Semi-relevantly, I keep starting to write a complainy post about how 70% of the footage Zoe is in is footage that has "this shot is about Mal" written on it in large block letters (and my feeble attempts to work around this), but I never have the energy to finish it.
It is relevant! At VVC, cesperanza was speaking about how now vidders had the technology to do whatever they wanted, rewrite the source in any way, and I was thinking about what you'd said about trying to vid Zoe and about some of the issues I had in vidding Ruby and disagreed strongly. If what you want is to slash the male leads of an action show, then yeah, maybe now we have the tech to put in the kisses and the sex. If what you want is to draw more attention to characters--and the *type* of characters--consistently sidelined by the narrative, I'm not so sure.
I've known since reading Laura Mulvey that POV in visual media is strongly gendered, but recently I've become more aware of how strongly it's raced. It's hard to find Zoe as the center of the clip, or Book. (I'm truly amazed by what you and gwyn_r did with limited source.) I checked out a Crusoe vid recently and even though the vidder was trying to give equal weight to Friday, you could tell what the source gave more weight to: all the shots were constructed to frame Crusoe, not Friday. And there are some things you can do with this: mask people out of the picture, re-light (& re-shadow) the picture, re-cut the clip. I used variations of them all. But it's still all too much like trying to manufacture something from nothing.
Ruby is supposed to be physically powerful, but we see her fighting only three times in the entire season: (1) in her introduction, she saves Sam and takes out two demons on her own -- but another corners her, and Sam saves her; (2) she fights another female demon to save Sam and Dean (that was the Lost Femslash Verse, sadly cut), is defeated by her, and is saved by Dean; (3) she beats up Dean and Sam in an argument, which is really part of a maneuver by Dean to trap her in a devil's trap. So she's a strong fighter -- who we hardly ever see fighting, and who we always we see losing fights.
Ruby is supposed to have arcane knowledge critical to Sam and Dean's success, and tells Bobby how to rebuild a key magical weapon -- off-screen. We don't see her do it, and we don't even see her hand the weapon to Sam -- Bobby is the one who hands the weapon to Sam. Ruby just nods at him. The visual we get for Ruby in relation to this exchange? Bobby *shoots her* to prove the gun, at that point, is still broken and doesn't kill demons. The expression of Ruby's magical knowledge is *getting shot*.
Ruby had a past relationship with a female demon -- they were lovers, although what gender each was at the time is unknown. The visuals? The two of them not getting that close to each other, then fighting, still not that close to each other. It was *canon* femslash and it was *still* hard to make it look slashy. And needless to say, the depth of the relationship -- that this was the demon to whom Ruby sold her soul when human -- was in no way expressed visually.
A key revelation: all demons were human once; they sold their souls to other demons, then were tortured into forgetting their human lives and becoming demons after death. Visuals? Ruby standing in a parking lot talking to Dean.
Ruby is kicked out of her body and vanquished by Lilith *off-screen*. It's not even clear exactly when it happens, and we don't even get her death scene. (When I started the vid, in fact, I assumed she wouldn't be back for the next season, even re-cast as a different actress.) Even "her" body -- the body usually possessed by Ruby instead of Lilith -- doesn't get a full death scene, because it falls by Dean's body, which is of greater narrative and character concern.
The dialog keeps *saying* this is a powerful, dangerous demon, but the visuals keep saying otherwise.
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It is relevant! At VVC,
I've known since reading Laura Mulvey that POV in visual media is strongly gendered, but recently I've become more aware of how strongly it's raced. It's hard to find Zoe as the center of the clip, or Book. (I'm truly amazed by what you and
Ruby is supposed to be physically powerful, but we see her fighting only three times in the entire season: (1) in her introduction, she saves Sam and takes out two demons on her own -- but another corners her, and Sam saves her; (2) she fights another female demon to save Sam and Dean (that was the Lost Femslash Verse, sadly cut), is defeated by her, and is saved by Dean; (3) she beats up Dean and Sam in an argument, which is really part of a maneuver by Dean to trap her in a devil's trap. So she's a strong fighter -- who we hardly ever see fighting, and who we always we see losing fights.
Ruby is supposed to have arcane knowledge critical to Sam and Dean's success, and tells Bobby how to rebuild a key magical weapon -- off-screen. We don't see her do it, and we don't even see her hand the weapon to Sam -- Bobby is the one who hands the weapon to Sam. Ruby just nods at him. The visual we get for Ruby in relation to this exchange? Bobby *shoots her* to prove the gun, at that point, is still broken and doesn't kill demons. The expression of Ruby's magical knowledge is *getting shot*.
Ruby had a past relationship with a female demon -- they were lovers, although what gender each was at the time is unknown. The visuals? The two of them not getting that close to each other, then fighting, still not that close to each other. It was *canon* femslash and it was *still* hard to make it look slashy. And needless to say, the depth of the relationship -- that this was the demon to whom Ruby sold her soul when human -- was in no way expressed visually.
A key revelation: all demons were human once; they sold their souls to other demons, then were tortured into forgetting their human lives and becoming demons after death. Visuals? Ruby standing in a parking lot talking to Dean.
Ruby is kicked out of her body and vanquished by Lilith *off-screen*. It's not even clear exactly when it happens, and we don't even get her death scene. (When I started the vid, in fact, I assumed she wouldn't be back for the next season, even re-cast as a different actress.) Even "her" body -- the body usually possessed by Ruby instead of Lilith -- doesn't get a full death scene, because it falls by Dean's body, which is of greater narrative and character concern.
The dialog keeps *saying* this is a powerful, dangerous demon, but the visuals keep saying otherwise.