ramble on vids, fics, and bad taste

[kattahj]

ficbyzee's post on literal clip coices in vids got me thinking about vids, and why so often the most lauded ones leave me cold when someone's very first vid with audio left in and aspect ratio changes can make me squee.

For me, over-literalness is so far down the list of annoying vid things. I like vids that make narrative sense, and lyrics are part of

Comments

[sakuracorr]

Vidders can get kind of pretentious, and there gets to the point where everything has to be about some great meaning, and sometimes they lose sight of something else because of it.

But on original characters, I think rather than quality, a lot of the time, I just really don't care. I am invested in the canon characters, the canon characters are the ones I love, and while I'm fine with you writing it, I'd rather not read it (that being said, I'm not that huge of a fic reader anyhow).

[kattahj]

Vidders can get kind of pretentious, and there gets to the point where everything has to be about some great meaning, and sometimes they lose sight of something else because of it.

I think sometimes, it's not so much pretentious as it is the fact that they watch the clips 100 times while making the vid, and listen to the song even more times, and they forget that the viewer won't do that - so it doesn't really matter if it's incredibly clever on the fifth viewing if it's not clever on the first.

But on original characters, I think rather than quality, a lot of the time, I just really don't care. I am invested in the canon characters, the canon characters are the ones I love, and while I'm fine with you writing it, I'd rather not read it (that being said, I'm not that huge of a fic reader anyhow).

I think that's a perfectly viable point of view - though obviously not one I share. *g* What gets to me is the idea that it's somehow suspicious to be interested in OCs. To me, I think it's an issue of wanting the story to tell me

[sakuracorr]

But I've heard vidders speak about vidding, and sometimes it is pretentiousness. Not always. But sometimes.

"And one I much prefer to changing existing people to fit the plot, which is another option."

That's why I start with character and fit the plot to them, imo. If it doesn't work, the plot needs to change, not the character. Not to say there aren't AU ideas that appeal because yay for seeing a character if X hadn't happened or if Y were different (or just for fun on occasion, but you shouldn't take those AUs seriously, ever).

[kattahj]

That's why I start with character and fit the plot to them, imo. If it doesn't work, the plot needs to change, not the character.

Ah, but to me that depends on why the plot is told in the first place. For me, a story is often a way to expand on things that aren't visible in canon, or that could be illuminated in a new way. Maybe plot is the wrong word for it - theme, maybe? The most extreme example in my own writing would be "The Tale of Myra and Merrilil", which has almost only OCs, and uses them to (among other things) put different perspectives on race and gender in Lord of the Rings. No doubt it's possible to do the same thing with canon characters - even in-character canon characters - but it's easier with a clean slate, so to speak.

Not that those themes were the reason I wrote the story in the first place - that was because someone had asked why there were no hook-nosed Mary Sues who turned out to be orcs...

[kattahj]

Putting in clips because they make really clever visual effects on the beat, because they get the timing for the song down perfectly, which also don't carry the vid anywhere. Some brilliantly written fics leave me cold, although I admit I am much more turned off by beginner mistakes in prose that I am in video.

Ayup, same here.

(I love original characters but hate Sues, but you can often tell which one character will be from something as simple as the story summary.)

Often, but not always. Some OCs sound horrible in summaries or description but are great "in person", while some Mary Sues aren't even in the summaries and completely blindside you. :-)

Btw and not to nag, what happened to that beta?

[kattahj]

But maybe the root of the "Collide" problem was in your other point: that of structure. It didn't really go anywhere, it just repeated itself.

Yeah. I've seen that done too. I remember a Dark Angel vid of "Lady in Red" that mainly consisted of Max in a red dress. I went very, "WTF, your point being?"

In fact, the very first vid I ever saw blew me away because the vidder managed to combine the song and clips in such a way that it actually had an honest-to-goodness plot -- not one that had ever happened on the show, but an entirely new one that quite ran against the grain of what the show was doing with the characters.Plot is good, though when it comes to running against the grain I have a hard time buying vids that use clips from one context in another (don't know if the vid you're thinking of did that, of course). What I mean is, for example, that if a clip is of a character holding a gun on someone, it'd be very difficult to convince me that for the purpose of the vid, he's holding a gun on someone else. I have bought it

[kattahj]

It does sound interesting. Can you remember the title?

[roniabirk]

Interesting topic. Thanks for posting about it. I generally get a gut feeling and go with it for my vids. I agree though that if it's just another 'they love eachother and are destined to be together' vid, I typically don't even download them. I have to really like the song.

Out of curiosity, what fandoms to you tend to view fanvids from?

[kattahj]

Oh, wow, what fandoms don't I view fanvids from? I pretty much watch anything that seems interesting and is from a fandom I know. I have a recs site, though it's not updated with my very latest favourites.

[godisalaserbeam]

Are you saying that you want the Vid to tell a story instead just a bunch of random pictures, and that the lyrics should mesh with the vid? Like say Buffy loves to eat hot dogs three times a day so the lyrics are Buffy confessing her love for hot dogs, but the video shows how stupid it is to eat hot dogs three times a day? Something like that?

[kattahj]

For instance, yeah. Of course, I'm totally on board on the hot dogs being metaphorical, as long as the lyrics are still relevant to the vid.