This is one of the best advice posts on PDML I've had. So true. I was
concentrating on the delivery vehicle, and missed working on the
payload. Going with the gut is how it should be.
Not perfect yet, and I won't pollute the list with future iterations,
but here is my current cut
http://members.iinet.net.au/~derbyc/13/01/intimate_show/index.html
Cheers, Cotty
D
On 5/01/2013 9:59 PM, Steve Cottrell wrote:
On 4/1/13, Derby Chang, discombobulated, unleashed:
Retinstated files up now. Durrr, I realised VLC does OGG encoding - all
this time I thought it was just a player
http://members.iinet.net.au/~derbyc/13/01/intimate_show/index.html
If I may.
Rather than selecting a constant value in seconds between each mix
(picture mix - dissolve if you like) why not select the transition point
by feel. This is very hard to do because sometimes one gets so close to
it one loses the plot. the trick is to go with gut reaction then leave
it and look later. My gut reaction is that the individual stills are far
too short. Four seconds is simply not enough time to see the still. If
this means only including the strongest pictures to maintain overall
length, that can be a good thing.
Actual transition length should also come from the heart. And it is
quite possible that some images will mix through in shorter duration,
some even longer - depends on the images. When I use a mix, I look to
where my eye goes first as it leaves the outgoing shot.
As for estimating length of a shot and how long the transition takes to
the next - I do it by feel. That is, I will watch a shot in real time
(obviously my shots are usually moving and not still, but not always so)
and then as I feel the transition point approaching, where I would like
the mix to happen, I close my eyes slightly, almost like squinting (as
if that is the transition happening) for the duration of the transition
- eg say a 3 second mix. With my finger hovering over the stop button I
pause it. (most editing software is known as 'JKL' because the K key is
stop, the 'J' key is backwards at X1 [eg real time] and the 'L' key is
forwards at X1 speed [real time] and the more you press J and L the
faster you go in each direction. So I can alternate between J K and L to
go forward, stop, then if I'm not certain I go backwards a bit, stop,
then forwards again to have another 'imaginary transition'. This is just
as you would do it on a film editing Steenbeck machine.
Once the transition is visualised in the mind, it's just a case of
finding the middle of it. I do this in real time, eyes dimmed, and smack
the K key (although I always go back 2 frames as I've discovered over
the years that from the moment your brain tells your finger to stop the
player and actually hits the button to do it, it always seems to be 2
frames further on than thought. So in filming terms the hand is 2 frames
late ;-)
This system works for cuts also - in fact cuts especially. And to music.
As an editor I always say to people that there is no rule it - the true
test is that if it looks right then it is right. And always go for your
gut reaction to anything. You will put two shots next to each other and
watch them in juxtaposition, feel it's not quite right but leave it
anyway for now, arse about moving the in points and out points about,
then screw about with this and that, think it will do fine. Then much
later when you look through again and it will be startlingly obvious
that it doesn't work at all and you end up redoing the lot! Go with your
heart ;-)
BTW the audio, in this case the music, is much better - and as you have
discovered is crucial to the look and feel. I think it works well. Just
need a little longer on the pics :)
HTH
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