Vidding *my* way
Oct. 27th, 2002 01:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maristuFollowing a link in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bonibaru's journal, I ended up reading sisabet's entry about taking clips from other vids. And I was perplexed.
You see, I was completely clueless about this kind of stuff. I had no idea that people actually *did* that. It never crossed my mind to do it myself. I just don't see the point in it. To me, it seems like you're kind of cheating yourself out of the full vidding experience. Or something.
I guess it boils down to *why* you vid. Someone asked that question a while back in vidder and I never replied, because I was shy and because I didn't really know the answer. I'm still not sure if I know it, but I'll give this a shot.
The reflex answer, the one that crossed my mind at first is, "I suck at writing fanfic". Which is, of course, true :) But not everyone who sucks at fanfic turns to vidding, so...
I've always been a music addict. And I've always loved movies and tv and just moving pictures in general. I have a very vivid and rich fantasy life (although I *do* have a life outside of it, believe it or not), movies that play around in my head and images that pop up whenever I listen to a really good song (even classical). So vidding was kind of putting together these two worlds, the music and the images. I took it as a good sign that I instinctively knew how to navigate Premiere at first sight, while I'm still totally at a loss with Photoshop and other image editing software after *years* of trying :)
Vidding is my creative outlet. And in certain aspects, it's more frustrating than writing. Because in writing, you have total control as to what your characters will do, what situations you'll put them in, how they'll move and how they'll talk and what they'll wear. What they're *thinking*. You have utter and total control.
In vidding, you're limited to the lyrics of the song, and to the images the show has given you. The shots that the editors give you. You have to get by with cuts that really really don't help, and at times I've actually wondered what I'd have to do to have access to the cutting room floors.
And all that stuff makes it even more worthwhile. There's this intense pleasure in finishing up a vid that's just... indescribable. If you do it just right, it feels like it *belongs* to you. Your own vision of the show, of the relationship, the timing to the music exactly the way you wanted it, the cuts perfect. Taking bits and pieces of episodes that people *know* had a different meaning than what you're trying to show, and transforming it into something else entirely, *your* story, *your* characters. It feels fucking great.
*That's* why I vid. For that feeling. Sure, feedback's great, and if I didn't feel it was important, I wouldn't share my vids. But the feedback is only good because I *made* it. I can rejoice in the praise and learn with the criticism, because I know the vid inside out. I can explain my purposes and talk lengthily about each clip choice and each cut, because it's *my* creation.
A person who steals another vidder's cut is neglecting that part of the experience. He's doing it for the feedback alone, and that feels kind of hollow. Heck, I don't even steal the *original* cuts, I normally clip each different camera shot and move them around in order to get what I want...
It just doesn't make sense to me. So I'll keep vidding *my* way.
bonibaru's journal, I ended up reading sisabet's entry about taking clips from other vids. And I was perplexed.You see, I was completely clueless about this kind of stuff. I had no idea that people actually *did* that. It never crossed my mind to do it myself. I just don't see the point in it. To me, it seems like you're kind of cheating yourself out of the full vidding experience. Or something.
I guess it boils down to *why* you vid. Someone asked that question a while back in vidder and I never replied, because I was shy and because I didn't really know the answer. I'm still not sure if I know it, but I'll give this a shot.
The reflex answer, the one that crossed my mind at first is, "I suck at writing fanfic". Which is, of course, true :) But not everyone who sucks at fanfic turns to vidding, so...
I've always been a music addict. And I've always loved movies and tv and just moving pictures in general. I have a very vivid and rich fantasy life (although I *do* have a life outside of it, believe it or not), movies that play around in my head and images that pop up whenever I listen to a really good song (even classical). So vidding was kind of putting together these two worlds, the music and the images. I took it as a good sign that I instinctively knew how to navigate Premiere at first sight, while I'm still totally at a loss with Photoshop and other image editing software after *years* of trying :)
Vidding is my creative outlet. And in certain aspects, it's more frustrating than writing. Because in writing, you have total control as to what your characters will do, what situations you'll put them in, how they'll move and how they'll talk and what they'll wear. What they're *thinking*. You have utter and total control.
In vidding, you're limited to the lyrics of the song, and to the images the show has given you. The shots that the editors give you. You have to get by with cuts that really really don't help, and at times I've actually wondered what I'd have to do to have access to the cutting room floors.
And all that stuff makes it even more worthwhile. There's this intense pleasure in finishing up a vid that's just... indescribable. If you do it just right, it feels like it *belongs* to you. Your own vision of the show, of the relationship, the timing to the music exactly the way you wanted it, the cuts perfect. Taking bits and pieces of episodes that people *know* had a different meaning than what you're trying to show, and transforming it into something else entirely, *your* story, *your* characters. It feels fucking great.
*That's* why I vid. For that feeling. Sure, feedback's great, and if I didn't feel it was important, I wouldn't share my vids. But the feedback is only good because I *made* it. I can rejoice in the praise and learn with the criticism, because I know the vid inside out. I can explain my purposes and talk lengthily about each clip choice and each cut, because it's *my* creation.
A person who steals another vidder's cut is neglecting that part of the experience. He's doing it for the feedback alone, and that feels kind of hollow. Heck, I don't even steal the *original* cuts, I normally clip each different camera shot and move them around in order to get what I want...
It just doesn't make sense to me. So I'll keep vidding *my* way.
