I love making youtube videos for myself. It helps me in writing. In my head all my stories unfold the way I’ve been taught movies unfold. My dad worked behind the scenes at Warner Brothers before I was born, and while he was never a director in life, when we watch movies he can tell me exactly how the movie will unfold before it happens. He’s a born storyteller, and the writing definitely comes from the Pinder/Lyons/Jordan side of the family. The literary side is all dad’s side.
My mom has never read anything I write, though she loves me and wants me to be happy.
Either way I do check out alot of youtube videos for books these days. And part of me wishes so badly to have access to stock video at reasonable prices. I could have so much fun.
But I do have fun following all legal channels to make my book commercials as well. Notice how I’m calling them commercials. A trailer is an extended commercial in its heart and it goes deeper into the action. But so many people break my first cardinal rule of you vidding… if it’s longer than a minute, you’ve bored the audience.
Second Pinder rule in my head is that the eye can take in a picture much faster than it can read. Instinct or whatever. So if the picture is on for more then 3 seconds, it better be a great reason. (Now if I had stock video a car in motion might and I repeat ‘might’ have a reason to stay on screen longer… I’d follow this rule with vidding too.)
Third Pinder rule is to remember the difference between a book and a movie or tv commercial (I can throw in musical theater as well to discuss that difference too.) A book lets me inside the characters head. I get to relate to them on a personal level, but it’s stepping inside the mind of another. Thus why crime books written in the perspective of the killer hit home sometimes because this guy or girl will do things we’d never true. It’s also true in a romance novel. No one in real life will do half the stuff of the heroine, but we’re in her head. However, youtube videos are for the visual art side. We’re not in the head, but we’re seeing someone who can be our best friend walk and talk. (Go to my post on Les Miserables if you want theater versus movies as that too hits a different human sense.) So many book trailers forget the difference and make the book for the literary reader thus not remembering at our hearts we’re visual and visuals must be faster.
I have alot more to say on vidding, but part of why I do it is to show myself and others visually what I’m thinking this book will be about. One book is in the edit stage but you can see the trailer already. It helps me focus the fixing. I have two more stories I’m almost done with in rough drafts. Part of fixing will be to create the visual.
Four is I’m sick of using the same stock pictures. But I am building up what I have, so hopefully someday, this won’t be an issue.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH7f-LFZbIbFG3mXtz300EQMvrxXTTszU]
These are all mine. I try out different things all the time and every video has a slight difference in how I put it all together.
So does anyone else have any rules of vidding? I’d love to hear them. And what do you think? I’m no where near perfect, and I’m always looking for ways to improve. But I do know what I like and don’t like. What I cannot stand is slow moving anything.
Lastly Happy Easter. I’ll be at my parents for mom’s breakfast. Dad is very excited I’m arriving. Hope everyone’s day, weekend, life is good. The bad is just obstacles in the way to stop us from seeing and feeling the awesomeness that is beauty and life.
