That's a really interesting point. I'm a newbie and I'm definitely very lyrics-oriented and I worry that I'm being too literal often. That realization of a certain song really resonating with you in relation to your fandom is where my point of inspiration usually is. But even if a song has key lyrics that fit your ship or character, I feel like you have to really be able to make the whole song's mood/storyline work for your universe. (Not just pick out key phrases and throw random filler in for the rest.) And that's where crafting a deeper story and "having a point" comes in I guess.
I think you have a point there, but as another lyrics-oriented vidder, I know that in my development I went from, 'what fits this line literally?' to 'what does that story need here that can throw an interesting twist on this lyric?'
And I think that one of the most fun things, and probably one of the most successful things my most recent vids have done is play up that gap between literal meaning and the image on the screen. The difference between the lyric and the image can be generative of such richness.
Perhaps I watch vids differently, but I really feel that in many ways I never did develop beyond "let's throw clips at this thing that are vaguely associated!", I just got better at using the song to force those clips into a story? By far my most popular vid is essentially an insane collage of BSG clips about everything ever along under the umbrella of "Laura and the Cylons and Politics," with a framing device. But the lyrics are so weird and tell such a strong story that it forces the vid into a shape even though my original process was just to try to come up with as many cool lyrical associations using as many different moments as possible. After that I did do some cleaning up, narratively, in terms of my choices, but really comparatively little.
Though I have to admit, with some of my other vids that never would have worked. I've never had to be so narratively aware as when I made a minor character oriented vid, for instance, working with very limited footage, and wow did that make my head hurt. It was not at all what I was used to.
As laurashapiro noted, the structure of the song often dictates the narrative of the vid and whether it can be entirely linear or not. The visuals are the defining attribute of the vid in terms of its target audience and topic and story but the audio choice determines so much.
Um. If this post had a point is was that I don't think you should panic about being a lyrics-oriented vidder. I honestly believe most of us are and the comment to which you are replying was a comment on using lyrics that aren't immediately literally clear in the context of the show lazily rather than working closely with the lyrics? (Though obviously, it's not my comment so I apologise if I misinterpreted!)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-10-12 11:30 am (UTC)I think you have a point there, but as another lyrics-oriented vidder, I know that in my development I went from, 'what fits this line literally?' to 'what does that story need here that can throw an interesting twist on this lyric?'
And I think that one of the most fun things, and probably one of the most successful things my most recent vids have done is play up that gap between literal meaning and the image on the screen. The difference between the lyric and the image can be generative of such richness.
Perhaps I watch vids differently, but I really feel that in many ways I never did develop beyond "let's throw clips at this thing that are vaguely associated!", I just got better at using the song to force those clips into a story? By far my most popular vid is essentially an insane collage of BSG clips about everything ever along under the umbrella of "Laura and the Cylons and Politics," with a framing device. But the lyrics are so weird and tell such a strong story that it forces the vid into a shape even though my original process was just to try to come up with as many cool lyrical associations using as many different moments as possible. After that I did do some cleaning up, narratively, in terms of my choices, but really comparatively little.
Though I have to admit, with some of my other vids that never would have worked. I've never had to be so narratively aware as when I made a minor character oriented vid, for instance, working with very limited footage, and wow did that make my head hurt. It was not at all what I was used to.
As
Um. If this post had a point is was that I don't think you should panic about being a lyrics-oriented vidder. I honestly believe most of us are and the comment to which you are replying was a comment on using lyrics that aren't immediately literally clear in the context of the show lazily rather than working closely with the lyrics? (Though obviously, it's not my comment so I apologise if I misinterpreted!)