Soloing/Instrumental videos?

[Kaji01]

I'm just curious how people tend to approach these things. I've done two solos before in my videos and drawn out large spreadsheets with the specific times of the key beats and noting what I want to use and such (and taking hours to figure out when said beats are, at times), but the process seems very hard to do with an instrumental song due to the fact that there aren't any lyrics to latch onto or to help give a better idea of where you are in the piece. Anybody who's done an instrumental video before care to share their techniques?

[lilgumba]

Ive done 4 instrumental videos with a 5th just saying "yeah" in the background. I usually start out with listening to the music then all of a sudden an image of a scene of anime will pop into my head. After I get that initial idea more scenes keep popping up. Then I rewatch the footage to see if anything can be used to make good transitions between the scenes initially thought up. After that I kind of freestyle trying to match up with crucial scenes with major beats or changes in music. Sometimes it works but other times it is extremely frustrating since most of my instrumentals are quite short.

[Bakadeshi]

as one who has done numerous Instrumental Pieces in the past, (AR1 and 2, and Oratorio of ghibli) I can tell you, Planning is your best friend. You have to have a clear idea of where you are going with the story in your video, since you have to 1) make up the story yourself, or rely on that of the original anime, since there are no lyrics to tell the story for you, 2) rely on the imagery alone to tell the story if you are not using title cards, 3) Set the pacing so that the story is told apropriately to the length of the song, so you don't suddenly run out of song and can;t complete your story telling. I personally rarely actually plan out every scene in writing, but I watch the anime multiple times, listen to the song multiple times, and think about my story idea while I'm doign all this until i have a clear enough picture of basically what I want to do for each part of the song, then get to editing. Often times I don;t use the same exact scenes I originaly invisioned, but the general finished product is paced about how I invisioned it.

In short, Plan Plan and Plan. Make sure your completely familiar with both the song and the anime being used, and have a clear picture of how you are going to tell the story to each segment of the song. (it also helps to break apart the song in sections and plan the story that way. so you know if you get to the end of a section and you havn't finished your aloted story telling upto that point, you may have to make some adjustments. )

[downwithpants]

lyrics aren't the only way by which music speaks. the most important (imo) property of music is that it expresses emotion. listen for the pattern of emotions that comes in sequence, then figure out how that sequence of emotions can make a story (this doesn't have to be the traditional beginning-plot-end story).

some instrumentals are even so kind as to represent specific and recognizable ideas through instrumentation. example: rimsky-korsakov's "flight of the bumblebee"

[Al'x]

Sometimes the music will tell a story itself, even more vivid than if it had lyrics, but a lot of people just don't realize it. So if you make an AMV out of it, people will think "whoa, that story was awesome, and without lyrics!" =)

some instrumentals are even so kind as to represent specific and recognizable ideas through instrumentation. example: rimsky-korsakov's "flight of the bumblebee"

Yes! Too true! Although you shouldn't be too literal... A frantic person is the same as a bumblebee

[pen-pen2002]

I've been working with instrumental music exclusively for the past couple of years both in personal videos and experiments and in projects. A lot of good points have been brought up, I would argue that instrumental videos are even better for storytelling than lyrical ones and I agree that planning is key for such videos, either written out or done in real time by pacing footage use. Downwithpants brings up another good point that emotion can be very important but there is another aspect that I would like to expand on.

I use the term "Musical Synch" to discribe the act of using the footage to represent distinct elements of the music. We often use visual terms to discribe music such as "falling scales" "rising action" "dip" and "dive". Melody is especially active in the minds eye and musical synch represents this. The absence of lyrics allow people to focus on the subtle nuances of tone and timbre that make music "speak".

[jasper-isis]

Know the music! Listen to it until you can hum most of it from memory. That's what I usually do, at least.

Elements to watch out for:

- glissandos
- dynamics
- repeating patterns, especially ones that get gradually higher or lower
- legato vs. staccato notes
- any high-pitched "pings," since those are usually more noticeable than notes from the lower extreme.

Anybody else want to add to the list?

[jasper-isis]

Oh, duh.

- changes in tempo
- changes from major to minor or vice versa

I'd say that those two would be the biggest factors in the shifting of moods.

[pen-pen2002]

cymbal crashes (but don't go overboard a subtle synch/flash are often preferable)
Bass drum or bass guitar beats
Drums in general (if present they tend to define the rythym)
Repeated themes with a new instrument added
Watch out for changes in mood/tone/key

Look for patterns on different levels such as: Phrases (think bass line), Stanzas (longer, equivilent to verses and choruses on a lyrical peice), and Movements (very few AMV's are long enough to include true movements). Stanzas are particularly important in terms of planning, whether you have a storyline or not.

A lot depends on the type of music. Techno lends itself to paying close attention to particular sounds and drawing them out. large orchestral peices lend themselves to smoth transitions etc.

I believe that the hardest thing to synch to is guitar solos. For an excelent example check out Theocide's I Love the Matrix.

Lastly, and most important of all (IMO): if there are any major changes in tempo, instrumentation, style, or dynamic, that is not attended by a equivilent change in the video then you have a problem. You wouldn't fail to make a cut between verse and chorus (I hope) so use the same common sense for instrumental songs.

[downwithpants]

specific musical or sound-specific elements you could synch to:

loudness:
crescendos, diminuendos
accented notes
pauses (of silence) (example: The Wasteland)

tempo:
accelerandos, ritards
rubatos, cadenzas

rhythm:
meter, beats, notes
downbeats vs. upbeats
syncopated notes
polyrhythms

timbre:
instrumentation, percussion, synthesized sounds, sound effects, or other sound imitation
instrument production (plucking vs. bowing, dampening, muting)
articulation, amplitude modulation, frequency modulation (vibrato)

pitch contour:
ascending vs. descending, step motion vs. skip motion, neigboring motion vs. passing motion
arpeggios, glissandos, turns, trills

tonal structures:
repeating motives (or riffs), phrases
motive variation, phrase variation
cadences
melody vs. harmony

chords, keys:
dissonant vs. consonant chords, major vs. minor chords
key changes
scale changes

sound processing:
reverb
stereo (binaural disparities)

performance cues:
number of instruments playing
solos
improvisation
note onset asynchronies