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Thursday, July 7th, 2005 07:22 pm
[post provoked by [livejournal.com profile] tartanshell's post here; I've written a subsequent post here]

So: Point of View in vids.

[edit: definition via Dictionary.com here, "The attitude or outlook of a narrator or character in a piece of literature, a movie, or another art form."

...I am referring to POV as a vehicle of vidding logic as used by a vidder, NOT to it's appearance or lack there-of in a vid, and not referring to possible POV of the vidder themself, which I label more along the lines of authorial intent. Major apologies for lack of clarity on this topic the first time around.]

Is it really necessary? (regaring the use of it by a vidder in the process of constructing a vid) 'Cause yanno, everyone makes POV out to be a big deal and yet if you ask audiences I bet that about 50% of the time more or less they get it wrong anyways, and yet the vid *still* works.

And if the vid still *works* despite the POV not being discernable, is point of view necessary in the creation of it? Tricky thing here is, of course, that about 90% of the detail and craft (? I don't know a better word for this that might sound less pretentious) in a vid is subconscious. There was that analogy awhile ago about fic-writing being like leading a blindfolded audience down a tunnel so that they might get to the end and then see the light. Dude, vidding? Vidding is like hurtling your audience down a black tunnel on a runaway train going at 100mph; most of the details that make the ride the most effective aren't even conscious; which, hell, no wonder most people are stumped while leaving feedback.

But that's another discussion.

Granted, POV *might* be inherent in vids just because of the nature of the music and the way most people listen to it. There's usually one singer and the POV is usually assigned to that one singer; but can't the vid be structured around something other than POV?

Is, then, POV just an organizing methodology?

'Cause I wonder too, if this methodology of most vidders is the best thing to have and/or advocate. And I use that term because organizing vids around a POV, for all it's usefulness, still simply a method, and thus still simply arbitrary. For all the usefulness, sometimes, of setting a specific POV for a vid, it's not really useful in the construction of semi- or completely omniscient vids. And it doesn't cover most non-narrative vids; it can't really help the character study, nor the meta vid, nor the multi-fandom vid, nor the mood vid, nor the movement vid.

'Cause not only are these vids based on different, but equally valid, aesthetics (which doesn't necessarily mean that the vid doesn't *work*, it just doesn't work the same *way*); but the process of organizing these types of vids around a defined, grounded, singular POV might possibly hurt them. In some ways I think that was part of why I was so completely frustrated with and destroyed over Gravity, because it was essentially a mood piece for my micro-fandom, or rather a mood vid with emotional arc. It's essentially a failure if you judge it in strict narrative guidlines, which for a long time I couldn't see beyond; and the only thing that allowed me to finish Gravity was by repeatedly giving up narrative and pretty much vidding in total abject despair of a decent product.

If nothing else, I think that, for me at least, I don't need a POV in the construction of a vid...but what I *need* is that end-reason or an end-goal or an end-feeling; that unshakeable *something* that is at the heart of a vid, and as long as that core reason is there, then I know how to structure the vid to get there. Because, see, for the most part I am assuming an audience at full rest and thus whatever vid I'm doing needs to take the audience to that end-reason. For The Fragile it's the feeling when Corbin shatters at the element pedestal, and they both get re-made into the weapon. For Lucky You it's that creeping shiver when the kid tells you it wouldn't end. For Sunburned it's the implosion of all effort and all color into empty grey. I'm not sure that the POV is so necessary as this knowledge of where the vid must go. [edit: on hind-thought I think what I'm getting at here is author intent]

Which is both a depressing realization and an invigorating one all at the same time; because even though it means un-learning and re-thinking my vid conceptualizing process, it means that there's more styles of vid now, to explore.

which: w00t!

[edited in multiple places on 7.8.5 for clarity]

Additional thoughts: Vidding without a POV doesn't mean that the audience can't bring a POV to the vid; it just means that it's constructed without one.

Second post here.
Friday, July 15th, 2005 06:51 am (UTC)
Eeep, sorry not to reply more quickly!

I'd love to look at your vid if you still want to show me. Email me today with download info.

Last time round about POV: I think POV doesn't define the *order* of the clips so much as *which* clips one uses. Have you considered it from that direction?

I'm mostly trying to say that a "good" vid isn't necessarily a narrative vid. And I agree with you. But non-narrative vids still have points of view.
Friday, July 15th, 2005 02:20 pm (UTC)
Got your email. Checking it out now...