Ask the Vidder: Loki (secretlytodream)

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Ask the Vidder: Loki (secretlytodream)
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Loki (secretlytodream)
Date(s):	October 24, 2011
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	vidding, Supernatural
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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Loki (secretlytodream) was interviewed in 2011 for Supernatural Roundtable.

Some Excerpts

Come to think of it, I guess I first tried my hands on editing back in 2003 or something. It was so long ago I barely even remember it. At that time I was around 12-13 and into Britney, so. The very first sort of kinda fanvid I made was, if I remember correctly, for “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman” song, and basically was a bunch of clips from different music videos thrown together with the help of Windows Movie Maker. My second video I’ve ever made was for Evanescence’s “Bring me to life”, and I believe it was a “Daredevil” movie video. As I said, it was so long ago I don’t have any copies of those videos left, which is a real shame, I would love to laugh at myself now lol Anyway. I didn’t have internet connection at that time, so of course I didn’t even know what I was doing and how it was called. It wasn’t till the year of 2007 that I discovered SPN fandom and all the shiny things people made. At that time I was familiar with editing in general, because in those 4 years between I somehow got into it thanks to my family occupation. I edited a bunch of school thingies, a wedding or two, but it was different. So, I got into fandom sometime around April 2007 and in October I got me my first ever copy of Sony Vegas 7 and I started playing around. I was fascinated with what other vidders could do and I was really curious from the technical point of view, so I just had to learn that. I didn’t know anyone from fandom so I kind of had to go through everything by myself. There were so many days when I was stupidly trying to figure out the program and I still don’t know how I had enough patience to actually beat it. So, I sort of finished my first SPN video in the beginning of December, and of course I had to show this masterpiece to everyone /o\ Even though it’s amazingly embarrassing now, I still don’t have enough willpower to delete it lol.

I can’t help but notice that there are two “kinds” of vidders out there. I think I’ve already mentioned it somewhere. Anyway. There’s the LJ vidding community and then there’s the YT vidding community and somehow I clearly see the difference in the editing styles vidders try out. For example, YT vidders tend to use more effects, they kind of go crazy about it – not in a bad way :) – and I sometimes catch myself staring at the monitor, watching a video, with my mouth open, like, how did they actually do this?.. Technically I can imagine how, but the patience!

As for the LJ vidding community – vidders here are a little bit “calmer” if I can say so. The videos are clearer, the editing a little bit simpler but it looks amazing nonetheless. For example, if it’s a character study video, vidders tend to dive in into the storyline and the videos, the storyline, the thought behind it – so clear and so straight and amazing, that sometimes the videos are even better than the actual shows/films.

That having been said, I think I went from one point to another trying a few different things in the editing. At the beginning I kind of wanted to throw into the video whatever effect I could find, like, if it looked cool I’d probably use it, even though if sometimes it wasn’t actually that cool. I played a lot with AU videos, and I actually didn’t make any general videos, concentrating on a show storyline or something. After this phase I kind of went through “calm” phase, when I used a lot of simple editing, my videos were clearer and simpler but I hope not more boring lol I started trying my hands on showing my perception of particular moments in the source I was vidding. And after it I decided to stop somewhere in between I think. I like to use bright colors in my videos, because I think a lot of impact comes from the coloring you choose for your storyline. I love love love playing with pan/crop, using a lot of close ups, concentrating on eyes or lips (if it’s a face, for example), or just to show something that I think is more important in the particular shot, that will help accentuate the storyline I’m trying to tell. I like to add a bit of color by using “video textures” – something I don’t use very often now, but still.