Sheryl - you wrote "I assume you know that if the song is to really get exposure, it will eventually have to be re-recorded as a video by an anorexic, half naked bleach blond caked in makeup and making love to her computer screen. lol Are you talented with video software too? :-D"
How about... webcam shots of people looking into their screens as they are "on the hunt"? An assortment of facial expressions from hopeful and bemused all the way to shocked and disgusted. Some video clips - rolling eyes, rubbing eyes, slumping over. Still shots of expressions. Repeated motifs - the same person in the morning with coffee, the afternoon with a can of soda, the evening doing shots of tequila. There's room for main talent, an actress lip-synching the song while playing the part of looking in the screen like everybody else. Alternative shots - a whiteboard with a list of names along the top and criteria down the side, with matrix entries being filled in - return to the whiteboard from time to time as it is being filled in - video of the woman's hand furiously scribbling or erasing, changing her mind and un-erasing, then erasing again.
End it with the actress staring into the screen and then slowly breaking into a huge grin. Cut to a wedding photo.
The above is just to get the imagination going, not a definitive plan. You could crowd-source a lot of people's webshots and possibly get other material from public-domain sources.
As to video, I expect the Cartel has talent a lot better than me.
Ooops, just saw this! I was looking in on the other thread regularly, but hadn't had time to look at the main forum link the last few days.
Yeah, that would be funny!!!! :-) You have the software to do that?
I have some video software I haven't tried yet (vegas video 30-day trial http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/vegasfamily.asp plus some freeware) and a friend with a bit of equipment who has expressed interest in getting into video projects with me. As I said, I'm sure someone in the Cartel has the equipment and the chops to do better. But it's mostly about the content. Can you round up, say, a couple dozen of your friends (of both genders) and get a bunch of stills and short video clips of them mugging into the camera? (Do you have a web cam?) A variety of expressions. Wincing. Astonishment. Lust. Puzzlement. Disgust. On and on. The more content to chose from, the more likely a funny video could be pasted together. Go over the lyrics one line at a time and use your imagination. For example, "Daniel or Derek" - I'm picturing two frat boys goofing around, pushing each other to try to get into the center of the frame, or one giving the other a noogie, etc. Something very guy-like and utterly distasteful to 99% of the women out there. We could brainstorm a 100 snippets like that.
I've done some video editing; low-end software, but I've gotten paid for it, so I have the skills.
I'm foreseeing a problem with the raw footage. I didn't notice what the final song length was, so I'm guessing about 4 minutes? Even though web cams are generally low-quality video, we'll need better than typical web cam quality for the editing stage, so we're talking 30 frames per second, 640x480, uncompressed video. One second of this quality video is about 27 MB, so that's 6 or 7 gigs of video. That's too large to make internet transfer feasible, but putting it on CD-R or DVD-R and mailing it would work.
If we drop it to 320x240 for the stuff that's actually supposed to look like a web cam (the shots of the "daters",) drop the framerate to about 10 fps, and display the video clips four-up, one clip in each corner, we can cut the amount of footage to 1 to 2 GB, assuming double the amount of video, since we'd show a different clip in each corner and change a clip on certain beats of the song.
This assumes we have at least 4 minutes of the "white board" footage at the regular frame rate and dimensions, though... but if I could find a white board and convince someone locally to be a hand model, I could fill that. The white board footage would be shown in one of the other corners, simultaneous with the other clips, and would jump from corner to corner. I'd actually like much more white board footage, so I could double or triple the speed.
I doubt I'd be able to find someone locally who'd be willing to do the lipsync material, however. That would be an addition 6+ GB of material, or maybe only 1.5 to 2 GB if it's at 320x240 (but it should be at a full 40 fps.)
We'd also need other humorous, possibly non-sequitor, material to pad it out. These clips would appear intermittently in various corners of the screen. I could supply this, if need be.
Remember to get releases for anyone in the video and explain to them the video would be under the Creative Commons, and would probably wind up on YouTube.
A couple dozen live volunteers? This is where not having a social life catches up with me. Let me ask my brother when I see him this weekend. Maybe he can help me.
Actually, I just emailed him. He just made a video movie a few months back for the fun of it, so minimally he might have some ideas for me at least.
For a while I was thinking of getting a really good camcorder, but I have been thinking about upgrading my computer situation instead. But I'll see what I can do. Thanks!!!
>>4
Obviously, collaborative editing of 7GB is out of the question. Putting 4 clips at a time in the corners might work for some of the time, but it could be tedious if it went for a significant fraction of the song. As to the "white board" stuff, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. (Which proves my point - the Cartel has someone more appropriate than me to work on this!) I'm willing to provide some direct and/or non sequitur content (320x240x30fps video and much bigger stills) and just let you run with it. If you wanted to drop an occasional rough cut MPEG, I'd be willing to comment.
>>6
Same goes for Sheryl's brother if he wanted to produce the video.
Hmmm...well I've been asking around. Dad said his camera's video does a maximum of 640X480 at 30 fps, but it's not actually a camcorder, so I don't know how long it sustains that. Also my dad is pretty protective about his toys. lol However, the camera is also half my mom's, and she said I could use it. So we'll see. At least everyone seems interested in the project, which is not always the case with some things I run past my family.
My brother also replied to my email. He suggested I ask around for volunteers at the local drama schools. I kind of doubt that would be as easy as he thinks, judging from the problems I had finding volunteers for some other creative projects in the past. But he seemed positive about the idea as a whole. So maybe he will do some acting for me at least or help take pics... I hope. I think the advantage to something like this would be that it sounds like it could be a lot of fun.
So no promises that I can get all that footage, but I will look into it....assuming one of you or someone wants to do the editing.
PS If talysman actually wants to do the editing, then that would imply we would have more time for the project than a month (because he would not be using trial software), right? That might make it easier to get people involved as well.
It's a dangerously tedious plan as is, which is why I suggested non-sequitor shots to keep things interesting. The idea's going to need a lot of work to turn it into a decent video. Lots of subtle visual gags and motion on-screen to keep people's interest.
As for the whiteboard (which I write "white board" because spellcheck nags me,) I was referring to this:
> Alternative shots - a whiteboard with a list of names along
> the top and criteria down the side, with matrix entries being
> filled in - return to the whiteboard from time to time as it
> is being filled in - video of the woman's hand furiously
> scribbling or erasing, changing her mind and un-erasing, then
> erasing again.
I have a deadline to move in Jult, so if it takes more than a month, I may be hard to contact on-line. However, if we exchange addresses and the like beforehand, I should be able to continue the editing afterwards until I get back on-line.
Also, I have a strange urge to make the lip sync segment look like the Wang Chung video, but that's probably overkill
In theory at least, the lyrics are supposed to be funny on their own. I would think a good video would complement the words, not compete with them.
>>10 D'oh! (sound of donut smacking into forehead) I can probably talk my wife into letting her hand and forearm go on-camera. Let's spend as much time brainstorming and storyboarding as it needs. Hmmmm... I guess I'd better buckle down on the audio, eh?
>>10
Moving again?! Didn't you just go through that hassle last year?
Two years ago. This situation was only supposed to be for about a year, but I overstayed my welcome.
I have to remember to look out for the "post too long" links. I didn't actually see this entire post initially.
Good luck with your new home!!!
BTW, my brother just told me that he would help me take video footage, so we just need to agree on what sort of footage I should be taking. I don't want so silly that we lose the lyrics though.
I was thinking maybe a shots going back and forth between their back side looking the computers as a profile with bizarre or goofy people on their screens to images from the front where they are reacting to things.
Although you could also show their reactions from behind with the slumping postures versus bouncing around or whatever.
Anyway, I think I am going to go ahead and buy a camcorder because I mainly wanted a fast computer for some reasons that are no longer valid. I just have to figure out which one to buy.
If anyone has any suggestions of a good camcorder that works well with an old G3 Tower iMac, let me know. :-)
Cheers,
Sheryl
Talysman - you want to be the director on this? Then you should be "calling the shots".