przed | Vidding Whinge

I'm finally doing some serious capturing for my next vid, and I'm realizing how spoiled I was the last two vids I've worked on. They both used movies that had impeccable visual style and it was a pleasure working with the footage. This time, I'm using the Sharpe movies, and, well, they don't really have a visual style. The composition is workmanlike at best and dodgy at worst. It's going to be a challenge to find things to cut to. And from a slash point of view, it's been darn hard to find Sharpe and Harper in a shot together that isn't too freaking short or too freaking dark.

It's weird, because the director is Tom Clegg, and he did some interesting episodes of The Sweeney in the '70s. I don't know if he got bored and turned into a hack, or if the notoriously low budgets of the Sharpe made it impossible to do anything other than quickly get a shot and move on to the next one.

Oh well. On the other hand, Sharpe has lots and lots of Sean Bean, so I'm just going to enjoy the aesthetics of the actor and ignore the aesthetics of the show.

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I'm just going to enjoy the aesthetics of the actor and ignore the aesthetics of the show.

And the show also realizes that the aesthetics of the actor are paramount, as Sharpe has the tightest trousers in the British Army ;)

Let's hear it for tight trousers. They're going to keep me sane for the next few weeks.

::sympathizes with you on icky source:: But at least there's tight pants??

Tight pants = good. And though the source is icky, at least I've got 14 movies to go through. I'm hoping I'll find *something* to work with.

o.o *14* movies??

Yep. God bless Carlton Productions and British TV.

On the other hand, Sharpe has lots and lots of Sean Bean, so I'm just going to enjoy the aesthetics of the actor and ignore the aesthetics of the show.

Ohh, the aesthetics of Sean Bean can pretty much distract me from a bad production and, well, everything that isn't Sean Bean. *g*

Yeah, his, um, aesthetics get to me every time. ;)

I just hope this bloody vid works out. I've been wanting to viid Sharpe for ages.

that is what (ahem) filters and other tools are for. To add luster to poor filming. Dragging bland footage kicking and screaming into the sun.

am so happy you're working on a Sharpe vid.

I suspect I'll be giving the filters a workout for this one. Alas, there's no tool that can help with crappy shot composition.

I just hope the vid works, in the end.

I am looking into keyframing to give some motion to poorly farmed images and/or changing the composition. Zooming in slightly and adjusting the 'frame' from side to side without losing too much image quality.

Layering is also something I've looked at. Plus intercutting different images to create a new look.

But then I think of Sharpe's tight pants. That is your ace in the hole. The viewer will be stunned and all else will fall by the wayside.

I'll give the re-framing thing a shot. Though some of the most frustrating compositions I've found is where Clegg cuts off a character, usually Harper. Doesn't he know I need Pat in the shot? Grrr.

But yeah, tight pants. Always a good thing.

I know!!!! Tom Clegg did some fine stuff on the Sweeney. And the difference between that and Sharpe is vast.

weird.

But their is good capturing of Pat's burning looks if I recall correctly... usually directed at Richard's delightful bum.

Tom Clegg did some fine stuff on the Sweeney.

No kidding. It's almost like there's two different directors called Tom Clegg.

As for Sharpe, guess I'll just have to make sure I get a few good captures of Sharpe's delightful bum in tight pants, huh?

I actually work with a lot of stuff that is much worse in terms of style quality and lengthy, static shots that aren't framed well for vidding. I think in some respects that's what's taught me to cut faster and tighter -- you and I've talked about this before, I know, when we discussed length of cuts and such. A lot of times I think my creativity in terms of making a vid has been more of a forced hand -- like, I had to sacrifice story or narrative style in favor of making sadly lacking visuals more palatable, things like that. When I work on shows that have such lackluster footage, it really strains my energies for anything else -- the entire focus almost becomes "how can I make this look good." And of course, that's where song choice also has a huge effect, I know -- you get a good enough song and you can kind of transform those images, it can give you a better roadmap for using them.

A lot of the cheaper Brit series just didn't give us the stuff we need. Good looking guys, check, but there's a big gaping hole in terms of visuals.I was discussing making an I Spy vid with

movies_michelle and how if I could find the right song, I didn't think you were stuck just because of those longer shots they used back then, nor the color palette, really. She thought it might be limiting, especially if I did a MM vid with I Spy included. But I also know that a lot of my creative focus will shift if I do -- I will be concentrating solely on how I can tighten up and create movement where they didn't have any because of the '60s style of filming TV.

And anyway, I'm looking forward to it. Sharpe! I keep looking for a song, and haven't found one yet to make him work in my mind's eye. Yay for Sharpie!

I've been thinking of exactly this while doing the capture: fast cutting is definitely one way to save this vid. The hard part is going to be the song: it's a slow to mid tempo folk song, and finding places to cut fast without working against the song is going to be a challenge. Ah well. It's going to be interesting, and it'll stretch some vidding muscles I haven't used much. (Filter! Effects! Fast cuts! Oh my!)

As for I Spy, I found it a really great show to work with. The shots might be held longer, but the composition is usually quite lovely, and I like that near-garish colour palette. I've got two songs in the vidding queue that I'm intending to use for I Spy. I'm hoping I'll get to them by the summer. (Next up after Sharpe will be MI5/Spooks and then a Wesley vid.)

BTW, since my life is finally getting somewhat back to normal, I've started transferring Miracles to DVD again and I've got two disks for ya. Still interested?

Vidding Whinge

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