OT: The Life of a Video Effect

Last evening, I was with a group of video editors and the conversation got to laughing about those silly effects like Page Peel and Spinning transitions - you know ; the ones you would never personally be caught using in a sequence.

I was reminising about the era when a computer could barely do a Page Peel effect and how those WERE the HOT effects of that time. My point in bringing this up is that we are all so proud of the way we can do effects with video plugins and filters but we tend to forget that 5 years ago, these things were not even possible.

It IS about the talent but a lot more about the technology.

Good Point....I remember when we edited tape to tape and could only do "cuts" and oh how we wished that we could dissolve between clips. Now that we can, with ease I might add, the style has gone back to "cuts" only. Ahh nostolga... Barry

Anytime someone writes me into a corner, I just use that trademark "Video Toaster" effect -- the wipe of the cheerleader cartwheeling across the screen in shadow.

I don't think it's out of date at all.

can we put the "cheerleader" effect in our wishlist for FCP 6?

When you apply an effect for the sake of having an effect it will always date nomatter how cool it is.
If these is a reason for the effect and some thought behind it, it will never date nomatter how simple.

Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

> When you apply an effect for the sake of having an effect it will always date no matter how
> cool it is.

Can't agree more. I always think back to when I did a spec music video for a friend of mine. When she rejected the record company's offer to buy the video, they stole some of our techniques for another band's video...with disastrous results. I had done a split-screen on the spec video because we had footage that made the split-screen say something meaningful in juxtaposition. They just did it because they'd seen it work on another video.

Then they asked us to use our footage to cut a teaser for another song by that first band...and to "make it look just like the old video". Different song, different vibe. They never knew why the first video worked.


www.derekmok.com

"...It IS about the talent but a lot more about the technology."

I disagree about the "a lot more about the technology" part - to a point. There's NOTHING WORSE than seeing a piece on TV or in the movies with identifyable plug-ins used in them. Pieces that look like they were built around the plug-ins. As I move forward in my career, I find that my After Effects work is becoming less and less about the dependency on technology (plug-ins) and more about old school editing of Transfer Modes, Channels, Color Correction & Processes to get more ethereal organic looks. Less is more, IMHO.

Gotta admit...it is nice to render 4500x2500 comps on my Quad using NucleoPro and not have to go on vacation until they are done I guess the Technology helps a little

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.