... and we walked to school uphill both ways... ;-) (Reminiscences from the early days of FS fandom)fs_10percentJanuary 9 2009, 19:44:16 UTC
>Every now and again I think I really ought to go back and remaster this one, and now you've given me some new motivation to do that.
That's great to hear! I'd love to see a remastered version. (Though I don't think there's anything, apart from the jerkiness and the one dodgy special effect, to improve.)
>Under Ice was my first Farscape vid. (I was X-Files before that.) I think I made it in what must have been 2001
My second download of it is from sometime in 2001 - October, I think. I lost the first one, or rather, it's probably on some CD I burned back then - I had a tiny hard drive, so I had to burn a lot of stuff to CD instead of keeping it on my computer. Hard to imagine nowadays... *g*
> -- right after I first saw The Choice, and before I had even seen most of S1 or S2. I was still living in a somewhat technically isolated, dial-up world.
Yeah, so was I. Downloading a vid took up to half an hour, and I was still paying 2 cents or so for every minute of that!
>I made the vid in Quicktime, on a PC, using a $35 shareware program.
Quicktime? I seem to remember it was a Real Media file?
>Some of the things you mention, such as jerky motion in a few places and not-so-great effects, are probably the result of that, and repeated re-compression and general lack of know-how. It's what's made me want to go back and re-do this and other of my early vids, but life keeps getting in the way...
Heh, I know the feeling. My - so far - only vid still only exists in draft stage (i.e.: a version hastily edited in WMM, done in early 2007) because life keeps getting in the way of re-editing it in Premiere...
>I actually think I've fixed some of the jerkiness and posted an updated file to my site,
That's probably the file I'm using nowadays.
>but there really haven't been any major improvements.
What's to improve? ;-)
>I'd like to overhaul the whole thing in Adobe Premiere with crisp, fresh clips, etc... Especially now that I don't have to worry nearly as much with file size. My first XF vids had to be tiny to accommodate a dial-up world.
Oh, yeah. There are quite a few of those from the early days of Farscape vidding, too. In fact, I'm going to rec a stamp-sized old quicktime vid next... (Schala's "El Tango de Roxanne", in case you know it.) Your vids were on the upper end of the size and image quality range back then, I think.
>On the artsy side (heh), I am so glad you used the word "surreal." I had to LOL when you said The song is stranger than your average Kate Bush song. That's saying quite a bit, isn't it?
Btw: you got me into Kate Bush with this vid. Well done! *g*
>For some reason I can't explain it really caught me as a great song for this theme.
It is. Well, to me, anyway. No doubt there'll always be people who'll just go 'huh?' at it, though. Kate Bush has that effect on some people...
>I really appreciate that you pointed out things in the timeline that you thought worked well. And I'm glad you liked delayed scream the end -- not everyone I've heard from has liked it.
I could have pointed out even more things - I'm quite serious when I say the editing of this vid is brilliant. It's seriously hard to pick out favourite moments from a vid that's *all* favourite moments...
>Might I ask what the special effect was that you didn't like? (I think I know and looking back I think I agree, but I'd like to know for certain.)
Was there more than one? ;-) The odd, spreading circles on the 'crashing ice' sound in the song. (I'm at work, can't look at the vid to get the exact time.) I agree that it would be good to have some movement to go with that sound, but that effect just doesn't work. Part of the problem is that it's too fast, I think. (It's a mark of how often I've watched this vid that I can discuss it in detail without even watching it again beforehand...)
>Anyway, thank you so much for a really contentful response to the vid. Those are the best kind! :):)
I'm glad you got a kick out of the rec! I hope later vidders won't be offended when I write far less about their vids - I think I only wrote so much about Under Ice because, well, it's probably the one vid in the fandom I know like the back of my hand. *g*
That's great to hear! I'd love to see a remastered version. (Though I don't think there's anything, apart from the jerkiness and the one dodgy special effect, to improve.)
>Under Ice was my first Farscape vid. (I was X-Files before that.) I think I made it in what must have been 2001
My second download of it is from sometime in 2001 - October, I think. I lost the first one, or rather, it's probably on some CD I burned back then - I had a tiny hard drive, so I had to burn a lot of stuff to CD instead of keeping it on my computer. Hard to imagine nowadays... *g*
> -- right after I first saw The Choice, and before I had even seen most of S1 or S2. I was still living in a somewhat technically isolated, dial-up world.
Yeah, so was I. Downloading a vid took up to half an hour, and I was still paying 2 cents or so for every minute of that!
>I made the vid in Quicktime, on a PC, using a $35 shareware program.
Quicktime? I seem to remember it was a Real Media file?
>Some of the things you mention, such as jerky motion in a few places and not-so-great effects, are probably the result of that, and repeated re-compression and general lack of know-how. It's what's made me want to go back and re-do this and other of my early vids, but life keeps getting in the way...
Heh, I know the feeling. My - so far - only vid still only exists in draft stage (i.e.: a version hastily edited in WMM, done in early 2007) because life keeps getting in the way of re-editing it in Premiere...
>I actually think I've fixed some of the jerkiness and posted an updated file to my site,
That's probably the file I'm using nowadays.
>but there really haven't been any major improvements.
What's to improve? ;-)
>I'd like to overhaul the whole thing in Adobe Premiere with crisp, fresh clips, etc... Especially now that I don't have to worry nearly as much with file size. My first XF vids had to be tiny to accommodate a dial-up world.
Oh, yeah. There are quite a few of those from the early days of Farscape vidding, too. In fact, I'm going to rec a stamp-sized old quicktime vid next... (Schala's "El Tango de Roxanne", in case you know it.) Your vids were on the upper end of the size and image quality range back then, I think.
>On the artsy side (heh), I am so glad you used the word "surreal." I had to LOL when you said The song is stranger than your average Kate Bush song. That's saying quite a bit, isn't it?
Btw: you got me into Kate Bush with this vid. Well done! *g*
>For some reason I can't explain it really caught me as a great song for this theme.
It is. Well, to me, anyway. No doubt there'll always be people who'll just go 'huh?' at it, though. Kate Bush has that effect on some people...
>I really appreciate that you pointed out things in the timeline that you thought worked well. And I'm glad you liked delayed scream the end -- not everyone I've heard from has liked it.
I could have pointed out even more things - I'm quite serious when I say the editing of this vid is brilliant. It's seriously hard to pick out favourite moments from a vid that's *all* favourite moments...
>Might I ask what the special effect was that you didn't like? (I think I know and looking back I think I agree, but I'd like to know for certain.)
Was there more than one? ;-) The odd, spreading circles on the 'crashing ice' sound in the song. (I'm at work, can't look at the vid to get the exact time.) I agree that it would be good to have some movement to go with that sound, but that effect just doesn't work. Part of the problem is that it's too fast, I think. (It's a mark of how often I've watched this vid that I can discuss it in detail without even watching it again beforehand...)
>Anyway, thank you so much for a really contentful response to the vid. Those are the best kind! :):)
I'm glad you got a kick out of the rec! I hope later vidders won't be offended when I write far less about their vids - I think I only wrote so much about Under Ice because, well, it's probably the one vid in the fandom I know like the back of my hand. *g*
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