sisabet | Keanu Reeves is to Vidding as Patrick Swayze is to Collating

Keanu Reeves is to Vidding as Patrick Swayze is to Collating

I'm trying this post again. Yesterday I accidentally hit one button on my keyboard and all of a sudden my screen went to something LJ-wonky and when I tried to return everything I had written was gone.

I am now convinced that the lost post possibly contained information that when decoded correctly could either lead to world peace or lost treasure in the Andes. The imagined outcome usually depends on how benevolent I am feeling at any given moment.

This past week my milk of human kindness went way past its expiration date, so take the following post with a grain of salt.

Let us start from the top - shall we?

There exists what I like to call the Keanu Reeves Factor in vidding. See, I like Sci-Fi/Fantasy movies with Keanu in them. I just do. His presence comforts and soothes me. Why?

Well, he is good-looking. He isn't incrediblely gorgeous, IMO - just pleasant to look at. His voice hits a register that I personally find pleasing (I think there exists evidence that humans respond well to a certain kind of monotone. It is like those tapes of whale-songs and Enya. Except those things raise my blood pressure). He isn't that great of an actor but as long as he isn't attempting an accent or Shakespeare, I often find I just don't care. I like to watch Keanu in Science Fiction movies because I know exactly what to expect - I know what he will bring to the table and I am on board with that. The plot may veer wildly all over the place. I might have the rug pulled out from under me several times. I might switch realities within the blink of an eye or the drop of a pill and yet... Keanu will remain the same. He is my guidepost - my beacon. I can depend on him to be my stable rock as I try to make sense and process the fantastical elements being tossed my way.

This also explains the career of Will Smith, by the way. It is all about giving the audience that comfort zone - you cast Keanu if you need the hero to be remote. You cast Smith if you need him to be likeable and you cast Bruce Willis if there is heavy lifting involved in the acting.

Simple enough really. But how does this apply to vidding?

Well I will tell you -- just not yet. First of all, I need to get a few - well a couple of disclaimers out of the way.

1. There are no absolutes in vidding. Let's agree now that all rules can be broken (and I am NOT talking about fannish courtesy at all right here - I am talking nuts and bolts vidding) and that I am not speaking in absolute terms here.

2. If you feel that the only way and the appropriate way to vid a song is by strict literal adhesion to the lyrics - ie if the song says "Touch my hand" then someone better be touching someone else's hand onscreen, or if the line talks about being lost in the rain - then we better see some rain -- if you feel this is the only way to vid and dislike vids that do not do this, and want to argue that point please just stop reading now.

Seriously. Stop. Cause we won't agree and feelings will be hurt and what I have to say won't matter to you and you will have wasted your time reading it and I will have wasted my time with this bit right here. We disagree on a fundamental purpose of the craft and neither of us is gonna budge on this one, so you just go on back to your editing software and I'll stay right here and prattle on about stuff that you could care less about and All is Right With the World. See - it is as easy as that.

Okay. - for everyone else - more behind the cut.

Vids that rely on Strict Literal Interpretation as a the only reason they exist are not bad. They are boring. This, IMO, is worse. I'd rather be bad than boring and didn't Mae West say that? Rizzo?

Think about it - think about a vid that fits this description -- typically the only thing you are left with after an initial viewing is a sense that "Hey, that song really fit a lot of the situations that happened on that Show/Movie. Huh." and you never felt the desire to watch that video again for a deeper meaning. The vid could have been wonderfully edited. It could have had beautiful source. It was still boring - Pretty, but Boring. Like this guy named Nick I dated in college. There is only so long you can just look at someone - ya know? Actually, a relationship on pure physical attraction can be sustained for a while, but eventually you are going to have to talk to the boy (or girl!). And if talking to him is a less appealing prospect than cleaning your bathroom - you have serious problems. And if people only want to watch your video the one time? Well, you can always try the "It's not me, it's you speech," but trust me when I tell you - Nick and my problems all boiled down to a severe lack of personality and guess what? It wasn't me.

Don't let your vid be a Nick. Sure he is pretty. Yes, he was picked to be one of Anita Madden's Shirtless Statue Boys at her annual Derby Party. All of these items pointed to a great and wonderful future... but he couldn't carry on a conversation to save his life on any topic other than long term investment opportunities and applying to the FBI. (He owned one CD! It was MAZZY STAR! I used that for 2 weeks of talking points alone, but then I was totally without a net - it was a lot of work keeping myself focused on him when he wasn't, you know, shirtless).

So what do we learn from this? We learn to avoid strict literal interpretation as the sole basis of a vid unless there will be tons of nudity.

Now - this is not to say that strict literal interpretation as the basis of a vid Never Works. Again - there are no absolutes in vidding. Usually, the vids it works with have a couple of things in common: a very clever premise and a vidder(or vidders) who know exactly what they are doing. Vidder who vid, like

sockkpuppett says, with intent.

What does this have to do with Keanu Reeves? I am getting to that, geez. Don't rush me.

Once the lesson about boring vids is learned -- there then tends to be an dramatic swing in the other direction "METAPHOR, METAPHOR, NO COKE, PEPSI" where the vidder totally rejects any and all opportunities to strictly allow the lyrics to dictate the clip choice and to consciously pay attention and seek this out in other vids -- without actually stepping back and thinking "That was a literal move here - why did the vidder make the choice to do this here?"

Because, again, there are no absolutes in vidding - literal interpretation has its place. It is the Keanu Reeves of your vid.

Now a lot of people do this intuitively -- they are making a vid, they are going for the deeper meaning, they are looking at unexpected clip choices to keep their audience both engaged and also - to make the meaning of the vid deepen and... they are giving their audience something to hold onto.

They give them a break - a vid Gimmmee.

Right now I am going to talk about one of my own vids because I am not at home and I don't have access to any other examples and well - hell. It is my LJ - chances are if you have read this far, you've seen my damned vids. Right?

Okay - so in "Two Words" I knew that I was asking a ton out of my audience - I was asking them to accept what was most likely a genre of music they are unfamiliar with, I was asking them to notice that the singers/rappers change and so does the POV and narrative method, and I was asking them to just try to keep up because the song and the lyrics and clips are moving very very fast.

This was a lot to put on the audience - I knew this and so in the Angel POV section (the Kanye part) I made a conscious choice to go strictly literal for "Shoulda been signed twice/Most imitated/Grammy nominated/cheer-leader prom dated" and the reason was kind of the mini reason so many of those strictly literal vids get made - the lyrics really fit the source. But beyond that, they really suited Angel and all of those things actually happened to him and I needed a break in the vid - some humor - a moment for my audience to relax because soon enough we are getting to Darla and "the roof caved in" and Angel stating "Fuck you, pay me" and I knew that this part of the vid is a different kind of interpretation and everything after "barber-shop playa hater/mom and pop bootlegged" was gonna require a ton of emotional investment. So I needed a bit of Keanu. Something to hang onto. An Oasis in the pain, if you will. You know exactly what you are getting with Keanu and sometimes your audience needs that, especially if you are asking a lot of them overall.

Now there are other ways of providing Keanu to the audience -- don't get me wrong. This is just one of them and it requires a lot of thought and intent to pull off. But if it works (and I actually have a list somewhere of vids where it does work and dammit - I don't know where that is) it really is very effective.

And so now you know about the Keanu Factor. Oh, and Patrick Swayze is to collating? What about that? Well, that is all in the hips ;)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I kiss you and dance about in metaphor-loving glee!

Yes, thank you, it needed to be said: sometimes even the most sophisticated, layered, living-roomy, metaphoric vid needs a literal clip or two. It lets the audience *breathe*.

Heh. Now I'll be watching vids and point and yell "Keanu!" at occasional intervals.

You rawk.

Exactly - finding those moments to let the audience breathe -- totally Keanu. And there are so many ways to incorporate Keanu into the vid, not just in literal lyric interpretation. But my hands are tired of typing and I have to do some work today. Heh.

Finding Keanu should be a VVC panel.

It should be a panel, you're right! Are you going to send it in as a suggestion? I'll volunteer to co-mod.

I really wanna moderate another panel if it gets picked up. And this is really probably going to be covered in any number of other panels (maybe part of the a 101 course? ) and just not be singled out... really, the only thing that makes me want to make it a panel is the name. I am easily seduced by coolish names.

Understood. Well, I'm sure you're right, the Keanu Theory will be tossed about all over the place. It's too cool to leave alone!

I feel like I'm seriously not getting most of your metaphor because I don't watch vids. However! I am thoroughly entertained. :P

Also - I feel exactly the same way about Keanu. He's so damned consistent, I feel like I know the guy. He's just... Keanu. When I think of his career, I only have one question though: how the hell did the director of Devil's Advocate get him to cry like that? Am I alone in feeling that was a strange and moving (emphasis: strange) moment in his acting career? I was so nonplussed by the display of emotion, I didn't know what to think. Except, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO KEANU?!

:)

I always thought that was just CGI.

Ah, yes. You help me make sense of the world. I thank you. :)

Huh. That made sense and was a brilliant look at vids. I am impressed.

This is why I wish you didn't have to work, so you can vid during the day and mentor in the evenings.

Keanu as a breather makes so much sense. I also think that the Keanu Factor might help viewers actually form the more metaphorical interpretations.

The audience doesn't know when your Keanu will show up. So they have to work a bit in dealing with the variance. But once they realize that the visuals fit the song on different levels, they might make use of this fluidity, and get more creative in forming the interpretations.

And what a perfect example Two Words was.

I tend toward the literal, but I like metaphor vids--when I get the metaphor. And I like your Keanu analogy.

Too much metaphor and all you have is a bunch of randomness, which leaves the audience going "buh-duh, how did all that go together?"

Too heavy-handed and blatent metaphor, all you have is what I call "English Major Damage." And the audience screams "I get it already! Please don't club me again!"

Too much literal and the vid is just random images again, without a coherent story, and we're back to "buh-duh?"

There's gotta be a happy medium, where we can tell how the images hook into the song, what story the vidder is telling, and still go "ooo, nifty." And I think that's very much where the Keanu factor comes in.

(deleted comment)

Okay - yeah, see this is a hard question because I am gonna have to use a specific example and while there are a TON of vids that miss the mark and I could beat up on right here, that really would not be helpful at all. And I want to make certain to pick something you know or have access to and hmm..

So I am picking a really strong vid - a good vid - that could have been better without such a strict literal dependence on the chorus: Wolfling's "Closer to Fine" Six Foot Under vid.

Now, understand I think this is a very good, interesting and emotionally moving vid and the reason I am listing it here is because it could have been better if the choruses were not always literally "going to the doctor" and "looking to the children" -- if she had delved a bit deeper and showed perhaps a clip of the sister dealing with the fallout from her abortion or something like that -- because it did become almost too predictible at the chorus, for me, and this is kind of not good because I don't know the source, so that I was able to predict what the next clip would be based upon just knowing the song... the vid could have been stronger and all it would take is just a tiny reshuffling in the interpretations at a few key moments.

Actually going to the doctor and to the mountains and looking to the children, literally - would have been a perfect Keanu moment at certain points in the vid. Just not all of the time.

I apologize for deleting my stupidity and leaving a gaping hole in your comments. :-(

I'm suddenly having a very bad day. I really appreciate your taking the time to respond. I want to learn this stuff and I'm very grateful.

I was actually rather caught off guard by the "chorus is too literal" on CtF because out of all the choruses there are only two clips that are there solely because they fit the lyrics (doctor and mountain on David's chorus because by that time I had kinda locked myself into a pattern.) I had actually been more worried about the Claire verse being too literal and not interesting enough. Shows what I know.

But yeah, the fact that you need to know the scenes of doctor, mountain, children, to get the other layers and reasons I chose them (the look to the children shot on the Claire chorus for example was her looking at the son she aborted from her trip/fantasy of visiting the afterlife, so it was symbolic of dealing with the abortion), does mean that for people who don't know the source or know how my brain works would only see the literal and not the meanings underneath or why those clips were chosen.

If I was remaking that vid today, I'd choose different clips for maybe four of the chorus lines (the two mentioned above, the children David chorus clip for one that hadn't aired at the time I made the vid and the first Nathan one for one that was less comical and more hard hitting (from his brain surgery, I think.) I'd still keep the others though because for me they do have layers and were examples of the characters searching for meaning. Though I would do so with more awareness that they're more context dependent than I realised when I started.

I do think the experience of making CTF and having it critiqued so gave me a lot to think about and made me more aware of a need for balance between literal and metaphor which may have made me sulky at times but ends up with better, more interesting vids or at least giving more awareness about why I make the choices of clips I do.

Of course I also got feedback for Winter, probably the most metaphoric vid I've had a hand in making, that that was too literal in places so it's obvious I'm always going to be too literal for some people. I've made my peace with that. There's worse things to be called. :)

Well, I think you've been a tremendous sport about all of this, myself - and I want to hurry to point out that I think "Closer to Fine" is a very good vid - and I think changing just a few of the clips out would actually make it an incredible vid - but it is all part of growing as a vidder, of listening to critiques and developing betas and one of these days I should probably post the beta-version of "Last Stand in Open Country" which heavily featured Darla.

Or the early version of "Closer" where Angel tried to address his own daddy issues (don't ask).

Each time I felt very strongly about the choices I made in the vid - very strongly to the point of growling over the body of the vid at anyone that approached it. Each time I eventually agreed with the betas (and the MULTITUDES of betas! Closer had Dawn, Lum, Kamil, Boniblithe, Valerie, Myrtle and Eunice, and Miss M rounding up the corner ::is insecure::) and tried something else - but it was hard and part of the process.

Hell, it is still going on today - Ellen said something about the vid I sent to Escapade and it took me a month to come to terms and change the vid accordingly. But... It did make it better.

So, it takes a lot - a lot of feedback, a lot of developing relationships with other vidders and learning and then... well you are never ever really there, but sometimes you are OH MY GOD!! SOME DAYS YOU ARE CLOSER TO FINE!!!

::gets it::

::dies::

Hee! Just don't look behind you -- dead Nathaniel might be standing there. ;)

Yeah, putting a vid through a rigourous beta does help, especially since I am incredibly stubborn at times -- growling over the body of the vid would not be an inappropriate description -- and I need to talk myself into giving up whatever it is that isn't working. For example, Lum was very good at letting me talk myself into framing Running Blind with dying!Wes clips which I had such a hysterical reaction to using at first.

I'm still at the stage where it's difficult to sometimes find a good vid beta (outside of my usual circle who help tremendously but we share a brain so sometimes we also share the same blind spots) who is willing and has the time to take a look at something. But hopefully as I continue vidding I'll get a bigger circle of people I feel I can ask without feeling like I'm being presumptuous or pestering people.

That does seem to be the best litimus test of do you have the correct balance of literal/metaphorical clips -- actual viewers.

Writing's much the same way when it boils down to it -- you need someone who isn't you to go through and make sure the plot twists make sense outside of your brain.

Can't wait to see your new vid -- I see below it's Invisible Man, which is a show I greatly enjoyed watching when it finally made it to Canada. :)

The first thing I ever learned about vidding still hold true absolutely today: ALWAYS LISTEN TO LUM.

Seriously, even when an offhanded comment of her's throws me into existential angst over a vid - she is always right about it. Like - the ending of Paradise, she had a problem with something on the original version and damned if I know what that was now... I think it was Fred dying - and I was really resistant to her suggestion because I felt like I literally had to show this: that Angel loses Cordy and then *everyone* but... she was right. That point is taken and made without the vid veering off course in the last 20 seconds.

I'm still at the stage where it's difficult to sometimes find a good vid beta (outside of my usual circle who help tremendously but we share a brain so sometimes we also share the same blind spots) who is willing and has the time to take a look at something.

I love having renenet and Lum as betas (and Ellen was fantastic enough to beta as well on this last vid) - I am so happy with the terrible things they make me do to my vids! See, it isn't that they have to be harsh - it is that I have to listen and be willing to accept what they say. I really should post a before beta vid and an after beta vid because the difference is really quite remarkable in many cases.

I think the best indicator that I have that there exists a Good Beta Relationship here is in, while it is understood we generally share brains and *get* one another -- they are there to point out the weak spots.

And if I wasn't nervous sending something to beta - I'd have to get new betas. It is terrifying - what if they hate part X that you have bled and cried and died over? And this has happened! Renenet told me my very favorite part of Essence gave her a headache! I was devastated - I *loved* that part, it was my reason for being and vidding and without it in the world I just didn't want to go on! And I think I cried and shit and Dawn told me to shut the fuck up and do what (insert renenet's real name) said and I did and it was so much better. I admit that now. At the time I was all making bargains with God to keep it and trying to convince renenet that she was mistaken in her nausea.

But when they comment on something that you love and say they love it too? The relief is palpable. I sometimes shake with it - "Thank God I get to keep this" and all becomes a mantra.

But without betas - I am Angel without Wes. I am Lex without Clark. I am Bo Duke without a car.

God - I'm a hack.

Sorry. My bad. Ignore me.

But, I answered you! And you went *poof* - just like my LJ post yesterday!

::life is slipping through hands::

I'm, like, sobbing drama girl all of a sudden. Fucking hormones. *Hugs*

*popping out of lurkerville to comment*

Wow! So well said! And this reminds me of when I first saw Saving Private Ryan:

I needed a break in the vid - some humor - a moment for my audience to relax

The first 15 minutes or so of the movie are so incredibly intense. After all the death, blood, destruction, and insane amounts of tension, one of the characters cracks a joke. And I remember really laughing at that joke, along with the rest of the audience. It was like we all had been holding our breath, and finally we all were able to let out the tension and **breathe**. All because the director skillfully added that little joke, knowing that we all really needed it.

Like Keanu.

Anyway, now I realize that I have to download and watch all your vids this weekend, especially Two Words. This post is brilliant.

Aw thank you so much. I'll be posting a new vid this weekend (fandom is "The Invisible Man") after it premieres at Escapade.

All of my online vids are portaled through here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/sisabet/220944.html

OK, not that I didn't love the entire post, because I really did. But:

I'll be posting a new vid this weekend (fandom is "The Invisible Man")

Squee!

Dude, don't get excited. It is really not...well, no. I *like* it, so there is that. And some other people have liked it - just... it is not all that representative of the happiness of the B/D relationship.

In short - it is not a happy vid at all. The vid mentally is set just before the big thing that happens in "The New Stuff" - so that is the POV. Not happy.

But, see, I'm interested in that moment. Assuming you and I are thinking of the same big thing ... well, that was the first time in a while that I had truly felt the *threat*.

::pause to try to figure out how to express this without spoilers::

I felt like, well, this wasn't a completely dark and bleak show, so there was only so far they were going to go. And going up to that line, and pretending that they might cross over it, when the audience knew they wouldn't -- you can only do that so many times before you've just diffused the threat all out of existence and instead you just have mimes and revolving doors and rolexes, you know? But that was a moment of (what felt like) genuine menace and fear and uncertainty. It's OK that it's not happy, because it's *real* and there are consequences and choices that everybody actually has to face.

Unless you're referring to something completely different, of course.

Oh no - we are absolutely on the same page.

You know - watching the seasons together as a whole, you see them *building* up to this by how often they actually skirt that line. Early on in S1 they get control and do a fairly good job in maintaining status quo -- but as you watch S2 you see that whatever control they are exerting over the situation is falling apart and they just don't seem to be talking about it (watch "Mere Mortals" and think about what they are specifically not bringing up)...until of course, they *have* to in "Possessed" and then I just get all angsty-fied.

You know - watching the seasons together as a whole, you see them *building* up to this by how often they actually skirt that line.

It is beautiful. This show is beautiful. Your vid? So beautiful. And if I ever finish this frakkin' challenge fic I owe you feedback email, bigtime. Because *sniffle*

Yay!!

Finally!!!

I am so excited to see the finished project. That's like *SQUEAL* worthy.

The finished project is like almost *exactly* like the last version you have. I think there is a change in a few frames and color filters (just to smooth some of the bad source out).

Thanks for that -- I've not actually seen any of your vids, though I'm sure I bookmarked the page as something to maybe check out one day if I ever properly clean off my USB keys. (The downside of LJing from work -- I keep the sound turned off and that means there's no point in watching videos of any kind, so if I can save them for later I do and if I can't then I know I'll never remember to go back and check them out from home...)

So I needed a bit of Keanu. Something to hang onto. An Oasis in the pain, if you will. You know exactly what you are getting with Keanu and sometimes your audience needs that, especially if you are asking a lot of them overall.

Yes! That is so true. Especially the first time you're watching a vid - I mean, you want it to be smart, but you don't want it to be so opaque that it gives you brain-cramps and feelings of inferiority. That tends to be as much of a turn-off as the extreme literalism thing.

Me and Marrec are working on a vid where the song itself is completely metaphor. We thought it would be huge fun, but have run into a snag. There is one, single verse, where the lyrics are a literal interpretation of the verse directly before it. So what do we do here? Repeat what we've just said with the metaphor? Make it even more metaphor-y? Or go with the literal?

Our brains are fried.

Okay - do this - stop thinking about it and just (and this was Lum's recent advice) just stick something there. Throw a clip and see if it sticks -- if you just let your subconscious take over, chances are the seemingly random choice will be just what you need.

Or not. Don't kill yourself over one verse. Send it to beta and see what they think.

So *that's* why Buffy showed up in Two Words. It was kind of like comic relief... because there was just *so* much going on and then you know "most imitated" when I heard that lyric and saw that clip of Angel and Spike I just died... and then it led into that clip of Buffy and I was like "hey Buffy!" and it gave my mind a break before you threw us into the rest of the video.

Of course seeing Lindsey being "pimped up" helpped to break things up and give my mind a little breathing room as well.

As for the post itself... I found that very interesting.

Sometimes literal works... and sometimes it's a cop out. Kind of like the easy way out. Obviously if they line says that they are holding hands, the clip better be of them holding hands.

But it's like in "Mr. Brightside". When Lum did that vid, the beginning wasn't so much literal as a good balance between both literal and non-literal. When it said "started with a kiss" you saw Buffy and Spike kissing... and that worked... because that got our brains adjusted to the idea of what this song was about and what direction she was going in. Then she through us for a mindfuck basically and switched the rules on it. Then it was on longer about a girl, but about getting the redemption... and there was nothing literal about that whole second half of the vid. But you had this understanding from the first half, and after you got past your first bit of confusion, you were like "Oh... OH I get it! Oh this is cool!!"

That vid had so much meaning going on it in, I could probably talk about it all day... but that was just a basic overview.

So anyway... where was I going with this. Right. I agreed with what you were saying. Esspecially about how vidding rules are made to be broken. ;)

I love your posts on the theory and practice of vidding. The first time I saw an anime music video (my introduction to the concept of vidding), I thought: "That's brilliant. How do they do it?" So I love your insights.

How abstract do you need to get to have a rewatchable vid?

For example, if someone were to take Stephin Merritt's All My Little Words, a simple, literal interpretation would be that it is a really straight-forward and very apt "Spike" song. He loves Buffy, their relationship is impossible from the start, he *does* make her regret it, William's poems (all his little words) are rebuffed. One could easliy map his relationship with Buffy to the lyrics with just a touch irony.

But Buffy has also has impossible relationships with Angel and Riley, so a more sophisticated use could start at the same place and add Angel (Angelus tattoo) and Riley (with the vampire) into the mix, associating the singer not simply with Spike, but with Buffy. Then it could explore the images related to Buffy continually loosing people (Angel to Angelus, again when she sends him to hell, again when he leaves for LA), Riley (leaving in the helicopter), Giles when he goes to England, Joyce dying -- even Spike leaves (albeit in a blaze of self-sacrificing glory). Plus there's the irony arising from Merritt's performance implying the singer doesn't want his beloved to suffer and the fact that in BtVS *everyone* ends up rueful and paying.

So if the vid begins with Buffy's swan dive and ends with Spike's immolation and manages all that other stuff in between, is it destined to be just two overlapping literal interpretations or can it achieve something more interesting?

Yes. No. I don't know. ::sheepish grin::

I would say - the richer interpretation - the one that makes you - the vidder- really think... well, that is the one you should pick up and run with.

Now whether or not you can accomplish all of this in a single 3-4 minute vid - that is all part of the process. I'd say it will be difficult to do and to remain coherant to most viewers, but that is what betas are for.

How abstract do you need to get to have a rewatchable vid?

I don't know that abstract -or not- makes a vid watchable or unwatchable (much less rewatchable). Interesting is a much more important thing - how interesting is this vid? Does this vid make me think? Does this vid highlight something that intrigues me? and of course all of this is balanced with the aesthetical pleasures of the vid in question. Is this vid a pleasure to watch? -- this does not mean "Is everything pretty?" cause a lot of gritty, grimy and dark vids - I find those aesthetically pleasing because of camera angles and I am big on reaction shots as well and if it is timed right, hot damn!

Does the vid draw an extensive metaphorical tie between Lex's father and Jor-el's plans for Clark? Meh - maybe - maybe that is a good vid. Sometimes though the only concept a good vid needs is "Damn, Clark is hot." -- Depends on the vid and how is gets its central concept across, be it sophisticated or simple.

In short, do what you love the best that you can and hunt for good betas?

Yep. In a nutshell.

::grins::

Keanu Factor! Very interesting.

I tend to be just-under-the-surface literal a lot. Like if the lyrics are "lost in the rain" I would probably show someone who is experiencing too many bad things at once and is "lost" as far as what to do about them... so yes, metaphorical, but my vids are a series of these all in a row so it's basically vidding to the lyrics.

One time I do like extreme literalism is when it's silly comedy. That's not really serious vidding but it can be pretty entertaining. I don't *always* like to think hard; sometimes I just want to laugh at something. Like you said, with literal interpretation it might not stand up to multiple viewings but then again, that is one of the challenges -- making it just *that* funny. Like puppet!Angel... he's not entertaining because he provokes deep thought... he just IS A PUPPET OMG.

Anyway it's interesting to try to make an argument within a vid. I'm hoping that's what my current vid will be...

I have this tendency to like vidsong with a lot of lyrics, and somehow I think that the more lyrics the song has, the more it limits what you can say in your argument. Flo's vidsong right now has very few lyrics so she has more free reign on the content of her argument. But it's scary (and difficult) not to have that structure to work from. Does that make sense?

Hmmm. *ponders*

I love your brain, btw.

I think I have an okayish balance; usually by accident. There's bound to be stuff in the songs that really stick to me that I have a perfect literalclip for and then one or two lines where I'm going "ok, wtf does that mean in this context?"

Like, for Tango (oh heck,we're all talking our own vids) "let me fall out of the window" was always metaphorical and always meant sex.

It's occurring tome now thatas I think of it,the literal bits were not somuch breaks in that one as splashes of coldwater; but then,the metaphors are I think trnasparent, not requiring a whole lot of thought.

On the third hand, that vid got very few comments, so I dunno. Possibly it just didn't do what it was meant for at all.

The only way you could make this post any better would be to make a vid using footage from a Keanu movie and then ask people to find the Keanu.

also, I loved this line: So what do we learn from this? We learn to avoid strict literal interpretation as the sole basis of a vid unless there will be tons of nudity. So very true!

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