The Year in Review: Vidding

[laurashapiro]

Looking back, did you make more vids than you thought you would this year, fewer, or about what you'd predicted?

I seem to have averaged about three vids a year since I began, and I've kept that up in 2003 as well. I think I could've made more this year if I hadn't been so sick for the first couple of months -- morgandawn and I had intended to show "Wonder of Birds" at Escapade, which would've left more time for other vids. Considering that January and February were basically a wash, I think I did pretty well to finish three vids this year.

I've noticed that I now have a seasonal vidding schedule arranged around the two cons I attend. Gotta have something new in February for Escapade and in August for Vividcon. I time these to be the vids that will appeal to a wide audience ("Wonder of Birds," "Beatitudes"), whereas my third vid ends up being my "freebie" -- something I make just for me ("If You Knew").

What pairing/genre/fandom/song did you vid that you would never have predicted in January 2003?

Nothing, really. I had all my 2003 vid ideas in 2002, so I knew what I was going to be up to. However, the vid I'm making now, which I started in 2003, was completely out of the blue. Never thought I would vid Farscape (which I was just beginning to get into a year ago), and I would have said that this song was well beyond my abilities.

What's your favorite vid of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest.

I'm finding it very difficult to choose between "Wonder of Birds" and "If You Knew". I am extraordinarily happy with WoB, because we did exactly what I'd hoped we would, and the vid we wound up with is closer to what I had on my mental storyboard than any vid I've made so far.

OTOH, I have a very personal, snuggly feeling about "If You Knew." I don't think it's the better vid, but it makes me happy in a fierce, love-the-underdog way that's totally irrational.

Did you take any vidding risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Oh boy, did I take risks. Probably the biggest one was a process risk: working script- and note-free on "Beatitudes," flying blind and in terror almost the whole time. I learned that, yes, I can work in an entirely organic way which is antithetical to my anally-retentive brain, and even make a satisfying vid that way that will achieve its intended effects, but that I probably won't enjoy the experience very much.

And then I promptly learned the opposite with both "If You Knew" and the current vid: in both cases I worked without any notes, and in both cases I enjoyed the process immensely.

So what I really learned is that my ability to work organically and have any fun with it is directly related to the scope of the project. "Beatitudes" spanned seven seasons and a dozen characters. It was folly to think I could do that without anything resembling a plan and not go crazy. The other vids, each with a much tighter focus, have been much easier and a hell of a lot more fun to make.

Hmm. Other risks:

- Composition. In "Beatitudes" I not only superimposed several clips at once, but I tried moving some of the layers around and resizing them, in order to get a meaningful and pleasing composition in the frame. It was hard, but the big risk for me was that it might look cheesy or over-FX-y. I learned that it's possible to use fairly extreme clip manipulations and still get a tasteful result.

- Unpopular subject matter. I kinda knew this going in, and had encountered it before with "Some Fantastic," but just to repeat for the old "duh" factor: vids that deal with unusual pairings or unpopular characters won't attract much attention. Almost no one seems to have watched, or liked, "If You Knew." That's okay with me. I got the vid I wanted, and I clutch it to my bosom in defiance! (:

- Paying less attention to lyrics. This may be the riskiest choice of all, from the audience's perspective. Beginning with "Wonder of Birds," whose lyrics are entirely relevant but largely unintelligible, I began exploring how to make vids which are not wholly lyrics-dependent, or at least vids where each and every clip doesn't have to match up in some meaningful way with each and every line. I'm finding it tremendously freeing, and I think it makes my vids more emotionally effective, because I concentrate so much more on the way the music feels than on what it says, and choose clips accordingly. OTOH, this choice is always going to confuse or even alienate some viewers, as I learned when "Beatitudes" was deconstructed on Vidder. I can accept this. Lyrics-dependent vidding is now a choice for me, not an essential aspect of creation. I can choose to use or discard lyrical meanings from project to project or from line to line, and I know what I lose and gain with each choice. That feels good.

- Timing. I really wanted "Wonder of Birds" to fly. The song isn't super-fast or anything, but it's a lot more energetic than most of the music I've vidded to, and it really needed to move. I didn't really trust myself to be able to get the kind of quick-cutting, exhilarating rhythm together myself. I've almost always tended toward slow songs and a somewhat...stately pace. My insecurity on this issue, coupled with a desire to help a friend get into digital vidding, led me to ask morgandawn to collaborate, and I am so glad I did. I learned tons from her about, especially, choosing a good out point. I feel much more confident now about making vids that rock, as opposed to my usual vids that roll.

- Collaboration. This is a big emotional and creative risk, yet few writers or vidders seem to talk about it as such. For anyone who feels a passionate attachment to her own vision (which includes anyone who vids, I should think), the idea of sharing that vision in its nascent form with someone who is not merely allowed to influence it, like a beta, but someone who is an equal partner in its creation -- that's some scary shit, man. I learned that I can collaborate on a vid in safety and comfort, and have disagreements with a collaborator that end up improving the quality of the final product and do not, in fact, result in a rupture of the friendship -- quite the reverse. I can learn, and teach. I can make great vids this way and not actually want to kill anybody. As a result of learning this, I have been trying to get a couple of other collaborations off the ground.

Do you have any vidding or pro-editing goals for the New Year?

I really want this new vid, for Escapade, to kick almighty ass. (: Other than that, my goals for the year are:

- Make Scully vid with killabeez in time for Vividcon
- Get a bunch more vid ideas, and stay excited about the ideas I already have, even though I'm not deeply into any shows right now
- Fear no fast songs
- Make an instrumental vid
- Keep trying something new every time, something that I don't know how to do when I start the project

Also, a friend just asked me to edit a short film she plans to make, and I'm really excited about getting to work with multiple sound tracks and dialogue and stuff.

So, what about the rest of you vidders out there?