jmtorres: Fight Club: animated with porn insert. Inches on the reel-to-reel. (vid)
jmtorres ([personal profile] jmtorres) wrote2007-08-12 03:52 am

Vividcon so far

I'm not even going to try to do detailed analyses of these vids. I'm basically going to transcribe what notes I took as-is (unless I said something mean, in which case I'll probably keep it to myself--but don't assume I said something mean about your vid if I didn't mention it, because I had a chronic case of "I don't know enough/care enough about this fandom to successfully watch this vid").

The Geneaology of Vidding show fascinates me because I can see parallels to my own evolution as a vidder, from a feral vidder who had never heard of fandom to someone who poked my head into online fandom and watched their vids, to someone who started following vidding rules absorbed thereby without being formally mentored, to *laugh* someone in film school going, "Vidding has so many more rules than just editing." Because, seriously, vidding as an artform is far, far more specific than other kind of visual media.

I am not sure what I want to say about any of the specific vids in the show except that the Quantum Leap one ("Oh Boy" by the California Crew) was adorable, and made Sam look very, very gay with the constantly running away from women.

I liked a bunch of the vids, even the ones in fandoms I hadn't seen (although I was mentally making allowances for Vidding Of Another Era, because you know, it was different! Multi-generation VHS source, talky face, and things). The Pros vid, "Too Long a Soldier," by DeeJay, I really liked.

And I cried for Killa's "Dante's Prayer," though I suspect everyone there was. *G* It's a Kirk/Spock vid, and there's this repeating lyric at the end, please remember me, over and over, with regenerated Spock who can't remember anything walking away, and Kirk waiting, and him turning back, and all these overlays of moments of them together fading in and out between them, and then you hear the source audio when Spock says, "Jim?" and Kirk says, "Yes." It's very emotional.

Can't Live With 'Em, Can't Trade 'Em For Food

Is the SGA vid "Jolene" by Zoe Rayne meant to be funny? I was startled by how many people laughed at it. I couldn't decide whether it was one of those phenomena where one person in a crowded audience titters and suddenly everyone cracks up, or if I had missed the fundamental humor when I watched it previously.

The Tick vid, "Crush Story" by rache and Sandy, made me want to see The Tick. They are so cute! Clearly the blue one and the white one are constantly getting each other in and out of trouble and hugging a lot.

I was really looking forward to Killa's "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps," re: Kirk and Spock. The tag line was "Vulcans are just terrible teases." And Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps is the music on the closing credits of Coupling UK--this was a different artist, and I have not idea which was the original, but nonetheless that alone was enough to send me into giggles. And the vid itself? Oh, the eyebrow. HEE.

"Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better," a Xena vid by Jen Stamey, was very adorable. Xena and Gabrielle attempt to outdo each other with jumping and leaping and singing and fighting and yes. I want to look it up online. I attempted to scrawl down an email address in the dark, but I cannot for the life of me read it now.

"Goody Two Shoes," Pipsqueak and LauraSha's due South vid, still cracks me up. I was bouncing in my seat the whole time with squee.

"Code Monkey," a SGA vid by Mouse and Snarkitty, was one I'd never seen before, was one I liked. I wrote down that Elizabeth as the boss was inspired; I think, actually, that Elizabeth as Rodney's boss is perfectly obvious, but the clip choice was inspired: she totally looked like the well-meaning idiot while Rodney wanted to tear his hair out.

I'd seen "You've Got a Friend in Me," the Highlander Mac and Fitz vid by Melina, before, but it's still very cute. I have to say, though, watching vids in fandoms that I am not that active any more but was once is messing with my head. Highlander is bunnying me hard right now!

The Media Cannibals "Detachable Penis" Pros vid is always a winner.

SDwolfpup's "Moving Right Along" Farscape vid was so cute. [livejournal.com profile] amireal is encouraging the use of more Muppets songs in vidding. I agree. It makes for hilarious vids.

Life, the Universe and Everything--

I had no idea what fandom AbsoluteDestiny's "Do You Realize?" was in (the program informs me it was Dead or Alive 2). So my notes were along the lines of "Asian boys in love? With Wings? That Japanese schoolboys Good Omens AU?" I quite liked it, though.

I am constantly convinced by vids that I would like watching Dead Like Me. "Circles" by sweetestdrain reinforced this.

Another that functioned as a recruiter vid for me--"Time Waits for No One" by AtomX convinced me I should watch the anime The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

All I have written down about here's luck's "Out Here" for due South is that I liked the jump cutting to the beat. I have never met a due South vid I didn't like, I don't think.

Nearly New--

"You're So Damn Hot," a Torchwood vid by Melina, startled me by having more depth than I had been expecting from, you know, the title. I really liked the use of Ianto going, "Okay, I know, I accept that you're a slut, I'm kind of hurt, but I accept it."

Damn it, I had [livejournal.com profile] butterfly in this room for like, the past three nights, and I didn't ask her about Loving Annabelle. I know nothing about the source, but her vid, "The Tower," was very pretty. Something about hot teacher/student lesbian action?

Chasa's Dexter vid "Vibrate" made me giggle. "My phone's in vibrate for you." And Rufus Wainwright sounds so mournful, but that only makes it very like Dexter's own tone of deadpan humor.

Okay, I haven't followed SV in years, and, I don't really want to be dragged back in again, ever, but I have to ask. Lois Lane pole dances now?

I am now convinced that I want to see Century Hotel. I mean, all anyone told me about it before was David Hewlett! Naked! With a guy! which, fine, but David Hewlett doesn't float my boat enough for me to watch it just for that. If they had told me of the crazy plot stuff that "Ballingal Hotel" by Gabby implied, I would have jumped all over it before now. It looks awesome.

"Living Dead Girl," a Buffyverse Faith vid by bradcpu, was very good. Actiony.

I got excited about "Jesus for the Jugular" just because it a Nicky vid, and spent the whole time going, "what is this? I don't know, but I wanna see it!" Apparently it is Carnivale. Go figure!

"Columbia is Bleeding," e^y's Angel vid, was so much, so fast. I want to see it again.

I quite liked Andraste's Doctor Who (past and present) vid "Bicycle Race." I need to watch some of the old canon I snagged off [livejournal.com profile] settiai, so that I can appreciate it more.

There was an SV vid called "Sugar" by Keely that made me feel sorry for Lana, which is quite a feat when I have been actively ignoring that fandom for years. Really. I have.

There was one vid that was so effects-heavy, overlay-laden etc, that I just couldn't watch it. It kind of worried me because it was the kind of concept I was considering doing with the Who album vid of doom I want to try, especially overlaying classic canon on new canon, but. Yeah. If I couldn't watch that vid...

Daughter of Experimental vids--

LauraSha's "All the Lonely People" for Doctor Who resonated with me because there was one layer that reminded me of something I wanted to do: Rose's life without the Doctor was blue-tinted through out, and then she came into full color with the Doctor, with Mickey and Jackie left behind in blue. And then Rose is left in blue at the end, too, which is why I couldn't make the vid I wanted to make at the end of that season: the idea I was playing with was defiance, Rose refusing to live in blue--live a normal life, without the Doctor. And she got kind of shafted on that score. Hey, this is suddenly all about things I want to vid! Whoops.

Crossover SV/Batman vid by Becky called "All is Full of Love." The audience was very amused, I think largely because they/we knew the source material too well (in my case, for Batman, if not for SV--sooner or later I'm going to come off as the girl who doth protest too much; am I there yet?) and kept giggling because That's not Chloe! That's not Bruce! But it was pretty well constructed nonetheless. And I feel certain that Lex yenta'd Bruce and Chloe together so she would get her mitts off Clark and Lex could have Clark all to himself.

So the Beautiful Mind/Master and Commander one called "Favorite Friend" by Jill, Kathy and Kay--that was some kind of reincarnation thing? *laughs* I spent a great deal of the experimental vid show trying to decide if I Got whatever I was watching at the time.

Nicky's Firefly vid, "Post Blue," was interesting to me because the zooms mimicked the show itself. This was one of the things that was unusual about Firefly: in the effects shots, ships in space kind of stuff, the effects work included camera moves like zooms. I liked it a lot. I want to watch it some more.

How Vids Work, panel by renenet. She said that vids have more in common with literary theses than fanfiction, that they analyze rather than tell a story. "Associative analysis" was her phrase, because the audiovisual media allows for connections, associations, to be drawn in the reference to the text. This rang very true for me: most vids have a point or argument to make, and I always try to figure out what is the point I am trying to make with my vids, and vids seem boring to me if I can't figure out what the point is supposed to be, what the vidder was trying to say.

One thing I wanted to ask renenet that I didn't get the chance to (I raised my hand a lot! and got picked a lot! I just had a lot to say) was how, if at all, important was the difference between a written analysis and a vid-style analysis. Written analyses tend to the logical and rational, whereas vids are more emotional and visceral. Which is not to say that there aren't types of rhetoric that appeal to the reader's emotions rather than reason to make an argument, which is why I'm curious if this is a distinction that does matter.

Premieres

Eunice's Doctor Who vid "Moons of Jupiter" wins on the basis of the Doctor/TARDIS bit to "I think we're alone now/The beating of our hearts is the only sound," all on its own, but the whole thing was made of adorable win in general.

AbsoluteDestiny's "Rodeohead" Firefly vid was cool. The song itself is hilarious--a medley of Radiohead songs sung country style. I think if I knew more Radiohead--enough to recognize all the song changes--the vignettes for each bit would have made more sense to me. I want to watch it again.

I don't know what Charlie Jade is, but "I Remember" by L'Abattoir was awesome, and I need to see this show. There are multiple universes! And travel between them! And the hero is so lost he's suicidal, but the truck drove through him because it was from one of the other universes! Alas, poor hero, he cannot even commit suicide adequately with how fucked up his reality has become.

I can now recognize Supernatural vids on, I must think, the basis of the lighting, because I am spotting them before I see Sam, Dean, or a money shot, and I don't watch the show.

speranza's SGA vid about Rodney is one I feel like I need to see again. I liked it, but I need to see it again before I can say anything meaningful about it.

Seah and Margie's "Tamacun" made the Dresden Files look very fun.

"Another Sunday (We Built This City)" by Jescaflowne was an SGA vid with intentionally cheesetastic effects that had us all rolling in the aisles with laughter. A very 70s feel.

Anoel's "The Trouble with Poets," a Highlander vid, made me write half a page of notes *G* Everything has a history with these two. They have a history with each other; Methos has the history that bothers Mac; and also, Mac has his own history. They carry so much baggage. All conveyed by the use of overlays fading in and out, not unlike the bit in Dante's Prayer that made me cry. This is a useful effect!

For the Torchwood vid "Dreams are not my Home" by Melina, I only wrote down, "oh, good show!" I remember it was about Gwen and that the vid showed how Torchwood fucked up her life. This was another one that resonated with me because it said a thing I so wanted to vid about the fandom, though mine was going to be "The name of this thing is not love."

I really like Joni Mitchell, so Killa's Jeremiah vid "Woodstock" made me happy even though I know nothing of the fandom. And I may end up watching the show, because I really liked this vid.

I should probably go to bed now: it's nearly 4am, I mean to get up by 8:30, and my auction vid premieres tomorrow.

Or I could stay up all night and make an ass of myself at breakfast like last time! Why break with tradition?
andraste: The reason half the internet imagines me as Patrick Stewart. (Default)

[personal profile] andraste 2007-08-12 01:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I quite liked Andraste's Doctor Who (past and present) vid "Bicycle Race." I need to watch some of the old canon I snagged off settiai, so that I can appreciate it more.

Yay! I am not sure there is much to know beyond 'there are silly hats and monsters made from tin foil' but far be it from me to discourage you ...

Silly hats.

[identity profile] jmtorres.livejournal.com 2007-08-12 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
No! It is deep and meaningful, with much metaphor and, and, and, depth! I won't let you tell me otherwise!

[identity profile] sweetvalleyslut.livejournal.com 2007-08-12 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Is the SGA vid "Jolene" by Zoe Rayne meant to be funny?

I think the repeated motions during the chorus are pretty funny. And the use of that particular episode to generate angst is kind of a badfic trope in fandom at this point, so that could be another source of the humor.

Oh man, I have to find that Xena and Gabrielle vid, it sounds great!

I'm so jealous of everyone there, have a great time :)

[identity profile] jmtorres.livejournal.com 2007-08-12 07:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm. All times previous that I saw it, my thought was "pretty way to stretch limited source material." Not, hee! So I dunno. Maybe I fundamentally didn't get it.

[identity profile] sweetvalleyslut.livejournal.com 2007-08-12 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't think it's as funny as it could be--that "I Can't Take It Anymore" vid, which is also McKay/Sheppard and in the same vein, is definitely better.

[identity profile] j-crew-guy.livejournal.com 2007-08-13 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
I'm curious about The Tick vid. Was it live action or animated?

[identity profile] jmtorres.livejournal.com 2007-08-13 08:21 am (UTC)(link)
Live action.
jic: Daniel Jackson (SG1) firing weapon, caption "skill to do comes of doing" (Default)

[personal profile] jic 2007-08-13 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
Is the SGA vid "Jolene" by Zoe Rayne meant to be funny? I was startled by how many people laughed at it. I couldn't decide whether it was one of those phenomena where one person in a crowded audience titters and suddenly everyone cracks up, or if I had missed the fundamental humor when I watched it previously.

I love you. My god, that is so how I felt about it last year, with the addition of having an overwhelming ache on Rodney's behalf. I was crying where others were laughing. I skipped this vidshow specifically because I couldn't bear to go through that again.
jic: Daniel Jackson (SG1) firing weapon, caption "skill to do comes of doing" (Default)

[personal profile] jic 2007-08-13 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
*hugs back*

[identity profile] harriet-spy.livejournal.com 2007-08-13 06:37 am (UTC)(link)
Unless my memory has gone completely (entirely possible), "Jolene" was one of the original Lord King Bad Vids!
niqaeli: cat with arizona flag in the background (Default)

[personal profile] niqaeli 2007-08-13 10:08 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, see, I got a definite Lord King Bad vibe off Jolene--that it *was* slightly humourous but it was also meant pretty sincerely.
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[identity profile] melina123.livejournal.com 2007-08-15 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
Nope, your memory is very good. It was one of the original LKBV's for the room party, the year before the LKBV show during the con.
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[identity profile] klia.livejournal.com 2007-08-14 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
that was some kind of reincarnation thing?

Not exactly. Crowe's character in ABM was schizophrenic.

[identity profile] jmtorres.livejournal.com 2007-08-14 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
...Okay, yes, I have seen A Beautiful Mind. But I thought the constructed/crossover vid was doing something else with it. Was that yours? I can't connect people's LJ names with vidder names for beans right now.
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[identity profile] klia.livejournal.com 2007-08-14 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
But I thought the constructed/crossover vid was doing something else with it.

It was kind of about Nash imagining a completely different life for himself (and Charles).

Was that yours? I can't connect people's LJ names with vidder names for beans right now.

Mine, [profile] keiko_kirin's and [personal profile] thevetia's. Btw, I was on the hotel shuttle with you when we left O'Hare Thursday afternoon.

[identity profile] jmtorres.livejournal.com 2007-08-15 06:09 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! I quite possibly fail at the internet.
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[identity profile] klia.livejournal.com 2007-08-15 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
No, believe me, I crossed paths with lots of people whose names I didn't catch, and wish I had!

[identity profile] anoel.livejournal.com 2007-08-18 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
First, it was great to meet you! I really enjoyed reading all your thoughts on the vids and panels. As for Jolene, it's so funny because the lyrics are so heartfelt like "he's the only one for me" which has that 12 year old feel to it not to mention the ghosting which somehow is just hilarious. It has the awww poor Rodney feel to it too but it tries to show the funny light to his (and the fans) pain and angst. Thank you so much for your comments on my HL vid! I'm so glad you liked the history shown through the overlays and the baggage is so true. A half page of note? *g* Any more you'd like to share?

[identity profile] jmtorres.livejournal.com 2007-08-18 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
It was nice to meet you too! Shockingly I actually remember what you look like (blonde, right?). *hugs you virtually* Next year, I'll hug you for realz!

A half page of note? *g* Any more you'd like to share?

A half a page of notes scrawled in the dark without being able to see my notebook *G* I pretty much covered everything.

[identity profile] anoel.livejournal.com 2007-08-18 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
Yep, dirty blonde. Sounds good!

Ah yes, I understand. Thanks again!