The post I made about the rose on the pillow is here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/pipsqueaky/16291.html). (And wow, I said that I was going to reply to everyone who commented, and I so didn't, and now I feel like a tool. Anyway.)
That is only sorta tangentially related to your question. The rose-on-the-pillow thing was about context; like, should you choose a visually-exciting-but-contextually-bland moment over a context-rich-but-visually-boring-or-confusing moment. Which is really more of a question about the intended audience, and how deeply they know the show, which ties in nicely with what wickedwords said about reading levels (http://www.livejournal.com/~wickedwords/211742.html).
The idea of Showing and Not Telling can become a question of context; if your audience is the type who know the show backwards and forwards, you could include all the talky-face you wanted, and they'd be able to remember what was said during those scenes and get the point of the vid that way. But from a purely aesthetic point of view, talky-face = annoying and bad, so - not the ideal solution.
The real problem here is when a show communicates a piece of information *verbally* (Chloe: "Clark, you are hiding things from me and I am upset!") and you need to figure out a way to communicate the same information *visually*.
(I guess the easy way around this would just be to include the relevant dialogue audio in the vid itself. But obviously this wouldn't work in all cases, or even in most of them.)
It really depends on what the information is. In this particular case, the information is "feelings". Chloe's feelings of curiosity and need and frustration. And feelings are usually best portrayed visually with facial expressions or reaction shots. If the information was something else - like if someone gave a big speech about how an apocalypse is coming, and we don't actually see the apocalypse onscreen but you still want to convey that sense of urgency and doom - an action or event is best communicated via another action or event. You'd want to show things blowing up, or battles, or the world going haywire and generally falling apart.
I'm just rambling now, sorry. Vidding talk is fun, but it is best to do it when you're fully awake and making sense. :)
I had this exact same problem with "Ordinary", BTW. Willow talked an awful lot about her crush on Xander, but she very rarely gave any onscreen visual clues, like giving him puppy-dog eyes or whatever. I had to use a combination of the lyrics, and Willow looking upset whenever other girls were around him, in order to get the idea across that she was interested in him romantically.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-03-04 11:04 pm (UTC)That is only sorta tangentially related to your question. The rose-on-the-pillow thing was about context; like, should you choose a visually-exciting-but-contextually-bland moment over a context-rich-but-visually-boring-or-confusing moment. Which is really more of a question about the intended audience, and how deeply they know the show, which ties in nicely with what
The idea of Showing and Not Telling can become a question of context; if your audience is the type who know the show backwards and forwards, you could include all the talky-face you wanted, and they'd be able to remember what was said during those scenes and get the point of the vid that way. But from a purely aesthetic point of view, talky-face = annoying and bad, so - not the ideal solution.
The real problem here is when a show communicates a piece of information *verbally* (Chloe: "Clark, you are hiding things from me and I am upset!") and you need to figure out a way to communicate the same information *visually*.
(I guess the easy way around this would just be to include the relevant dialogue audio in the vid itself. But obviously this wouldn't work in all cases, or even in most of them.)
It really depends on what the information is. In this particular case, the information is "feelings". Chloe's feelings of curiosity and need and frustration. And feelings are usually best portrayed visually with facial expressions or reaction shots. If the information was something else - like if someone gave a big speech about how an apocalypse is coming, and we don't actually see the apocalypse onscreen but you still want to convey that sense of urgency and doom - an action or event is best communicated via another action or event. You'd want to show things blowing up, or battles, or the world going haywire and generally falling apart.
I'm just rambling now, sorry. Vidding talk is fun, but it is best to do it when you're fully awake and making sense. :)
I had this exact same problem with "Ordinary", BTW. Willow talked an awful lot about her crush on Xander, but she very rarely gave any onscreen visual clues, like giving him puppy-dog eyes or whatever. I had to use a combination of the lyrics, and Willow looking upset whenever other girls were around him, in order to get the idea across that she was interested in him romantically.