Madbunny's "How to make a
basic action video 101"
You need: Song, patience.
Preface:
One of the first things that
I notice when reviewing videos produced by new editors is that their
videos are usually less sophisticated than those made by the guys who
have been around for a while. They "feel" raw and rough around
the edges; they lack the polish and smoothness that we come to expect
of a superior video. When reviewing videos submitted to this page
I have noticed that what separates a beginner's video from a more
sophisticated one is most commonly the lack of coherent
narrative. Many people may find themselves scratching their heads
after watching a video that ignores the internal structure of the
song. Just like a driver will follow the pattern of traffic
lights as they change from green to yellow to red and back to green, as
listener and viewer you will naturally expect a video to support the
flow of the music's own patterns.
The purpose of this guide is to help beginner music video editors
better understand musical structure.
As complicated as this sounds, you don't need to have a strong
background in music theory to be able to find the flow and rhythms of a
piece of music; finding the structure of a song is actually a very
simple thing to do, most of us do it unconsciously anyway. If you
follow a few simple steps you will be able to add a great deal of
quality to your video compositions.
During the first part of this guide I will focus on the major structure
of lyrical music. Later on I can get into some of the more
comprehensive details of how to find beat patterns, symmetry, and
sub-harmonies. Instrumental music can be defined using the same
principals, but lyrical music gives us an easier place to start because
it has a built in story. Lyrical music saves the beginner much
time and energy, because the songwriter has already done the job of
setting the story, breaking it into coherent parts and timing the music
to fit the narrative. How nice of them!
Timeline terminology
Introduction or Prelude:
The introduction, or prelude
would be those very first notes in the song, before the lyrics begin;
often these notes make the song instantly recognizable, the part where
you go "YEAH! Turn it up!" when you hear them on the radio. Older
rock songs made a point using short preludes, but they seem less common
with more modern groups. Think of the classic rock song “Start Me
Up” by the Rolling Stones, or the guitar stings that start off most
ACDC songs.
If you listen to live music, you will notice that as soon as a band
starts to play the distinctive notes to a popular song that is when the
crowd begins to cheer, obviously they've recognized the intro.
The Bridge:
The bridge is a short section
of music that connects one part of the song to the next. Not all
songs have an obvious bridges, but there is almost always a key note,
or series of notes. My theory is that this lets the rest of the
band know when it’s time to start playing new stuff for the song in
concert. I could be wrong. Typically bridges occur between
major points in the lyrics, so you can always use the transition from
one chorus of lyrics to the next.
Use the bridge is used for you to make your transitions from beginning,
to middle, to end, and possibly a coda.
The beginning:
The beginning is when you set the stage and tone of your video.
You need to spend time building your video; it’s environment,
characters and whatnot. This structure is very important in order
to give an appropriate flavor to your video. Just like many people have
a difficult time appreciating non-functional art, or Phillip Glass,
many people will have a difficult time with your video if you skip the
structure. If you video does not have a beginning, and just jumps
right into whatever main theme you have chosen, then you risk confusing
the viewer. Don’t confuse your viewer accidentally.
Middle:
Consider the middle as the
meat of your video. For most songs the middle portion is the
longest, and this is when the story of your song, and video are given a
chance to play out. Some songs will actually have another bridge
to extend this 'middle' section of the video, so be aware of that. You
can think of it as two 'middles' if you like, and perhaps use it as a
chance to focus on two characters for example.
End or Finale:
This is the end, my
friend...exactly like what it sounds like. This should be when
everyone dies, gets the girl, wins, blows up the enemy, or
whatever. This will also mostly likely be the loudest, most
dramatic part of your song as well. The finale may not necessarily come
at the end of your song.
Not to be confused with the climax, which is the part that peaks
musically, this is the end segment.
The climax should be in this segment, although for some songs it won't
be. If the 'climax' is in this segment then use it like it was
meant to be, if it occurred earlier in the song (examples would include
stairway to heaven - Led Zeppelin, and King of pain- Sting) where there
is a climax, nowhere near the end of the song) then be creative and use
the end to wind down your video.
Epilogue:
Every once in a while you
will have a song that very definitely ends, yet continues to play
on. Usually these songs are just repeating lyrics, or some
section of the song over and over until it fades into silence. If
you have one of these, then this is the time to basically "compile"
your story. I recommend flashbacks, or similar devices for songs
with this structure. You can also use these to begin fading into
your end credits if you so desire.
Setting up your
music/Section breakdown:
First find a song that you
feel tells a story that is interesting. You might consider picking
something that is not "played out"; if you get sick of it after a few
hours of editing, I guarantee everyone else will get sick of it
too. You might hear it on the radio, and say, “hey, that gives me
an idea for a video", or you might deliberately pick it to match a
video theme. It doesn’t matter if you aren't sure about your
video source yet, you need to work with the song BEFORE you work with
the video.
Listen to the song and identify the breaks in the music. I don’t
mean the beats, I mean the parts where the song separates into audible
sections, for instance: beginning, middle and end. Virtually all
popular songs are set up on this simple format. Next, find the parts
where the music goes from one section to the next. The little
musical blurts between sections (but not really part of them) are
called bridges, and are your main markers for your video.
As an example, I have sectioned "Summer of ’69", by Bryan Adams.
Look at this and you can see very clear markers for building a video.
(Numbers are
for “Summer of ’69", by Bryan Adams)
0-:05 Intro -
<some guitar stings. >
:05 <song starts>
Beginning
:49 - begin bridge
:56 - end bridge
Middle
1:27 - begin bridge
1:41 - end bridge
End
1:55 - begin bridge
2:08 - end bridge
Epilogue/Wrap
2:40 - begin end epilogue
3:20 - end end epilogue
Song repeats down into silence finally ending
Lyric breakdown
0-:05 Intro - <some guitar
stings. >
:05 <song starts>
I got my first
real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it til my fingers bled
It was the summer of '69
:18 -19 <very distinctive
transition note>
Me and some guys
from school
Had a band and we tried real hard
Jimmy quit and Jody got married
I shoulda known we'd never get far
:30 - :33 <transitional
note>
Oh when I look
back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Ya - I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life
:49 - :56 <bridge>
Ain't no use in
complainin'
When you got a job to do
Spent my evenin's down at the drive-in
And that's when I met you
Standin' on your
Mama's porch
You told me that you'd wait forever
Oh and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life
1:27 begin bridge
Back in the
summer of '69
1:41 End bridge
Man we were
killin' time
We were young and restless
We needed to unwind
I guess nothin' can last forever - forever, no
1:55 - 2:08 <bridge>
And now the times
are changin'
Look at everything that's come and gone
Sometimes when I play that old six-string
I think about ya wonder what went wrong
Standin' on your
Mama's porch
You told me it would last forever
Oh the way you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life
Back in the summer of '69
2:40 <end sequence>
Song repeats down into silence finally ending at 3:20
Notes and tips:
If you did your breakdown correctly, and it's not hard to do; then you
should have your song ready to receive footage. Many experienced
editors fall into the trap of ripping tons of footage, and trying to
figure out what to do with it all. By actually thinking about
what you want to do you've already made the most important step toward
the creation of a decent video.
All of the above steps do not require any sort of fancy editing
anything. As long as you can play the music and take notes then
you can do a song breakdown.
Once you have all of this, then you need to decide how you want to
interpret the song to your anime. For this song as an example,
say I choose to use Trigun.
Six string guitar
= Vash's gun.
His girl = Meryl
Jimmy (quit) = Wolfwood
Jody (got married)= Milly
Your moma's porch = the episode with the farmers that won't sell.
"the best days of my life" - Footage from young Vash
Simple enough so far.
Now find the key sequences that you want to tie it all together
with. Perhaps, it is Vash walking through the desert, maybe one
of the many times he's eating vast quantities of food, or being chased
by a crowd of people. The idea is that once you've established a
theme for your video, then it will be internally consistent, and
therefore easier to watch.
At this point, what you want to do is to sequence your timing to the
individual beats and harmonies within the song. I'll cover some
of that next time.
There are also a multitude of guides that cover that very topic on the
.org so feel free to check them out.