1st exercises drops! vidding pechakuchas

[lola]

Hello all! Today's the day we kick off our first exercise. This exercise is designed to be reasonably accessible to all... if you're new to editing, then it's a doable way in, and if you already know your way around editing software, then it's addictively fun to make these pechakuchas and surprising how well they turn out! 

Here's the description: 

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!]

Then, when you're done, come back here to this post, and post a link in the comments to your completed exercise(s) when they're finished! 

[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 videographic pechakucha’s here: http://videographicessay.org/works/videographic-essay/videographic-pechakuchas?path=videographic-exercises and a more vidlike one Lola made here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls9x7shBjDY.]

For all of these exercises, the rules are hard and fast, unless you don't want them to be :D Some people work best with really specific restrictions, others work best as rule breakers <3

So edit, share, question, mess around, and experiment! Have fun!

Stay tuned for posts & discussions on various video-editing softwares & on choosing your source.

Comments

[lola]

That song is so beautiful!! I can totally see it working wonderfully with Guardian! Can't wait to see it! :)
kdenlive looks like a pretty full service video editing software! I can't try it out cause it's just for windows, but I'll be interested to hear how you get along with it!

[extrapenguin]

I found my final clip! \o/ And managed to make a vid! Now, to figure out another song – I think I "overfitted" the clips to my song. (The intent was to present the same visual material with two different audios, right?) In the interests of starting out, I just did clip selection and placement, but it does seem to have color grading and more, uh, noticeable effects as well. I might tinker with them on later assignments.

Do you have any recommendations on hosting? Youtube?

[lola]

Hooray!!! That's awesome!!!
Yes, the same visual material, two different audios, to play with the way visuals can convey so differently with different audios... So no more editing the visuals!
And for the pechakuchas (or as we're apparently calling them now, pikachus) yes, no need to get fancy with color grading and effects, but for future videos when you feel ready, absolutely!

[extrapenguin]

Yes, the same visual material, two different audios, to play with the way visuals can convey so differently with different audios...
Great! :D Part 2 with the different song shall have to wait for tomorrow, but I uploaded the first version to YouTube! What I Wish For. Concrit welcome, though idk how much would be relevant for a non-pechakucha – the 6s clip length was a challenge for my level of footage-memory.

[lola]

This is so lovely!!! It awoke all my slumbering Guardian feels! Wow, the song is so intensely perfect for the source, and for the clips you chose! I thought this vid had lovely movement and just pulled me right along!

[extrapenguin]

This is so lovely!!! It awoke all my slumbering Guardian feels!
\o/ Yay!!!! I picked my second song overnight and rendered in the morning, so I guess I've completed exercise #1? Hopefully the audio is different enough. :P Vid version 2.

[lola]

Okay, the second one is AMAZING and so different!! I mean they're both great, and it's amazing how they hone in on different aspects of the story and Shen Wei's character and narrative arc. And the timing worked beautifully in the second one! Isn't it crazy how two different audios can totally work in two different ways?

[extrapenguin]

Yay! Thank you for the hand-holding. :] It's really interesting how they both worked okay – I have vague theories about having similar BPMs, so the places where the music had a beat would've been similar for both, but idk if that has any basis in reality. (And for the second one, I kept imagining the POV as Zhu Jiu lurking in the bushes, ranting about Shen Wei betraying Dixing. *g*)

[lola]

I kept imagining the POV as Zhu Jiu lurking in the bushes, ranting about Shen Wei betraying Dixing. *g*)
Oh yes! I didn't think of Zhu Jiu specifically, but I definitely thought of how this was a narrative told about Shen Wei, maybe even guilt he feels himself. It's such an interesting angle!

[jinkyo]

I'm not familiar with Gaurdians, but I loved the different feels of these two videos. The second one had a very "spy" movie feel to it, reinforced for me by the (looked like a P2 video card/flash memory card) shots and the briefcase at the end.

I really enjoyed what was happening at around :28 seconds. In both, the music picks up intensity and the clip (adjust tie, sweat drip) really held the tension.

[extrapenguin]

I'm glad it worked even for someone not in the fandom! Thank you for the handholding and encouragement. :3

(In case you're interested: Guardian is a Earth-set science fiction procedural that turns into world-saving. The guy with the glasses/briefcase is an alien. It's also a bromance due to censorship, but the bromance paint is very tenuous. It's available for full on YouTube via Youku, the production company.)

[lola]

Oh, and yes, I'd say YouTube or vimeo (vimeo allows you to password protect if you want, but has some uploading limits with their free accounts). If they give you copyright problems, you can sign up to get a Critical Commons account. https://criticalcommons.org/accounts/signup/ Lately these days I use YouTube and Critical Commons.