Saturday, June 11, 2011

Response To Video - The Product of Errors

The Video:

'Asleep' by The Smiths

The Process:

'Clocks' by Coldplay

The video had to change songs three different times throughout its development, and its story adapted to the themes and mood of the different songs. Ultimately, the video could be broken down into three separate parts from the remnants of the previous music, but hopefully, it cohesively flows to form its own identity.

Initially, I was inspired to make a video based on 'Thirteen' by Big Star. And yeah, I first heard the song at the end of 'That 70's Show.' I admit it. In the first part of the video, I wanted to convey the sense of self-aware pretentiousness and idealized belief of maturity. I wanted these two characters to be on the cusp of losing their innocence, a time when dreams seemed so vague and limitless, and when nostalgia appears so limiting on their present potential. Unfortunately, the song was copyright and I wouldn't be able to post the video on youtube.

The next song I tried to use was 'Pink Moon' by Nick Drake. Despite its smooth gentle melody, it's widely believed that a pink moon symbolizes death or an ominous event. Personally, I think its a song about accepting the inevitable. In the video, I wanted to suggest that even something as permanent and everlasting as death has its mysteries, and that there's no question on if it will happen, but when will it happen. Accept it. Ultimately, the song was too short and I would have felt obligated to put a pink moon in the background, which would have covered the text.

Lastly, I chose to use 'Alseep' by The Smiths. Initially, I hesitated using the song because I was afraid that a copious amount of viewers would post comments about 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky. And I really didn't like that book. Fortunately, no one's really viewing the video so I haven't had that problem. Although I thoroughly loathed the book because the main character was dull, it relied on shock value to gain publicity, and it exploited gay people to gather a following, I earnestly enjoyed the part where Charlie listened to this song with his friends in the pick-up truck. It encapsulated the innocence and finite moment of bliss and clarity in the young boy's life.

I realize there are several errors throughout the video, but my five year old laptop has had a tough few days loading this video. Not only did I have to change the pace of the text whenever I switched songs, but three fourths of the original video was accidentally deleted and I had to redo majority of it in about a week. Furthermore, it took six days for my computer to process the video, and since I noticed a few mistakes on the first draft, it took another six days to reload the video. There are several noticeable problems with the final video, but its nothing that would justify maxing out my computer's CPU usage for the next six days straight... again. Also, I'm not an animator, nor do I ever plan to be.

As for the typography, keep in mind that I've used Windows Movie Maker for the past three years, and before this video, I've never made a line move across my computer screen except with powerpoint and old saving screens. It's been a pretty big learning curve, and I wanted to maintain the sense of intentional simplicity that majority of my videos carry... because I don't know a lot about typography. Essentially, a text layer is hidden beneath another text layer by a blank panel. When the time comes, it moves out from underneath the blank panel and appears on screen. And repeat. I'm sure there are easier ways to accomplish the same effect, but I've learned everything I know about Anime Studio Pro by trial and error.

In summery, I'm sorry for the mistakes, but I hope you enjoy the video(s).

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