White & Nerdy

Vid
Title:	White & Nerdy
Creator:	Wiccanslyr
Date:	27 September 2006
Format:
Length:
Music:	"White & Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic
Genre:	character study, Rodney McKay
Fandom:	Stargate Atlantis
Footage:	Contains scenes from: Just about everything up to and including “The Return I”.
URL:	LiveJournal announcement post at atlantis_vids Download Link (offline)
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"White & Nerdy" is a Stargate Atlantis vid by Wiccanslyr. It is a character study of Rodney McKay.

Reactions/Reviews

This vid was reviewed by D. K. Williams aka Diana Williams at the reel vidding community on October 3, 2006:

Overall impression: This song is the ultimate Rodney theme song and the vidder obviously gets that through a lot of the clip choices, plus there's a nice grasp of the humor both in the song and in Rodney's actions. Unfortunately, there are problems with the pacing and cuts that make the vid less enjoyable than it could be.

Titles: At the end, nicely done, not too intrusive but convey what info is needed.

Music choice: Excellent choice for the subject, the clarity of the music is top-notch. Really, this song should be Rodney's theme song because he is the poster boy for white & nerdy, even if he desperately wants to be one of the home boys.

Narration, Tone and Movement: Nice opening sequence with Rodney in front of the camera, counting down. Unfortunately, the vidder has chosen to use long clips throughout the vid instead of short ones that would fit with the movement of the music. What the vidder needs to do is sit down with the song and mark where each lyric phrase starts, matching the clips to them. (See more on this in the next part.) My favorite clips, the ones that made me laugh out loud, were the "do I like Kirk or do I like Picard" - yes! Perfect clip choices there!

Cuts, Transitions, Effects & Colouring/Coloring: There were a couple places where the cuts were right on target, but for the most part the clips started and ended in the wrong places for cutting on either the lyrics or the beat. I think that this is just inexperience on the vidder's part, and that experience and practice will help. Getting the cuts right is the number one problem with vidders, even experienced ones, and takes work and practice. I recommend this article for great info on finding the beat, cutting to it, and also more advanced things like using internal clip movement. Also, watching vids of people who do this well will help - in Stargate fandom, (LJ User) barkley has a number of excellently timed vids, and Rachael&Sandy's "Stress" is a good exaple of a fast-paced vid with good cutting.

Specific vid & music notes: These are some examples where closer attention to the lyric phrase would make the vid work better:

• 0:19 "They see me mowing" - the clip is still showing Rodney in the hospital when it should switch to the Wraith beam, which it doesn't do for a full second later.
• 0:26-0:32 "White & nerdy" - a long clip of Rodney in bed, sitting up and posing. It would be more interesing if there had been cuts at *0:27, 0:29 and 0:31 where the repeated "white & nerdy" lines are. Because yeah, Rodney posing is a treat to look at, but not for such a fast-paced song.
• 1:05 - "sandwiches with mayonaise" is the lyric but the clip doesn't come in till it should change to minesweeper image
• 1:43 - "apparent I'm too white and nerdy" - this starts great, cutting with Rodney doing the "tango" movement, but you should cut to John's face on 1:46 "too white and nerdy" instead of waiting a full second - yes, that's how the clip goes, but in some places, judicious internal cutting is our friend

These are clips where the timing is perfect, or near perfect:

• 1:22 - "trivia" - this is a good cut sequence, cutting to the "javascript" and "Klingon" exactly at the right place. Well done, there!
• 2:29 "do I like Kirk or do I like Picard" - perfect timing on the cut to Sheppard and then to Caldwell. Very good, and supremely funny.

Final notes: I think that there is a lot of potential here in this vid. I would like to see the vidder do a Release 2 of this vid, with attention paid to the timing of the cuts, because I think it could really be a killer vid. Wiccanslyr obviously has a sense of humor that shows in the clip choices, and an eye for the unusual (because who would think of a Wraith beam for a lawnmower? That was great!), and with a little practice, has the potential to become a really good vidder.