The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Niveous, checking in.

My wife recently asked me this interesting question: "Has Songfight ever done a music video fight?" I'm pretty sure the answer is no. So, my question is why the heck not?

Niveous wrote:Niveous, checking in.

My wife recently asked me this interesting question: "Has Songfight ever done a music video fight?" I'm pretty sure the answer is no. So, my question is why the heck not?

Because it's hard enough to write and record a song by a deadline, let alone video accompaniment?

Actually, wasn't there a video fight made by some other site that was loosely affiliated with a Songfighter or Songfighters? I'm not sure it was music video focused though.

With that said...I'm in.

In what seems like a lifetime ago now, I used to edit video (very VERY BASIC transitions, ins and outs, etc...) for a living. I wouldn't mind dusting off those skills for an amateur competition. My current video editing software (and studio machine) are morbidly out of date for this purpose though.

I'd suggest that if we did do this, we'd set it up in a way where the first week we'd enter the Songfight! competition with a song. THEN, we'd work on a new deadline for the video from there. (Because it's hard enough to write and record a song by a deadline, let alone video accompaniment.)

Meh, just my $0.02

Sugar shaker part two was a video fight .. http://songfight.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3974

I was thinking of sugar shaker too. I just couldn't remember the name. I was looking for "the feel good songs of the summer" ...which was also wrong. I was remembering "the Dance Craze Of the Summer".

I'm in. Also, dibs on Sober Irishman for my collab.

I've done a few music vids since I've been here at SF. Very novice looking, but they were fun. Just using pics or vid clips from the interwebz and a ton of editing to make them fit. The only original video footage I've ever done for a music vid was a Cake cover I did. I cell phone videoed from inside my truck as I went through the car wash.

I always kinda wanted to do a video for my "Soft Orange Glow" - you could have a lot of fun with that one, I think - but it is beyond my abilities.
-bill

I don't want any of you crazy stalkin' bastards knowing what I look like!

Seriously, I have thought about it doing it, but I have a) no talent, b) no technology and b) no SF songs that really lend themselves to it. Maybe if we made it "any song we have written" I might be up for it, but I guess that's against the spirit of the thing. My fear is anything I did would be one of those awful "slideshows of album covers and pictures of lolcats" youtube fan videos ...

That siad, I would happily watch people living out their rock fantasies on repeat

j$ wrote:I don't want any of you crazy stalkin' bastards knowing what I look like!

You look exactly how you sound like you'd look, for whatever that's worth.

I have a fairly epic idea for a video of my "Come Out." It would require a lot of green screen and AfterEffects, and flimsily-constructed cardboard robot costumes.

I thought we had an optional challenge of making a video for one fight a while ago. "The Sugar Shaker" maybe? I think nobody came through on that one though.

Yeah, I looked at the thread linked earlier and was a bit disappointed, but not surprised. Even simple videos are a shitload of work.

My work now has a maker-space with a green screen. Pretty cool. Also a 3d printer.
-bill

fluffy wrote:Even simple videos are a shitload of work.

Very very true.

We also have a community that is full of brilliant minds, a vast amount of varying experiences, and a scary amount of talent. Video is currently a medium that has grown in importance when it comes to getting music exposure so I wonder if Songfight should try more to experiment with it (not necessarily as a competition though).

I wonder how much of Jonathan Mann's day is spent on the video vs. the song, when he goes all-out on production (and it's not just him doing guy-and-guitar). I suspect he does most of his video recording while he's also recording the song, or has gotten a good feeling for when he should record video while also recording audio bits or what.

Any kind of significant video takes even Jonathan a lot of time. I think that's why most of the time he'll either just film himself playing the song live, or maybe produce the song but then just film himself cutting a lead vocal track. Anything with editing means you wind up having to manually line up the clips to the audio, right?

Yep. And as I've learned, Final Cut X's "align clips by audio" feature is completely and utterly fucking useless.

Thought about how I would do video for Je Suis Charlie while working this afternoon. It would be a TON of work. I'm Guessing the finished product would be rushed, partially improvised, mostly creative, but lacking in production.
I don't know how Jonathan Mann does it EVERY DAY. He either has a ton of free time, or he has his process down REALLY FAST.

iVeg wrote:Thought about how I would do video for Je Suis Charlie while working this afternoon. It would be a TON of work. I'm Guessing the finished product would be rushed, partially improvised, mostly creative, but lacking in production.
I don't know how Jonathan Mann does it EVERY DAY. He either has a ton of free time, or he has his process down REALLY FAST.

Song-a-day is his main job, and he's been doing it for a few years now, so I'm sure he has a workflow that's incredibly efficient and he knows exactly how much time to spend on every bit of it by now.

And I'd really like to pick his brain on some of those tricks someday!

Jonathan has some videos about writing a song a day, and songwriting in general. There are nine of them, and I enjoy watching them for inspiration. Nothing about his video process, but he may have written a song about it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAfX_6Tcjv8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJRWJF17ywQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQAbzyRlyec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0BWhO-e6PM

I have 20 more usually BSS music videos.

I love making videos!

The hardest part is to get people to ham it up for the camera. I've never been able to get the WSA folks to do such, though Furry Pedro has been cooperative.

That's one of my favorite things about Martyr, he will totally ham it up for the camera.

I've always wanted to do a video for JB's "What we need more of is Science". I have performances from : Santa Cruz, Spokane, New York, San Francisco. Some old timey science shots, plus some in studio JB stuff and I would have the ideal footage to piece together the video I envision.

A while ago a friend tried to turn me on to Theme Music, which is kinda like SongFight except it's mostly covers, it's done through facebook, and I think all submissions are videos. I also believe it's strictly weekly, so submitters have even less time to complete entries than SongFighters typically do. Most of the videos are pretty simple, but it's impressive what they do in such a short amount of time. You can find it at: theme-music[dot]org

Also a week and a half ago I attended a wedding that had same-day video production. During the reception they dimmed the lights and we saw a video that included footage of the wedding party (including me) trying to figure out how to knot our bow ties earlier that morning, and footage of the wedding that had occurred just an hour or two prior. It was pretty amazing.

Yeah, I've been at events where they put together a video of the day. It's usually a lot of stress for the video guy, who runs up at the last minute.
Enjoyed the BSS videos, Glennny. Thanks for posting those.
Theme Music looks interesting. I'm out of time. Back to digging ditches.

HeuristicsInc wrote:My work now has a ..... a 3d printer. -bill

What would happen if you set a 3d Printer to continously create 3d Printers? A causal loop that would consume the universe? [/Thesearethequestions]

j$