Meet The Vidder: giandujakiss
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Meet The Vidder: giandujakiss |
| Interviewer: | such_heights and other fans |
| Interviewee: | giandujakiss |
| Date(s): | May 15, 2010 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | Vidding Workshop!, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Meet The Vidder: giandujakiss is a 2010 vidder interview.
Part of a Series
See Vidding Workshop!.
Vidder Intro
I've been vidding for almost exactly four years (my, how the time has flown) in many different fandoms. I've never really considered myself that much of a visual person, actually, it's just that once [personal profile] rivkat introduced me to the concept of vids, I got a couple of vid bunnies that pounded at my brain until I couldn't stand it any more and I had to break down and learn how to make them.
I've made two Merlin vids so far: Beverly Hills, which is a general introduction to the show, and One Foot Boy, which is a Merlin/Arthur 'ship vid. I love the source because it's just so pretty and easy to work with, and though I don't have any oter Merlin vids in progress at this time, I have no doubt that I'll squeeze more out eventually.
Excerpts
So, I heart Beverly Hills with all my heart, and I'd love a look behind the scenes. Where did the idea come from, and how easy did you find it to make?
Heh. I'm not 100% sure where the idea came from, exactly. I'd wanted to find a fandom for that song forever, because I just really like the song. And then suddenly it hit me for Merlin - I don't really know why :-).
As for how easy - I basically put it together in a 24-hour burst of vid farr. As soon as the idea hit, I knew I had to drop everything and make it. So, I did - and after a got the source in order, it literally took me about a day. I mean, at that time, there were only 10 episodes of Merlin, so I didn't have a terrific amount of source to cull through, which is why I was able to finish it so quickly.
One of the things I'm always interested in is the different workflows that different vidders use -- I think that I once saw you say that you clip to mov for Premiere, which made me think that your workflow was probably quite a bit different from that of other PC vidders I know!
Oh, you mean how do I get from raw materials to final product? Yeah, I do use .mov - because I discovered by accident (I don't really remember how) that Adobe Premiere Pro really loves .mov files. Which is to say, when I started vidding, I used .mpg files, and when you scan through those in Adobe, there are sometimes little skips and distortions of the footage - they come out fine in the final product but they look weird in the program. .mov files routinely look very well in Adobe, which is why I like them.
So - I either rip my source from DVD or I download it, and then I convert it to .mov (I strip out the sound, typically, because Adobe takes a long time to process the sound on an .mov file). I use MPEG Streamclip for the conversion, which is difficult because it doesn't play very well with Windows, but I haven't found another program that will do that kind of conversion. I either can feed a file directly to MPEG streamclip to convert it, or I can feed the file to VirtualDubMod, make an uncompressed .avi, and feed the uncompressed .avi to MPEG streamclip.
Sound files are almost always .mp3.
Some vidders I guess fool with the source eve more before they import it into their editng software, either because they want to clip it down precisely, or add effects, or because they need to clip or get it to the right aspect ratio. But I am woefully unsophisticated about effects, and Adobe Premiere can handle my cropping and aspect ratio needs, and I handle all my clipping in Adobe Premiere itself, so as soon as I have it in .mov format, I can start vidding.
For the final product, Adobe Premiere will export straight as a .wmv file. For .avis, I either export to a very large .avi file and compress it in VirtualDub, or I export to a high quality MPEG-2, then import the high quality MPEG-2 back into Adobe to export as a very large .avi, and then compress in VirtualDub. I'm not exactly certain why, but sometimes if I export first to MPEG-2, the quality of the image is better. Also, it works better if my source started life in different aspect ratios.
I hope that answers your question - the thing is, my technical knowledge is pretty sparse, so I may not be using the right terms for things :-).
If all but one of your vids are erased from history, never to return (you can't reconstruct them, nor can you get anyone else to do it for you), which one would you keep and why? AND, if all but one of the vids that you've ever watched are erased from history, never to return, which one would you keep and why? And, name ONE vid that's had a formative influence on you as a vidder and tell us why. (I'm sure there is more than one that's had a formative influence on you as a vidder. Suck it up and whittle it down. ;) )
Oh, man, these are impossible questions!
If I had to save one of my own vids, it would probably be Origin Stories. I mean, it's gotten a lot of attention for its message - which of course was [personal profile] thuviaptarth's - and I guess for that reason it's the most significant of the vids I've made.
As for what had a formative influence, that's actually an easy one - Killa's Highlander vid, In Your Eyes. And the reason that's easy is because it was one of the very first vids that made me "get" it - get what vids were for, get what they were about. Until then, I'd seen ones that were good and well-edited, but I was just being introduced to them and I hadn't seen ones that were my 'ships or my fandom. And you know, I've heard people say that a lot of people who say they don't like vids just need the right one - they need to see the one that's in their fandom or has their 'ship, and suddenly it clicks and they understand what it's all about. And for me, that vid was In Your Eyes - an extremely well-edited HL vid, with a Methos/Duncan 'ship, and I found it so evocative and emotional it was almost overwhelming. And I'd ave to say hand in hand with In Your Eyes would be Luminosity's HL vid Don't Panic - I saw them both at the same time, and they had the same effect on me.
One vid to save? I agonized over this, I certainly couldn't possibly name a favorite vid for a million dollars. But the thing that comes to mind is Killa and T Jonesy's Closer. Which is a boring choice, I admit, but it not only shows what vidding can do, and it's not only still a model for everything that came after, but what I love about it is how it reads so differently to fans and non-fans. If you're not into fandom or vidding, it seems to read like a humorous parody - for fans, however, it tends to read as dark and really disturbing, and that kind of division really highlights fan culture, and how fans view the text, and the art, differently.