Vid chat: visualising effects

[bop_radar]

Vidding chats return! :) For those of you new to them, you can check out previous chats here.

This week's topic is visualising effects and it is co-moderated by lim. We'd really love this chat to function as a kind of shared workshop, with people sharing ideas with each other. So if you have a track out there that you're working with or considering working with and would like some shared brainstorming, share it with us here!

Below is an introduction from each of us.

From lim:

So, for me, effects are no different or separate from vidding; they're not an extra, they're not added on, they're an integral part of vidding, so I have a hard time not visualising them. I make visual associations all the time when I listen to music. Music is a mental landscape through which it's possible to move, populated and dynamic: like a holodeck, I spose.

I do a lot of free association when I'm vidding. In the first mp3 I've recorded myself playing through a track and just chunnered on about whatever the music seems to say, and what it looks like to me, what it sparks in my brain. I do this over and over when I'm vidding, and each time I'll get different ideas, visuals, elements to play with.

Audio file: Vidding Visualisation

I've tried to translate that into words, but it's a pretty right-brain activity, so there's a lot of umming and dorkalicious garblement, but I'm hoping that will encourage you to chunner on back to me without fear of being the dorkiest person in the post, haha!

I invite anyone who has a track they're working with to post it and for anyone who has a response, association, or visual, to comment in that thread.

Remember, we're ignoring the lyrics for now. Treat the voice/s as just another instrument, another element in the musical landscape. Listen to the shimmeryness, or growliness, or gloopiness of a voice, not what it's saying in English.

Then tomorrowish, I'm gonna pick a few responses and actually make what we're see-hearing, and I invite anyone who wants to to join in there too.

From Bop:

I'm a pretty odd one to be co-hosting this perhaps, as I am not a vidder who feels comfortable using effects. But hopefully by doing so I'll help others like me dip their toe in the waters. ;)

I don't know about the rest of you, but listening to lim's thoughts here makes me feel a bit less daunted going into the chat. For starters, I realised that I do already do visualisation work myself, even if I tend to think of it only in terms of clip choices (and not what effects to put on clips). It was also really 'normalising' to hear someone else have rambly associations about a track. And yes, it's really hard to put such a right-brain activity into words, but we can all have a go. :)

I don't want to say too much... I just want to say welcome (back) to vid chats, I hope you will all find this a helpful, friendly and constructive 'space'. It takes a bit of courage to share your thoughts with other vidders, I know, but hopefully this is somewhere where we can all reach out to each other a bit. I'm prepared to be a dork if you are. :p And just a reminder that you are very much encouraged here to reply to other commenters, not just the original poster(s)! And you are welcome here any time--there is no 'late' in vid chats.

For this chat in particular, I really encourage you to share your tracks, as lim suggests--how often do we get a chance to brainstorm with other vidders? Perhaps you could use one you've never been quite sure how to tackle (I know I have lots of those!).

If you don't have a track yourself but want to take part, please, PLEASE feel free to listen to other people's tracks and share your associations or ideas--you don't have to be an 'expert' to do this--we're just messing around here, no pressure, ok? And commenting to each other is a great way to take part here, even if it's just a 'hi, that's a really interesting track! made me think of ...'

And if you have any questions or random niggly things you've always wanted to ask about visualising, then feel free to share those in comments too. By all means share any interesting experiences you've had visualising effects too.

There's no rush either--I would really like to encourage people to drop back in here over the next week or so (or any time!). lim and I will pop into the comments as soon as we can, timezones and personal commitments permitting. See you soon! :)

ETA: Update! We shall relaxedly be attempting to make some things resulting from the conversations herein over the next week or so... we encourage anyone who wants to to try making something (for example "haze on the sand" or "red/green blur") and share it. I promise to handhold for anyone who fears their effects thing may look unintentionally tragic. :) We're just playing, yes? :)

Comments

[balistik94.livejournal.com]

This is a very unusual track. It actually sounds very peaceful to me and those bah bah bah vocals have a dreamlike quality. I don't associate musical elements with specific objects or images but with emotions so I'm visualizing a succession of clips conveying happiness in a very quiet way (could be close ups or outdoor shots but without internal motion) with no transition just clean cuts until the lyrics begin. For the rising chords around 01:45 I see a lot of motion and this time with shots of gleeful and joyful moments contrasting with the quiet happiness of the beginning. At 02:24 to me is where the melancholy kicks in and things suddenly become heavier than in the beginning which doesn't mean that the happiness goes away but it has even more meaning now that we look back at the not so happy times. The whistling notes at 03:10 are dizzying and the only thing I can visualize is the rapid passage of time that can be represented with the type of sequences you can see in some commercials or movies where the camera is stationary in one room but everything is sped up and you see people going in and out and the sun going up and down something of this nature.
I don't know if it was helpful but this is how I visualize this track.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! It's fascinating to hear other people's takes. Thank you! I know what you mean about responding to the emotion of a track--I definitely do that a great deal, usually more than thinking of shapes or colours. There is something very uplifting about the track, isn't there? I like your idea of the sped up camera too! Although I wouldn't have source of that (not if I stick to my original vid idea anyway) I can see how that would look really really cool to those notes... hmm, lots of things to think about! Thanks!

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

could be close ups or outdoor shots but without internal motion
Can I just step off-topic for a mo and check something out? If people talk about internal/external motion, do they mean moving camera (pan, zoom) verses still camera with moving object inside the frame (running person)? Sometimes I get the impression that some people use the phrase "internal motion" synonymous with "movement inside a character", meaning emotional shift, so that has me a bit confused....

[balistik94.livejournal.com]

"If people talk about internal/external motion, do they mean moving camera (pan, zoom) verses still camera with moving object inside the frame (running person)?"

Exactly and I should have explained it instead of assuming everybody would know this term.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Dude.

I pretended to know what "internal motion" meant for the first two years I vidded.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

Same! Now I know it as 'that one thing I know what to do with :D'! *hearts internal motion*

[balistik94.livejournal.com]

I never even heard about it the first two years I vidded.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

That sounds blessedly freeing. As I was a vid fan for years before I was a vidder, I read a great deal of vid meta, and all it really did was give me a complex about what I didn't know.

[thedothatgirl.livejournal.com]

Don't start me off on what I didn't know the first two years I vidded :(

Actually to summarize - 'most things'

[balistik94.livejournal.com]

Haha same here. It is freeing but when you rewatch your early vids you're like "what the hell was I thinking?".

[thedothatgirl.livejournal.com]

"what the hell was I thinking?" Oh yes and a whole lot more :)

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

Don't start me off on what I didn't know the first two years I vidded :(

There's more to know ?!? *swallow hard*

The way it was explained to me

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

"Internal motion" is movement within the frame: people moving around, spaceships flying, cars driving, even the blink of an eye. "External motion" is movement of the camera itself: pans, dolly shots, zooms, handheld/shakycam effects, etc.

[thedothatgirl.livejournal.com]

and the only thing I can visualize is the rapid passage of time that can be represented with the type of sequences you can see in some commercials or movies where the camera is stationary in one room but everything is sped up and you see people going in and out and the sun going up and down something of this nature.

Just love that idea.

[balistik94.livejournal.com]

Thank you I didn't know if it would make sense to anyone else.