Most of the stuff I would want to say about how literalism can be just fine as long as it's not literal for the sake of literal at the (sometimes comedic) expense of the rest of the vid has already been said, and you offer some great advice up there, Bop!
So, instead I'll talk about something that I haven't seen anyone talk about yet. SURREAL LYRICS.
Vidding to really damn weird songs has helped my confidence in terms of lyrical interpretation.
I'm honoured that a few people have mentioned my...most complex lyrical-association-type vid - there's a war going on for your mind, laura (it's a BSG vid).
In said vid, I was dealing with lyrics that were just...crack. And it was quite freeing because usually I couldn't vid them literally so the temptation was removed and I had to think laterally and metaphorically, and then when I could get literal clips the fact that was so unexpected because the lyrics themselves were not meant to be taken literally ended up providing power to the visual rather than comedy or weirdness as often happens.
Perhaps I should illustrate with examples?
So, the line, "infecting victimes with silicon shrapnel," is a reference to the increasing way technology infects our lives, so of course I vidded it very literally showing Gaius injecting Laura with magical silicon cylon baby blood.
"Pacifist guerillas," is another example of a metaphorical lyric where I put Caprica Six and Boomer planning their revolution of Love and No More Killing. They literally are pacifist guerillas.
Ultimately, though, it's worth noting that I think this worked as well as it did because BSG is such a rich source when it comes to politics, free will and technology (the three things the song was about) that I was using the weird lyrics to underscore the wider political context of the literal clips. So when I vidded Roslin and the 'silicon shrapnel' it wasn't just a random literal clip it also brought with it all the intended baggage of "the boundries between us and technology are blurring," that the song intended along with a whole boatload more cus it's BSG. Had I done something that literal with another source that didn't have those technological overtones it might not have worked. Also the song was deliberately juxtaposing bizarre and seemingly contradictory ideas so when I managed to pick an image that literally represented that contradiction that in itself was a source of interpretive interest?
What I'm trying to get at is, sometimes, if the lyrics are deep and expansive, vidding a literal moment onto them can cause us to re-examine the moment in the source now with the added overtones from the lyric? (And I feel like I'm being stupidly obvious now because yes, that's what we always try to do: combine the two to make something deeper, but I hope people understand what I mean?)
Another example of a very literal vid I made was one where - again, the lyrics were very, very strange, all about a weird creature being taken to a Cathedral and paraded around as a "god" by the priests - and from a weird perspective - that of a Cylon Raider, so there I think the literalism helped ground it not only in terms of the visuals, but also helped ground the audio?
Well, anyway, awesome discussion.
I'm a fan of vidding in general but I also rarely watch vids outside my fandoms simply because it frustrates me that while I can appreciate the technical skill I miss so much when I don't know the source, so my picks are necessarily limited here, but I would say that awesome BSG lyric-based vids include:
so say we all I (Handlebars) (http://kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com/119273.html) by kiki_miserychic
Signal to Noise (http://keewick.livejournal.com/129249.html) by keewick
Jolene (http://nicole-anell.livejournal.com/84062.html) by nicole_anell - which is amazing in its use of metaphory awesomeness and casting robots-in-general as the-other-woman in a love affair.
And of course many others but those off the top of my head!
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-10-27 01:30 pm (UTC)So, instead I'll talk about something that I haven't seen anyone talk about yet. SURREAL LYRICS.
Vidding to really damn weird songs has helped my confidence in terms of lyrical interpretation.
I'm honoured that a few people have mentioned my...most complex lyrical-association-type vid - there's a war going on for your mind, laura (it's a BSG vid).
In said vid, I was dealing with lyrics that were just...crack. And it was quite freeing because usually I couldn't vid them literally so the temptation was removed and I had to think laterally and metaphorically, and then when I could get literal clips the fact that was so unexpected because the lyrics themselves were not meant to be taken literally ended up providing power to the visual rather than comedy or weirdness as often happens.
Perhaps I should illustrate with examples?
So, the line, "infecting victimes with silicon shrapnel," is a reference to the increasing way technology infects our lives, so of course I vidded it very literally showing Gaius injecting Laura with magical silicon cylon baby blood.
"Pacifist guerillas," is another example of a metaphorical lyric where I put Caprica Six and Boomer planning their revolution of Love and No More Killing. They literally are pacifist guerillas.
Ultimately, though, it's worth noting that I think this worked as well as it did because BSG is such a rich source when it comes to politics, free will and technology (the three things the song was about) that I was using the weird lyrics to underscore the wider political context of the literal clips. So when I vidded Roslin and the 'silicon shrapnel' it wasn't just a random literal clip it also brought with it all the intended baggage of "the boundries between us and technology are blurring," that the song intended along with a whole boatload more cus it's BSG. Had I done something that literal with another source that didn't have those technological overtones it might not have worked. Also the song was deliberately juxtaposing bizarre and seemingly contradictory ideas so when I managed to pick an image that literally represented that contradiction that in itself was a source of interpretive interest?
What I'm trying to get at is, sometimes, if the lyrics are deep and expansive, vidding a literal moment onto them can cause us to re-examine the moment in the source now with the added overtones from the lyric? (And I feel like I'm being stupidly obvious now because yes, that's what we always try to do: combine the two to make something deeper, but I hope people understand what I mean?)
Another example of a very literal vid I made was one where - again, the lyrics were very, very strange, all about a weird creature being taken to a Cathedral and paraded around as a "god" by the priests - and from a weird perspective - that of a Cylon Raider, so there I think the literalism helped ground it not only in terms of the visuals, but also helped ground the audio?
Well, anyway, awesome discussion.
I'm a fan of vidding in general but I also rarely watch vids outside my fandoms simply because it frustrates me that while I can appreciate the technical skill I miss so much when I don't know the source, so my picks are necessarily limited here, but I would say that awesome BSG lyric-based vids include:
so say we all I (Handlebars) (http://kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com/119273.html) by
Signal to Noise (http://keewick.livejournal.com/129249.html) by
Jolene (http://nicole-anell.livejournal.com/84062.html) by
And of course many others but those off the top of my head!