Vexercise 2 Check In & Origins

[lola]

Hello Vexercisers! Somehow, it's the weekend already! How is Vexercise 2 treating you? Are you finding it easier or harder than Vexercise 1? What types of issues are cropping up? 

People seemed to like when I shared the origins for Vexercise 1, so I'll try to keep that going. In this case, this Vexercise was in part inspired by this post by Lim in the Videlicet Vidding Zine. I feel like motion and graphic matching are such a wonderful tools in vidding, but maybe ones we don't talk about explicitly all that often, at least as often as we do scene choice, lyrical interpretation, etc. 

Does approaching this Vexercise looking for opportunities for graphic and motion matching make you see the source in a different way? Does it maybe give new insights about repeating imagery or camera movements in your source? I find that's totally happening to me! 

Comments

[naye]

So, uh. There's a slight possibility I got to one minute and found that it was way too short, and that this has lead to...more vidding. Despite the whole newbie thing. I blame bonibaru and you should too!

I am loving the graphic/motion matching! My main challenge was to break out of a matching loop, because in my source I have a lot of footage of longing looks and once I started stringing them together I could easily have done and entire exercise of just that. So figuring out how to either pick up on something else in the shot or straight up interrupt it and start another sequence of matching was something I worked on quite a bit. And I think I've figured out ways of dealing with it in this vid that I'm happy with, but I can see how it could become a recurring challenge using this type of tool.

Another challenge is that I'm trying to do multiple types of matching at once - not just the motion, but also the lyrics and the beat and the story arc of the vid overall. So that both helps in that it limits what clips I can use, and also - well. Hinders, because it limits what clips I can use!

[lola]

Eeeeeh I am so excited that this has led to still more vidding!! And yes, while a video that just consists of eyef**ing could technically be all graphic matches and match on action, LOL, I suppose it's good to mix it up a bit :D I love the idea of just following a thread left by a previous shot, so it's like a sort of path of matches... that's really cool!

And yes, once you throw in all those other limits... it's limits galore, which can be really generative and help a timeline actually get filled!

[naye]

I will say that I feel these exercises are going to be really formative in what I do with vids in the future - I'm never not going to be looking for those graphic and action matches now. It's so very satisfying to find the right one to follow - really does feel like a following a thread in a labyrinth.

[bonibaru]

Another challenge is that I'm trying to do multiple types of matching at once - not just the motion, but also the lyrics and the beat and the story arc of the vid overall.

This is one of the biggest challenges, juggling everything and trying to make judgment calls down to the microsecond sometimes. Which is why I like the focused structure of these exercises. Like trying to learn an entire piano concerto, but movement by movement, so that by the end all the pieces come together into a beautiful whole.

[naye]

Which is why I like the focused structure of these exercises. Like trying to learn an entire piano concerto, but movement by movement, so that by the end all the pieces come together into a beautiful whole.
It is so useful! As a complete beginner learning these fundamental skills by (technically) concentrating on one at a time is so very helpful! And then yeah, like you said - I can incorporate more and more of them into a whole.

[bonibaru]

Lim's essay has been a favorite I refer to over and over and over when talking to new vidders and I am so glad you put it here. Talking to each other about the craft is one thing that is most rewarding for me about this subset of fandom creators.

[actiaslunaris]

I found this easier than exercise one, which was hard because all this time as a vidder I'd been training myself to cut more closely and more often; to build meaning with multiple clips rather than using one long clip. It was very old-school to return to that style, so returning to the style I've been cultivating for this new exercise was a relief.

It was still challenging because I had a concept I wanted to use, but couldn't do with the limit on source, so I just threw up my hands and decided to break that rule, which was hard for me on a personal level because working within limits is easier on me than not. It was also challenging because I'd just finished a fanvid that relied on this type of matching, and I am not good at it (or other vidders just make it look easy?), so returning to trying to do this was a bit like tapping a dry well. At least, I'm very familiar with my source and I don't have to build a mental catalog of visuals for it like I do for unfamiliar sources. Even so, I tore out the last half of the vid a few times in trying to match for motion, because I wanted more flow, but couldn't find it. I did finally find a good flow, but I had to work for it.

It was interesting to me to find, in rewatching some of my older vids, that I'd been graphic matching more often that I thought I did. Motion matching is fun for faster music, but graphic matching seems a better companion for slower music, and even though I used both for my vid, that was a fascinating realization.

[bonibaru]

I feel what you said so much - the agonies of both working within limits, and also breaking them, lol.

[extrapenguin]

Thank you for the link to the post! This was definitely the harder exercise for me – I think because I think more in terms of the LAND, and this exercise was about the IN/OUT bits, to borrow the terms from the linked post. I also had some trouble getting an idea that depended on the sustained matching, as opposed to having some matching going on as a highlight at one point. Then I took a break to do exercise #3, and the previous linked video essay shook something loose, and I had an idea! (That also continued my Ye Zun roll.) I suspect this will end up having been the hardest exercise for me, as I have a vid already for #3, solid ideas for #4-6, and while #7 confounds me, I'm sure there'll be additional instruction when it rolls around.

[bonibaru]

I'm jammed at work this week so I haven't worked on this exercise but I'm allowing myself a pass because one of the example vids for the exercise post is my YoI vid, which was my own exercise in both motion and graphic matching, so I am allowing myself to not feel bad that everyone else is working hard on their craft when I'm stuck just ... working hard, lol. Next week things will calm down! And I have plans! Sort of! For exercise 3. Meanwhile I am devouring everyone's creations with so much excitement for exercise 2.