cupidsbow, posts by tag: vidding - LiveJournal

Thank you so much for making me something, lovely Festivdder.

I have pretty eclectic taste in vids, so make something you love and I'm sure to love it too. I've given some guidance below in case that's your jam, but feel free to do what you love instead if you get inspired.

I'm open to most types of music, but I am partial to a good melody and fast beat. I love experimental and constructed reality vids, so if you've ever wanted to try something unusual, go for it. That said, I really do want you to do something you enjoy, as that will shine through in the finished vid.

My one veto is that I'd rather no audio grabs from the source being directly over song lyrics, please, as I find it hard to track. I'm not a huge fan of audio samples in general, but they can be done brilliantly so use them if it suits the project. In fact, if you want to get experimental with the audio as well as the visuals, that would be cool!

Anyway, here are the sources I chose, in no particular order.

Cleverman (TV)
This is a gritty superhero story, and I'd love anything you do with it, but especially something that focuses on the supernatural elements.

The Changeover (2017) [SAFETY]
I adore the book this movie was based on, and I love the moodiness of the adaptation. Laura and Sorry, and Laura and Jacko are my faves, but Carmody is also wonderfully creepy.

Detectorists (TV)
I adore the friendship romance at the heart of this series. It's so gentle and funny. 

The Dry (2020) [SAFETY]
This film captures the feeling of Australia during a drought so well, and I'd love something that picks up on that.

Mannequin (1987) [SAFETY]
I picked this entirely out of nostalgia for silly 80s kitsch.

Seachange (TV)
This series made me laugh when I first watched it. The characters are all so well drawn. Laura and Diver Dan are faves, as are Heather and Kevin.

Venom: Lethal Protector (comic)
I really love the absurdity of Venom, especially when it's mixed with pathos. You probably won't pick this one, but if you do, don't be afraid to animate some bits or take panels from other Venom comics, or generally break the rules. Go nuts. I want a balls-to-the wall vid that does the zaniness of a goo monster justice.

My Octopus Teacher (2020) [SAFETY]
This is gorgeous, delightful and sad by turns. Anything you do with this would be a treat. This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/462709.html.

The accidental theme for this edition of Equinox is all ladies all the time, and I'm living for it.

Masterlist: https://archiveofourown.org/collec…

And here are my faves:

This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/452493.html.

I didn't hear about the vidding BigBang until far too late to take part this time around, but you can bet I'm planning to next time.

Here are this year's entries, and they are all fabulous: https://archiveofourown.org/collec…

I particularly love the Star Wars one by findmeinthealps -- it's my favourite.

I don't know Hannibal well enough to really get all the nuances of luminosty's diptych, but they're gorgeous.

The Supernatural album by sisabet and sweetestdrain is a gutpunch, but so worth it. 

The Fast and Furious vid by AurumCalendula is a glorious love letter to speed, and delightful to watch.

This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/449136.html.

sjnt

Here's an image of how I usually shorten music. It's a verse taken from the middle. You can see there's no visuals on the timeline, just a couple of attempts at shortening the song. I tend to keep the edits I don't use, in case I decide to vid longer after all. Also, some edits just work better than others, so I can compare them this way, or even export and listen to them a few times and then pick the best. I use the edited and exported version for the vid. The grayed out tracks are turned off, so I can't hear them. The song is Bonfire Heart, and the vid I made is here if you want to hear what it turned out like.

When I match up the sound peaks, I stretch the tracks so they look really big on the screen, so it's easy to see the detail -- even bigger than in this screencap.

Click for bigness -- you might need to scroll to see the notes on the side.



(Bonfire Heart, basic edit, different length fade in/out on each track)

Below is the section of the Venom vid soundtrack where Eddie says, "what are you?" The main track, Suit, has been cut. The bit of Suit where the speech happens has the volume lowered, and each end has a crossfade to ease the transition into the new volume level. The dialogue track from the movie just has a few fades/crossfades, nothing special, except it took time to line it up with the visuals, as I exported the sound and visuals separately. I picked this bit of Suit because it's an instrumental section of the song, so the dialogue isn't fighting with lyrics -- that's mostly what I try to do with added dialogue.



(Venom vid, Suit, with voiceover)

The bit where Venom talks about "eyes, lungs, pancreas" etc, is very similar, but instead of the cut of Suit still being on the track, I shuffled the whole song up the timeline. In other words, there's a gap in the timeline on the main audio track, and there's just the dialogue track in that bit of the vid. The reason that worked so well is because there was a natural break in the song at that point, with a beat of silence, so it was really easy to stop it there and re-start with no issues.

Finally, here's the end of the elevator sequence. This was the hardest audio section of the vid.



(Venom vid, Suit, elevator sequence)

There's a lot going on here. First, the main track, Suit, didn't have a natural pause here, just a break in the lyrics. It's just a cut with a short fade-out. It was okay to be a bit abrupt in the cut that begins this sequence, because that's part of the joke, but ending it was a different matter. Just starting the song up again sounded weird. It needed something to work as a transition. I don't think I was entirely successful in how I did this, by the way, but I basically layered on stuff to make the re-start of the song more dramatic. 

I haven't shown the start of this sequence, just the end in the screencap above.

So, under the main track is the excerpt from The Girl From Ipanema. Nothing special with that, just some fading in and out, and picking a bit that sounded like typical elevator music as the first bit that played.

Then there's an elevator sound effect. This is just a free one from my sound files. It's the sound of a door clunking, in that elevator way, and the hum of a motor. There's a fairly strong fade in and volume lowering on this sound effect, so it comes across as fairly mild, even subliminal in the vid. It's meant as an audio cue to help the viewer get that something is going on -- I added this very near the end, because my beta advised me this bit was still somewhat confusing. Yay for betas!

Right after the elevator sound effect, on the same track, is Venom's roar. This was added soundscape to make the re-start of Suit more dramatic and mask that there wasn't a natural break in the song at this point.

The track underneath the elevator sound effect has the "ding" of the door opening. This is from the movie. The track has the volume amped up so that it sounds louder. This was because the ding was quite soft. Everything on this  audio track is amplified, and I used it for excerpts from the movie.

Finally, I thought the re-start of the song still sounded weird and needed something more. So I copied a bit of drums from earlier in the song, and pasted it here as a kind of short re-introduction -- "Remember that song you were listening to before? Let me sock you in the ear with it so you remember quickly". Venom's roar helps the drums segue with the re-start of the actual next part of the song.

I'm still learning about effective sound editing, so what I did here was me deliberately pushing myself to see what I could do. What I've taken from all this is that editing audio is actually a lot like editing visuals -- layering helps a lot to achieve the effects you want, and the way you fade things in and out and align sounds on the different tracks can help cue the viewer so they understand what's happening better. This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/445712.html.

colls

This is what a finished video file typically looks like. This is the final version 30 of the Venom vid I just posted for Venomtime's Day - I save frequently so I can revert if needed. 30 versions is on the higher end for me. Most of the complex vids end up at around that ballpark.

Click for bigness.

ETA: If anyone has questions about how I did anything, go ahead and ask. This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/445683.html.

trelkez posted: The Self-Curated Vidshow Challenge!

In January I asked vidders to make vidshows using only their own vids. A whole lot of you did! There are 47 vidshows by 31 different vidders, all ready for browsing here:

The Self-Curated Vidshow Challenge

This is so awesome! I'm really looking forward to watching all the shows.

Mine is  Encore: Revisiting the Milestones of cupidsbow's Vidding.

You can find each video on the dreamwidth links in the document, or alternatively, you can find all of the video files I talk about in this one download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/91y… (1.3GB)

This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/443795.html.

Today's vidding adventure... This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/440881.html.

The master post for Festivids is available here, and there are 79 vids to choose from. Delicious! As always, the recs below are just my taste, and there's doubtless other stuff you will enjoy if you go poking around.

First up, I got a lovely How to Steal a Million vid -- Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. This has been a favourite of mine since I was a teenager, and it's so lovely to see it vidded. The vidder has focused on the comedy and the romance, both aspects of the film I adore.








This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/440162.html.

I love Festivids. I always find a few new shows to check out, as well as a fresh look at some old favourites.

This year, I scored two awesome Forbidden Kingdom vids. Both have completely different sensibilities, and neither focus on the boring protagonist (just as I requested).





Arrival (2016) - Relativism 
Fantastic music choice and dreamy visuals.
https://archiveofourown.org/collec…

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) - For You
Just as heartstring-pulling as you'd expect from this source.
https://archiveofourown.org/collec…



This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/428510.html.

Hi fellow vidder!

I have to say, I'm super excited about this fest. It feels like such a long time between Festivids, so having a couple of new pitstops during the year is going to be so much fun.

The number one thing that I ask of you for this fest is that you have fun. I really mean that. Use my requests as an excuse to make the wildest, over-the-toppiest id vid of your dreams, and I will love it and you. :)

My favourite types of vids include: action and fast-paced vids, experimental or weird vids, constructed reality or AU vids, and vids that are full of pretty, pretty visuals. Constructed reality seems a particularly good match for this fest, given all the cool real footage NASA has released now, in addition to the usual sources of stuff, like other films the actors have done, fan works, and so on. I also feel like there could stand to be more vids about women, people of colour, and queer people/relationships, so if you want to focus on one or more of those I'd be super happy. That said, with this particular fest's theme, I'd also be pleased with a vid that has no people at all, and just an awful lot of stuff in SPAAAAAAACE. :)

I don't usually suggest music, as I'm happy for you to find the best fit for the vid -- I have pretty broad tastes. I would request that if you sample audio at all, you don't have it over the top of song lyrics, as it'll mean I can't hear either the lyric or the sample.

That's it. Go forth and have fun!





Pigs In Space (Muppets) 

Star Trek: Voyager  


This entry was originally posted at http://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/425979.html.