Off the prompt "cuddles."

Due to an external hard drive failure, I am in the process of redownloading all kinds of people's vids. Apparently I set my browser's download memory to be eternal, so I have four years of download records (since I bought this computer). I figured I might as well post this list of links of vids I have found worth acquiring twice.

( in reverse chronological order )

I am going to be brave enough to put this list out here publicly, because as much as I might irrationally fear it, no one's going to poach my vid ideas, for two reasons: vidders all have more ideas of their own than they will ever have time to make (I know I do), and no one can make the vid I would make, because I am unique (just like everyone else).

Vids that live in my head:

Being Human - Season of Illusions by Ladytron (the abusive boyfriend vid)
Big Wolf on Campus - Scott Bakula by Sunspot (the Merton's gay dilemma vid)
Enterprise - Mrs. Robinson by The Lemonheads (the trashy holonovel vid)
Merlin - Falcon in the Dive (the ysobel is going to vid with me damn it vid)
Meta - Tradition (the two finger salute vid)
Multifandom - Beautiful Things by Bobby Darin (the OOH SHINY heist tribute)
Multifandom - Woodstock by Joni Mitchell (the escaping dystopia vid)
Multifandom - various (the Badfic vid)
Red Dwarf - Never Set the Cat on Fire by Frank Hayes (the co-vid with traykor)
Sherlock Holmes - Bad Romance by Lady Gaga (the objectifying the masculine vid)
Supernatural - Please Don't Leave Me by Pink (the candy tears vid)
Supernatural - Come Out and Play by The Offspring (the thesis on season 4 vid)
Supernatural (ish) - Panic Switch by Silversun Pickups (Janie's vid)
Supernatural (ish) - Dark Eyes (the history of Ruby vid)
Supernatural (ish) - Turning the Page by, probably, Metallica (the fixing your con vid)
Tru Calling - Madeleine by Jonathan Coulton (the I had to watch it, I have to mock it vid)
White Collar - The Distance by Cake (the Kate as quest object vid)
White Collar - Pisco Bandito by Moxy Früvous (the everyone needs a themesong vid)

This is not all-inclusive, though I am a little startled at some of the older projects that sat up and said HEY when I was making this list.

*ponders list* Three vids primarily about heterosexual relationships (all negative!, in different ways), three vids primarily about homosexual relationships (hmm, more ambiguous), three vids that are essentially male character studies (ranging), three vids that are essentially female character studies (all sympathetic), three vids that are primarily about social issues before any specific fannish content, three vids that my brain files as crack (instead of in any of the preceding categories).

Hmm.

Anyone wanna talk vids with me?

I made a vid for Vividcon Premieres. If you are into that sort of thing, you can read content warnings about it here.

( My vid for vividcon )

ETA: And you can find the vid here.

grey_bard made me a vid! It is to Adam Lambert's "For Your Entertainment" and it is a Supernatural vid about Gabriel. YOU GUYS I LOVE ME SOME GABRIEL. grey_bard MADE ME A VID.

I have so much heart for this. Gabriel is such as asshole and she got all of his best SMIRK. And *flailhands GLEECAPS* hi I love this vid.

Went to Cake concert. It was loud. Enjoyed it aside from the burnout of my ears. Vidding will be interesting tonight.

Right, I think this bit will be My Bloody Valentine, then. Naked Cupid ftw.

I'm running range check on this vid right now (which makes sure that data isn't too bright or saturated for television; if it is, you dump Broadcast Safe filter on it and it clamps the relevant above max data). Now, normally stuff you get that's been on TV? Passes range check. And only stuff you've fucked around with fails. And furthermore I'm vidding Supernatural; if there was a "your footage is too dark, no one will be able to see jack shit" check, I would expect it to go off every four frames. (There is not. Even though it is actually possible to have blacks blacker than broadcast black. Go figure.)

However, it would appear Supernatural fucks around at the edge of range a lot. So far, things that have set off the meter:

--the burning light of SATAN
--Sam killing Alistair
--Sam killing Lilith
--gunfire
--Colt bullets burning out demons
--backlighting through venetian blinds
--things Sam sees in visions
--the COVERS of CHUCK'S BOOKS (seriously what)
--candles

PS Sam was like, two feet from Daddy Azazel when he shot him in the leg. There should not be a three-frame time gap between him firing and Azazel being hit. Just saying.

ETA: Relevant Bruce the Yak quote: What's the sound of one luma clamping?

For vidding purposes, I have pulled up Jus in Bello, and honestly if I ever have a hard time figuring out where to go for this vid all I need to do is check the list of episode title abbreviations my girlfriend loves to use that I always have to look up (probably the reason there's so much AHBL in this vid so far). (PS honey I have to show you this. *flail hands*)

Anyway, JiB. This bit always gets me:

Henriksen: I... shot the sheriff.
Dean: But you didn't shoot the deputy.

And Sam's LOOK. Just. Oh my God. It is the "I am disowning you" look. The "shut up, jackass" look. The "how are we even RELATED" look. Yeah, I kind of heart that look.

It might be going in the vid.

Or maybe I'll just stick to the holy water swirly.

So, the source still a sight unseen, we (niqaeli and I) have determined what our vid, song and concept is for Vividcon premieres (that's due in two weeks and we haven't started on yet). And I check my email and I'm off the waiting list.

Hahaha. Ahem.

We are taking bets that we close first half this year.

ETA:

niq: ...are we making a meta vid again? I think we are.
juls: CRAP. Fuck it *G*
niq: It's a hilarious meta vid!

ETA2: YOU GUISE. I HAVE A CONCEPT SKETCH. WHAT.

ETA3: SERIOUSLY WHY AM I DRAWING AN 11"x14" SKETCH OF SOMETHING THAT'S GOING TO GET LIKE, 90x90 PIXELS, TOPS?

I'm rereading viridian5's Glass Houses, a Weiß Kreuz AU epic WIP that I was reading along with early on, but somehow lost track of over the years. I love this story to pieces and I have unfinished fic for it floating around on my hard drive, more than I thought I did, actually--over 5,000 words of fluff about Schwarz & co invading Crawford's family, 2100 words of Yoji and Schuldig's relationship drama (they are in no way exclusive, but when Yoji, with help, blocks Schu's telepathy, that's totally cheating), and an actually complete scene, at 1500 words, of did I really? yes, I really did, why god why Nagi/Omi lifted directly from my own personal experience that I thankfully did not ever post.

(Gosh, I have a lot of half-finished WK fic in general, actually. Conveniently I even wrote the end of the Quantum Leap crossover, so I know how the plot on that one works.)

I went skimming through vid WIPs too and I seem to have vidded 90% of a Weiß Kreuz vid, though I think I would have to take it apart at the seams and put it back together before I'd be happy with it now: it doesn't move enough.

Other things in the vid WIP pile:

--The first 19 seconds of an Enterprise vid that makes me cackle with glee (WHO'S YOUR MOMMY)
--The first 58 seconds of my thesis on s4 Supernatural that includes, among other things, Ruby flirting with Cas and Cas giving WTF face
--About 48 seconds of a Fullmetal Alchemist vid, from the middle, being all about how Roy is a broken, fucked-up moppet because Hughes dies
--The first 23 seconds of a Being Human vid that is pretty but also depressing.

I am making an effort to commit fic to computer as it happens in my brain. Last night I wrote 800 words of Janie's declarations; tonight I wrote 600 words of the John and Ruby show. I love the John and Ruby show, and the piece I wrote tonight clears up part of the plot that I was banging my head against. So yay for that.

It's harder to commit to the braindump as instantaneously with vidding because the stuff I've been running in my head is stuff I'm going to have to hunt material to construct, it's not "and this clip from this episode would be perfect!", it's "where is a clip of Ruby lying on her back I could manip into this part of this story." So that's hard.

Man, I was hoping group project meant my group could carry me. In fact I am the smartest one in the group and the prof basically took me aside and told me I needed to ride herd on the rest of them.

I am skimming a season of Smallville purely for the Ackles because everysecondtuesday is STILL an evil, evil person, and I was reluctant to even mention it here because I really want nothing to do with Smallville or Smallville fandom ever again. But I am unable to contain my WTF. Not cutting for spoilers because season four here.

Apparently, I could make a vid about Lois Lane, Supernatural Hunter. I totally have footage of her digging up Chloe's grave. PS show, if you are trying to convince me Chloe is dead, the credit sequence? Kind of a spoiler.

I am amused by the equal opportunity nudity. Clark? Naked all the time. Lana? Yep. Lois? Uh-huh. Lex? Naked and getting it on! Also, guessing who's going to be in a shower is really tons of fun. It's hard! Because it's not always the chicks! Once it was LIONEL! And because it was a prison shower he got stabbed by a hot young naked fellow inmate! (niq: yes, yes, he took him from behind.)

In the raw steaming pile of WTF category: Lex appears to have been cast in Raiders of the Lost Ark. As a Nazi. He and his white suit of moral despair are very excited over a... model sarcophagus discovered in a pyramid. This visual motif continues in other episodes, where he opens crates of artifacts better filed in a warehouse in perpetuity.

I am deeply confused as to why Jason (Ackles' character) having started dating a high school senior (Lana) would then choose to seek employment at her high school. Because high school coach/high school senior == WORLDS OF WHAT WERE YOU THINKING.

I am far too amused by Lana's Kryptonian tramp stamp. Apparently we are meant to believe Lana and Jason are not actually having sex, because it takes him like, half a dozen episodes to discover the tramp stamp. Also a witch possesses Lana and pins Jason (Ackles!) against the ceiling. It's just like Supernatural! Except with bits that make me cringe and fast forward.

In the land of did that really just happen? Why yes it really did just happen: Lionel Luthor and Clark Kent switched bodies. I actually watched significant portions of the A-plot of this episode because I was dying at Welling and Glover mocking each other's performances. I choose to believe that was all deliberate mockery, because otherwise I am forced to conclude that the nearest thing to Lionel in Welling's acting range is in fact Draco Malfoy. Glover really just thinks Clark's a whiny bitch, though. Best part of this episode: Lex got to remember the switch and demand Clark prove his identity after the fact. Apparently the plausible deniability on the use of powers was "oh! um, side effect of the body swap!"

Because I haven't been listening to most of Lex's scenes I have to ask: Is it canon yet that Lex just pretends not to know Clark's a freak from another planet to humor Clark? Because more than ever this is what it looks like. And, seriously, if Lex can leap to bodyswap as to a reasonable explanation of matters--not to mention Lana possessed by a 17th century witch--you can't tell me he's ruling out "freak from another planet" as too unlikely an explanation for Clark.

I spent a few minutes pondering if Lex's dialogue had always been this over the top. I concluded that yeah, probably, but when I was watching it before I was like, "His love for Clark is so epic!" and now I am fast-forwarding through Lex wandering into a locker room full of naked boys to donate uniforms to the football team because his motivational speech makes my skin crawl. Apparently Clark is kind of at that point, too. Lex shut down the Clark Kent stalker shrine because Clark told him it was creeeeepy and now Clark is all YOU CANNOT BUY MY LOVE FRIENDSHIP! and Lex is all YOU ARE THE ONLY THING THAT KEEPS ME CLINGING TO HUMANITY! And I am not paraphrasing nearly as much as I wish I were.

In conclusion: I now have lots of footage of Ackles making out with girls.

Vid rec: Chuck from the Burbank, to Jenny from the Block. Some s3 footage--I haven't seen much of s3, but I am reassured that I might be interested in doing so, because the premise is Chuck will always flail it up, no matter how badass they try to make him.

I am dying of allergies. Seriously, zyrtec-D is the only thing that makes my life worth living right now. And sucktastically as well, the sniffling and the watery eyes mean I constantly feel like I'm on the verge of crying. That plus general failure to cope makes me feel like I am constantly breaking down.

I am frustrated with my headspace about Supernatural right now. I'm starting to come out of the fruitcake obsesso place and wake up with the "did you get the number of that truck?" hangover about the last few months and I don't want to, quite yet, I want to actually write and vid a lot of the bunnies I have hanging around. I think part of the problem is that I don't deal well with week-to-week viewing of a show, as opposed to binging. It's killing me to play will I be jossed, will I be kripked, instead of just mainlining. (I realize normal people just watch shows this way. Hi, I'm not normal.)

So I have a plan. I haven't decided if I'm going to implement the plan yet, because there are drawbacks to the plan. But the plan is: I don't watch between now and the season finale, and then I get to mainline the last, what, five or so episodes. In between I would watch older stuff (I still haven't finished watching season 2!) and then when I get to mainline season end, I think I'll get a resurgence of fruitcake interest without the stop and go stagnation frustration I'm getting now.

Drawbacks: I'm actually looking forward to the next few episodes, based on spoilers. Not sure I have the patience. everysecondtuesday, grey_bard, and echan would have a hard time talking to me without spoiling me (though considering how much I've been trawling imdb and youtube, maybe that would be okay? I could just be not-watching-spoiled until I mainline). And then, I don't know, there's vid considerations. Which is totally the last thing on my list because I'm still on waitlist for vvc and feel weird submitting stuff if I'm not going and honestly, vvc is going to be "I'm spending $500 to hang out with some people I like," as opposed to the other thing.

I keep turning myself around on that, too. I had one idea I thought I was doing for challenge and it occurred to me in like, the past two hours, that the drawer vid might be even MORE challenge-suitable. So there's like, three or four things I want to take to vvc. I mean, I guess just in that "to show my friends" way.

traykor is looking for your favorite cliché angst shots from numerous vids of your viewing, for the purposes of a SUPERANGST vid. It should be hilarious.

niqaeli wrote an entry about the blood, sweat and tears we put into the vid Long Spear. I helped.

(Long Spear was the Trek vid. Yeah.)

So there's this thing, and they want to show Long Spear, and so I thought I'd check in with you gals--contributors to the vid that ate my summer, you up for this?

Would it be cheating to bring in s5 clips on a vid about s4 to parallel Ruby's love of fries with Castiel's burger addiction? Especially given the fry clip is s3.

I want to be giandujakiss when I grow up.

I currently have four (4) vids open on timelines.

One is very meta, one is pretty damn meta, one is sort of snarky side-meta, and one is not so much meta as... corrective.

Dear god, will it never end.

Today someone had to honk me through a green light I was stopped at because my brain was off figuring out where to use the prison clip of Holmes. What.

Realization that I now have appropriate flowers on hand got me working on a vid I've left hanging since early December, if the archival dates are accurate. I have to remaster about a minute of it and that is frustrating me.

Dear fandom,

Really?

Affection and disappointment,
Juls



---

Sigh. So the vid I'm working on is going to piss some people off, if that was any indication. This doesn't deter me from making the vid; it does sort of make me want to fashion an insulting warning to pin to it ("Do not watch if you think Character X hung to the moon are are incapable of hearing about zir faults"?).

I went ego-deliciousing last night and found someone had written a blog entry about fan works as transformative, listing my Dollhouse vid She Walks as feminist critique and putting me in the company of a couple of vidders whose work I love and admire. So, you know, good things! Blushy good things!

By the way: if you left me a comment on She Walks and I never answered it, I apologize. I looked at that entry and realized I never answered any of the comments. I've never been in a place where I was at peace enough with that vid to converse about it much even to the extent of thanking people for feedback. I know it's like, five months later? But thank you.

I am currently trying to beat down the urge to make a second Dollhouse vid; I don't know that I have enough anger left in me. I do have backburnered a different, more hopeful vid that was going to be the spiritual successor of She Walks without being a Dollhouse vid at all; though "more hopeful" is sort of relative, since the source is all filmic dystopias and is meant to represent modern American society. But it's to be a vid about that moment when you get out. So maybe. I hope to finish that one someday.

But the Dollhouse vid bunny that's eating my brain now is actually threatening to become a full-on Jossverse critique, evil dead lesbians and crazy broken supergirls with protective father-figures and all. The song I've bunnied on would make it pretty much a direct missive to Whedon, with the "I" and the "you" and the repeated question. My main complaint about this is damn it, this is not what I do, I refuse to be the vidder who tries to make vast sweeping statements about vast sweeping canons. I will not follow up History of Trek Fandom vid with History of Jossverse vid nor with History of Whoniverse vid nor with More Than A Century of History of Fans Asking This Question: Holmes and Watson, Doin' It or Not? vid. I have vid bunnies for all of these concepts. Goddamnit I have learned my lesson, I will not be that vidder.

The thing is, I don't know how to address some of the problems in Dollhouse without pointing out that they're repeating patterns in Whedon's work. Maybe no one will notice BECAUSE ALL THE ACTORS ARE THE SAME FOREVER AND EVER? Ahem. Not that I want to mock his casting choices either.

I want to make my points... more pointed. No more grand, sweeping vids, as much as they eat my brain. So the Sherlock Holmes vid will not be the history of everything, it will be about the cannibalization and reinterpretation of the source under female gaze WHICH IS NOT GRAND AND SWEEPING AT ALL I promise you.

*headdesk*

eta so apparently I will be feminist critique vidder for oh, the next six billion years. Jeez. The last time I tried to make a classic slash vid it turned into a classic slash fandom vid. Hello, my name is Juls, and I have a problem with meta.

Currently paper vidding. Just wrote "oh oh oh she gives him money too! haaaa..."

eta: and now, in an entirely theoretical sense (I need some time with my computer) I have trimmed my canvas from 4:55 to 3:43. Which... I thought it was going to be shorter? But I can work with this. I hope. I have to do the actual cut yet!

eta2: jesus christ wtf polar bears, how did it get to be 4:30 in the morning? When last I looked at the clock it was two *headdesk*