#making a gifset almost entirely with the dance scene was such a bad idea

[marrissacooper]

wyler playlist → serial killer by lana del rey

Baby, I'm a sociopath Sweet serial killer On the warpath 'Cause I love you just a little too much

[wuxian-vs-wangji]

How do you choose quotes to make edits for (like do you have a list that you choose from or is it whenever you see something good) and how do you choose which characters/scenes etc to gif to go with them - like for example the last set you did with the ‘carry you with me’ quote. How did you choose which scenes to use and pair together with the quote (sorry if you’ve answered something similar before)

I’ve done some live edits in the past to kind of show my process with making very specific edits

(Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link)

But those are like, specific to each edit, so I’ll also give a general answer. I’m putting it below a “Keep Reading” because it’s a very long answer :)

How do you choose quotes to make edits for?

My other fandom page, @Rhysand-vs-Fenrys , has endured weekly reminders to watch The Untamed for like... 8-9 months now (Friday at 9am, usually an aesthetic GIFset I reblog from someone and add links to the bottom to the different platforms to view it on).

To be fair to them, I decided most of my edits would be done with quotes from the Rhysand-vs-Fenrys fandom (Sarah J Maas book series). Some quotes are very famous within that fandom and came to mind immediately, and I went through the Goodreads quotes lists for it.

As for other quotes, some I knew off the top of my head (the Carmina Burana, Aeneid, and LOTR ones) and some I just did a general google search for quotes with different themes like power or fate or love and saved the ones that kind of sparked my interest.

As I feel like doing an edit I’ll just look through the list until something snags on my eye and go with that. Most quotes gave me immediate ideas and I saved a little bulleted point beneath it saying what I thought of when I read it.

How do you choose which characters/scenes etc to gif to go with them?

I have some rules for what I look at for edits:

1. Once I have the quote divided into how many GIFs I’d like it to be, the first line of text is the theme and the last line of text is the tone. This is explained further lower down

2. First GIF has to be the star of the quote or, if it’s a group one, a high profile character.

3. NO LITERAL GIFS. Know if something is literal, I hate it and I only used it because I had no other choice. For example, in the “carry you with me” edit there is one that is “Walking in the light”. Originally it just worked out that the GIF of Wangji walking would have fallen there, with Jiang Cheng and Wangji as “the words that dance between people” and the final GIF in the edit (’Remembering being alive together’) being the teahouse. I rearranged and redesigned the entire edit just so Lan Wangji would not be walking in a GIF that had the word “walking”.

There are a few others, but those are more nit-picky. Those three above are the main ones, and they apply to every GIFset.

I’ll make my example the “Carry You” GIFset you referenced, which feeds into your final question---

...the last set you did with the ‘carry you with me’ quote. How did you choose which scenes to use and pair together with the quote (sorry if you’ve answered something similar before)

First off, here is the “Carry You” edit for anyone who wants to look at the thing I’m talking about

I almost didn’t even consider this quote because I immediately knew it’d be about Wuxian and Wangji, and that I would want to exclusively rely on the period where Wangji thought Wuxian was dead, which equates to A VERY NARROW SELECTION OF SCENES AND SHOTS OMG.

--- Wangji looking at the sky

--- Mo Manor

--- On Dafan Mountain

--- Tea with Jiang Cheng

--- Flashback to Burial Mounds burning

--- Flashback to saving A-Yuan

--- Flashback to being whipped

--- Flashback to Cold Pond Cave

That was enough to populate a 6 GIF edit if I really picked at the bones, so next I look at the first line of the quote: “I carry you with me into the world”. That became the theme of the entire edit. The final line is the tone- “Remembering being alive together”.

So every single GIF from the first to the last and anything in between had to have a direct line to ‘Remembering being alive together’ and an overall feeling of wangji ‘carrying (wuxian) with me into the world’. So what does that mean? Living your life in the spirit of that person. Chosing actions to honor their memory, either in behaving as they would or changing something bout yourself that was in conflict to them.

The original plan for that edit was as follows (these are direct quotes from my edit plan written in my shorthand):

“I carry you with me into the world”  ➜  Ep 1 looking at sky (no Wuxian scene selected)

“Into the smell of rain”  ➜  whipped alone, w/wuxian

“and the words that dance between people”  ➜  Ep 2, JC in woods (no Wuxian scene selected)

“and for me, it will always be this way”  ➜  Ep 1, holding sword, wuxian burning (my shorthand for when he gets smokey)

“walking in the light”  ➜  Ep 1 with ducklings, in burial mounds with A-Yuan

“remembering being alive together”  ➜  Ep 2 tea w/Yiling meal

I was just going to throw those shots side-by-side, but then I thought about how cool it would look if I could actually put Wuxian across the table from Wangji in that last one. I was still in the planning phase, which is why I never came up with a Wuxian for the first 2 GIFs.

At that point I started thinking about how it would fit the tone and theme so much better if I could make all of them that way. So at this point I abandoned the written plan and as I kind of thought about and processed what i wanted to do, I went through Episodes 1, 2, 44 & 46 and grabbed Wangji’s shots alone.

I decided- no reason just felt like it- that I wanted to step into this edit, rather than begin it already in process. I tried making a few GIFs of Wangxian for that “I carry you with me into the world” and just didn’t like them. I really wanted it to shine through that this was a theme and not tie it to specific scenes. Then I saw that slow pan of Bichen’s hilt that you see in episode 1 and was like “I bet I can find a Chenqing from the right angle to match that...”

**at this point I should say my rule for this edit was that every single shot of Wuxian had to be a scene Wangji was also in.

I decided to break that rule for the first edit, because Wuxian never holds Chenqing up against Wangji at the right fucking angle unless it’s pitch black in a thunderstorm and the tassel isn’t red in that shot so what’s even the point. So that shot is from Wuxian raising it against YANLI in Episode 21(?), rotated, horizontal flipped, cropped, spotlight on the tassel, selective color enhance, and a motion tracking filter just to smooth it out. 

Once I decide on the GIF itself, I look through the effects editor just to kind of throw everything at it and see what helps me achieve my mental picture, so it was a lot of dicking around to see if that would even work.

After that, focus went to *Wangji*. Pick WANGJI’s shot, and then look for a Wuxian moment from the right angle to match Wangji and ghost into the shot (which was hard as all FUCK. That last shot of Wuxian with the alcohol was a last ditch attempt to find a shot). As I said, I rearranged three GIFs just so I wouldn’t have Wangji walking during a GIF with the word “walking” in it. 

This edit was easier than others in that the first and last lines- “I carry you with me into the world/ remembering being alive together”- are really the only thing you need. Every line contributes directly to that theme, so the GIFs themselves are pretty interchangeable. 

I wanted JC there for “The words that dance between people”, which is why Wuxian has such attitude in that GIF- like he’s reacting to nasty words being exchanged (I decided it still worked in its new home of “walking in the light”). I decided I *loved* “the words that dance between people” being Wangji sitting alone at the table, not speaking at all. It has a sense of longing and regret that really suits the overall themes and tones.

I hope that made sense and answered your question? Sorry it was a long response, I wasn’t sure how much you were interested in hearing. But yeah, I do my edits live if I’m pretty confident in the game plan, so if you keep an eye on the page I’ll try to be better about scheduling those and not making them last minute.

I chose not to do this one live because I knew it was going to be really complicated and I wasn’t confident in the scenes. When I’m doing it live I feel pressured to make decisions very quickly so people aren’t bored and in the past have made GIFs I am not happy with just because I felt bad about waffling on shots. I wanted this one to really fit what I was imagining and to do that I had to be able to be indecisive. 

[softdavidrose]

💘choose five of your own favourite edits and do a short commentary on each, at what you absolutely loved about it as well as what you’d do in it now as in order to improve and other comments!💘 tag ten mutuals of yours to provide an opportunity to amazing content creators such as yourself to appreciate their edits and spread love!!

i was tagged by the lovely sara @amez-santiago thank you!! ♥♥♥

i’m gonna tag some amazing gif makers!! @patrickbrewcr @danslevys @rosesapothecary @oscarspoe @peraltiagos-blog @jakeperalta @wild-aloof-rebel @julieandrws and anyone else who wants to do it!

david rose + the pan flag colors this is probably one of the hardest and most rewarding gifsets i’ve ever made!! each step of making this took a really long time, from finding scenes that fit, either for colors or just moment where david was still (which i might say are very few lmao but same), to the coloring which was also very hard to achieve, especially because only the background has to be in color and sometimes even just one frame can fuck up the whole thing (like for example if the character moves too much you’d either have frames where the character’s skin/clothes/whatever are the bg color or frames where the bg color isn’t there and it’s hard) needless to say it’s a gifset i love a lot because hashtag representation and seeing all the lovely comments in the tags legitimately makes my day 🤧🤧 if i had to change something i might look harder for a different scene to use for the second gif because it doesn’t look as good as the other ones but 🤷 + bonus patrick + the gay flag colors because it took even LONGER than this one but it somehow looks worse lmao

rosa diaz + ha ha ha from my b99 rewatch series, this is a relatively simple gifset but it took me so damn long i honestly don’t know if there is an easier version to achieve that “scrolling” text effect but i really wanted it to look like this and i could not find ANYTHING for it online, so i literally just made like 50, or however many frames there were, text layers and placed each of them so it would look like the text was being “typed” i guess it was HELL but i love it and i think it looks dope

david rose + putting his hands on his face i love this one so much i think it’s so funny and it’s one of my most popular gifsets! i don’t really have a lot to say about it i just love it a lot!! also a part 2 may be coming

david and patrick + height difference i love this so much it’s very tender and i love height differences so i just had to make it LOL i don’t have a lot to add to this except for the fact that im love they

schitt’s creek + c.s. lewis quote oh boy i hope you’re ready for a long ass commentary on this one first of all i would like to blame @the-rosebud-motel for sharing this quote on discord and putting this idea in my head it is literally all her fault!! second of all, this gifset took me a bit because i had initially started with a different idea but it then became what it is now and i while i wish it looked a little different i am happy with the results!! i’m gonna put the commentary under read more because this is getting very long and i have A Lot To Say, if you wanna stay get ready to shed some tears because i did while making this LMAO  hope you decide to read it because i spent a lot thinking about ways to make this perfect, but if you don’t wanna read it all that’s okay, thank you for reading all the way down here!!

okay so first of all, in my head this gifset is divided into three parts, the first one being the first 3 gifs, the second one being the middle one, and the third one being the last 3 gifs. in the next paragraph i’ll explain the Parallels™ and why each scene works for that specific moment or line and you’ll understand why i have this little ~division~ part one: gif #1 is one of the very first scenes of the show. the roses have lost everything and you can see the portrait being taken away in the background, a symbol of their wealth and life being gone. (you can’t change the beginning)

gif #2 is the roses staring at the town sign in 1x03. they’re shocked and weirded out by it and they just got to this town and the sign is a symbol of schitt’s creek being “gross” or “weird” etc

gif #3 is from 1x04, johnny and moira struggle with connecting with their kids and believe they are bad parents (as the title of the episode suggests), and so attempt to play a game of two truths and one lie to try to bond with david and alexis (needless to say, it doesn’t go well)

part two: gif #4 is from happy anniversary, the season 2 finale. the roses dance together as a family, they admit they love each other and have what is arguably the first happy family moment of the series. It’s a turning point for them, it’s their new beginning (but you can start from where you are)

part three: gif #5 is a parallel to gif 3: johnny and moira take their time to get a cake for David and alexis’ big days (they’ve done the best they can!!!!!). this time the effort is real and appreciated!!!

gif #6 is a parallel to gif 2: the roses are staring at another sign, the shining new “rosebud motel”. this time, they’re happy and excited, as the sign symbolises their full commitment to the town, that is now their home, and to stevie who is by now unofficially a rose as well 😭

gif #7 is a parallel to gif 1: the portrait is there and for a while they thought that’s what they wanted, a symbol of their status as wealth, but as moira says in the same episode “it doesn’t fit, and not just physically. we aren’t those people anymore. [...]” . this time when the portrait is left behind, it is not because it’s taken away from them, but because they are the ones to walk away from it: this is where the roses fully decide to leave their old lives behind and accept all the love and happiness that schitt’s creek has given them. the portrait, symbol of their old lives, is not what they need anymore, and actually it’s not what they have needed for a very long time. they walk together back to the motel, laughing at a joke moira made, and fully embracing the gift that has been given to them, a chance to rewrite their own story (and change the ending)

the entire gifset is then tied with the progression of colors, going from an almost black and white to colorful and vibrant. this is of course to symbolize how they went from being desperate and depressed to happy and loving BUT the beginning is not “just” the beginning of the series aka them losing everything, because the sadness and desperation was there before they lost everything even if they didn’t realize at first. so to quote the first episode, schitt’s creek was the roses’ saving grace, except not in the way it was intended in 1x01. sure it was shelter for when they lost all their money, but it was so much more than that, because it made them a family and gave them all they really needed, which isn’t money or wealth but kindness and love.

anyways uhhhhh, thanks for coming to my ted talk