First -- my partner and I have a car game that is essentially, listen to the radio and then come up with the best vid idea for that song. We play it A LOT. And then, whoever is in the passenger seat writes down anything we deem worthy of remembering and working on later. Some of them survive long enough to go into our actual list of "vids to make," others don't, but I think it helps build those connections of thinking about audio in a visual way.
I think, like heresluck, I also always in a state of song-evaluation and just know what my fandoms are? Since I have a hard time finishing vids, for this to be a productive exercise for me, I need to maintain a list of vid ideas (some folks find this too overwhelming) or have the visual source already downloaded and ready to clip.
That said, my favorite vid ideas almost always require a different way of approaching audio. Either the song is really repetitive and does not offer significant structure -- which means the visuals have to be highly structured, or I have to edit the song, or I need a different cover, or... it's not a song at all.
Coming up with a vid idea is itself really satisfying, so if I'm going to follow through and vid, alternate audio source can be a really useful motivation.
I like using non-traditional audio sources that include dialogue, which mostly come down to two categories:
1- nostalgia/values mash-ups: beccatoria and cyborganize introduced me to this with their Tomorrow Project series. Using the audio from old PSAs or older television and film bits and pair with your fandom.
2- fandom mash-ups: taking the audio of a notable, recognizable scene from one fandom and applying clips from another. A lot of times we see these as animated gif mash-ups? e.g. Mean Girls phone conversation mash-ups. But you can do it with SO MANY other well known scenes. A bonus -- these make vidlets! and sometimes completing something is really motivating (or so I hear)
Of course, you can play with television commercials, recitations from your favorite songs, monologues, comedy sketches, and so on.
Re: Vid Idea Development
I think, like
That said, my favorite vid ideas almost always require a different way of approaching audio. Either the song is really repetitive and does not offer significant structure -- which means the visuals have to be highly structured, or I have to edit the song, or I need a different cover, or... it's not a song at all.
Coming up with a vid idea is itself really satisfying, so if I'm going to follow through and vid, alternate audio source can be a really useful motivation.
I like using non-traditional audio sources that include dialogue, which mostly come down to two categories:
1- nostalgia/values mash-ups:
2- fandom mash-ups: taking the audio of a notable, recognizable scene from one fandom and applying clips from another. A lot of times we see these as animated gif mash-ups? e.g. Mean Girls phone conversation mash-ups. But you can do it with SO MANY other well known scenes. A bonus -- these make vidlets! and sometimes completing something is really motivating (or so I hear)
Of course, you can play with television commercials, recitations from your favorite songs, monologues, comedy sketches, and so on.