Festivids commentary!
Feb. 3rd, 2018 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eruthrosMy assignment: Weapon, Janelle Monáe - Works
Weapon: I signed up for "Janelle Monáe - Works," reconsidered offering a fandom that would involve a bunch of sprawling outside source, and took it off my offers at the last minute … or at least, I thought I did. Then I got assigned it anyway. Whoops? I mean, I do like the fandom and I was excited to vid it, but I also hadn't meant to commit to "find all the outside source" as a main assignment. I did use a bunch of outside source, but some of it was actually Janelle Monáe's face, because I knew I'd need a lot of it – so, like, behind the scenes stuff, the Wondaland youtube videos, every single other music video she featured in, her episode of Electric Dreams, etc. Then I used some misc scifi meant to look like part of the same world, and some meant to be visibly different to signal that were in the fictional city of Metropolis for the intro.
Fortunately I found a song right away - this is the first time I have ever received a vid exchange assignment, gone looking though my "good songs, no vid ideas" playlist, and gone "oh, yes, use that." Weapon is an amazing and super-viddable song, and I was so bummed to have to cut the whole coda (and, like, another minute of the song on top of that). The complete song is amazing.
Also fortunately,thingswithwings kept talking me down from additional major source acquisition projects.
Me: I have to go looking for more of X! I only have two clips for that line!
twwings: I think it's fine.
Me: BUT WHAT IF I FIND SOMETHING BETTER.
twwings: You can if you want to, but really it's fine.
And having vidded "Dance Apocalyptic" withthingswithwings a couple Wiscons ago, I had an external hard drive full of already-acquired dystopia and robot sources (like, I already had good-quality Metropolis footage) and a pretty good singing, dancing, and saying fuck you to oppressive regimes clip library. I tried to pick mostly things that wouldn't be visibly from another giant fandom so I wouldn't throw people out of the vid (e.g. I ruled out using the Hunger Games), except for the Metropolis and Blade Runner footage I used as part of the intro for some scene setting. Also for "Dance Apocalyptic" I had also done a really thorough search of the internet for a decent-quality version of "Many Moons," since the vast majority of the uploads (including the one on Janelle Monáe's youtube) have really visible frame blending and pixelization problems. (I did find one eventually - if you ever want it, just let me know.) Thanks, past me and past thingswithwings!
This vid contradicts a bunch of the Cindi Mayweather canon (as I understand it from Archandroid and Metropolis lyrics), but I just couldn't figure out how to differentiate Cindi from Janelle in a time-travelling-robot-clones story, and I needed to use Primetime as Cindi's backstory in order to have any backstory at all, so.
I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, though I also realized partway through the process that apparently my festivids genre is "amazing figure lives her own life, says fuck you to oppression, and inspires people to action, and after she is gone we have forty seconds of video about working together to make a revolution."
My treats: I made two Space Jam treats and one Wondaland Arts Society RPF treat! The Space Jam vids are Monstars Hype Mix and ESPN First Take November 15, 1996, and the Wondaland Arts Society treat is Wondaland.
Space Jam treats: I had planned to make the Space Jam treats last year but I ran out of time, so I had already clipped the movie and picked out the music and everything! I started making those vids shortly afterbingeling posted their dear festividder letter with a similar request in it this year. They mentioned a Monstars hype vid, and I really wanted to make one in the style of an NBA hype vid! 300 Violin Orchestra is a pretty popular song for NBA vids (and it has a nice slow ramp up, for the little guys transforming, and then like six minutes of easy-to-cut instrumental). I cut it to 1:30 and still baaaaarely managed enough basketball footage - the game itself isn't a major part of the movie, weirdly enough, and a lot of the footage looks really similar (and there are two dunks that I swear are actually partially the same animation). You can't tell if from looking at the final vid, but I speed-adjusted almost every clip here – a lot of the game in the film is in 25% slomo, but if I made it 100% regular speed all the clips would be too short, so basically every clip needed some speed-changing nonsense.
A proper NBA hype mix needs some over-the-top commentary, so I spent a lot of time at work listening to various NBA videos on youtube in an endless recommendation-algorithm loop. Although I'm an NBA fan my team is the Warriors, who are mostly fast shooters rather than drives-to-the-rim dunkers, so a lot of the commentary I hear all the time wasn't appropriate for this vid. I knew Russ and LeBron would get me some gr8 commentary if I just cycled through a bunch of First Take and The Jump, though! I spent a lot of time laughing at Stephen A and Skip tbh, and also being annoyed by the crosstalk fucking up all the Rachel Nichols audio I wanted to use AND the "this is the apocalypse lineup" audio. I eventually had to go back to the Bad Boys in order to get some of the more "they're violent and don't care" commentary without crosstalk or music under it.
A proper NBA hupe mix also needs some bright flashes or overlays, so I used some of the free Rocketstock light leaks in overlays because I didn't want to have to do this in After Effects.
The second Space Jam treat I made was based on some commentary that couldn't go in my main treat. Because I watch a lot of Steph and Warriors mixes, this is probably the commentary I most often hear in mixes (or maybe it's Stephen A's other classic, "he is a SNIPER he is a MARKSMAN") and unfortunately the Monstars play a whole fucking game in which they only dunk? Even though they have Muggsy Bogues? Whereas Michael Jordan does actually literally take off from half court but obviously couldn't go in the Monstars vid. So I had to make a little treat, especially once I started thinking about how mad Jordan would be at the comparison.
Wondaland: This is the kind of treat I make most often: "look at all this great footage that I can't put in my main vid! Look at it!" Also, "I'm making this treat to prevent myself from endlessly poking ay my main assignment." But because of how the Festivids fandoms turned out, I made it for a different fandom - Wondaland Arts Society RPF. I had SO much great behind-the-scenes footage of Wondaland, especially of Jidenna (who didn't really fit in my other vid) and of various parties/jam sessions.
I made this while home from work for four days with the death flu in which I had an endless fever, sneezed constantly, had terrible watery eyes, took afternoon napping breaks, and barely had enough energy most of the time to even watch any tv with serious emotions in it. I thought I wasn't going to finish it, but somehow it happened. It's a mystery how. (Well, part of how is that I'd already showed it tothingswithwings and she kept being very helpful and supportive.) (The other part of how is a lot of tea and ibuprofen.)
It's not super polished, but it does contain a lot of feelings! And community making art! So it pleases me.
My gifts:
I also received two amazing gift vids, both of which I'm going to download excitedly as soon as I can:
Mighty Real bymetatxt, an amazing dancy vid about building communities and being seen as yourself, for the documentary Kiki.
This Love byaurumcalendula, a lovely vid for Randy and Evie, about the sweet relationship that they build (and about having that relationship and ignoring the people who want them to change) in Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love!
Weapon: I signed up for "Janelle Monáe - Works," reconsidered offering a fandom that would involve a bunch of sprawling outside source, and took it off my offers at the last minute … or at least, I thought I did. Then I got assigned it anyway. Whoops? I mean, I do like the fandom and I was excited to vid it, but I also hadn't meant to commit to "find all the outside source" as a main assignment. I did use a bunch of outside source, but some of it was actually Janelle Monáe's face, because I knew I'd need a lot of it – so, like, behind the scenes stuff, the Wondaland youtube videos, every single other music video she featured in, her episode of Electric Dreams, etc. Then I used some misc scifi meant to look like part of the same world, and some meant to be visibly different to signal that were in the fictional city of Metropolis for the intro.
Fortunately I found a song right away - this is the first time I have ever received a vid exchange assignment, gone looking though my "good songs, no vid ideas" playlist, and gone "oh, yes, use that." Weapon is an amazing and super-viddable song, and I was so bummed to have to cut the whole coda (and, like, another minute of the song on top of that). The complete song is amazing.
Also fortunately,
thingswithwings kept talking me down from additional major source acquisition projects. Me: I have to go looking for more of X! I only have two clips for that line!
twwings: I think it's fine.
Me: BUT WHAT IF I FIND SOMETHING BETTER.
twwings: You can if you want to, but really it's fine.
And having vidded "Dance Apocalyptic" with
thingswithwings a couple Wiscons ago, I had an external hard drive full of already-acquired dystopia and robot sources (like, I already had good-quality Metropolis footage) and a pretty good singing, dancing, and saying fuck you to oppressive regimes clip library. I tried to pick mostly things that wouldn't be visibly from another giant fandom so I wouldn't throw people out of the vid (e.g. I ruled out using the Hunger Games), except for the Metropolis and Blade Runner footage I used as part of the intro for some scene setting. Also for "Dance Apocalyptic" I had also done a really thorough search of the internet for a decent-quality version of "Many Moons," since the vast majority of the uploads (including the one on Janelle Monáe's youtube) have really visible frame blending and pixelization problems. (I did find one eventually - if you ever want it, just let me know.) Thanks, past me and past thingswithwings! This vid contradicts a bunch of the Cindi Mayweather canon (as I understand it from Archandroid and Metropolis lyrics), but I just couldn't figure out how to differentiate Cindi from Janelle in a time-travelling-robot-clones story, and I needed to use Primetime as Cindi's backstory in order to have any backstory at all, so.
I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, though I also realized partway through the process that apparently my festivids genre is "amazing figure lives her own life, says fuck you to oppression, and inspires people to action, and after she is gone we have forty seconds of video about working together to make a revolution."
My treats: I made two Space Jam treats and one Wondaland Arts Society RPF treat! The Space Jam vids are Monstars Hype Mix and ESPN First Take November 15, 1996, and the Wondaland Arts Society treat is Wondaland.
Space Jam treats: I had planned to make the Space Jam treats last year but I ran out of time, so I had already clipped the movie and picked out the music and everything! I started making those vids shortly after
bingeling posted their dear festividder letter with a similar request in it this year. They mentioned a Monstars hype vid, and I really wanted to make one in the style of an NBA hype vid! 300 Violin Orchestra is a pretty popular song for NBA vids (and it has a nice slow ramp up, for the little guys transforming, and then like six minutes of easy-to-cut instrumental). I cut it to 1:30 and still baaaaarely managed enough basketball footage - the game itself isn't a major part of the movie, weirdly enough, and a lot of the footage looks really similar (and there are two dunks that I swear are actually partially the same animation). You can't tell if from looking at the final vid, but I speed-adjusted almost every clip here – a lot of the game in the film is in 25% slomo, but if I made it 100% regular speed all the clips would be too short, so basically every clip needed some speed-changing nonsense.A proper NBA hype mix needs some over-the-top commentary, so I spent a lot of time at work listening to various NBA videos on youtube in an endless recommendation-algorithm loop. Although I'm an NBA fan my team is the Warriors, who are mostly fast shooters rather than drives-to-the-rim dunkers, so a lot of the commentary I hear all the time wasn't appropriate for this vid. I knew Russ and LeBron would get me some gr8 commentary if I just cycled through a bunch of First Take and The Jump, though! I spent a lot of time laughing at Stephen A and Skip tbh, and also being annoyed by the crosstalk fucking up all the Rachel Nichols audio I wanted to use AND the "this is the apocalypse lineup" audio. I eventually had to go back to the Bad Boys in order to get some of the more "they're violent and don't care" commentary without crosstalk or music under it.
A proper NBA hupe mix also needs some bright flashes or overlays, so I used some of the free Rocketstock light leaks in overlays because I didn't want to have to do this in After Effects.
The second Space Jam treat I made was based on some commentary that couldn't go in my main treat. Because I watch a lot of Steph and Warriors mixes, this is probably the commentary I most often hear in mixes (or maybe it's Stephen A's other classic, "he is a SNIPER he is a MARKSMAN") and unfortunately the Monstars play a whole fucking game in which they only dunk? Even though they have Muggsy Bogues? Whereas Michael Jordan does actually literally take off from half court but obviously couldn't go in the Monstars vid. So I had to make a little treat, especially once I started thinking about how mad Jordan would be at the comparison.
Wondaland: This is the kind of treat I make most often: "look at all this great footage that I can't put in my main vid! Look at it!" Also, "I'm making this treat to prevent myself from endlessly poking ay my main assignment." But because of how the Festivids fandoms turned out, I made it for a different fandom - Wondaland Arts Society RPF. I had SO much great behind-the-scenes footage of Wondaland, especially of Jidenna (who didn't really fit in my other vid) and of various parties/jam sessions.
I made this while home from work for four days with the death flu in which I had an endless fever, sneezed constantly, had terrible watery eyes, took afternoon napping breaks, and barely had enough energy most of the time to even watch any tv with serious emotions in it. I thought I wasn't going to finish it, but somehow it happened. It's a mystery how. (Well, part of how is that I'd already showed it to
thingswithwings and she kept being very helpful and supportive.) (The other part of how is a lot of tea and ibuprofen.)It's not super polished, but it does contain a lot of feelings! And community making art! So it pleases me.
My gifts:
I also received two amazing gift vids, both of which I'm going to download excitedly as soon as I can:
Mighty Real by
metatxt, an amazing dancy vid about building communities and being seen as yourself, for the documentary Kiki.This Love by
aurumcalendula, a lovely vid for Randy and Evie, about the sweet relationship that they build (and about having that relationship and ignoring the people who want them to change) in Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love!
no subject
Date: 2018-02-04 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-05 01:15 am (UTC)Also "amazing figure lives her own life, says fuck you to oppression, and inspires people to action, and after she is gone we have forty seconds of video about working together to make a revolution." is the genre we need right now, so go you.