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Popping in for another day! I always find hearing about peoples creative process to be really interesting, so I look forward to checking out other posts from today.
When it comes to gifs, it depends on what kind of set I'm going for – if it's a set that only really relies on visuals, like a general character or episode set then I'll usually just go through screencap galleries and narrow down which scenes I want to use. If it's a set like my Buffyverse character arc appreciation series (that I do plan on continuing!) that has... not quite sure of the right word to choose here, but a theme, maybe? then I tend to do more thorough research. Back to the character arc series example, I went through the transcripts for all of the BTVS/ATS episodes Faith is in and made a big list of all the relevant quotes from Faith that I believe exemplified Faith's character journey and somehow narrow that list down to 10 quotes! Inspiration usually comes very spontaneously; often I'll just pick up on a pattern while I'm watching a show and then I want to visually explore that.
For fanvideos, most of them are products of a rewatch – except my Buffyverse ones because I know the show pretty well – and I'll think, "Oh I really want to vid this ship!" When I hear a song that makes me think of a show/ship I make note of it so I don't always have to do song research, but when I do, I listen to playlists, watch other vids for inspiration, and check out songs on some of the youtube channels I follow that just post, like, indie songs and all of this usually results in me finding a song... it can take a while, but I haven't come up empty handed yet.
Once I have the song, I break the song down lyric by lyric just onto a note on listography and make notes as I rewatch the series of moments that I think either just fit the song or fit a specific lyric from the song and match it accordingly. Sometimes I think to myself how over the top it appears but it's a good way to keep track of what moments I've already used and also I'm very forgetful/my thoughts are super fleeting so if I don't make note my ideas, then I'll often forget them... I'm not sure if my explanation here is very clear so I'll post a little snippet from my Buffy/Angel – Favourite Colour vid:
Paint me up, me up, me up / You're my favourite colour / Paint me up, me up, me up / You're my favourite colour
So basically... I guess I put a lot of thought into vids so I really appreciate the times when people comment on things like my scene selections. When things aren't going the way I want them to, I'll usually just take a break and return to the vid another day and things go a lot more smoothly after that break. Because I do all of the planning before even making the vid (same with gifs), any complications usually have to do with trying to figure out transitions and beat-matching.
All in all, I have lots of ideas but I definitely struggle when it comes to getting the motivation to actually bring these ideas to fruition which can create a cycle where I get overwhelmed, not knowing where to begin on my to-vid/gif list and because of that, I am super inconsistent when it comes to posting new things. Maybe that's something I'll work on in 2019...
Day 11 – In your own space, talk about your creative process(es) — anything from the initial inspiration to how you feel after something’s done. Do you struggle with motivation or is it a smooth process? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to pull out when a fanwork isn’t cooperating? What is your level of planning to pantsing/winging it?
When it comes to gifs, it depends on what kind of set I'm going for – if it's a set that only really relies on visuals, like a general character or episode set then I'll usually just go through screencap galleries and narrow down which scenes I want to use. If it's a set like my Buffyverse character arc appreciation series (that I do plan on continuing!) that has... not quite sure of the right word to choose here, but a theme, maybe? then I tend to do more thorough research. Back to the character arc series example, I went through the transcripts for all of the BTVS/ATS episodes Faith is in and made a big list of all the relevant quotes from Faith that I believe exemplified Faith's character journey and somehow narrow that list down to 10 quotes! Inspiration usually comes very spontaneously; often I'll just pick up on a pattern while I'm watching a show and then I want to visually explore that.
For fanvideos, most of them are products of a rewatch – except my Buffyverse ones because I know the show pretty well – and I'll think, "Oh I really want to vid this ship!" When I hear a song that makes me think of a show/ship I make note of it so I don't always have to do song research, but when I do, I listen to playlists, watch other vids for inspiration, and check out songs on some of the youtube channels I follow that just post, like, indie songs and all of this usually results in me finding a song... it can take a while, but I haven't come up empty handed yet.
Once I have the song, I break the song down lyric by lyric just onto a note on listography and make notes as I rewatch the series of moments that I think either just fit the song or fit a specific lyric from the song and match it accordingly. Sometimes I think to myself how over the top it appears but it's a good way to keep track of what moments I've already used and also I'm very forgetful/my thoughts are super fleeting so if I don't make note my ideas, then I'll often forget them... I'm not sure if my explanation here is very clear so I'll post a little snippet from my Buffy/Angel – Favourite Colour vid:
Paint me up, me up, me up / You're my favourite colour / Paint me up, me up, me up / You're my favourite colour
- 107 – Cross burn
- 312 – Always, 320 – Buffy&Angel4Ever, A107 – Buffy's photo
- [A vampire got me hot. One.] 322 biting and 403 scar
- [Do you realise how rare that is? True happiness?] 213 – In bed together
- 101 | 214 – Cross
- A108 ending
- 304 – Gets humanity back
- 222 – Gets soul back
- 107 – After Angel stakes Darla
So basically... I guess I put a lot of thought into vids so I really appreciate the times when people comment on things like my scene selections. When things aren't going the way I want them to, I'll usually just take a break and return to the vid another day and things go a lot more smoothly after that break. Because I do all of the planning before even making the vid (same with gifs), any complications usually have to do with trying to figure out transitions and beat-matching.
All in all, I have lots of ideas but I definitely struggle when it comes to getting the motivation to actually bring these ideas to fruition which can create a cycle where I get overwhelmed, not knowing where to begin on my to-vid/gif list and because of that, I am super inconsistent when it comes to posting new things. Maybe that's something I'll work on in 2019...
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