#also i've learned gifsets are a great way to open dialogue and see different perspectives

[nobleriver]

The thing with gifs is that they're closer up, high quality, and (maybe it's just me?) slower than the actual episode. I'm looking at some gifsets and I can see every tiny emotion hitting a character. More specifically, I was looking at that one scene in THORS where she says the Doctor is "not someone special". But like, you can see she's having mixed feelings, you can actually see her hiding the damage. It's something I don't really notice, well I do "notice" it, but I can't actually see what's happening. It makes the scene all the more fun (and emotional) to watch.

I don't know what was the point in saying this, but oh well, random thoughts.

It's not just you. The gifset actually IS slower than the episode. At least, my gifsets are. In PS, the frame rate should be between .04-.06 depending on your PS, with .05 usually being the actual frame rate to match the episodes. But I always put mine at .06 because .05 is just too fast for me. Even if .05 is the actual frame rate, the point of my gifsets is to let people SEE the scene afresh, to spot a detail they never saw before. I slow the scenes down, just by a tenth of a second. And sometimes, I push it even further and make the frame rate .07 or if it's a really short moment, like less than 30 frames (and no one is talking), I might do .08 to make the moment stretch longer.

Often my gifsets are born from a single gif, a lingering look, or a line of dialogue. I just want to capture that, blow it up, and shout hey come look at this! Have you noticed this before? What do you think of this? And then, when I sit down and grab the screencaps, I think what's the best way to capture that feeling, that thought, in a gifset? How can I get someone to pause and take a look closer?

Sometimes, I push the color of the set until it breaks. Then, I start over, and push it again. Other times, I use the crop tool. The crop tool not only blows up the image, but it allows me to cut out any distractions in the periphery. Cropped gifs literally narrow the viewer's focus. And sometimes, if a gif is not strong enough on its own, I buttress it with other gifs. Like with my Doctorriver "That's nice. But I'm married" gifset. 11's quote was the point of the gifset, but imo, it wasn't strong enough to stand on its own.

The reason that line is so powerful is because of the context. It's an unflinching, unapologetic testament; it's a declaration that this marriage, that River, is real to him. So how might I get someone to see that scene afresh? In this case, I used other scenes to amplify the impact of what he stated, scenes from their marriage in which he couldn't get enough of her; moments when he was eager to please her. And by adding those scenes, that's what I drew more attention to. I tightened the focus through parallels and visual cues. And based on the comments in the tags, it worked. People had only expected to see his dialogue, but by adding the other scenes, the set turned into something unique, something they hadn't seen before. And that's the beauty of gif making. Funnily enough, that gifset is unintentionally structured like an essay; you have the intro, the evidence, and the concluding statement. But it's the evidence in the middle that makes the conclusion hit so hard.

P.S. I actually messed up that THORS gifset. That scene has always caught my attention, because we as the viewer know she's lying, but the Doctor thinks she's telling the truth. So the scene finishes with these two heartbroken time travelers who are desperately in love with each other but fear their entire marriage is a lie. I meant to pair it with Moffat's quote to that effect, but I forgot to add it. Oops. Oh well, mistakes happen, and now I get to do a THORS gifset again, this time with even more scenes. :D

#text #personal #thx for asking! #I find gifset making such fun; but it can be time consuming #also i've learned gifsets are a great way to open dialogue and see different perspectives #it's always fascinating to see what someone puts in the tags #fun fact or maybe an OCDish fact? I have a sketchbook where I jot down gifset ideas before I forget them #down to the layout #usually tho i'm too lazy to work those ideas and i just grab a scene that caught my attention that day and gif that instead lolol #doctor who #doctorriver #river song #the doctor #otp: please don't