need help shortening clips

[nothingsound.livejournal.com]

hello all. Does anyone know a way I can shorten my clips after I rip my DVD's? I use DVD Decrypter to rip them and Xillisoft to convert .VOB to AVI.

On being a beta: a personal view

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

Just some random thoughts on my experiences both giving and receiving feedback on works in progress. My opinions only but I'm going to write them as universal rules anyway :)

The First Mistake

Never tell the creator what you'd do if you were doing it.

This might at first seem quite counter-intuitive. "Surely if they want my opinion then they'd like to know what I'd be doing that they are not?". No. In fact, sometimes, it's the last thing they want to hear. See, everyone has a different idea as to how to approach something and it's very much a thing of personal taste. Don't say "If I were writing a story about X, I would set in in Y" or "If I were vidding B, I would use scene C that shows them in this particular way". This is not your work, so don't tell them that you'd have done it all differently because at the least they will just be confused as to what they should be really doing and at the worst they will think they suck.

I can't stress enough how important this is. Which leads me to...

If I don't tell them what I'd do, what the hell do I tell them??

You tell them what they'd do. See, the trick to being a beta is understanding that you aren't there to get the creator to make the work as you would have made it, you are there to get the creator to make that work that they deep down truly want to make. When doing anything creative, it's the easiest thing in the world to cut corners, go off the plot, get distracted. It's natural and our inherently lazy selves will give us the "good enough" excuse and there it will stay. A mess. The beta exists to say "NO! You that wasnt what you were trying to do... THIS is the thing you want to create and you know it deep down inside so do something about this crap here here and here and you will have something that is actually good and says what you want!". These kinds of betas are precious and hard to find.

Hence, the most important gift a beta has is having a better idea of what the creator wants to do than the creator. To do this you need to look at the work youve been given to beta really closely. You pour over it, seeing where it's going, what it's saying. Then when you understand it, you look for the parts of it which dont do their job and you point them out. Talk to the creator, get them to articulate what they were aiming for and get into a discussion on whether they really achieved it or not.

Harsh Truths

Don't apologise. Tell it straight. The creator will thank you in the long run once they get over being all defensive. When a creator reads the comments and criticisms from a good beta, they will know deep down inside that the beta isn't saying anything you didn't see for yourself. You just hadn't realised, the beta had to point it out. Now some criticisms wll meet natural resistance that that's to be expected, but the most important thing is that if the creator isn't achieving their goal then they need to know so they can do something about it. The good thing is, that by showing the creator that you understand their aims, they will be encouraged to achieve them. It's win/win.

Suggesting Ideas

Once you've at the point where the creator has admitted that some things may need to change, then and only then can some suggestions be made. However, and this goes back to the very first point, any suggestions should be seen as follows - "This is what they creator wants to do and I think doing X will be a good way to do it". So suggest things that you know the creator is good at, things they've done successfully before or have done successfully here but not enough.

Dont be all ego about your beta comments

The creator will disagree and ignore comments. This happens every time. That's ok. After all it is the creators work. As long as you've gotten the message across about what they are really trying to do then the creator will be armed to make better judgements of their own work and this will help in other ways.


OK it's now late, but that should be a few things to think about at least.

Multifandom Vid - A Little Less Conversation

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

Song: A Little Less Conversation by Elvis Presley

Summary: A shippers' lament.

Fandom: Umm, well, there's X-Files, Star Trek: TOS, Star Trek: Voyager, Starsky and Hutch, some Due South, spoilers for Doctor Who 2005 ... and others ... I may have gone a bit overboard.

Pairings: We only wish.

DL and streaming info at my LJ.

SPN Vid - In the Water, I am Beautiful

[sacrilicious.livejournal.com]

Song Title/Vid Title: In the Water, I am Beautiful
Fandom: Supernatural
Vidder: sacrilicious
Artist: Dallas Green
Category: The never-ending angst of Sam and Dean's relationship.
Characters: Sam/Dean
Warnings: Here there be Wincest.
Summary: I have been told that I made Sam and Dean have a bit of an Ike and Tina thing going on in this vid. Sam just kept saying, "Oh baby, you know I only hit you cause I love you" and Dean just looks so pretty when he cries. I'm kind of a bad person.
Spoilers: Season 1

Click here for download links

Please leave all comments on the post at my journal. Thanks!