vidding ramble

[krickets]

Not in the vidding game anymore (except for in my dreams) but has anyone noticed YT vids cropping up using GIFs from tumblr instead of actual video clips? People are always discovering new ways to celebrate their fandoms, so yay to that. (x1000) But I just don't know what I think about it. It's not really "clip theft" in the traditional sense (stealing/ripping sequences directly from another's vid). I'd actually argue it's vastly different from that and... Maybe more acceptable? I mean it fits the definition of transformative. I actually remember thinking, back when GIF popularity was on the rise, that they were almost like mini vids in a way without the music. Now it's come full-ish circle.

Comments

[darlulu.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I hadn't noticed. But I guess I haven't watched a new fanvid on YT in a while. Interesting. I'll have to check it out.

I bet it saves a lot of time, having everything already in bite-sized pieces, and not having to undertake the massively time-consuming process of clipping.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Oh but it would also be so incredibly limiting. First of all the sizes and coloring and quality would vary. Plus, some of them have font on them. But the quality of the "clips" they have to work with would bring most serious vidders to tears. Oh man, the tiny little gifs you have to make to get them to fit on tumblr, from what I recall!

Later I'll come back and link you to one I found for the killing. It was short but I was shocked at how much they did with just using GIFs! Of course, you kind of have a point about them taking a short cut, without having to actually do the work to source the scenes they want and clip them, so in that way they're sort of "stealing" work that's already been done for them. But the thing that makes me ponder is that the person who sourced that footage was making a GIF, not a vid... so it makes it different somehow in my mind. Anyway there are so few killing vids out there, I almost didn't mind. One of the vids I found (there were at least two) actually used one of my graphics (not a GIF) for their opening slate, which isn't the same thing, so I wonder what the GIF makers think of it. I personally didn't mind.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

http://youtu.be/ztolIMulreU (http://youtu.be/ztolIMulreU)

[darlulu.livejournal.com]

I see what you mean about the quality/variety of GIFs really not being up to the same standard as traditional clipping would provide, but I also agree that this particular vidder did an amazing job with what she had!

I don't have the first clue how to make GIFs so I don't know how time-consuming of a process it is...If it's pretty intensive, I could see how some GIF makers would be really offended by someone snagging their GIFs to make vids without their permission. Although it seems the tumblr community is a lot more lax about that sort of thing. I see vids/fanart reblogged all the time without any credit being given to the original creators.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

I've noticed this happening more and more often over the last few months. And in some ways, I do imagine it's much easier. You don't have to rip/clip anything yourself and you're working with smaller files/file sizes which probably helps with editing/rendering. But it's also pretty limiting and the quality can be very mixed. I imagine if you were doing it for a large fandom with lots and lots of gifs of good quality to choose from, it'd probably be a good idea. But trying to do it with a limited amount of poor quality gifs...well, I couldn't do it, that's for sure.

And even though I don't think it's quite the same as stealing someone else's vid and using it to make your own, it's still not on the up-and-up, I don't think. I'd probably ask the original gif maker if I could use their gifs before I'd ever consider it.