Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em

[fan_eunice]

I said I was going to talk more about vidding right? Here I go, because this morning I opened up Premiere again to work on the epic season 5 Doctor Who vid that I keep stalling out on and one of the issues I keep having is one that I meant to bring up at the Big Emotion panel that we didn't have time to go into great detail on (I think we did briefly address it, but I kinda don't remember a lot of what was said because public speaking freaks me the hell out).

Basically, as the post title says how do we apply Kenny Rogers advice and know when to hold 'em in a vid? Long clips are bad right? Except when they are good. For drawing out tension (build, motherfucker!), for allowing a particular emotion to settle and wiggle under the skin and stay there (perhaps I should not watch so much Monster Inside Me on Animal Planet because I just freaked myself out), a well placed slow reveal or long clip can utterly wreck your audience or leave them primed and ready to be wrecked in the best way (see sockkpuppet's work for some amazing examples of this).

My issue remains the argument in my own head that happens every time I do this between 'too long, you are boring the shit out of your audience' and 'not long enough! you haven't snared them yet!'
Sometimes it is obvious (the long slow pull back on McMurphy's face in Mother Mary and the slooow pan up to the Elm St. sign with Freddy's shadow on the street in Legends Never Die were gimmes), but most of the time I find myself kinda lost?

And this current vid I'm working on has a lot of spaces where this choice has to be made due to it's structure and I continue to flail all over the timeline trying to decide, changing my mind, deciding again, changing again. I swear to god this first verse alone has had so many reincarnations I think it is approaching enlightenment, I will not be surprised if the next time I look at it all clips are replaced with a single one that simply tells me there is no spoon or some shit.

So. When do you hold 'em? When do you fold 'em? Do you know when to walk away, and when to run? And if you do for the love of the TARDIS share with the class.

Comments

[laurashapiro]

I hold 'em more often than not, as even a casual observer of my vids can tell you. It's not that I am not capable of fast cutting, and I do use very short clips when it makes sense.

But more often than not, when going for Big Emotion, I believe in giving the audience a chance to understand what they're seeing. The amount of time that takes will vary according to audience, but I make my vids to suit me, and I'm of the MTV generation rather than the XBox generation.

What I learned in Wonder of Birds is that if you want to pack a particularly fannish-feeling wallop, you have to pause for a few moments on the face of the beloved -- even at the risk of slowing down the vid's momentum. Because there's the kind of flying that is all about fast motion and fast cutting, and then there's the kind of flying that's all about OMG I LOVE HIM/HER/THEM SO MUCH LOOK AT HIS/HER/THEIR FEELINGS!!!

Another rule of thumb to consider: the more context your audience brings, the faster you can cut. I held much longer on Chae Ohk fighting Jang Sung-Baek than I would have on Buffy jumping off the tower. If the audience is doing the heavy lifting for you, you don't need more than a couple of seconds. If you're introducing something new, longer is better.

JMO. YMMV. ETC.

[lapillus]

I think along with all the other good reasons mentioned her and on LJ, there are some good reasons to hold clips depending on your audience. If you expect much of your audience to be unfamiliar with the source, a longer clip gives them more time to orient themselves and to gain some context, either or both of which can be useful. Just be sure that there is enough information in the extended clip to do that. Alternately if you expect your audience to know the source VERY well (this happens much less often than it used to with vids - there is just too much source out there these days and most folks are fannish butterflies to one extent or another) you can use extended clips for them to do some of the work of connecting the clip to things you don't picture (think of the first vid in this year's challenge show and how the still images made the audience do the work of the connecting things.) In either case, if you do hold a clip make sure you give folks enough direction of what to think about so they aren't making grocery lists while waiting for the next clip.