Thoughts about my Vids.
I realized recently that my Youtube channel didn't have the majority of my vids on it. In the process of finding the right sized and correctly audio-ed vids to upload on there, I began thinking about what my favorite parts of my past vids were.
There's always a moment (a clip, a bit of music/video matching), just one, in each of my vids that makes me think "This is important".
The first time I did a real vid (not clip-pirating from youtube oh goodness those were the dark years) and had it shown semi-publicly (OH VIVIDCON), it was a Premiere vid about Merlin to the song "Dream Awake" by The Frames. Hopefully you don't remember it, because it was terrible. Terrible editing, rush job, slipped frames, wonky aspect ratio, the whole nine yards of FAIL.
But I was so proud I could do it! The idea was fantastic, the concept that Morgana was a Merlin-version of Cassandra was sound, and I seriously regret that the first time I put that idea out there was coupled with shit editing. If I had polished it more before sending it, if I had given myself more time to complete it (instead of getting the last episode on my computer THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS DUE), I'm sure it would have been better received. On top of the editing fails, I put the description in the program book as an explanation for who Cassandra was, and a lot of people didn't like that I thought they didn't know. I know now what I didn't know then: it's better to assume everyone's on the level than to assume they're not and piss people off.
ANYWAY, that vid sucked, so I polished it. I did what I should have done before I sent it in, and I made it better. My MOMENT OF AWESOME (aka my favorite part) is when you see Morgana throw Arthur a sword when he's fighting. The entire first half of the vid is all "Morgana, like Cassandra, has prophetic dreams, and nobody listens to her about them. Meanwhile, Arthur and Merlin are taking care of these badass baddies, and Morgana is stuck at home, probably locked up in the dungeons, helpless to fight them off." and then you have Morgana tossing Arthur his sword, followed by Morgana Fighting, Morgana Defending herself, etc, and it's the turning point for the whole vid. Yes, she has dreams, yes, no one listens, but no, she is not helpless. She fights WITH Arthur and Merlin.
In "Call It Off", my unknown vid in a very very small fandom (Sunshine Cleaning), it's just tears, tears, tears, phones, their mom, sadness, hard decisions, (which is okay, I like that vid, I think that's the point of it. They have to make choices, and they will get hurt by them.), and it's full of clips that have emotional resonance in me (mostly because the acting is so fucking awesome, I am swept away in a wave of tears at them) so it's not really that when my Moment OF AWESOME comes around it's awesome because it makes me cry....
When there's that 4-part clip sequence between Norah-and-Lynn, transitioning to Amy-and-Mac, transitioning to Norah-and-Lynn, back to Amy-and-Mac...it's the point of the vid, right there. Norah/Lynn is Forbidden Hope, Amy/Mac is Forbidden love, Norah/Lynn is Happy Friendship, Amy/Mac is Happy Love, it's like a step forward and a step backward, a tiny dance that shows comparisons in the relationship each sister has. It just settles my heart.
In "Friends", my most recent and beloved vid, which I made for Festivids 2010 for Valika, is, surprisingly, my mother's favorite. She will demand to see it every day and posts links to it on her FB page. She doesn't even know the fandom. This makes me happy. My MOMENT OF AWESOME is the second PING in the beginning, when Arthur Dent hits his head going down the stairs.
It sends the message: "This video is for the LOLZ. do not take this seriously." It's very rare that I have such a simple message in the beginning of any of my vids. The first PING is a lighthearted romp, the second ping is OKAY TIME TO LOLZ U GUYS, the third PING is HAHAHA no really, this vid is stupid, but in a funny charming way.
In "WTF" my Sherlock (BBC) vid, just the very thought that I put the song lyrics ON THE SCREEN, WITH THE VIDEO FOOTAGE and pulled it off is practically a moment into itself. There are, however, 2 MOMENTS OF AWESOME (gasp!).
1) the first "there's just this thing about you". It also sets the theme of the whole vid with that one line. There's just this thing about Sherlock, you know? And it's fucking with John's mind. The whole vid is a giant WTF moment in John's head.
2) I'm quite sure I'm the only one who knows about this little Easter Egg I've hidden in the text....but when it does the first "the kinda thrill/ that could maybe kill ya"? The way I've arranged the text, when it fades from "the kinda thrill" into "that could maybe kill ya", there's a point where it almost says "the kinda kill/ that could maybe thrill ya" which I think is the truest Sherlock statement. I was hoping someone would catch that little visual spacing/poetry thing I did, but oh well. Can't win them all.
There's always a moment (a clip, a bit of music/video matching), just one, in each of my vids that makes me think "This is important".
The first time I did a real vid (not clip-pirating from youtube oh goodness those were the dark years) and had it shown semi-publicly (OH VIVIDCON), it was a Premiere vid about Merlin to the song "Dream Awake" by The Frames. Hopefully you don't remember it, because it was terrible. Terrible editing, rush job, slipped frames, wonky aspect ratio, the whole nine yards of FAIL.
But I was so proud I could do it! The idea was fantastic, the concept that Morgana was a Merlin-version of Cassandra was sound, and I seriously regret that the first time I put that idea out there was coupled with shit editing. If I had polished it more before sending it, if I had given myself more time to complete it (instead of getting the last episode on my computer THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS DUE), I'm sure it would have been better received. On top of the editing fails, I put the description in the program book as an explanation for who Cassandra was, and a lot of people didn't like that I thought they didn't know. I know now what I didn't know then: it's better to assume everyone's on the level than to assume they're not and piss people off.
ANYWAY, that vid sucked, so I polished it. I did what I should have done before I sent it in, and I made it better. My MOMENT OF AWESOME (aka my favorite part) is when you see Morgana throw Arthur a sword when he's fighting. The entire first half of the vid is all "Morgana, like Cassandra, has prophetic dreams, and nobody listens to her about them. Meanwhile, Arthur and Merlin are taking care of these badass baddies, and Morgana is stuck at home, probably locked up in the dungeons, helpless to fight them off." and then you have Morgana tossing Arthur his sword, followed by Morgana Fighting, Morgana Defending herself, etc, and it's the turning point for the whole vid. Yes, she has dreams, yes, no one listens, but no, she is not helpless. She fights WITH Arthur and Merlin.
In "Call It Off", my unknown vid in a very very small fandom (Sunshine Cleaning), it's just tears, tears, tears, phones, their mom, sadness, hard decisions, (which is okay, I like that vid, I think that's the point of it. They have to make choices, and they will get hurt by them.), and it's full of clips that have emotional resonance in me (mostly because the acting is so fucking awesome, I am swept away in a wave of tears at them) so it's not really that when my Moment OF AWESOME comes around it's awesome because it makes me cry....
When there's that 4-part clip sequence between Norah-and-Lynn, transitioning to Amy-and-Mac, transitioning to Norah-and-Lynn, back to Amy-and-Mac...it's the point of the vid, right there. Norah/Lynn is Forbidden Hope, Amy/Mac is Forbidden love, Norah/Lynn is Happy Friendship, Amy/Mac is Happy Love, it's like a step forward and a step backward, a tiny dance that shows comparisons in the relationship each sister has. It just settles my heart.
In "Friends", my most recent and beloved vid, which I made for Festivids 2010 for Valika, is, surprisingly, my mother's favorite. She will demand to see it every day and posts links to it on her FB page. She doesn't even know the fandom. This makes me happy. My MOMENT OF AWESOME is the second PING in the beginning, when Arthur Dent hits his head going down the stairs.
It sends the message: "This video is for the LOLZ. do not take this seriously." It's very rare that I have such a simple message in the beginning of any of my vids. The first PING is a lighthearted romp, the second ping is OKAY TIME TO LOLZ U GUYS, the third PING is HAHAHA no really, this vid is stupid, but in a funny charming way.
In "WTF" my Sherlock (BBC) vid, just the very thought that I put the song lyrics ON THE SCREEN, WITH THE VIDEO FOOTAGE and pulled it off is practically a moment into itself. There are, however, 2 MOMENTS OF AWESOME (gasp!).
1) the first "there's just this thing about you". It also sets the theme of the whole vid with that one line. There's just this thing about Sherlock, you know? And it's fucking with John's mind. The whole vid is a giant WTF moment in John's head.
2) I'm quite sure I'm the only one who knows about this little Easter Egg I've hidden in the text....but when it does the first "the kinda thrill/ that could maybe kill ya"? The way I've arranged the text, when it fades from "the kinda thrill" into "that could maybe kill ya", there's a point where it almost says "the kinda kill/ that could maybe thrill ya" which I think is the truest Sherlock statement. I was hoping someone would catch that little visual spacing/poetry thing I did, but oh well. Can't win them all.