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So Spiff, why do you only make videos for Jonathan Coulton's songs?

First of all, that's not true. I've made videos for other people (though not many). But I am always open to finding some cool, new music that I can turn into a video. However, since I only make these videos to have fun, the music needs to be something that I enjoy and that sparks my creative interests. So what do I look for in good video music?

Clever, funny songs are the best. Hopefully they'll be kind of bouncy and maybe have a twist at the end. Pretty much, if the songs are like Jonathan Coulton's songs then there's a good chance I'll dig them enough to make them into a video.

Earnest, straight-forward songs are probably no good. They may be fabulous songs, but that doesn't mean that I can make a funny, clever, engaging video about them. More likely than not, I'd have to find a way to make fun of the song with the video for it to be funny, and that wouldn't be good.

Funny songs that tell a story are usually better than jokey-joke type songs for me. Jokey-joke songs are fine, but I like telling stories.

Love songs are usually death for me. Machinima is a pretty limiting medium to work with, and there are only so many ways to show that one expressionless video game character loves another expressionless video game character. If I have to do that for an entire four-minute song, I'll die of boredom (and so will the viewers). Now, love songs about evil geniuses and their corpse brides, I can handle.

The recording quality needs to be pretty good. A hollow, scratchy recording of a guy singing a song with a beat up guitar in his garage isn't going to lead to a high-pro video.

Even if a new song fits all the criteria and is perfect for me, it still needs to bubble to the top of my to-do list. Like I said, I only do this for fun, and I've still got lots of Jonathan Coulton songs that I want to do. If I came across a song that I could turn into a video but I still had others I wanted to do first, then the new one may not get made for a long time.

So Spiff, will you make videos for my song?

I'd love to! As long as they're a good match (see above), and I can get some clever ideas for a video, and I've got the time to work on it, it's a distinct possibility. I haven't found any new music that's motivated me to turn it into a video so far, but that doesn't mean never. By all means, email me at spiffworld@gmail.com if you've got music that you'd like me to take a listen to.

Will you make a video for someone else's song I really like?

If it's not your song, I may not be able to legally use it in a video. I know that kind of thing doesn't always mean a lot to many people on the Internet, but it does to me. So don't ask me to make a video for some cool Linkin Park or Metallica or Journey song because they haven't given me permission to use the song. Unless you're the song's creator, or the song was released under the Creative Commons License, or you can get Journey to call me up and tell me they're cool with me using their song in a video (which would be awesome), you're probably out of luck.

You could just make non-music videos, right?

I could, I guess. But the problem there is that if I'm not using a song as a framework for my video, then I need to come up with a good script, good characters, voices for all the characters, a good soundtrack, etc. That's a lot of work, and I don't have to do any of it if I'm just animating someone else's song. I have lots of respect for the machinima people out there who do all of that work themselves and manage to come up with funny, high-quality videos on a consistent basis, but I doubt I would ever want to do it myself.

I'm sure that 85% of the reason people like my videos is because of the great music they're based on. But that's fine with me. I'm just doing this for fun.