Something Vid-like This Way Comes: Internal Motion

[permetaform]

It's amazing what you can learn just by listening to the music.

I don't know why but it's really hard for me to hear lyrics unless I've read them first. It might be due to the fact that English isn't my first language, though it's my *best* language, it's difficult for me to recognize some phonemes, the "r" and "l" sounds in particular.

Anyhoo, in that regard I treat vocals as another instrument, which is made easier by the fact that you can get a "cheat sheet" for this instrument by looking up the lyrics online.

Sadly, this is not possibly for the other instruments. About the closest you can get is probably the "waveform" in Premiere.

Foolproof Guide to Cutting on Beat *Every* *Time*

1) Open Waveform
2) Find beat
3) Cut 3 frames before


This works 'cause your eyes are slightly slower than your ears and it gives time for everything to catch up.

This also works really really well on fades. I don't know why it works on fades (because technically it's only a small difference the first three frames of the fade) but it's worked really well everytime.

Learned via sisabet via sockkpuppett via Carol S. =)

Through the above method you can get

Internal Movement On Beat =)

This is basically how I do it:

1) Find point of maximum extension in your clip
(ie. the point where a moment begins or ends, the beginning of a blink, the point of impact, the most stretched out part of a kick...)
2) Cut the clip at the point of max extension
(now you have two clips, 1st half of lead-up movement and 2nd half of denouement)
3) Find the beat where you want the action to fall
4) Put 2nd half of clip three frames before the beat.
5) Drop 1st half of clip just before the 2nd half making sure NOT to overlapp
6) Use the 'stretch' tool to make the far ends of the clips fall on beat too.


There's probably tons of other methods so I'm really really curious as to how everyone else handles getting internal movement on beat, because it's a bitch and a half trying to get it perfect by ear. I can usually tell when it's *off* but it's hard to connect visual and audio sometimes. With cutting the clip in half I have a *visual* clue of what's happening in the visual medium.

Now and then sometimes even *that* can't get it "on beat". What's probably happening is that it's not being set on the beat you *think* you hear. And the only solution to that is to keep listening to the song and watching what the waveform does as it scrolls. (the 3 frames rule does NOT apply in this situation)

One interesting thing you can do to help train your ear to different sounds is to pick an instrument at the beginning of the song and follow its melody as the song plays, and concentrate on how it interacts with the other instruments. Each instrument has "lyrics" too, they have "verses" and "lines" that are just as important as the vocals and it makes an impact on your vid if you're paying attention to what the instruments are singing about and when.

I would highly recommend Simon and Garfunkel's 'Scarborough Fair - Canticle' for easy to find instruments with semi-complex interaction. What especially rocks is when you hear it on headphones, because then the different instruments sound and syncopate in different ears and it's easier to keep track of what's going on.

ps. Regarding explosions, I honestly think that it isn't one movement at all. It's at least two: the initial spark and the expanding blast.

In The Fragile, the explosion at 3:03 is preceded by a spark on the quiet beat with "*and*" (from "...and picking and picking *and* ahhhhh") and then the main brightness on "ahhhh" with the strong beat. Same principle with the ship crashing during Leeloo's intro sequence and various and miscellany other explosions in that vid. In Seah and Margie's Haunted, the spark is "you" (from "And I will always miss you, oh!") and the expanding blast is on "oh!" with the cymbal crash.

Incidentally, I was trying to figure out how to make things go "boom!" properly for The Fragile and learned it mostly through repeatedly watching the earth go boom in Haunted. heh.

Comments

[kimera.livejournal.com]

Hmm... this is how I do it. I've used this method a lot, but never *really* put it to the test until I made "Feelin' Alright". For the most part, the clips were syncronised with the guitar or keyboard (both of which flowed at the same speed as the lyrics). But there was one section where I wanted the clips to line up with the percussion beats instead.

I put a marker where I hear the beat, and then line it up with the spike on the waveform if it's still off by a bit (which it usually is). The mess of orange and green (green denotes regions in VV- useful if you're dividing a song into themed sections) tabs might look confusing to some people- but it keeps everything in order for me.

[permetaform]

neat! thanks for sharing =)