, as they most certainly do! The
trick, however, is to make sure that unsuitable choices and
overwhelming use don’t have a negative effect on your video,
distracting and disconnecting the viewer emotionally.
Whether your preference is less or more, find the balance that
compliments both the editing (to your song) and the story/theme.
Here are a few of the standard effects I find useful and why
(most editing programs accommodate a variation on these):
Textures and colouring
Whether it’s nostalgic black & white or sepia; cool, depressing
colours or, warm & happy ones, simple colouring and textures can
have an instant effect on the tone of your video.
If you need that extra influence of emotion, this is a good
option.
What it also does is it can assist the structure of your
narrative. If you have memory or flashback scenes, the use of
b&w or sepia is a recognised means by which to convey that.
Crops/pans/zooms
I tend to use these to eliminate undesirable elements from the
clips that may distract from what I’m wanting to convey.
I also use them to direct focus, especially zooms which allow
you to symbolically advance to (intensify), or withdraw
(distance oneself) from a subject. They’re a wonderful tool for
emphasis.
Cross fades
Are a lovely way to evoke fluidity and connect clips. They offer
a seamless blend from one clip to the next which assists with
pacing and communicating the intended emotional value of your
video.
Blurs
In the case of From The Ashes, I utilised a radial blur (eg.
1:29-32, 1:38-40) to evoke the sensation of Dean’s coma
imaginings and hallucinations.
If you have them at your disposal, effects like these, ie/glow,
flashes...can really enhance particular attributes of your
story/theme.
Slow motion
Ideally, this should be used for emphasis, not to fill time.
It’s a wonderful effect for accentuating a moment, ie/ Dean
running to Sam (end scenes of AHBL); or even a facial
expression, ie/ a smile, a longing look… When adding emotional
depth, what you want to achieve by using it is to increase the
intensity of what is likely to already be a meaningful clip.
Just remember to always maintain relevance when using effects,
make them help tell your story.[/center]
Videos Mentioned in Tutorial:
From the Ashes
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qIKjYXM7ZA
Shades of Grey
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=s3wVGHNZx6Y
Why Save Me
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=A1bp3zo94EQ
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