Vidding Workshop!

[chaila]

Welcome to the wiscon_vidparty vidding workshop! We hope this will be a chance for new or potential vidders to find out more about what’s involved in making a vid and to see the wide variety of ways vidders make vids, and for vidders of all skill levels to discuss vidding and share tips and ideas. Everyone is welcome to participate!

This workshop will be discussion- and question-based, so please, start or jump into any discussions you want to have and ask any questions about any aspect of vidding! Finding ideas, getting source, clipping (or not), editing programs, codecs, rendering, effects, specific technical issues you’re having, discussion about specific vids, discussing your own ideas, links to useful resources, tutorials, cheerleading--any and all vidding related topics are welcome.

We’ve created a few categories to keep some of the major topic threads organized. If you have a comment or question or want to start a discussion on a certain topic, just comment below the relevant subject. (We’re flexible though, so don’t fret too much about getting things in the right place. If in doubt, just give your thread a descriptive subject line so people can find it).

Feel free to add new threads if what you want to talk about isn't covered by the categories, but please give your comment a descriptive subject line so readers can tell what’s being discussed.

We have several awesome vidders who have volunteered to participate and introduce themselves at their convenience. We will be linking to their introductions as they appear. Keep an eye out and feel free to ask them specific questions!

Topics (to get you started--add your own threads and subthreads!)

• Vid Idea Development -- Finding and developing ideas for new vids

• Tech Questions -- Hardware and software (PC, Mac or Linux), codecs, aspect ratios, exporting and rendering, effects, etc.
          Questions asked/discussed:
          -- Software to use on a PC? (including discussion of Windows Movie Maker & Lightworks)
          -- Vidding with iMovie09?
          -- Codec rec: Avid DNxHD
          -- Converter recs for Macs?
          -- Linux clipping?

• Getting Started (and Finished) -- From beginning to end, how do you make a vid? Getting source, clipping, editing workflows, tips for getting started, etc.
          • Subthread: Editing workflows/processes
                --chaila (VirtualDub, Vegas, Zarx264gui)
                --heresluck (DVD Decrypter, DGIndex, Premiere, Zarx264gui)
                --thingswithwings (Handbrake, Mac the Ripper, MPEG Streamclip, Final Cut Pro, Sound Studio)
                --ghost_lingering (Adobe Premiere & AfterEffects, Mac the Ripper, and mpeg streamclip)
                --eruthros (DVD Decrypter, VirtualDub, AvsPmod, Premiere, Zarx264gui)
                --such_heights (Switch, audio editing/conversion, Final Cut)
                --beccatoria (avidemux, Cinelerra)

          • Other questions/discussion
           -- How to time clips to the beat?
           -- Using markers
           -- Approaching editing/revising? & how to deal with ambition outstripping effects/transition knowledge?
           -- Free/cheap editing software for Macs?
           -- Ripping DVDs vs. downloaded source?
           -- Note re: codecs & compression

• Links and References -- Link helpful resources from elsewhere on the internet.
          -- Various lists of resources, including subtitling
          -- Mac vidders: how to get the shiniest source
          -- Lots of links, especially about vidding creativity
          -- Panel notes on song choice
          -- A&E's Technical Guide to All Things Audio and Video
          -- Audio editing
          -- Multiple aspect ratio tutorials
          -- Understanding codecs & containers, & Autodesk software for students

• VIDDING SQUEE - All things happy, fun, and inspiring.
          • The first vid you made you're still proud of?
          • Vids/vidders that inspired us!

Meet the Vidder Threads

• Meet the Vidder: Rhi
• Meet the Vidder: metatxt
• Meet the Vidder: such heights
• Meet the Vidder: kiki_miserychic
• Meet the Vidder: Garrideb
• Meet the Vidder: ghost lingering
• Meet the Vidder: here's luck
• Meet the Vidder: chaila

ETA 3/3/14: The main part of the workshop has concluded, but please feel free to add answers or info if you've got them! We've organized a list of the threads, questions and answers for ease of browsing. And don't forget that you can sign up to be a vidding mentor to a newer vidder, or sign up to get a mentor!

Comments

Re: the first vid you made that you're still proud of?

[isagel]

That would have to be The Temptation of John Sheppard, which was my second vid, and still quite likely the vid of mine that most people have seen. (I make too many small fandom vids! *g*) It has all my John/Rodney feels in it, and I still love the concept of it, and the symbolical space explosions and all that. I started making it in Windows Movie Maker and then had a complete meltdown because there were things in the middle I wanted to vid, but I didn't know what came before them. This was the point when I realized I was constitutionally incapable of doing vidding if I had to vid linearly. Heh. So I stopped vidding, and then at some point after that I installed Premiere and started The Temptation over from scratch with multi-track editing, OMG. *g* After that I was pretty much stuck with vidding.

And of course because I had that break in making the vid and the show was cancelled in that time, I ended up getting to use all of canon for it, which made it a much better vid than it otherwise would have been.

I remember I was so happy with figuring out how to do the overlay of the nuclear mushroom cloud superimposed on the shot of John in the control chair towards the end, and I'm still very pleased with that effect. Overall I just wish the visuals were better timed to the music, and that I'd had shinier source. But it is a vid I'm proud of.


I also want to mention Wither and Die, though, because I just rewatched it, and I'm at a point right now where I can see that it actually achieves a lot more of what it set out to do than I thought it did, and I'm still so, so fond of the use of colour in it, and the matchstick opening, and the blink at the end. (That blink carries huge meaning in canon.) It's a very ambitious vid in a fandom hardly anyone is familiar with. Which I guess sums up a lot of my vidding tendencies still. *smile*

Re: the first vid you made that you're still proud of?

[such_heights]

I love the Temptation of John Sheppard so muuuuuuch! <3