marycrawford | Entries tagged with vidding

(Wow, I tried to embed three Youtube videos into this post and every time the damn thing breaks. So here are some old fashioned links instead; sorry if you saw this post appear and disappear, this is the third...)

Big God by Scribdoodle - spoilers for later parts of the show. This is a delicious, dark, fairly angsty portrait of Shen Wei's supernatural side, as well as how much Zhao Yunlan is into it (not a spoiler: it's a lot), and I admire the choice for the last clip featuring Chu Shuzhi SO MUCH.

Make Me Feel by

lola - no spoilers, except for one angsty moment (from ep 33) that gets used for non-angsty purposes. Just so much fun, full of sparkle effects that work and add to the cheerful, sexy vibe. The way she recontextualizes the "bomb defusing" scene is fantastic, and every time the "lay your body on the shag carpet" moment comes up I just lose it. Oh Zhao Yunlan. <3
It doesn't hurt that the song is a Janelle Monae banger, and I may have watched this about 20-odd times already whenever I need a pick me up. The vid is on AO3 if you prefer to leave feedback there.

Fire's Gonna Burn by Nerjaveika - no spoilers, the perfect introduction to the bonfire of angst and hotness that is this show. If you're in the fandom, I suspect you've seen this vid. And if you're anything like me, you clicked on it anyway to watch it again, because it's just that good. (Okay, I could do without the text, but it's well done and that's just a personal preference.)

BONUS: leave the light on by

bonibaru - no spoilers because this is an RPS vid about the actors. I just saw this for the first time ten minutes ago and now I am OUTRAGED because I have FEELINGS about L'Oreal commercials???! (Zhu Yilong's little bitten lip at 1:44, kill me now) It's gorgeous and evocative and it makes me sniffly. Also: nobody should be as beautiful as Zhu Yilong, what even is his FACE.

Vid title: Trust In Me
Song artist: Holly Cole
Fandom: V (2009 TV series)
Summary: We are of peace. Always.

This vid premiered at Vividcon 2010, in the Also Premiering (Non-Attending) vidshow.

Download from my website:
Big (.avi, 56 Mb) | Medium (.mp4, 27 Mb) | Small (.avi, 13 Mb)

Download subtitles (.srt) | Read lyrics

Feedback very welcome!

Title: Read My Mind
Artist: The Killers
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (Granada TV series)
Summary: "Come, Watson, come!" he cried. "The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!"

This vid premiered at Escapade 2010. Many thanks to

arduinna and

dorinda for beta and encouragement!

Feedback very welcome, including criticism.

Download: Big (.avi, 56 Mb, 700x528) | Biggish (.mp4, 48 Mb, 700x528) | Small (.avi, 16 Mb, 350x264)

ETA And here's some Mediafire download links, in case my webhost is down:
Big (.avi, 56 Mb, 700x528) | Biggish (.mp4, 48 Mb, 700x528) | Small (.avi, 16 Mb, 350x264)

Download subtitles (.srt) | Read lyrics

I found out about the vid Forever by Zi thanks to mrs_underhill, who posted about it on kirkspock, and I just adore it.

It's a Russian Kirk/Spock vid, with the mythic, larger than life feeling that I also get from killabeez' gorgeous TOS vids As and Dante's Prayer -- THEIRLOVEISSOFUCKINGEPIC pretty much sums it up, and it makes me so happy. This vid is classic in terms of editing style -- no heavy effects, fairly long shots, but a great sense of mood and building up to emotional impact.

Also, I think what Forever does with landscape is really cool, and something I can't recall having seen elsewhere; the closest related vid I can think of is sisabet's due South vid Icebound Stream, where the polar bears in the snow are used as a metaphor for Fraser and Victoria. In the first minute of Forever (which is all instrumental), the imagery is intercut between Earth and Vulcan, then deserts and oceans, and then finally the two meet in a flyover shot of the beach, then up into the clouds, above the clouds into space...and to the Enterprise. It feels dreamlike and gorgeous and uplifting, and it sets the theme and the mood perfectly. I thought this was partly external footage, like the polar bears, but I am assured that it's not -- all the desert, ocean etc. shots are from Trek.

I love the Russian song, and it inevitably loses something in translation, but I did my best: I've made an English subtitle file for the vid, with the vidders' permission and based on mrs_underhill's initial translation of the lyrics. I went a bit more literal in places, because all of a sudden I had my translation professor in my head telling me to cut out the poetry, so you may like her version better!

Vid: download and streaming links - I recommend the "worksafe" version, I think it's by far the best. On their website, click the download link below the streaming video. This will take you to a Russian download site, similar to mediafire or megaupload. Here's what to do next in handy screencaps: step 1 - step 2. It may take a while for the vid to download.

Subtitle file: (right-click and save)

The way this works: you save both the vid and the subtitle files to the same directory. Then you open the vid in VLC player (or another player, but I know it works with VLC *g*) and VLC will automagically pick up the subtitle file. If necessary, you can then turn on the subtitles by clicking Video > Subtitles Track > Track 1, and turn them off again with Video > Subtitles Track > Disable. You can also change the size/color/font of the subtitles in Tools > Preferences > Subtitles & OSD.

It's a lot easier to make an .srt file than I thought; you can even do it in Notepad, but I chose to use an editor. If anyone is interested I could do a how-to post on that later?

This vid premiered at the Vividcon challenge show. The challenge theme was IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination) and I couldn't resist.

Swing
Music: Club des Belugas
Fandom: Star Trek: TOS
Summary: All you got to do is swing.
Download: Big (.avi, 63 Mb, 640x480) | Medium (.mp4, 40 Mb, 640x480) | Small (.mp4, 18 Mb, 640x480)
Right-click and save, please!

( Lyrics )

( Notes )

Feedback would be wonderful!

I've had to upgrade from Premiere 6.0 to Premiere Pro CS3, which is kind of like going into your somewhat grubby but pleasantly familiar bathroom and suddenly finding a giant array of high-tech knobs and spouts and mystery tubing where your old shower used to be.

Question for vidders: how the hell do I turn off the Frame Blend option for all clips in my project file/on my timeline? Anyone? Please?

I'm not even sure what Frame Blend does, but I strongly suspect it's blurring the clips unnecessarily. Right now the only option I can see is turning it off on every single clip by hand, which is not good for my RSI or my mental health. Help?

halcyon_shift is planning a con for vidders and vid watchers in the UK for this autumn. I'm thrilled, not least because I can't make it to Vividcon this year.

The con is scheduled for 24 to 26 October 2008, and it's in Milton Keynes. It's apparently about an hour away from London by train, and has many restaurants in walking distance. (Indian food! woo!)

I am hoping to go. How about you? Please come and fill out the poll!

And do comment below if you are thinking of going and want to make plans, or just to go "yay!"

As DVDs are coming out for more and more shows, vidders have started remastering their older vids, made with VCR footage or sometimes third-generation copies. Remasters ares a wonderful thing, IMO, and a labor of love: remastering's a lot of work, and I think it's probably not creatively fulfilling in the way making a new vid is. Also, I fear there's probably less feedback for a remaster, no matter how pretty, than for a new vid, which is why I stress once again to please let the vidders know if you like the vids I'm talking about below, all of which have been remastered recently.

Title: Haunted
Artist: Poe
Fandom: Odyssey 5
Vidder(s):

flummery
Download at: http://trickster.org/vids
View Imeem version at: http://flummery.imeem.com/video/gxW22sxe/o5_haunted_remaster/
Leave feedback at: http://flummery.livejournal.com/23824.html

This vid oh-so-casually introduces you to a fandom you have probably never heard of in your life, to a whole group of characters and their relationships, to the mission they are on and the things that go wrong - and then suddenly there is a certain thing that happens (and you will know it when you see it, oh yes) and the vid has you BY THE THROAT AND DOES NOT LET GO and you are all sniffly and there's a whole science fiction story there that is starting to become clear and - wow. How did they do that?

I've been sitting in between both halves of

flummery as they finished work on the remaster and I still don't know how they do it. (It involves a lot of yelling "OMG here let ME do it," I think. And possibly glowsticks, though they hid those for my visit.) But if you haven't seen this vid before, you should watch it. And if you have, you should watch it again, because the remaster is incredibly crisp, and really amazed me when I first saw it. Haunted has always been a stellar vid, but I always thought that Odyssey 5 was filmed by the same people who make Australian soap operas; it had that orange-tinted, flat lighting that makes everyone look like they're made of plastic. Well, surprise - Odyssey 5 actually looks great, and has natural lighting, and all the weird tinting came with the VCR source that was the only thing available when the vid was made. Yay remasters!

Title: Roll To Me
Artist:Del Amitri
Fandom: due South
Vidder(s): Sandy and Nicole; remaster by Gwyneth
Download at: http://www.relative-obscurity.org/belles/cb.html
Leave feedback at: see

sherrold's LJ profile for email, etc.

This vid played at Club Vivid, and I heard people going "Oh yay, they remastered that vid! I love that vid!" and realized that this must be a classic vid I had never seen. I get the reactions now: it's an adorable, warm, just-right Fraser/Vecchio vid, and makes me terribly nostalgic for early due South. Love the very clean POV shift from Vecchio to Fraser, and I just basically want to watch it three more times now and go AW.

Title: History Repeating
Artist: Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads
Fandom: Highlander, HL: The Raven
Vidder(s):

killabeez
Download and leave feedback at: http://killabeez.livejournal.com/247510.html?style=mine

Oh, Amanda. See, I have watched just enough Highlander to see Tessa die (snf) and I honestly don't remember seeing Amanda around at all, but Killa has done several vids for her, and now I feel like I know her very well; in fact, I adore her. She maybe weighs 40 kilos soaking wet and yet she kicks ass, she's clever, she's tricksy, she's got a good sense of humor and an even better sense of mischief, and she has great taste in men, women and loot. She's a sticky-fingered filcher with a taste for thievery - wait, now I'm quoting another vid, and more to the point of this vid, she's been around. If anyone has ever been around, it's Amanda. The vid tells such a strong story (look at Amanda dissing the Russian revolution by comparing it with the French! And you can see her think "yeah, because that ended well", and it all happens in what, four clips?), and it's such a riot of color and movement, and both come out beautifully in this shiny new remaster. Yay!

Title: 500 Miles
Artist:The Proclaimers
Fandom: Professionals
Vidder(s): Sandy and Alex; remaster by Justacat
Download at: http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/vids/500Miles.php
Leave feedback at: see

sherrold's LJ profile for email, etc.

I only know the Professionals fandom through vids, and I confess that I still don't know which one is Bodie and which one is Doyle. I can distinguish the boys themselves just fine! It's just something about the names - I think maybe Bodie looks more like a Doyle to me, or vice versa. Anyway, thank Zeus for the vidders' notes, where Sandy says: "Too many Pros stories show Bodie doing all the running; I wanted to do a visual rebuttal, showing Doyle doing the chasing." This is such a great song, and the vidders use it beautifully, and with this remaster the vid looks like it was made yesterday. I love all the determined, nobody-can-stop-me motion in the vid. Not to mention the right-on-the-beat strutting in very tight jeans. *admires*

[x-posted to

vividcon]

At Vividcon, I VJ'ed the "Can't Live With 'Em, Can't Trade 'Em For Food" vidshow:
Showcasing funny vids about relationships - slash, het, multiple,
friendship, enmity or romance, anything goes as long as we can poke
affectionate fun at it.
This was my first Vividcon and my first vidshow ever, not just as a VJ, but the first time I ever experienced watching a whole bunch of vids on a big screen in a dark room full of people, rather than just me & my TV. It was a wonderful introduction to the con, and I'm grateful to everyone who showed up to watch.

I wrote short blurbs for the program book, worried that if I started to talk about why I love these vids, I'd take up way too much room, so I'm writing up more extensive notes for this post, instead.

I'd love to know what you think about these vids, and about the vidshow, if you were there. Also, if you download any of these and enjoy them, please do let the vidders know! Vidders get even less feedback than fanfic writers, and something as simple as an LJ comment saying "This was so much fun!" can make someone's day.

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

Title: Improper Dancing
Artist: Electric Six
Fandom: Multi
Description: Just don't scare the horses.
Premiered at Club Vivid, Vividcon 2007.

Big version (.avi, 44 Mb, 720x480) | Small version (.avi, 10 Mb, 360x240) -- right-click and save, please!

Thanks to everyone who helped me find the right fandoms for this vid, and especially to

therienne and

aka_arduinna, who captured a ton of clips for me and helped me to pull it all together.

ETA: Here's a list of fandoms used in the vid.

Feedback very welcome!

I've put my vids up on Imeem: marycrawford.imeem.com.

Imeem plays streaming video. It's like YouTube, but better quality, as long as you let the vid load first and then play it.

So far, the main advantages I've seen are:

you can rec and link directly to a vid, your own or someone else's, without compromising the vidder's bandwidth.
it's a lot easier to get an idea of a vidder's work, without having to remember passwords or navigate through a tiny-blinky-text website.
it's easy to drop the vidder a comment, for quick feedback; on LJ, it can feel odd to drop a comment on a vid post that's a year old, because LJ is so now-oriented, and it can also be difficult to find the vid post in the first place. On Imeem the vids and the comment box are right there. I do wish they'd make comments threaded, and include email notification. Right now there's no way to answer if someone leaves you feedback, and I really really want to be able to say thanks.
you can make playlists of both your own and other people's vids: fandom-specific playlists, 'favorite mood-lifting vids', 'personal top 10', 'scary vids' and so on, and then share those playlists with other people.

So far, many people have been using the 'vidding' tag on Imeem to differentiate between vids and other fanworks such as machinima (game engine animation) and fan films. There's more discussion on making vids accessible to a wider audience in the

vidding community: You Can't Stop The Signal, and on the Vidding meme on Imeem.

My vids will remain available as downloads on my website, both high-quality versions and small versions for dialup. I really hope other vidders will keep putting up files for download, too: there's nothing like a high-quality fullscreen vid that you can download and play again and again without adding to anyone's bandwidth. I won't be fully satisfied with services like Imeem until they can offer full screen streaming video files that are as good-looking as a 60 Mb Xvid encoded download.

I have the Vividcon DVDs, (WOoooOO!) so at some point this week there will be vid recs. Meanwhile, there is TOO MUCH LIGHT IN THIS BAR. Hee. Seriously, you should download this, especially if you are having a bad Monday. It's a Life on Mars vid, but you don't need to know even that much. Walks! No, wait...swaggers!

And there is a miniature Labyrinth vid in that same post, which you should also download and snicker at. And then kill

absolut3destiny for claiming he made the latter in 'a few hours', because OMG. I know how hard it is to make those bloody muppets lip-synch, okay?

Right, Five Things now:

For

roo2:

( Five ways Iolaus didn't die )

For

spikeface:

( Five reasons Ares only wears black leather )

For

cyloran:

( Five (and a half) things Captain Jack can do better than the Doctor )

For everyone who'd like to build a vidshow of their very own:

-

thefourthvine recs anime vids. I think I've only seen two of these, and those two are lovely (Mitternacht and A Godawful Small Affair). Will be downloading the rest.
-

makesmewannadie asked, "What is your favorite vid in your fandom?" and bravely posted all the answers, with vid links. Unknown-to-me vids on this list too, yay!
-

astolat has put up high-quality Xvid versions of all her older vids, and put some older vids online that were only available on DVD before, including Man of Constant Sorrow, one of my favorites that I will have to talk about at more length some time. (It's Indiana Jones, and one of the things I love about it is the perfect ending shot. Go watch.)

And soooon, the Vividcon vids will be coming online. Good times.

I'm working on another Hercules: the Legendary Journeys vid, and I'm noticing a trend. Two of the HtLJ vids I've made so far, Live Till I Die and Holding Out For A Hero fall into a 'Look at this guy/gal/drag queen/fandom, yay, see how fabulous/cheesy/awesome it is? Yay!' category, and the third, Do You Dream Of Me is more of a 'I can't stand this canon development and this is MY version' vid.

I think the one I'm working on now falls into the second category, but it's much more upbeat than Do You Dream Of Me. The theme is "Alternate universes? Just say no," or as I was explaining it to

aka_arduinna the other day, "Don't exchange the psycho bastard you know for the nice guy who abuses you".

On the one hand, this is all kinds of fun as I try to figure out how to cram all the bizarro-verse happenings into one vid and get to admire Ares the God of Love in his amazing Elvis suit, on the other hand, it means I have to watch all the Jester episodes. I'd rather eat paint than watch all the Jester episodes - it's just, I want the real Iolaus back when I watch them, just as bad as when they were aired for the first time and we didn't know if he would ever return. It's trauma.

(Which was pretty much what Hercules was inflicting on the guy, if you ask me. "Here, put on this padded suit. Now I will patronize you, hit you in the face when you aren't looking and pull a face behind your back because you will never live up to my demigodly standards. Can I have my Iolaus back now?")

In the "look at my fandom, yay!" category, I still want to do a Hercules/Iolaus vid, an upbeat one about their lives together, and I still haven't found the right song for it. I could kick myself. This doesn't happen to other vidders! They have songs for everything! They know how to take an unlikely song and bend it to their whim! Sigh. I think I've asked this before, but suggestions are still welcome. *g*

The weird thing is, I do have song ideas for Buffy/Spike, and for LOTR, and even for Methos. I have never seen the Methos episodes. I only know the guy from vids, and yes, he's lovely, but what is wrong with me that I have a song for him? Did you ever have a song or vid idea for a fandom you weren't even in?

Maybe I'm in luck, and you are a Buffy vidder but you have this terrific song that would only work for Hercules and Iolaus...

Last night I dreamed I was watching a gorgeous Hercules/Iolaus vid, set to a strong, dramatic song that really worked for them. (

permetaform reported a similar experience; I wonder if it was the same vid.)

Particularly impressive was that Hercules and Iolaus were kissing halfway through the vid, and I thought "Hang on, that never happened on screen. But it looks so real. I'm pretty sure Hercules is really kissing Xena there, and Iolaus... Nebula? Wow, this vidder must be absolutely amazing with track mattes. I will watch this over and over just to see how she did that."

...sigh.

(Any thoughts on what the dream song could have been, or would be, for you? I still haven't found a definite vid song for Hercules/Iolaus, though I have a few possibles.)

More answers to questions from the vid commentary meme. More questions or requests for commentary welcome!

Questions from

elke_tanzer:

What tools/software/codec/capture setup are you using to allow such gorgeous colors and clear images from the DVDs to shine through?

( Technobabble )

Did you tweak any of the slow motion pans over Hercules' skin in the newest vid, or are those shots all that speed in the source?

( Clip speed )

Do you worry about finding an audience for your HtLJ vids? How do you choose where to announce your vids when you post them?

( Audience )

Answers to questions from the vid commentary meme. More questions or requests for commentary welcome!

ahary asked: How do you get an idea, how do you choose a song and what goes first - song or visuals or idea or what?

( Song choice and ideas )

Also from

ahary: What are your favorite moments in the new Twanky vid?

( Favorite moments )

And finally, where did this clip with her as Mary Poppins, where she floating on an umbrella, come from?

Heh. That's from the third Twanky episode, Greece Is Burning, in season Five. Screencaps for it are here.

I think I'd better split this up and answer more questions in another post, so this is part one. :-)

If you haven't wandered over to the Great Vidding Truth Meme over at

sdwolfpup's yet, it's definitely worth seeing and participating.

This is one long thread where you can leave anonymous feedback on the vids of any vidder who signed up. Criticism, squeeing, "I liked your vid but I don't understand X" ing, it's all good. If you want to tell me something about my vids, but you'd rather do it anonymously, go for it! And please don't be afraid to criticize. I really want to know.

I love seeing this meme grow and grow, and I've found several vids that I had lost track of, by vidders that aren't so well known. Here's a quick rec for

gayalondiel's SG-1 vid to "Men In Black", which is a lot of fun and has some really excellent clip choices.

I've put up half-size versions of my vids up on my site. They're 7 Mb or less, which I hope is doable if you're on dialup. (I did try to get the size down further, but ended up with a huge pixelated mess.) If anything looks wonky or you have trouble downloading, please let me know.

I should have done this earlier, but I'm afraid I was seduced by ever bigger and prettier encodes. Speaking of which: Ermac and

absolut3destiny have updated the inestimable Guide To All Things Audio And Video on AMV.org with a walkthrough explaining how to encode your finished vid to Divx-compatible Xvid. I have tried it and it works beautifully. If you combine the VirtualDubMod settings with Avisynth scripts, as the Guide teaches you to, it really begins to look like magic.

(Of course magic isn't always benign. At one point, I changed one line of code and ended up with a truly bizarre-looking vid - blue-lipped Hercules with purple hair, or was it orange?)

Adobe Premiere crashes: 7. In a row.
Reboots: 3.
Frantic fiddling with problematic Avisynth files: a lot.
Succesful vid exports from Premiere: 1.
Succesful encode into DVD format: 1.
Happy dancing: 5 seconds.

Then I realized I forgot to add the mandatory black space at the beginning and end of the vid, and I'd have to start over again.

GRARGH.

On the upside, I'm pretty happy with the vid itself.

And the best quote of the day, from

darthmaligna, who is having some ancient history class problems:

And even IF something was found on the bottom of the Red Sea, so fucking what? When the Riace bronzes were found at the bottom of the Mediterranean, nobody assumed that the Greeks had parted the sea and then accidentally let it go again in the middle of a nude-bronze-statue-exporting party.

Vidder Friending meme: a way to out yourself as a vidder *g* and point other people to your favorites. I like the idea, because there are now so many vids being posted on

vidding and

fan_vids that it's really easy to miss out on new talent.

Sometimes vidding is just the coolest thing in the world.

I have made a camera zoom in. There was no zooming in the source, it was a static shot. Of which there are many in Hercules: the Legendary Journeys. I made it zoom.

Am drunk with power. The possibilities!

Thing 1 and 2 of

flummery have posted their thoughts on the making of their fantastic meta vid Walking On The Ground, and it's a highly entertaining read.

If you want to know what goes into making a vid with source from all over the place (A Clockwork Orange, Max Headroom, old Twilight Zone, The A-Team, The Tick, Monty Python!) and a central idea that's very high concept but tricky to get across, well, watch the masters at work. *g*

It's one thing to have continuous crackbrained vid ideas.

It's another thing when other people actually make them into vids.

Terrifyingly, someone made a Sheppard/McKay vid to 'John, I'm Only Dancing'.* Which...I admit I thought of. For a second! While doing the dishes!

Then, since Bowie was still playing, I moved on to a possible Sheppard vid to 'Moonage Daydream'. (He's an alligator! He's a space invader! He'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for you! *cough*)

If someone has made that vid as well, tell me so I can die happy.

*(I'm not actually recommending the John, I'm Only Dancing vid - episode credits, extra frames, little attention to beat or changes in the music, not half as funny as I'd like it to be. But someone made it, and that's just brightened my day considerably. *g*)

ETA: And OMG

z_rayne is planning an SGA vid to John, I'm Only Dancing too. Or saying she isn't, which amounts to the same thing. Bweee!

i. When you drop a clip into the timeline entirely at random, some interesting movement will fall right on the beat, like a little gift from the vidding gods.

Corollary: when you are trying to make something move on the beat, this will not happen.

ii. When hunting clips for a particular vid, you will come across clips for all the other vids you were thinking of making, but not for the one that's actually in progress.

Corollary: if you don't rip all those other clips right now, you will never find them again.

iii. When you don't have an ending, your vid has turned A/U on you halfway through and your song has deeply peculiar lyrics, do not panic. That's what betas are for.

Corollary: when all the clips fall into place like clockwork, worry.

A package was delivered yesterday, but I wasn't home, so they dropped it at my neighbours' house.

Now I am home and they are not. Woe.

Want to bet these are the Vividcon DVDs?

In happier news,

sockkpuppett is still adding names to the list of people who want her Scooby Road vid project on DVD. You could be one of those people. You should be one of those people, if you like vids or Buffy at all. Probably even if you don't. Lum is simply a fantastic vidder, one of the three whose vids I rewatch the most, no matter what fandom they're in. (The other two are

killabeez and

flummery, so that's really four people, but never mind.)

If you haven't heard about this before, Scooby Road is

sockkpuppett's magnum opus - she took the whole of the Beatles' Abbey Road and vidded the whole of Buffy to it. I've only seen one small piece, one vid, and that was breathtaking. I can't wait to see the whole.

You know it's not going to be a happy vid when your clips folder is full of things like 'grieving_Herc_closeup.avi' and 'Herc_bloody_and_determined.avi'. Not to mention 'dead_Iolaus_wakes.avi'.

Yes, I'm working on the Dahak vid, while the answers to the poll I posted show the overwhelming support for an Ares God of War & Ares God of Love dance vid or failing that, Widow Twanky.

What can I say? I'm unreliable. *eg*

OK, no, that's not the only reason. Twanky is coming (cough), just wait until I get the song done.

But I threw down the Ares vidsong in Premiere yesterday - just to have it there, you know, to see it in the timeline! I'm sure other vidders will understand - then copied my Xena source to the vidding drive. Then I realized: I don't have Xena source. Oh, I have all six seasons of Xena in a nicely TV-watchable divx format, but

a) that's not high enough quality to vid from, especially when all the Herc source is ripped directly from DVD and I would be combining the two, and
b) it involves a painful Avisynth workaround to even get those divx files to play in Premiere. Normally Premiere crashes when you so much as mention divx.

But dammit, I really do want to make this vid. It's catchy, it's dancy, it has people in leather...

So, the question: if anyone sees a really good deal on all six seasons of Xena on DVD, will you let me know? I know there's a giant boxed set out there that the Evil Xenastore is selling for $200 a pop. That's way more than I want to spend, but if you see a good deal on Ebay or DeepDiscount or somewhere, I'd appreciate it if you would drop me an email.

[Poll #549923]

I signed up for

_par_avion and

permetaform's vid commentary challenge, and was assigned two vids to comment on.

This is the second: Tango Til They're Sore, by

commodorified.

( Vid comments )

I signed up for

_par_avion and

permetaform's vid commentary challenge, and was assigned two vids to comment on.

This is the first: Away From Me, by Sunryse. (BtVS, Spike/Xander.)

( Vid comments )

(X-posted to

vidding)

I'm watching this anime vid by VegettoEX and laughing my head off.

It's a...well, instructional vid, almost, about what not to do if you want to make a well-edited anime vid, with titles pointing out various problems, like stray frames and talking faces (I say 'talky face', you say 'lip flap', let's call the whole thing off...). It was shown at AnimeNext 2004 as part of a panel on "Fine Tuning and Easy Things to Avoid" in vid editing.

permetaform offered to provide vid feedback here, to encourage vid discussion and vid feedback in general. Her extensive and thought-provoking post about my vid Live Till I Die is here, and do read the comments, since a discussion sprang up there that I'm still fascinated by, about narrative and non-narrative vids, audience expectations and the difference between a review and constructive criticism.

This is my return review of her Pirates of the Caribbean vid 'Gravity'. I call it a review, but it's really more of a ramble, me looking at Permetaform's vid and thinking about it and trying to put words to my reactions. I would love it if people would add their own thoughts and comments here.

See, I don't know how to talk about vids. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way, and that's a big reason why it can be hard to get vid discussion off the ground. I can go 'whoa' and 'OMG that was cool' and 'did you see how that thing went over that other thing'? But that's not enough to make up a review, though it would be fine as feedback - I think it's safe to say that no vidder minds getting a one line note saying 'OMG that was cool!' I've had feedback like that and it makes my day.

I think the difficulty is that I'm used to talking story, and when I'm talking about movies or TV I'm still used to talking story, or subtext or characterization, but not about the pure raw feel of the images or the way they were put together. I know it's different for people who studied cinematography and so forth. Me, I'm still training to even notice things like cuts and wipes and colour palettes, and I don't feel qualified to give constructive criticism, but I can at least try to put my own reactions into words.

'Gravity', the vid under discussion, can be downloaded here.

NB: I didn't read

permetaform's notes on the making of her vid, because I wanted to give my impressions without being primed, as it were. I did read the lyrics for the song, because I had difficulty hearing what the singer was saying in some of the verses.

General impressions: ( More... )

Mood: ( More... )

Bits and pieces: ( More... )

Exit left, pursued by a bear:

I think this vid is aimed at the POTC fandom, but it might still work very well for non-fans, simply because it's so shiny and rich. I think it's a very cool vid, but I do feel overwhelmed by it. It works better for me after rewatching, so I can break it down and notice things more.

Now. What do you think? :-)

OK, look, I'm not defecting from H:tLJ or anything, but by gum I'm going to buy the Invisible Man dvds. If only for this interview. And because I hate watching shows on my computer, and I've only gotten about as far as Flowers For Hobbes, which is basically a bulletproof kink of mine turned into an episode, so. *g*

In other news, the Vividcon vid auction is open. This means you can throw money at a vidder and have them make the vid of your choice. And when I say throw money, I mean it - right now the top bid for

permetaform, an excellent vidder who was ~~insane~~ brave enough to offer 'any fandom', is $320. Wow.

I keep thinking about it, and I don't think I have a vid in my brain that I badly want someone else to make. Not even the Buffy one to Nick Cave. Which I suppose is good, or at least frugal, but it's also a bit odd - what, do I think I'm so great that I want to make all my ideas myself, even the ones that consist of 'this is a great song that needs to be vidded' and nothing else? Maybe it's just that I don't want to tell another vidder what to do - I want to see what they make and be surprised, and I want to see a vid invested with all their passion for an idea or a fandom, not mine.

Now, if it was a story auction, that would all fly out the window - especially if H:tLJ were on offer. I'd probably go broke just to get all of you to write me stories full of sacrifice, angst, snark and manly cuddling. *g*

There is a story by Cordwainer Smith, one of my favorite SF writers, called Golden The Ship Was - Oh! Oh! Oh!. It is all that one of its characters can say, after a battle in space that may or may not have happened.

Right now, I know how he feels. I want you to watch this vid by GF & TS. It is called 'Data's Dream' now, which is not its name, and by its name I knew it for years, long before I saw my first vid or knew any vid fans - it was that famous, and now it's remastered and online. And it was everything I thought it would be. It's about fandom, and flight dreams, and hope, and you should watch it. Golden the ship was - Oh! Oh! Oh!

I swear, I am perfectly normal until I fire up Premiere. It's not me. I just want to make a couple of Hercules vids that don't suck. That's all. Perfectly normal.

But then I fire up Premiere - just to recut my old vid, is all- and then before I know it I am trying to get muppets to lip-synch. And wondering whether it was such a good idea to start up a Premiere project in PAL with TV settings when the source is NTSC and widescreen. :headdesk:

Then today I start getting idiotic vid ideas on the bike ride back home:

- Brimstone Rock by 16 Horsepower. It's the Preacher guy from Buffy's last season! He has his own theme song!
(please note: I do not even like the Preacher guy. I love 16 Horsepower, but that's hardly the point.)

- Someone needs to make a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead vid. I don't have a song for it, it just needs to be done. By somebody. Who is not me. It must have all Rosencrantz' adorable moments in it, though, which is basically half the movie, but never mind. And the bit where he lies down on the tomb. And the player. And the gorgeous boy who plays girls. And Ophelia drowning. And...maybe I should just go rewatch the movie.

Ahem. Yes. Here's my first vid. Many many thanks to

elynross,

falzalot,

flummery and

halimede for beta'ing and egging me on. *g*

Title: Live Till I Die
Performed by: Frank Sinatra
Fandom: Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
Description: The many lives of Iolaus.

Size: 11.9 Mb
Type: .avi with the Divx codec.

You can download it (right-click and save, please!) here.

There's just the one .avi version for now, but I have been told both PC and Mac users should be able to play it - if not, please let me know and I will do my best to fix it.
ETA: if you're having trouble playing the vid, you may want to try downloading and installing the DivX codec.

(A good free movie player for Windows, Mac OS, Linux or just about anything is VLC media player; another free player for Windows is Zoom Player. Neither comes with ads or 'channels' or spyware or any of that crap.)

I would love to know what you think, and that includes critical feedback.

( Things I Learned From Making This Vid )

Since Hercules: the Legendary Journeys vid #1 is in beta (all hail

falzalot,

flummery and

halimede for undertaking said beta!) I've been working on vid #2.

Which is really vid #1, because it's the first vid I ever attempted, but then Premiere crashed so completely that the entire project was lost. I gamely reconstituted what I had, and Premiere gamely crashed again. (I'm talking all the clips disappearing from the Timeline entirely, clips suddenly acquiring names like "~1" instead of "Herc_and_Iolaus_taking_a_mudbath", and on and on.)

I still don't know what caused the crashes, since the problem hasn't re-occurred with the other vid at all, but to be on the safe side I started the whole project again from scratch, under a different name, and even re-encoded the .mp3 to .wav. I haven't had any crashes since, knock on wood.

sockkpuppett posted this hilarious and completely true thing called The Life Cycle of Vid and Vidder, and it's a very handy shortcut for posts about vidding.

With vid #1 (the Iolaus portrait), I am in stage 18: "Ok, I have to let it sit here for a few days to gel. I wonder if ~~Ellen~~ Thing 1 or ~~Killa~~ Thing 2 would look at it and ... be kind."

With vid #2-that-is-really-#1 (the Hercules and Iolaus approach to life vid), I am in stage 9, which is one of the best: "Hey, it's working! it's working!"

I am still worried that the song I chose for it (Let's Face the Music and Dance) is too generic and repetitive, and two songs by the same singer, in the same genre, what the heck am I doing? But I am sitting on my inner neurotic, because I love making this vid. A kind of primal glee comes over me - look! Hercules and Iolaus, punching people to the beat! Look, I timed his hands wiggling to the shababidababidi trill in the music! Hey, I totally constructed this scene where it looks like they're interacting even though they're really not! Whee! - and I get to raid all my own screencaps looking for just the right shot. I don't have much of a visual memory at all, but it really helps to have screencapped an episode, because you're looking at it in the same way as for vidding: the image is all that matters, and it actually works better to turn the sound off.

Since this is such a small fandom, I would like to get some idea of the format people would like/be able to watch vids in. Small filesizes means the vid will be small and of crappy quality, but OTOH if you're on dialup, downloading a 13 Mb vid can take forever. I've had good results with using

astolat's encoding and compressing methods, so that my beta versions are between 10 and 15 Mb and still look good, but I could try other things as well.

Here's a poll, which I hope actually works since I never tried this before:

( Vidding poll - what format, what size? )

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