Vividcon part 2 of 3: vid recs first batch
I laughed, I cried, I marveled at people's skills. Or: favorite new & new-to-me vids of those I saw at the con. I only went to two of the ten non-plenary vid shows, so there will surely be more to rec from the streams/DVDs. Stay tuned.
*denotes super-favorites
Premieres
*Dark Doo Wop by anoel (House of Cards US)-spoilers for season 2 I think
I didn't think I cared about House of Cards until this vid aired. First, I was admiring the vidder's talent in building a credible world in which this married couple and this family friend guy were heading for a threesome, and then boom, turns out it's canonical! Sold. As if that weren't enough, the threesome isn't the end of the story; it's clear what's-his-name Kevin Spacey's character manipulates the people in this relationship just as he manipulates the politicians around him as well as the American public, yet it looks like he's struggling at the same time with genuine feelings about both of them. Great tension. Also, the song is beautiful, and as a darkened version of happy '50s American pop culture, it highlights how Spacey's president has twisted the political system for his own gain.
*The Loyal by trelkez (Harry Potter)
Intense look at Harry's role in the second wizarding war and the human loss that surrounds him. This stands just fine on its own. Still, since it contained the explicit reference to The Loyal by SDWolfpup (Children of Men), a group of us rewatched that vid afterwards followed by this one again. We decided that Harry is being presented as akin to the baby who symbolizes the hope for the survival of humanity, while Sirius is Clive Owen's reluctant shepherd, perhaps not making it himself but ensuring that the child does; while all around Harry, people fall, voluntary and involuntary casualties. Specific visual echoes stood out to me as well, like the return to the photograph of parents with child. I look forward to closer study.
*Landsailor by skygiants (Legend of Korra)
I haven't seen A:tLA or Korra yet (I know), so there are layers and resonances here I'm missing, but that didn't prevent Landsailor from being one of the most moving vids of the con. Beautiful story of growing into one's powers and oneself, of loss and of finding one's people again.
Breathe Me by Butterfly (Sense8)
Again, much of the context is lost on me, but the vidder tells the story quite clearly of how these people begin to connect to one another, to feel less alone, and eventually to become a sort of super-team who can swap out skill sets to escape sticky situations. Someone in vid review admired, and I agree, how well the vid interweaves emotional and physical intimacy. I think it was
cesperanza who said it hit her competence kink and then she was delighted to find that the sexiness of the skill exchanges became explicitly sexual.
Warriors by jarrow (The 100)
Talk about a vid that builds-and builds, and builds! How To Sustain Action For Three Minutes: A Case Study. Awesome. Catchy song, too. Even if my earworm keeps switching back and forth with Muse's "Uprising." Whose subject matter, come to think of it, seems just as appropriate.
Jumper by bradcpu (House)
A season 5 vid. Mm, it was so nice to have House and Wilson back on screen for a few minutes. By season 5 I had largely fallen out of the show, in part because-let's see-I'd lost patience with House as a human being, I'd lost track of what Wilson and Cuddy wanted House to be or do, the patients weren't as interesting as they'd been in earlier seasons, the new fellows ditto, and nobody seemed to be supporting or comforting anyone else while stressful things happened left and right. This vid brought back everything like a glorious fever dream. bradcpu's selectivity and his narrative choices make sense of multiple character threads and foreground the comfort between so many pairs of characters-House and Wilson, Foreman and Thirteen, Thirteen and the woman with Huntington's, the young patient and his brother, Taub and his wife, on and on-that even as it rehashes all the horrible things they went through, the vid emphasizes how much these people care for one another. And reminds me how much I once cared about them.
Boardwalks by trelkez (Daredevil 2015)
A sweet look at Matt Murdock and his relationships with his friends/colleagues, with what seems like a dip into the dark side of his identity and personal history. Haven't seen the show, still not sure I'm interested, enjoyed the vid regardless.
The Miracle by astolat (Fast & Furious)
Nice to have another Fast & Furious vid in the world, my favorite being thirdblindmouse's Dance Alarm from Club Vivid last year that I'm not sure I ever recced. Anyway, this one felt to me like a vidder's version of the coda in F&F 7, looking back at the beginning of the story when everyone was so young, reveling in the love between Brian and Dom and cars and wives and family.
Challenge
*IRM by diannelamerc (iZombie)
So great! This year's Challenge theme was "memory," and you can certainly see how this vid focuses on how the main character gains the memories of the recently deceased whose brains she eats; how she starts to gain skills from them, which are at first fun but start to take on a sinister tone; and ultimately how knowledge sends her down a darker path than expected. Morbidly funny, well cut, thoroughly enjoyable.
*Afire Love by anoel (The Normal Heart/historical footage)
Or, the vid that had the room in tears. Moves from the semi-fictional, the personal, the film, to the societal, the historical, the RL footage. Some people expressed ambivalence about mixing fiction and nonfiction, or with telling a story about HIV/AIDS in America that is wrapped up too neatly in a bow, that is presented as if it's over, that may seem more like "the" story than "a" story, all of which is valid. I think that even as those discussions happen, this is a deftly made vid with powerful emotional impact.
Auction
*Havoc in Heaven by Gwyneth for killa (Sunshine)
Guys: A Sunshine vid! That spends more time on the good parts of the movie (international science team on a long, difficult mission who must face psychological and technical challenges) than the sucky parts (space monster)! I sank right into this on first viewing-beautiful song-and didn't start wondering what the vid's narrative was until maybe 3/4 of the way through. When I started trying to figure it out, I did get confused. But on second viewing and after talking to gwyn, it became clear that the vid is largely structured around color: the blue of Cillian Murphy's eyes, the gold of the suits, the green of the oxygen garden, the red of blood, the black of the void, the orange threaded all the way through, and at the end, the white of the snow and the sunlight, which contains all colors. Just lovely.
Keep Your Picture Clear by obsessive24 for destina (House of Cards US)
I need to watch this more than once to appreciate everything it's doing and write a coherent review, but it's obsessive24: it's excellently executed. Also Tom McRae, hooray. Brilliant use of several moments in the show when Kevin Spacey turns to the camera.
Mirrorage by rhoboat for heresluck, vonniek, Grammarwoman, bat wrangler and Shoshanna (Orphan Black)
Ditto the above. Very well made. Another show on my to-watch list …
Primal Scream by Franzeska for jetpack_monkey (Penny Dreadful)
A Victor Frankenstein character study. I'm not sure I care a lot about Victor, but this vid sure presents a compelling portrait of a messed-up dude. Love how it depicts Victor's obsession with bodies, the way anatomy and sex and death and the occult are not just intertwined but inextricable for him-how a naked woman and a naked man and a stitched-together body in a tank and a scarified vampire mummy and a consumptive mother are equally erotic to him. Oh, Victor.
Artificial Life
*Electric Avenue by Jetpack Monkey (multi)
Robots, people. ROBOTS. Decades and decades of robots being cute and clever and sexy and wacky and scary and dancey and oh, wait, when did we transition from hijinks to being frightened of and mistreating them? Why are humans abusing and destroying them? Uh, guys, they seem to be rising up. And I can see why. In fact, I am rooting for them.
If a Machine by Cara Marie (multi) - Spiraling down into the robot/AI apocalypse. Very cool.
Synthetic Heroine by Ileia - Spectacular multifandom AMV.
New Soul by Buffyann (Edward Scissorhands) - I dunno, I thought it was an appropriately cute and sad retelling of the movie.
Big City Life by Lithium Doll (Dark Angel) - One day I will watch Dark Angel too. Before then, there is this compelling vid.
Lions and Tigers and Vids, Oh My!
D:
On My Way Home by elipie (Two Brothers)
Haunting tale of tigers dealing with being hunted, killed, imprisoned, domesticated, mistreated. Terrible and beautiful and moving. I can't stop listening to this song.
Let Me Tell You by kuwdora (Planet of the Apes reboot)
A powerful vid made even more poignant amidst the anger and pain of #blacklivesmatter.
:D
Maximus Overture by such_heights (Tangled)
Heee. A fine example of comic timing.
Secret Squirrel by dualbunny (dualbunny's backyard)
IDEK, and it's longer than it needs to be, but so what, there is an alternative rock vid in the world of house pets vs. backyard squirrels. I dare you not to laugh at Doctor Doom's cackle.
:) :,(
Stay Alive by milly (Land Before Time)
I was so happy at the end, I choked up. Is all I'm saying.
Somewhere Only We Know by kiki_miserychic (Winnie the Pooh)
Again with the teary endings. A bittersweet return to the Hundred Acre Wood.
Vid Review
Misc. comments from attendees I especially agreed with:
Right Round by jetpack_monkey (Classic Hollywood serials): song choice asks you to compare new sources to old
Perfect Day by elipie (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt): "I'm a New Yorker-you're smiling too much, I'm unnerved" --cesperanza
Karate by GhostTownExit (Grand Budapest Hotel): Witty use of movement
Drawn to the Blood by lola (Supernatural): Spiritual, eerie, revenant loop you're stuck in, 19th century uncanny
My Library by kass (The Librarians): kass vidding The Librarians looks a lot like kass vidding Doctor Who
Who Will Still Care? by franzeska (Wild Wild West): liked the metalevel of asking who will still care about this show decades later
Landslide by milly: Hogwarts/students ~~ fandom/fans, inhabiting a space, moving on, nostalgia
Zero by sweetestdrain (MCU): who does everyone want Natasha to be (Tony, Steve, Bruce, Nick), who is she
Also, if you are a DS9 fan like me, tbm made a vid about Rom! The Sound of Settling Vid Review discussion centered on to what extent the vid was accessible to casual fans and non-fans of the show.
serrico took great notes. I'm sure
anoel will post hers as well.
Will add the rest of the links as they become available. Will also follow up with recs from the vid shows I haven't yet seen, including a good chunk of Club Vivid.
See also: half a dozen recs in yesterday's con report.
Meanwhile, a full list of what showed at VVC can be found at http://vividcon.info/.
Originally posted at http://bironic.dreamwidth.org/321458.html, where there are
comments.
*denotes super-favorites
Premieres
*Dark Doo Wop by anoel (House of Cards US)-spoilers for season 2 I think
I didn't think I cared about House of Cards until this vid aired. First, I was admiring the vidder's talent in building a credible world in which this married couple and this family friend guy were heading for a threesome, and then boom, turns out it's canonical! Sold. As if that weren't enough, the threesome isn't the end of the story; it's clear what's-his-name Kevin Spacey's character manipulates the people in this relationship just as he manipulates the politicians around him as well as the American public, yet it looks like he's struggling at the same time with genuine feelings about both of them. Great tension. Also, the song is beautiful, and as a darkened version of happy '50s American pop culture, it highlights how Spacey's president has twisted the political system for his own gain.
*The Loyal by trelkez (Harry Potter)
Intense look at Harry's role in the second wizarding war and the human loss that surrounds him. This stands just fine on its own. Still, since it contained the explicit reference to The Loyal by SDWolfpup (Children of Men), a group of us rewatched that vid afterwards followed by this one again. We decided that Harry is being presented as akin to the baby who symbolizes the hope for the survival of humanity, while Sirius is Clive Owen's reluctant shepherd, perhaps not making it himself but ensuring that the child does; while all around Harry, people fall, voluntary and involuntary casualties. Specific visual echoes stood out to me as well, like the return to the photograph of parents with child. I look forward to closer study.
*Landsailor by skygiants (Legend of Korra)
I haven't seen A:tLA or Korra yet (I know), so there are layers and resonances here I'm missing, but that didn't prevent Landsailor from being one of the most moving vids of the con. Beautiful story of growing into one's powers and oneself, of loss and of finding one's people again.
Breathe Me by Butterfly (Sense8)
Again, much of the context is lost on me, but the vidder tells the story quite clearly of how these people begin to connect to one another, to feel less alone, and eventually to become a sort of super-team who can swap out skill sets to escape sticky situations. Someone in vid review admired, and I agree, how well the vid interweaves emotional and physical intimacy. I think it was
cesperanza who said it hit her competence kink and then she was delighted to find that the sexiness of the skill exchanges became explicitly sexual.
Warriors by jarrow (The 100)
Talk about a vid that builds-and builds, and builds! How To Sustain Action For Three Minutes: A Case Study. Awesome. Catchy song, too. Even if my earworm keeps switching back and forth with Muse's "Uprising." Whose subject matter, come to think of it, seems just as appropriate.
Jumper by bradcpu (House)
A season 5 vid. Mm, it was so nice to have House and Wilson back on screen for a few minutes. By season 5 I had largely fallen out of the show, in part because-let's see-I'd lost patience with House as a human being, I'd lost track of what Wilson and Cuddy wanted House to be or do, the patients weren't as interesting as they'd been in earlier seasons, the new fellows ditto, and nobody seemed to be supporting or comforting anyone else while stressful things happened left and right. This vid brought back everything like a glorious fever dream. bradcpu's selectivity and his narrative choices make sense of multiple character threads and foreground the comfort between so many pairs of characters-House and Wilson, Foreman and Thirteen, Thirteen and the woman with Huntington's, the young patient and his brother, Taub and his wife, on and on-that even as it rehashes all the horrible things they went through, the vid emphasizes how much these people care for one another. And reminds me how much I once cared about them.
Boardwalks by trelkez (Daredevil 2015)
A sweet look at Matt Murdock and his relationships with his friends/colleagues, with what seems like a dip into the dark side of his identity and personal history. Haven't seen the show, still not sure I'm interested, enjoyed the vid regardless.
The Miracle by astolat (Fast & Furious)
Nice to have another Fast & Furious vid in the world, my favorite being thirdblindmouse's Dance Alarm from Club Vivid last year that I'm not sure I ever recced. Anyway, this one felt to me like a vidder's version of the coda in F&F 7, looking back at the beginning of the story when everyone was so young, reveling in the love between Brian and Dom and cars and wives and family.
Challenge
*IRM by diannelamerc (iZombie)
So great! This year's Challenge theme was "memory," and you can certainly see how this vid focuses on how the main character gains the memories of the recently deceased whose brains she eats; how she starts to gain skills from them, which are at first fun but start to take on a sinister tone; and ultimately how knowledge sends her down a darker path than expected. Morbidly funny, well cut, thoroughly enjoyable.
*Afire Love by anoel (The Normal Heart/historical footage)
Or, the vid that had the room in tears. Moves from the semi-fictional, the personal, the film, to the societal, the historical, the RL footage. Some people expressed ambivalence about mixing fiction and nonfiction, or with telling a story about HIV/AIDS in America that is wrapped up too neatly in a bow, that is presented as if it's over, that may seem more like "the" story than "a" story, all of which is valid. I think that even as those discussions happen, this is a deftly made vid with powerful emotional impact.
Auction
*Havoc in Heaven by Gwyneth for killa (Sunshine)
Guys: A Sunshine vid! That spends more time on the good parts of the movie (international science team on a long, difficult mission who must face psychological and technical challenges) than the sucky parts (space monster)! I sank right into this on first viewing-beautiful song-and didn't start wondering what the vid's narrative was until maybe 3/4 of the way through. When I started trying to figure it out, I did get confused. But on second viewing and after talking to gwyn, it became clear that the vid is largely structured around color: the blue of Cillian Murphy's eyes, the gold of the suits, the green of the oxygen garden, the red of blood, the black of the void, the orange threaded all the way through, and at the end, the white of the snow and the sunlight, which contains all colors. Just lovely.
Keep Your Picture Clear by obsessive24 for destina (House of Cards US)
I need to watch this more than once to appreciate everything it's doing and write a coherent review, but it's obsessive24: it's excellently executed. Also Tom McRae, hooray. Brilliant use of several moments in the show when Kevin Spacey turns to the camera.
Mirrorage by rhoboat for heresluck, vonniek, Grammarwoman, bat wrangler and Shoshanna (Orphan Black)
Ditto the above. Very well made. Another show on my to-watch list …
Primal Scream by Franzeska for jetpack_monkey (Penny Dreadful)
A Victor Frankenstein character study. I'm not sure I care a lot about Victor, but this vid sure presents a compelling portrait of a messed-up dude. Love how it depicts Victor's obsession with bodies, the way anatomy and sex and death and the occult are not just intertwined but inextricable for him-how a naked woman and a naked man and a stitched-together body in a tank and a scarified vampire mummy and a consumptive mother are equally erotic to him. Oh, Victor.
Artificial Life
*Electric Avenue by Jetpack Monkey (multi)
Robots, people. ROBOTS. Decades and decades of robots being cute and clever and sexy and wacky and scary and dancey and oh, wait, when did we transition from hijinks to being frightened of and mistreating them? Why are humans abusing and destroying them? Uh, guys, they seem to be rising up. And I can see why. In fact, I am rooting for them.
If a Machine by Cara Marie (multi) - Spiraling down into the robot/AI apocalypse. Very cool.
Synthetic Heroine by Ileia - Spectacular multifandom AMV.
New Soul by Buffyann (Edward Scissorhands) - I dunno, I thought it was an appropriately cute and sad retelling of the movie.
Big City Life by Lithium Doll (Dark Angel) - One day I will watch Dark Angel too. Before then, there is this compelling vid.
Lions and Tigers and Vids, Oh My!
D:
On My Way Home by elipie (Two Brothers)
Haunting tale of tigers dealing with being hunted, killed, imprisoned, domesticated, mistreated. Terrible and beautiful and moving. I can't stop listening to this song.
Let Me Tell You by kuwdora (Planet of the Apes reboot)
A powerful vid made even more poignant amidst the anger and pain of #blacklivesmatter.
:D
Maximus Overture by such_heights (Tangled)
Heee. A fine example of comic timing.
Secret Squirrel by dualbunny (dualbunny's backyard)
IDEK, and it's longer than it needs to be, but so what, there is an alternative rock vid in the world of house pets vs. backyard squirrels. I dare you not to laugh at Doctor Doom's cackle.
:) :,(
Stay Alive by milly (Land Before Time)
I was so happy at the end, I choked up. Is all I'm saying.
Somewhere Only We Know by kiki_miserychic (Winnie the Pooh)
Again with the teary endings. A bittersweet return to the Hundred Acre Wood.
Vid Review
Misc. comments from attendees I especially agreed with:
Right Round by jetpack_monkey (Classic Hollywood serials): song choice asks you to compare new sources to old
Perfect Day by elipie (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt): "I'm a New Yorker-you're smiling too much, I'm unnerved" --cesperanza
Karate by GhostTownExit (Grand Budapest Hotel): Witty use of movement
Drawn to the Blood by lola (Supernatural): Spiritual, eerie, revenant loop you're stuck in, 19th century uncanny
My Library by kass (The Librarians): kass vidding The Librarians looks a lot like kass vidding Doctor Who
Who Will Still Care? by franzeska (Wild Wild West): liked the metalevel of asking who will still care about this show decades later
Landslide by milly: Hogwarts/students ~~ fandom/fans, inhabiting a space, moving on, nostalgia
Zero by sweetestdrain (MCU): who does everyone want Natasha to be (Tony, Steve, Bruce, Nick), who is she
Also, if you are a DS9 fan like me, tbm made a vid about Rom! The Sound of Settling Vid Review discussion centered on to what extent the vid was accessible to casual fans and non-fans of the show.
serrico took great notes. I'm sure
anoel will post hers as well.
Will add the rest of the links as they become available. Will also follow up with recs from the vid shows I haven't yet seen, including a good chunk of Club Vivid.
See also: half a dozen recs in yesterday's con report.
Meanwhile, a full list of what showed at VVC can be found at http://vividcon.info/.
Originally posted at http://bironic.dreamwidth.org/321458.html, where there are
comments.