Vividcon vid reviews
Playlists with links can be found here.
Then the Morning Comes, by Eunice (Galaxy Quest): I love this movie SO MUCH and so the vid makes me very happy. Never give up! Never surrender!
Location. Location. Location. by Stacia Yeapanis (Beverly Hills 90210 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Never having been a regular watcher of 90210, I hadn’t realized it and Buffy used the same highschool for a set. So this was a cute idea, but I think it needed to be about one quarter as long. Or actually get into which show was more abusive to the poor devoted highschool set.
Every State Line, by keerawa (Supernatural): Watching this again, I get more out of it than I did the first time; something about the Winchesters’ separation from “normal” society, their disconnection. So now I think I get why the vidder used the song she did, but the song choice still threw me. (I spent the whole first time through thinking “is she really vidding the Winchesters to Ani DiFranco? My brain hurts.”) So a vidder/viewer mismatch there, I think.
That Was Another Country, by kass & yao (Lost): The two worlds of Hugo Reyes. Hurley! I was so pleased to see a Hurley vid in Premieres, and then I actually liked it, too, which is always good. A little sad, but hopeful, which fits Hurley’s character.
Comfortably Numb, by sisabet (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles): I’d be really interested to hear what the vidder has to say about this vid, because the song choice completely bounced off of me and I thus ended up finding the vid really opaque. The best I can do is to draw a connection between Allison and Cameron that I don’t really believe in; I see them as entirely separate entities, one of whom can mimic the other, but maybe sisabet sees them differently?
Go Baby, by jescaflowne (the Charlie’s Angels movies): If you liked the movies, you will probably like this vid. I’ve never seen them, so my reaction was mostly “oh, I like this song! Wow, they can kick really high.” Also “I didn’t realize these movies were musicals.” (They aren’t. But apparently they have a high proportion of scenes in which the Angels are performing.)
Incidentally, I really like that Premieres has opened up a bit and gotten some more lighthearted vids in it. As I said a couple of times afterwards, it was really nice to walk out of there without feeling like I’d been assaulted.
(Also: This song is about JT Leroy? I had no idea.)
beautiful dirty rich, by astolat & Merry (American Idol): Don’t watch the show, vaguely aware of who Adam Lambert is, liked the eyeliner. Everyone seemed to be having fun. I like vids where people are having fun. *shrug*
When Your Mind’s Made Up, by Valoise (Highlander): Duncan vid. I haven’t watched Highlander recently enough to have much of an opinion; another person I talked to about it saw it as a particular critique of Duncan as… self-righteous, I guess?... that turns up in HL fandom, but rewatching it now I think it’s perfectly possible to see it as a description rather than a critique as such. (But then I’m always sympathetic to the trying-to-be-righteous ones.)
Dark Room, by Cherry (Merlin): I just finally figured out who dude-who-I-think-is-Lancelot reminds me of! It’s painter-dude-with-visions-and-a-heroin-addiction from the first season of Heroes. ...oh, looking at imdb I see that’s because it is painter-dude-with-visions-and-a-heroin-addiction. (Isaac was the character’s name, apparently. Forgot that.) He’s pretty.
Anyhoo! This struck me as more of a mood piece than a narrative; I thought it was attractive, but didn’t give me as a non-viewer a lot to hold on to. I did really love the music, though.
Heaven Is a Place on Earth, by rhoboat (Supernatural): Funny Dean/Castiel. I enjoyed this. I think the vidder made a really good choice with regards to the version of the song s/he used; it’s a slightly, uh, dorkier version, which lightens up the vid quite a bit.
In My Veins, by Milly (Heroes): Not My Beautiful Cake, but I don’t have any objective criticism to offer other than I think a tick or two brighter would have helped. That may just be my eyes, though. I did like the bit with the gun, S1-Claire and alternate-future-eyeliner Claire; that worked for me.
Boy on a String, by Traykor (Slings and Arrows): Two Slings and Arrows vids! An embarrassment of riches. I don’t know that I bought what the vidder was selling about Oliver and Geoffrey; I think there’s a story to be told about the ways in which Oliver manipulates Geoffrey throughout the show, but this didn’t give me that yes, like that feeling. But I did enjoy it; it was nice to see some of the sillier parts of the show, in comparison to the much more serious Sea Fever from earlier.
Keeper of the Fire, by sweetestdrain (Multifandom): I really like this idea for a vid. And look! It’s Joan! Hi! Hi Joan! I do remember feeling in Premieres like I wanted it to be shorter, but I don’t feel as strongly about it now; that reaction was probably at least partly fatigue, though I’d still vote for either making it shorter or doing more with the comparisons among the shows above and beyond the fact that they all have Religiously Chosen Ones. (It’s possible that there was more of that than I recognized; of the included shows, I only know Joan of Arcadia well.)
How the West Was Won, by nc (Serenity): I think I’m burned out on Firefly/Serenity survey vids; all I’ve got to say about this is that it was well-made.
Don’t Stop Me Now, by Jetpack Monkey (Hammer’s Frankenstein Movies): I’m not familiar with the source, so during Premieres I was kind of distracted trying to figure it out. (My initial theory was that it was some sort of Sherlock Holmes thing I wasn’t familiar with.) It’s much more fun now that I know what to expect, and the vidder’s affection for the movies really comes through.
They Don’t Know, by Laura Shapiro (Doctor Who): Ten/Rose. D’aww, so sweet. Laura described this in the blurb as a magical cupcake, and that’s exactly right. It is heavily processed, which I took a few moments to get used to, but once I did it didn’t ping my uncanny valley sensors too badly.
Bromance? …or Frenemies?, by Clucking Belles (Multifandom): Multifandom slash. This was fun and cheery and speaking of age-related watersheds (as I did in a previous post) I am way too young to see Bill Cosby with no shirt on. Nooooo! Put your shirt back on, Mr. Huxtable!
The Long Spear, by jmtorres, niqaeli, et al. (Star Trek et al.): I didn’t like this the first time through. For a couple of reasons, I think; it didn’t ping with me meta-wise (and as I mentioned when talking about Hard Sun, I tend to need a ping on meta vids or else I end up cranky) and as the last vid of the show, I was tired, yo. It’s still not one of my favorites, but I like it better now that I know what’s coming and have heard enough discussion of it that I feel like I can see what it’s trying to do. As it turns out, I like what it’s trying to do; it’s much more about Star Trek and much less about fandom than I thought. (I think it was the “hear now these women’s voices” that threw me off; I was expecting a polemic that didn’t show up, and so I tried to insert one.) I ended up quite liking the bit at the end with all of the Vulcan salutes, and the fast overview of every Trek ever, too.
Then the Morning Comes, by Eunice (Galaxy Quest): I love this movie SO MUCH and so the vid makes me very happy. Never give up! Never surrender!
Location. Location. Location. by Stacia Yeapanis (Beverly Hills 90210 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Never having been a regular watcher of 90210, I hadn’t realized it and Buffy used the same highschool for a set. So this was a cute idea, but I think it needed to be about one quarter as long. Or actually get into which show was more abusive to the poor devoted highschool set.
Every State Line, by keerawa (Supernatural): Watching this again, I get more out of it than I did the first time; something about the Winchesters’ separation from “normal” society, their disconnection. So now I think I get why the vidder used the song she did, but the song choice still threw me. (I spent the whole first time through thinking “is she really vidding the Winchesters to Ani DiFranco? My brain hurts.”) So a vidder/viewer mismatch there, I think.
That Was Another Country, by kass & yao (Lost): The two worlds of Hugo Reyes. Hurley! I was so pleased to see a Hurley vid in Premieres, and then I actually liked it, too, which is always good. A little sad, but hopeful, which fits Hurley’s character.
Comfortably Numb, by sisabet (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles): I’d be really interested to hear what the vidder has to say about this vid, because the song choice completely bounced off of me and I thus ended up finding the vid really opaque. The best I can do is to draw a connection between Allison and Cameron that I don’t really believe in; I see them as entirely separate entities, one of whom can mimic the other, but maybe sisabet sees them differently?
Go Baby, by jescaflowne (the Charlie’s Angels movies): If you liked the movies, you will probably like this vid. I’ve never seen them, so my reaction was mostly “oh, I like this song! Wow, they can kick really high.” Also “I didn’t realize these movies were musicals.” (They aren’t. But apparently they have a high proportion of scenes in which the Angels are performing.)
Incidentally, I really like that Premieres has opened up a bit and gotten some more lighthearted vids in it. As I said a couple of times afterwards, it was really nice to walk out of there without feeling like I’d been assaulted.
(Also: This song is about JT Leroy? I had no idea.)
beautiful dirty rich, by astolat & Merry (American Idol): Don’t watch the show, vaguely aware of who Adam Lambert is, liked the eyeliner. Everyone seemed to be having fun. I like vids where people are having fun. *shrug*
When Your Mind’s Made Up, by Valoise (Highlander): Duncan vid. I haven’t watched Highlander recently enough to have much of an opinion; another person I talked to about it saw it as a particular critique of Duncan as… self-righteous, I guess?... that turns up in HL fandom, but rewatching it now I think it’s perfectly possible to see it as a description rather than a critique as such. (But then I’m always sympathetic to the trying-to-be-righteous ones.)
Dark Room, by Cherry (Merlin): I just finally figured out who dude-who-I-think-is-Lancelot reminds me of! It’s painter-dude-with-visions-and-a-heroin-addiction from the first season of Heroes. ...oh, looking at imdb I see that’s because it is painter-dude-with-visions-and-a-heroin-addiction. (Isaac was the character’s name, apparently. Forgot that.) He’s pretty.
Anyhoo! This struck me as more of a mood piece than a narrative; I thought it was attractive, but didn’t give me as a non-viewer a lot to hold on to. I did really love the music, though.
Heaven Is a Place on Earth, by rhoboat (Supernatural): Funny Dean/Castiel. I enjoyed this. I think the vidder made a really good choice with regards to the version of the song s/he used; it’s a slightly, uh, dorkier version, which lightens up the vid quite a bit.
In My Veins, by Milly (Heroes): Not My Beautiful Cake, but I don’t have any objective criticism to offer other than I think a tick or two brighter would have helped. That may just be my eyes, though. I did like the bit with the gun, S1-Claire and alternate-future-eyeliner Claire; that worked for me.
Boy on a String, by Traykor (Slings and Arrows): Two Slings and Arrows vids! An embarrassment of riches. I don’t know that I bought what the vidder was selling about Oliver and Geoffrey; I think there’s a story to be told about the ways in which Oliver manipulates Geoffrey throughout the show, but this didn’t give me that yes, like that feeling. But I did enjoy it; it was nice to see some of the sillier parts of the show, in comparison to the much more serious Sea Fever from earlier.
Keeper of the Fire, by sweetestdrain (Multifandom): I really like this idea for a vid. And look! It’s Joan! Hi! Hi Joan! I do remember feeling in Premieres like I wanted it to be shorter, but I don’t feel as strongly about it now; that reaction was probably at least partly fatigue, though I’d still vote for either making it shorter or doing more with the comparisons among the shows above and beyond the fact that they all have Religiously Chosen Ones. (It’s possible that there was more of that than I recognized; of the included shows, I only know Joan of Arcadia well.)
How the West Was Won, by nc (Serenity): I think I’m burned out on Firefly/Serenity survey vids; all I’ve got to say about this is that it was well-made.
Don’t Stop Me Now, by Jetpack Monkey (Hammer’s Frankenstein Movies): I’m not familiar with the source, so during Premieres I was kind of distracted trying to figure it out. (My initial theory was that it was some sort of Sherlock Holmes thing I wasn’t familiar with.) It’s much more fun now that I know what to expect, and the vidder’s affection for the movies really comes through.
They Don’t Know, by Laura Shapiro (Doctor Who): Ten/Rose. D’aww, so sweet. Laura described this in the blurb as a magical cupcake, and that’s exactly right. It is heavily processed, which I took a few moments to get used to, but once I did it didn’t ping my uncanny valley sensors too badly.
Bromance? …or Frenemies?, by Clucking Belles (Multifandom): Multifandom slash. This was fun and cheery and speaking of age-related watersheds (as I did in a previous post) I am way too young to see Bill Cosby with no shirt on. Nooooo! Put your shirt back on, Mr. Huxtable!
The Long Spear, by jmtorres, niqaeli, et al. (Star Trek et al.): I didn’t like this the first time through. For a couple of reasons, I think; it didn’t ping with me meta-wise (and as I mentioned when talking about Hard Sun, I tend to need a ping on meta vids or else I end up cranky) and as the last vid of the show, I was tired, yo. It’s still not one of my favorites, but I like it better now that I know what’s coming and have heard enough discussion of it that I feel like I can see what it’s trying to do. As it turns out, I like what it’s trying to do; it’s much more about Star Trek and much less about fandom than I thought. (I think it was the “hear now these women’s voices” that threw me off; I was expecting a polemic that didn’t show up, and so I tried to insert one.) I ended up quite liking the bit at the end with all of the Vulcan salutes, and the fast overview of every Trek ever, too.