Last times we briefly looked at some issues at starting when making a video. Now, let’s jump in and talk about genres. Actually a genre, because we’re going to focus on just one now. Fan videos have genres, like books and movies do. To name a traditional one, there’s of course romance, but then there are more editing-focused ones; like AU/Crossover, character central, general etc. But today, we’re going to take a look at trailers.

A nice, refreshing change from the exhausting regular videos, that are full with effects and details. Trailers are a short, simple and powerful. They don’t have major effects apart from the colours and lighting, and rarely have anything flashy and fan-video-type in them. At least the official ones don’t. I think you can put home-made-non-real-movie-trailers into two groups: official style and fan video style.

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Official style. Non-official trailers trying to look as official as possible. Simple as that. For example, “‘Marley&Me’ Trailer” by bibiliotina. Maybe a tiny bit longish, but suits otherwise perfectly into this category. No big effects. Audio clips and fairly neutral music. Another one is “Oldboy Trailer (SYTYCV)” by DrewboyX. This trailer is genius. It’s strong, captivating, and could totally pull off as a real trailer. It has some cool effects, but they are not the fan video type. They are strong, and serve a purpose. This guy has some other really cool stuff as well, so I recommend you check it out.

Fan video style. Fanvidders just standing proudly up, and enjoying effects like always. Dominating effects and strong co-operation with the music. For example lovesimplicity‘s  Breaking Dawn teaser and Juliiaxx‘s New Moon trailer. Though not extreme examples, they both clearly have effects that official trailers don’t have. That’s not a bad thing, and usually done intentionally, it’s just a different style. Not every such video is easy to label. Smokeyfiizz‘s mind blowing “The Twilight Saga – Celestial Trailer” also goes in my opinion into this category. The effects are really subtle, though definitely there.

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What exactly makes a trailer work? What makes trailers different?

Alright. Now that we have put amateur trailers into categories, let’s do the same for trailers in general. Remember, that this is all my opinion, and that the world is full of exceptions.

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So, let’s put trailers really briefly into two groups.

Some trailers centres are around the plot. They’re quite clear, giving you a good impression of what the movie is going to be like. These are usually on the longer side. There are thousands of trailers like this. Marley&Me, Stardust, Harry Potter, just to name some.

Then there are more mystical trailers. They tend to give you characters and mood, but leave you wondering about many things. Most horror movies use this, but also disaster films of Roland Emmerich (& his team), Inception and many others.

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Join me in my next post, that takes theory into action, as we dive into how trailers can be made!

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-   Screw a.k.a. MarikaKM.

How often do you edit? Really? Every day, or just once a month?

Lack of time is a problem I face every single day. I have school, homework, guitar practising, writing, fan videos, forums and of course I want to have a break once in a while as well. Also, keep in mind, that I’m incredibly lazy. Yeah. Stuff is not going well for me here. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone with this.

I have seen editors on youtube who keep uploading awesome content week after week. It’s like they never stop editing for a minute! How do they do that? Well, they must just have more time in their schedule. Could be, but is that always the case?

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I think we all like to make ourselves believe that we just don’t have time for it. No inspiration, no time, so that we end up drinking a cup of tea and reading a nice book. Later we are frustrated, that we didn’t finish anything again.

Everybody needs to sleep, needs their share of rest every day. But, if you really want to improve, you have to edit regularly. Was it two hours or only ten minutes, the fact that you keep editing will help you stay with the hobby. If you really want to proceed, and want to increase your pace, then I suggest you make editing a part of your schedule: not just something you do when there’s nothing in it.

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I take this hobby quite seriously, and I know there are those who don’t, but also I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone with my wish to get better and better. I’m still on the path of getting how to do that.

So, how do you manage to keep your editing regular?

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-   Screw a.k.a. MarikaKM.

We have all faced it. We all know what it’s like. You sit down and open your favorite editing program. Two hours later, you still haven’t done a thing.

One of the biggest problems with a video, when you haven’t got a clear mission worked out, is starting. At least that’s what I have experienced. There are many little things that trigger editors block. Let’s take a look at them. They are not necessarily in the order I present them; it all depends on the way you work.

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1. Fandom, pairing and idea.

What fandom will I choose this time?  Will it be a romance video, an overview, or something else? Will it have a story? What emotion do I want to give it?

Sometimes, you might have a perfectly clear look on what fandom and pairing you want to use, but you just can’t get a hang of what you want the video to be about. I suppose something that people often do, is jump over the idea part, and get to the song choise right away: that way they can just follow the story of the song, and they don’t have to look for a specific kind of song.

I do that too sometimes. But most of the time I want to have at least the emotion figured out.

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2. Music choise.

This is where I get stuck most of the time. I can spend hours just dragging different mp3 files down to the timeline, listen for about ten seconds, and then remove it. Then I go search the internet for some time, search for fanvideos with nice bands, or just look up a band I already have in mind. I might get more than one song back with me, but usually none of  them was what I was looking for at the moment.

Choosing the wrong song or music for your video can in my opinion truly kill it. No matter how good the colouring, pacing and storyline is, if you have a sad, heart tearing idea, it won’t work with the song “You touched my Tra-La-La” in the backround. Well, if you aren’t a genious, it won’t.

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3. Colouring & other effects.

Some of us have a permanent choice of effects, that we use with many videos, but many like to vary the look of our videos. Sometimes choosing the right effects can cause heavy headaches, when nothing seems to fit.

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Solutions.

1. Give yourself time to think. Look at all your options, if you already have the idea, but lack the fandom or character. Go with your feelings. If you have made a “vision”, don’t let go of that, but don’t be afraid to change things the way you go. Use your emotions as inspiration, and try to make a video from the heart.
2. Don’t give up. There are bad days music-wise, but they are part of the creative process. Try to look at instrumental pieces as well, those can get you a long way. Be open for all kinds of music, I don’t really recommend sticking to one genre only.
3. Go with the emotion of the video. Don’t be afraid to try out entirely new things, effects that you never thought could work before. Look at other videos, and find inspiration. If you can’t manage to get over this, nevermind the effects right now. Continue with the video, and come back to effects later, when you have a clearer image of the outcome.

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-   Screw a.k.a. MarikaKM.

So, advertisement out on youtube. A classic, quickly made music + text thing, nothing fancy, like my first try was. Sometimes less is more, when your skills just don’t fill the picture you had of stuff in the beginning, I guess.

As said in the video, there is an opportunity to send in guest posts, and that would actually help a lot (: It would also be really fun to see others views on stuff like this. So, if you are interested in writing a post to this blog, tell so in a comment (or PM me on yt, why not), and add your e-mail and/or youtube account. I will contact you as soon as I can.

I’m keeping this post kind of short, but I’ll hopefully come with more than just site updates next time.

-   Screw a.k.a. MarikaKM.

Hi. I’m screw, or MarikaKM, as I’m known elsewhere. I have been editing for about four years now, and am not planning to stop. I started out at the most primitive stage: Dramione videos with crappy premiere pictures and subtitles saying “ohh, I love you” edited together with WMM (windows movie maker). A lot has changed since these past four years. I mean, I don’t vid Dramione any more. 8D

But enough about me. Let’s talk about this blog.

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I have always been wondering, why isn’t there a larger community for fanvidders? Or have I failed to find it? Of course we have places like youtube, bam, and we used to have imeem. Now we have twitter. We comment, but everything seems to happen in an “insider group”. I have not managed to make close friends, because, how do you get to know them? I have not found forums, and sometimes help is hard to get. No blogs, nothing has come up during my many google searches.

I have been thinking about that. About how hard it was in the beginning, not to find any advice, any help, clips, tutorials, anything. I have found that in the end, it was a pretty good thing. It had its downsides, but deep down it helped a lot. Because now it feels awesome, that despite of the struggles, I am here, writing this right now. It’s amazing.

That’s not the only reason. The other one, and in my opinion the most important one, is, that it narrows the editors down. The ones who didn’t really care enough to spend time and effort, didn’t want to struggle to find things, gave up, but the ones who really wanted to do this, continued. They grew and keep growing into amazing fanvidders.

Or maybe I’m taking it way too seriously. Maybe nobody else feels the need to talk about this, think about how fanvidding really works. I don’t know. But I want to. That’s why I’m keeping this blog. I want to go explore this hobby better, with hopefully some other curious friends beside me.

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I think I have made things clear enough, and this is a good point to stop this first post. Comments are always more than welcome. (: Goodbye, for now.

-   Screw a.k.a. MarikaKM.

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P.S. If I find out that all this time there was a huge forum and millions of blogs about this, I’m gonna be… like… unbelievably embarrased. 8D But happy!