Summer School Vexercises! Vex 1 Drops 💧 ✨

[lola]

Hi all! Today is the official beginning of the summer vexercises! We're excited to get going!

Welcome to new folks and to familiar vexercisers! We've got a new set of vexercises planned for the summer, but you can always choose to do one of the earlier versions of any particular vexercise (whether you've done them before or not), or to do all of the OG vexercises, if you'd like! We'll link to the earlier versions each time a new vexercise posts as well.

Logistics: Generally, the way this works is: We drop a vexercise, with some explanation and examples. Feel free to ask questions or to share examples of vids that are in the vein of a particular challenge, or relevant resources in that post. A week later we'll make a check in post to see how everyone is doing. And the following week (on Saturday), the vexercise will be "due." Then, on the next day (Sunday) we'll drop the next vexercise, and follow the same two-week cycle. It's pretty simple!

Quick note on due dates and rules: Due dates are always as firm or as flexible as you need them to be for your creative process or RL schedule. And that goes for pretty much anything re: the vexercises, including the "rules" of each vexercise, even the minute length. You can take them as iron clad if that helps you, or you can approach them as more flexible guidelines if you'd rather.

So, without further ado, here's summer school vexercise one!

Vexercise 1: The Haiku

Five 2-second shots, followed by seven 1-second shots, followed by five 2-second shots = one 27 second vidlet

If you'd like, can make a double haiku, to end with a 54 second vid that's closer to a full minute. Or you can make as many of these babies as you want.
 

This came out of a suggestion at vidukon which we thought was a really cool concept--what would the poetry structure of a Haiku look like if reimagined for a vid? Let's find out! What we know so far: they're a bit faster paced than the pechakuchas, which is refreshing, but also a bit potentially challenging rhythmically. Using a song that's 120 beats per minute might help make it simpler, but you can always use the internal edits of the source itself to add a cut if you feel like it needs one. Or you can absolutely do the OG pechakuchas, details linked here!

I've made a couple of haikus. For the first one, I followed the "rules" very closely, and for the other I made a double haiku, for which I took some more liberties. Because this is the first time we've done this haiku thing, these are the only two examples we have right now! I can't wait to see what folks come up with so we can expand this list. But for now:

Got A Secret (xxxholic)
dancing with our hands tied (Word of Honor)

Post any initial questions you have here, as well as any pechakuchas or comments that you make! Also stay tuned in the very near future for a post on technology questions & possibilities.

Comments

[aka_rat]

I started working on the vexercises right after the Con.Txt workshop, so I already have this one ^_^'

For my source material, I decided to go with Supernatural, and narrowed it down to a few episodes from the "divorce arc" in season 15, so I could do a bunch of break-up songs. :D

First I did a pechakucha 2-way: https://youtu.be/9up2bPCEdXk

I chose Running, Jumping, Standing Still (The Ergs) because it's one of my favorite songs, but the pacing seems kinda weird. And then because I did that shot of Lee with "a different girl", it was hard to find another song where that clip choice didn't come out of left field. BUT then I found Heartbreaker (Dolly Parton) and OMG it's a perfect example of the second song almost fitting better than the first!!

After the new versions of the vexercises were dropped, I immediately wanted to try the haiku, and this is what I came up with:

Stinking of Whiskey Blues (The Ergs again): https://youtu.be/fUKDSQp9JGg

The song is clipped kinda funny to fit, and I did cheat a tiny bit (when Lee falls to the floor and Dean staggers back, that's one 4-second clip) but I'm still pretty happy with it!

I would love to hear any feedback or critique.

[salamandras]

I really like the Dolly Parton one - you got the shots to line up with the lyrics really well.

[nu_breed]

It still hurts me to look at Dean's face ;_________;

But I loved loved loved these - especially the haiku!!! That was such a great episode :D

[alexseanchai]

what's "double haiku" in this context? because 54 / 17 = 3 point something.

[lola]

Oh, my bad! That was a typo. A single haiku is 27 seconds, not 17! So a double haiku is 54. Sorry for the confusion!

[just_a_k_really]

Yaaay!! \o/
I'm still acquiring some sources, but I need to get my vidding juices in motion asap 😎

[bonibaru]

Quick note: isn't it a 120 bpm song instead of 100bpm? Am I miscounting?

[nu_breed]

Yeah I think so from my experiments the 120 worked but the 100 didn't.

A set of Pechakuckas!

[nu_breed]

Soooo because last time I did a triptych of 80s power ballads for Summer School I did a triptych of 80s hair metal and I am stunned at how well they fit the Yiling Laozu arc of CQL! I meant to choose 2 out of 3 but I like them all so here they all are:

The Yin Iron Is Not the Only Metal Here (陈情令 | The Untamed)

Will give the haikus a bash tomorrow but OMG Pechakuchas are so freaking addictive always.

Re: A set of Pechakuckas!

[aka_rat]

I liked the alternate version of Welcome to the Jungle the best. But I also loved the flute shots with "18 and Life". :D

[marah_sarie]

So I also made a Pechakucha immediately after con.txt:

Xiao Wu: Just A Girl | In A Crown (Vexercise 1 - Pechakucha)

My source is Douluo Continent, and I couldn't decide where to cut either song, so it ended up going over a minute.

And then last week after the Summer School announcement I made what ended up being a Triple Haiku.

Tang San: Try Everything (Vexercise 1 - Haiku)

Going from 6 second clips in the Pechakucha to 1 second clips in the Haiku was a challenge, but I have already learned so much from doing these!

[nu_breed]

OMG DOULUO CONTINENT? EEEEEEE

[seasaltmemories_14]

I decided to try and do another Kyousougiga vid to compare how I improved when I did my first pechakucha challenge, and in the end I am really proud of myself, I fudged things a little at the end so that I could finish the verse fully, but in general I think my eye for color and graphic matching has improved a lot

Ex Tempore

[marah_sarie]

I don't know this source at all, but this was really atmospheric. I really liked the transition from the autumn colours to the burning house at 0:21, and that last transition from the falling star to the morning glory!

[extrapenguin]

Finally, an excuse to use all the gameplay footage I've meticulously recorded from when I've been playing Star Wars: the Old Republic! (Or if not all, then a select amount.) I also figured that since we were cutting at the second, something at 60 or 120 bpm (1 or 2 bps) would be best. A bit of poking around the internet, and turns out that Stratovarius has released a 120 bpm called Destiny. Given the expansions I was using footage from, the title fit excellently, and so did the lyrics – even if I only ended up using a bit of the instrumental intro. Behold:

(No-One Can Escape) Destiny

[seasaltmemories_14]

Ah using game footage can be a tricky thing, but you pulled it off really well! I like the movement the different running scenes added

[seekingferret]

I'm not ready to do another Jews dancing vid but I've been collecting more source for the past year and it seemed plausible to make a vid haiku using that source, so I did one to Zion80's Veshamru, and it was a fun way to spend a few minutes. It was satisfying since it's been frustrating to sit on this material for all this time and not vid with it.

Hai-jew?

[aka_rat]

That was super fun <3

[tafadhali]

I was really torn on what source I wanted to use for Vexercises, but I've been vidding a lot of Utena lately and so finally decided to lean into that. I just posted my haiku, which let me use a song (in highly, highly edited form) that I'd decided not to vid but couldn't get out of my head:

One Night in Ohtori

[nu_breed]

This was so fun! Great song choice :D

[caramarie]

I made a couple of the (single) haiku for Alice in Borderland:
Momoka
Forensics

I don't think I've ever paid any attention to the BPM of a song before! But it did help for this exercise ...

[inkjunket]

I made a Word of Honor double haiku:

Groove Is in the Heart

The BPM guidance was super helpful. Now I want to make a real 27-second haiku because I think having permission for something to be a small experiment will be good...

[quinnish]

I made what started out as a haiku and then kind of... shifted. So now it is 7-4-6 and also maybe an actual vid? A 31 second long vid, but a complete vid!

Note: the song lyrics buy into the villification of visible body differences, which is some harmful bs. I super do not endorse this. Roman Sionis totally would; he's not a good person.

Roman Sionis from Birds of Prey appearing in
Romy's a Bad Guy
featuring (Am I a) Bad Guy by Tom Cardy
cw: violence (a backhand), needles, possibly flashes? (there's a disco ball), a serious creeper, nonconsensual interactions

I'm going to try to make a pechakucha in the coming week and see how that goes -- maybe this time I'll pick something which is less tempting to tweak into something not quite following the directions. (Maybe.) >.>

[salamandras]

I used Guardian and The Mamas & The Papas song Words of Love for the haiku.

The song's bpm were a tiny bit slower than 120, so I sped up the audio just a touch.

[inkjunket]

Ooooh I LOVED this.

[periru3]

I'll be using Over the Garden Wall for all my vexercises, cause it is short and pretty and so far it's been very fun to work with! Just did a haiku, and I'm thinking of maybe attempting a Pechakucha as well just for the heck of it.

Turtle

[aka_rat]

This was so fun. I liked the text effects!

[nu_breed]

I had a false start - my original haiku was a triple that is now a full vid (and a potential FWC premiere so I can't share it just yet) but I finally managed to figure out the key to cutting down to 27 seconds, so here's mine:

Control (陈情令 | The Untamed)

[inkjunket]

I managed to make a single haiku! My song was a little slower than 120 BPM and it was more challenging to edit than the first one I did at 120; I kept wanting to pull things out of the haiku structure. It definitely made me think more about tempo and clip length!

Boys in the Ocean (Word of Honor)

[snycock]

I stuck with the pechakuchas, because you're right, they're really addictive. This time I was inspired by the music first - I was listening to Take Me To Church - and picked the clips based on that.

I did one round where I focused on action and movement shots, because I think sometimes I pick clips based on their importance in the fandom, but that's not always the best visually.

Summer Vexercise 1a: Action and movement trio

Then I did a round where I focused more on close shots and conversation shots, just to see how it was different

Summer Vexercise 1b: Close and conversational shots

I'm so glad to be doing this again!

[allheadybooks]

Just the one haiku this time, from Killing Eve to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs "10x10" which has a handy 120bpm!

"into my life" on Youtube or on Vimeo

[laura47]

oh that 120 bpm is very nice! it's so clean and crisp. :)

[laura47]

Alright, here I am. :-D I started with haikus and using new software (davinci resolve), and was on the verge of giving up when nu_breed encouraged me to just do pechakuchas and use the software i know (but don't love), final cut pro. It took awhile, but I did it! First trad fanvids I've finished since... 2017? 2018? A long time ago!

Here they are on my brand new fannish-only youtube account!

Decide (Thor (2011))

Destroy (Thor (2011))

I think I'm losing quality, but I've decided to figure out how to export better later (I'm not putting these anywhere besides this thread for now), so I can move on to the next one. :-D

Much thanks to nu_breed for advice and cheerleading and sprinting - I quite literally would not have done this without you!