Show And Tell - Just A Game I Play, When I Wanna Say

[sisabet]

A problem with reading wank because you are bored (if you are me) is then beginning a post that you absolutely *need* to do and then finding every single statement you make as being very provocative and possibly wank-inducing and then you start trying to tone it down a bit and then you start thinking about possible comments to your post and you get angry in advance about this fictional comments that will probably never exist.

This is also my problem with watching daytime talk shows. I get geared toward the wank and then I see it in everything. Dude - this chick in my office? Trying to start a total flameware. UPS guy? He hates Buffy. I can tell. It's the way he wears his shorts - damned Andrew-luva.

::is paranoid::

And I am trying to formulate a post about Showing and Not Telling in vidding because we should be talking about that. This idea comes up all the time in fic discussions and it equally applies to vidding (and not so coincidentally with what I am currently working on *and* a vid I am betaing... and another vid I want to beta when it is ready, and another vid I want to have made so I can beta and... wow - this applies to A LOT). So we should be discussing this.

And I want to discuss this and talk about it but I read too much wank and it has dissolved my brain and now I am all freaked out about starting a vidding talk and I AM NEVER freaked out about starting a vidding talk.

I freak out over strawberries. I freak out over everything - but not vidding conversations. Well, not in the bad way.

But I don't because - I have no reason.

So, let's talk about showing and not telling in a vid.

What am I talking about for starters? To tell you the truth, I don't even really know. Sometimes I just talk to hear myself think. Or type. Or something.

But there is something here - so bear with me. Let me use an example:

Right now I am at a point in a vid where I want to get a particular message about Chloe across (betas please feel free to skip this next part). I want to show that her fascination with Clark is more than a sexual reaction - it is because she so deeply needs to *know* things and this need prompts her to actually push him continuously (and causes him to not want to be around her) and in effect, betray him. The facts that she likes Clark and he has a secret are not mutually exclusive - one of the things that *attracts* her to Clark is his secret (pre-Pariah).

So I know this - this is one of my starting points in the vid - but how do I *show* this? IMO, the show has addressed this many times -- there have been arguments with Clark and Chloe each season (except for the current season) about her not respecting his boundaries and pushing him continually to tell her whatever it is he isn't telling her (and what he isn't telling anyone, but this isn't about Clark).

And here I have the dreaded "Talking Heads" - yes I can show a series of scenes where Chloe and Clark discuss just this issue. And that is what it will be - talking heads with some emphatic arm movements. Now if the viewer knows the source - they will get what I intend.

But it is still just a series of head shots. Head shots of very pretty people, but this is boring. So now it is up to me to be creative. To try to figure out exactly *how* I am gonna show Driven!Chloe and connect that to Clark and then connect that to her own feelings of loneliness and alienation. Because somehow if she can figure out him or have him - one way or the other, it might make everything better. And then she learns otherwise (but that is later). And this is the part of vidding where you get all of these people moaning and groaning and posting: Vidding is hard.

Because it is.

And there is a way to do this in a vid - to avoid just the talking heads and to use the lyrics to guide us to pick just the right action-y moments of a character and then translate that into a mood and then use this combined with the motion of the camera to create a feeling and THEN to use the mood and the feeling to cut between two disparate images that are actually related and show the PING moment where the audience might possibly get what you are saying.

If this makes any sense at all. I apologize for the disjointed quality of this post. I am slowly working my way back and you know - as long as nothing dissolves into wank we should all just pat ourselves on the back.

Because I wanted to talk examples and now I am facing a mind that is a complete blank. So, um. Yeah - examples. Talk about em in comments.

ETA: The call for examples was more of a call to discuss other vids and how they accomplish Showing and Not Telling. I was just using the Chloe vid thing as an example and also - my brain, so fried. I apologize for the confusion.

I will try to address this topic one day and be much more prepared.

Comments

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

I like Pips' suggestions a lot. What's hardest for me about narrating - aside from composition, because *everything* seems to be about composition lately - is how to connect these parts well.

Like in your example:

To try to figure out exactly *how* I am gonna show Driven!Chloe and connect that to Clark and then connect that to her own feelings of loneliness and alienation.

Okay, so now you have clips of Driven!Chloe and Secretive!Clark and Alienated!Chloe. How do you invite the audience to make them cohere?

One way that comes to mind - and I have yet to really explore this - is to use visual likeness. sdwolfup made me aware of this wrt the vid I'm working on. Disconnected-looking parts could be made flow better when there's something consistent in the transitions, like the continued presence of a character. I thought maybe this could be expanded to things like variations of visual blending, e.g., using matching color tones and fades.

I'd love to hear your thoughts in general on making parts of plot cohere. I mean - I know you love vids that make you think, but how much is too much to ask of your audience?

Show And Tell is haaard.

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Er...I meant sdwolfpup, of course.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well - your vid is obviously something I am thinking about heavily here. The idea is you are mainly drawing these connections and needing your viewer to make these leaps because the idea is complicated on its own - the fact that it concerns and involves 2 characters fully (and not in a romantic sense) and one character by proxy, makes the job even more daunting.

But this also makes it FUN! Hard - but FUN!

So we need to discuss the overwhelming theme - what is your vid saying? and then address what it is you want your vid to say - and how to reconcile the two things.

And absolutely - using consistency (and breaking that) in things like color palettes, fades, blends all help in maintaining a narrative. Kind of like the AMV thing that absolut3destiny mentions but perhaps a bit more subtle. You really don't want to let your audience know you are manipulating them with certain tricks, but I definately think they are all part of helping you "show" your point.

Also - this means more Angel - right?

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

You really don't want to let your audience know you are manipulating them with certain tricks

Yes, though I LOVE when I can see the vidder's narrative tricks. Unless you meant not to be tacky with effects, hee.

Also - this means more Angel - right?

In conclusion: Clearly.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Yes, though I LOVE when I can see the vidder's narrative tricks

Well yes - because we are obsessed with vidding. We are like magicians watching for one another's tells.