What's the deal with these pikachus?

[lola]

We thought it would be worthwhile to talk about the origins and reasoning behind the pechakuchas (and to some degree, all of the exercises).

So, pechakuchas originated as a still image presentation format--where you present 20 images, each for twenty seconds. https://www.pechakucha.com/

The folks who created the videographic criticism exercises (which were in turn the inspiration for these vidding exercises) adapted the pechakucha for video rather than still images. The pechakucha is the first of the videographic exercises, and it's designed to be an accessible way into editing for newbies. The constraints are there to make it possible to focus on learning the tech skills, but also because it's fascinating to see what creativity can come from those limits.

I feel like it's the constraints that also make these fun to do for ppl who already know their way around editing tools; it takes certain choices away and so we have to dig deeper and differently and the results are surprising and sometimes reveal something about the media we're working with that we wouldn't get at otherwise, if we were just doing our usual thing. 

Adapting these for vidding, I thought it was an opportunity to think about the impact of music in vids--the same set of shots can have such a different effect with musical choice! And the six second clip is a really challenge for vidders, when our edits are usually faster than that, and we don't usually use internal edits. I feel like that makes this an especially interesting exercise for folks who have already made some vids, because we have to learn to work with our media in a new way, finding ways to make the internal edits work for us instead of just dismantling them completely.

If you've already started the pechakuchas, how have you found the seemingly arbitrary limits? Frustrating? Creatively stimulating? A bit of both? And how about the notion of applying the different music to the same clips? Personally, I find it kind of crazy how a second piece of music that I didn't plan can totally change the feel of my vid but still work! 

Comments

[bonibaru]

Experienced person here and BOY DO I HAVE THINGS TO SAY about this seemingly simple exercise.

My vidding habits include meticulous compartmentalization of a music selection as step 1. I go through the audio track in Premiere and add markers at the start/end of each verse or musical bridge, then color code markers to breakout different sections, and then go back at an even more micro level to mark all the major & minor beats and rhythms. My project timeline before I ever lay a clip down consists of an mp3 track and seventy gazillion markers in different colors dissecting the music like a biological specimen laid out with labelled pins in all its major and minor organs. (sorry for the visual, heh)

So of course the start of this project for me (after choosing a preliminary song and my source subject & episodes) was to open a timeline and put 11 markers on it (including a start marker at time 0) exactly 6 seconds apart. I started this at about the 30 second mark on the timeline, so I would have room to slide the mp3 back and forth along those markers while looking for the section I wanted to use. Someone asked me on AO3 how I had managed to time some things so well and the answer was because I lined up those 6-second milestone markers with the audio waveform beat profile before I finalized which section of the music I would take.

(I am beat-driven. My DNA marches to internal rhythms. I hear music as movement, and that movement includes jump cuts from one camera to the next. As people I beta for can attest I will nag the crap out of a person if there is a misaligment of beat & cut/movement that would otherwise be perfectly reasonable to shift, lol.)

So the very first constraint for me that I had to really wrestle with was not being allowed to do frame by frame edits or re-splice a scene in order to hit various musical beats.

That was HARD. There were clips I wanted to use so bad it HURT ME to not have them fit right. But it just made me work harder to find clips that would work within the allotted framework.

Using internal camera cuts was much easier when I had both the 6-second timeline markers and the color-coded sub-markers on the beats, to try to line up to. This is where the precision & flexibility of Premiere and a lot of hands-on experience came in handy. Choosing clips that had the right narrative flow + emotional feel + intra-scene cuts that could work with the music became my mission and I was determined not to fail.

[lola]

Oh I'm totally stealing the idea of internal beat markers to line up with audio beat markers. Because yes, I'm making more pikachus. They're addictive, like pringles, I swear.

But I really like the way it makes you go to different clips, since you have different criteria. I really feel like that is super generative!

Choosing clips that had the right narrative flow + emotional feel + intra-scene cuts that could work with the music became my mission and I was determined not to fail.
Yes, this, totally, that's becoming my approach too. I guess the question is then, how might some of that translate when we no longer have the pikachu restrictions? Or does it translate? Does it give us new things to look for, that can be effective, even when we're not forced to use them?

[extrapenguin]

Constraints definitely breed creativity! I enjoyed this seemingly arbitrary limit enough to give myself another seemingly arbitrary limit for the next exercise – all the clips must come from the same episode. (As I have ample free time, I've gone and peeked and had ideas about the upcoming exercises all through exercise 6. Let's see how soon I end up "finishing" this, and whether I'll go for a bonus round after. *g*)

Thank you for the post on the idea behind the exercise – I found it interesting. I'd definitely enjoy it being a regular feature.

[jinkyo]

Thanks for this background info!

So, I finished my two pechakuchas, uploaded them to YouTube, played them back a few times and...

Yeah, so I went back to the drawing board.

The directions seemed simple enough. I don't tend to use internal edits, so most of my 6 sec. clips were of the type I usually clip - longer single shots with internal motion. However....urg, they weren't particularly interesting.

Now, on my second go-round, I'm looking to make the pechakuchas things that I wouldn't mind adding to Ao3, versus "exercises" that I'd only intended to upload unlisted, for practice purposes.

The biggest change is switching to a different source. My first drafts used a new-to-me source that I've been anxious to get on a cutting timeline. The two episode restriction was fine by me because I have a limited number of eps onhand. One reason I think the first draft didn't work is that I'm not nearly literate enough in the new source material. Like, I can see that I want "this shot, and this shot, and this shot" but I don't know the source well enough yet to even know if I have "those shots" at my disposal.

So, I've moved to an older source that I've cut before and have a deep mental catalog of what shots are available.

The second change is that I'd picked my first draft music as a lark. Basically, two audios that were extremely different, while still relevant to the footage. I ended up spending most of today re-auditioning music.

[bonibaru]

This was so interesting to read! I threw out several hours work today too because similar to what you said - it just bored me.

[lola]

I feel like there's totally room for both--exercises that just help you get the feel of new source, or just mess around and experiment, and exercises that actually feel like a thing of themselves, where somehow the restrictions help you get somewhere that just really *works*.

I've been using BTS for mine, and I've never really worked with this kind of source before, so I feel like mine are very messy and me sort of sorting things out and learning what the footage feels like. But that's good!! That said, I'm thinking of taking another source thats more traditional and making a set of the exercises with those as well, so that I can have both sides of the experience.

If you're up for it, maybe you could share both the rougher ones and the more polished ones here in the comm? It could be interesting to think about the differences!

[thatyourefuse]

I LOVED THIS EXERCISE SO MUCH.

I picked a source that gave me a lot of long, slow takes to work with, and I kind of want to go back and do a second set using something with faster cuts -- but damn, was this a fantastic crash course in really, really thinking about clip sequence. (The formal constraints were also excellent for essentially forcing me to look away from my creative block, which is something I always hope is going to happen and don't always end up getting.)

[melannen]

I would never have even tried to vid again without those constraints! The simple rules and the limits gave me permission to do what I could and fuck up without obsessing over all the things that are possible that I can't do yet.