Vexercise 1 Drops! (2021 Edition)

[lola]

Hi all!!! Here we go, the first vexercise of the 2021 edition! We're so excited to play in this sandbox again, and hope you are all as well!

For this first vexercise, we decided to keep it simple and stay with the original version of the vexercise. We've found that this vidding pechakucha variation has been a terrific exercises for people new to vidding to learn the ropes of editing, and for old timers to try out new media sources, new ideas, or to embrace the limitations and to see what you can do within them. So many amazing and inspiring videos came out of these vexercises last year. You can see them on this YouTube playlist that bonibaru  put together, plus others that were not posted to YouTube at the Vexercise collection on A03. 

Here are the instructions/guidelines for this first vexercise: 


1) Pechakucha 2 ways

Create a video edit of exactly 60 seconds consisting of precisely 10 video clips from your chosen source text, each lasting precisely 6 seconds, assembled with straight cuts. Make two versions of your pechakucha, with 1 minute excerpts from two different songs as audio. Fade in and out on your audio at the beginning and end of the audio clip.

[Word to the wise: Most six second clips that you use are bound to have in-clip cuts--you don't have to go looking only for clips that have no internal cuts. But you can make those internal cuts work for you rhythmically or thematically etc!]

[This exercise is inspired directly by the first of the videographic criticism exercises, but modified here to be vid/fanedit focused with the inclusion of music from an outside source. You can see some examples of the original videographic pechakucha’s here and a more vidlike one Lola made here. !!And now you can see way more wonderful vidding pikachus on this YouTube Playlist (as well as examples of the other O.G. vexercises at the vexercises collection on a03! 

If you have any questions about this vexercise, either before you start or as you get going, feel free to post them here!

Stay tuned for a post about technology, resources, etc., and a check in next saturday. This vexercise will be "due" in two weeks, so March 27

Comments

[snycock]

Okay. *deep breath* I'm just going to apologize right off the bat, because I've never vidded before, and I've never used DaVinci Resolve before, so this was a steep learning curve on both counts, and I'm sure these show it. I think I could do a much better job with cuts, and I didn't really have any theme other than wanting clips of Jim and Blair together (and possibly touching), but I wanted to play with how different music choices changed the feel of the vid.

Feel | Following - The Sentinel

If I have time I'm going to play around with Resolve some more and hopefully do a better job with clips (thank you Lola for the link to the tutorial!), so I might end up posting a couple more pechakuchas, but I wanted to get at least something in before Saturday so I wouldn't be behind.

[snycock]

Great music choices! I really enjoyed this!

[allheadybooks]

Here we go!! I did two totally different pechakuchas, just like last year, since I initially misunderstood the prompt but it ended up being very fun that way. I'm working with a new-to-me source, Atomic Blonde, and compared to last year's source (mostly the first season of Hannibal) it's been very fun so far: more fight scenes and less talky bits, since they have less run time to fill than TV show would, and--less run time! Clipping is going so fast!

I set one vid to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Heads Will Roll" and the other to Edith Piaf's "Je Sais Comment," and you can find links and embedded video to them both here:

Permanent AO3 link for both vids
off with their heads on YouTube
Je Sais Comment on YouTube

[amedia]

Links to my pechakuchas! I decided to use Rat Patrol (a half-hour drama set in the North African theater during World War II), because, to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any all-Rat Patrol fanvids out there. I know of exactly two multi vids that included it, and I've digitized one and can't (yet) get my hands on the other.

Also, I ♥ Rat Patrol. So I did a playful pikachu to a novelty song, and then used a dreamy love song for the second version and was surprised how well it worked in places.

https://vimeo.com/528628433: Convoy

https://vimeo.com/528629273: Snow on the Sahara

[amedia]

the deep and introspective theme of "spinny action"

LOL, such a great theme, and these were positively exhilarating to watch! It was very cool to see how both songs worked in different ways.

[amedia]

Wow wow wow!

"Alone" is so gorgeously bombastic that at first it felt like a commentary on how extra LWJ is. The transition from the blood dripping down his hand to him giving WWX the energy transfusion got me thinking that there was more to it--it's an awesome cut. And then the line "I never really cared until I met you" and the clip you matched it with gave me totally unironic FEELS. ♥

"Summer Rain" felt so different, so much lighter, but also wistful.

"All the Things She Said" - I was expecting Tat2 and then I realized it wasn't from the 80's! I liked how this song was more downbeat and I found myself seriously admiring the cuts and especially how it's consistently clear that we're always looking through LWJ's eyes.

[amedia]

I love how you sustained the idea of Wei Wuxian pursuing and falling into darkness. The horrified reactions of Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji, and the terror of Wen Chao and the glimpses of the other victims--pitch perfect. Both songs worked really well to highlight different aspects of WWX's terrifying journey.

Banana Phone!!! You had me at "boop-a-doop-a-doop" on WWX's flute. :-D

[amedia]

The POV switch worked incredibly well--I was really surprised how "beloved slash object who doesn't seem interested" LWJ in the first one turned into "pensive and reluctantly-in-love" LWJ in the second!!! And both were really good in themselves, too.

[nu_breed]

Ahhhh so glad you enjoyed it - I was inspired to use Alone because one of my favourite vids from Merlin fandom is sisabet's Alone and I thought it would be fun to play around with the song - it is soooo dramatic :D

So happy you enjoyed them!

[extrapenguin]

\o/ I'm now actually contemplating how vidding a normal vid to one song and swapping that for another with the same BPM might work? (It'd be an interesting experiment if nothing else...) I'm glad all the different song choices landed exactly as intended. Especially the Kesha one. :P

[nu_breed]

So this is a wee trick that Killabeez mentioned at the last FanWorks con in a panel around music choice and I’ve used it since. I always, before I decide for sure if a song is likely going to work, drag a previous vid (or someone else’s vid if I haven’t vidded in that fandom yet) onto the timeline and drag the song in and see if they match tonally/thematically etc.

Obviously I don’t use the same clips, but it does give me a chance to see if it FEELS right on an emotional/tonal/stylistic level.

[actiaslunaris]

These are delightful! Both worked so well for me, and each song definitely seemed appropriate to the source.

[amedia]

Thanks so much--I'm really glad to hear it! <3

New links to Rat Patrol pechakuchas

[amedia]

New links without the watermarks:

https://vimeo.com/529001344: Convoy
https://vimeo.com/529001599: Snow on the Sahara

Re: I did the thing!

[amedia]

Such great song choices for bringing out the angst and suffering and comfort! I've seen a lot of funny S&H vids and a lot of romantic ones, but the serious ones are rarer and when they're really well done--like yours!--they bring out deeper, darker aspects of the show. Yay!

[amedia]

OMG, I loved ALL of these versions so much! It's hard to pick my favorite, but I loved how Sankaritar fit the "Shen Wei angst" theme so well, and how Chu Shuzhi's moves looked like dancing in the "Tik Tok" version!

The clip choices were awesome throughout--for some reason, I really liked the close-up on the Black Robed Envoy's feet/swirling robe as he walks, and how the meaning of the clip shifts with each different song. *claps*

[amedia]

Wow wow wow. I love all three and the different feelings they embed into the clips. I also love the way you set up the parallel between Wei Wuxian using his mad archery skilz to shame the other contestants and un-endanger the Wen remnants, with the way he takes away and drinks Lan Wangji's alcohol right in Jin Zixun's face when the latter is trying to undermine the Lan. Yes, he's showing off, yes, he's a bit smug about it, but *damn* he does it so freaking well. I also like how the vid gets darker both thematically and visually as it goes on, and how it works with the different musical styles.

And oh, during "Fire Woman," the way the music builds to a climax on the targets and then the tension releases as WWX fires the arrows--that was brilliant!

[amedia]

Wow, both gorgeous!!! I like the angst of the first one and the cooler vibe of the second one. Even not knowing anything about the source, I was impressed with the imagery you chose. I gotta remember to come back and watch it again when I've seen WoH!!!

[amedia]

Wow, from pensive reflection to murder-y togetherness, with the same set of clips! I haven't seen WoH yet, but I really enjoyed the color and movement in the clips you chose, and how they fit with two such different narratives.

[bonibaru]

Thank you!!! WoH is so good. So good!

[bonibaru]

Wow! Distinctly different feeling between the two vids. I also liked that the music selection feels right for the time period of the show!

[bonibaru]

These are so good! I apologize for giggling all the way through Convoy but that song choice was just so perfect and it really entertained me. The love song gave it a whole different aesthetic! So much more serious and they're going on a more intense journey. Well done.

[bonibaru]

Oh I really like these!

[amedia]

I'm glad you giggled--that was my intent! I think I re-heard "Convoy" a few months ago on one of those roundups of novelty songs everyone supposedly hates, and as soon as I heard the word "Convoy" I thought of Rat Patrol and those everlasting convoys.

The love song really surprised me. I kept thinking, "if I had d/loaded more episodes and could do shorter clips, I know I'd put for this line, and for this line ..." The funny thing is that I don't even ship Troy/Dietrich, but omg, the visuals are SO THERE, and I was surprised to see that the song worked at all.

[airawyn]

Thank you! That could be fun to try sometime.