thuvia ptarth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thuviaptarth) wrote2010-08-12 10:22 am
thuviaptarth) wrote2010-08-12 10:22 am
VVC Premieres show
I loved the diversity of this year's premieres -- in sources, in racial representation, in genre, in mood. I think it was the most light-hearted Premieres show in several years, with a greater sprinkling of comedy and light-hearted vids than has become usual.
I won't be commenting on every vid, not even every one I liked, and I hope to manage actual feedback on a lot more vids than I will be mentioning here. But these are my favorites, at least for today.
The Vividcon Shows Playlists, with links to online vids
Premieres Show
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danegen, Around the Bend (Multi)
I did not have a pink glitter pen with me so instead I drew solid blue hearts around this in my notes. It goes on my list of happy-making vids. In Vid Review,cesperanza (I think quoting counteragent) discussed how the vid figured women's relationship with technology and read it as a metaphor for vidding. I am more literal, and even though many of the clips are from non-American sources, I read it as a reclamation of the American myth of the highway--cars and speed as freedom, exuberant sexuality, creativity, independence, physicality, control--a myth that has been largely figured as belonging only to white males, here reclaimed for women, including women of color. I love how this goes from cars to planes and spaceships and back again, how it includes historical footage and photographs, how it opens out from individual women to groups of women, couples, women interacting with (undressing) men. (I do kind of love it that the token visible man in the vid is a sex object.) And I love that the only Thelma and Louise clips in there are of them riding out or of them blowing shit up.
hollywoodgrrl and ohvienna, Seven (David Lynch films)
David Lynch I find an unpredictable combination of fascinating, boring, and degrading, so I have only seen around a third of the sources here. The vid leaves out the boring, so from my perspective it's a plus. During Vid Review,cesperanza suggested this was an exploration of how Lynch often crosses the line from critiquing Hollywood's exploitation of women to participating in it, and I thought a lot about that on rewatch: everyone has that inscrutable noir look, like they're afraid to let emotions out in case the plot contradicts them later, but when it cracks for men it's rage or laughter and when it cracks for women it's terror or tears.
More highways here, open roads, but it's night, lights are mirages, things threaten, things loom, meanings shift. Endless highways become clocks, time running out or ticking monotous away. Highway dividing lines become flames become red curtains. Lynch's obsession with pairing brunettes and blondes. Drug dreams of Heaven, longed for and embodied by women; dreaming just makes it easier for exploiters to drag them down.
Mostly I take this as a mood piece, any meaning provisional.
wistful_fever, Whatever You Need (Boys Over Flowers)
I don't know this Kdrama or the manga on which it's based, but the use of colored filters and bubble or circle textures give the vid an interesting feel, private, inward-turning, that reminds me of shojo manga in general because of its focus on expressing emotional states over relating events. It doesn't quite work for me here, possibly because I don't know the story behind the interactions, or possibly because some of the filters distracted rather than seduced me. I wasn't quite sure what yellow meant and sometimes it gave the whole thing a sickly greenish tinge, and the violence of the supersaturated figures seemed at odds with both the story and the tone of the rest of the vid. Very interesting as part of Fabella's continuing exploration of color and texture manipulation.
sockkpuppett, Caged Bird (Last Night at Marienbad)
I have no idea what is going on, but I like it.
I like the sepia cast of the coloring, which I think Lum added?
Mostly I like the disorienting reflections and repetitions, repeated clips, repeated figures, mirrors reflecting mirrors, a woman reading a book with her own picture in it. I am not sure whether to think of the caged bird as the woman or consciousness in a more general sense.
redina, Mickey (Hana-Kimi)
I'd heard watchers of the Jdrama shipped Nakatsu/Mizuki and now I can see why. (Especially since Sano looks so stern! In the manga I always pictured him more forbearing.) The actor for Nakatsu has an energy and enthusiasm that clearly comes through the vid; the cheerleaders are perfect. Unlike the commenters in Vid Review, though, I was badly distracted by the captions, which read to me as hard subs rather than the vidder's addition. I don't know if that's fair -- certainly the clips chosen add to the story of the vid.
bop_radar, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (Smallville)
When all I could see was darkness, buildings, and superheroes, I thought this was a Watchman vid. It took me a few seconds to get over realizing it was Smallville.
What I get from this is that Ollie is a self-loathing adrenaline junkie who fights crime. And it's hot. (Also there's this thing where he fucks and/or fights with several hot women and possibly murdered Lex Luthor? I know Smallville only through fannish osmosis.) I love the relentless drive of the vid, the propulsion of action, sharp movement, short clips all the way through. I'm a little disconcerted by the very end, when the music changes significantly but the visuals keep running the same way.
greensilver and sweetestdrain, The Way You Found Me (Hercules)
Now I understand why the makers of Legends of the Seeker were not put off by Terry Goodkind's evil chicken fixation. Clearly they recognized a kindred soul.
Now I want all comedy vids to include a giant rooster.
jarrow, Narrow Escape (Disaster films)
Short, fast, to the point. I love that the titles run at the end.
cappylicious, The Pursuit of Happiness (The Wire)
An effective, affectionate, but clear-eyed character portrait. It shows the strength of the main character (Avon?)'s emotional bonds with his friends and girlfriend, his tragic search for and undermining of his own happiness; it starts with equating two pairs of designer boots to his girlfriend in the kitchen and ends up with a friend murdered for business.
laurashapiro, Stay Awake (Multi)
A critique of the way pregnancy/reproduction is persistently figured as rape in sf television. The pregnant body becomes both evidence of and invitation to violation; the conventions of sf telling normalize violence, both ordinary and medical, against women's bodies. It is the kind of well-constructed argument that ends up looking simple but that I personally find incredibly hard to do.
Wow, male sf writers seem to find women's bodies creepy. That is a lot more about your id than I ever wanted to know, dudes.
astolat, Watershed (Merlin)
I read this as The Mists of Avalon done with Merlin footage, or at least a post-Mists Morgana. I love the slow build of the song and the visual narrative and the opening with only partial pictures of Morgana, trapped in frames, limited by boxes: helpless at windows, drugged asleep, confronting closed doors. I love the slyness of the clip of Gwen on "I'll creep into your bed." I find the talky-face at some key points distracting, though.
bradcpu, CITIHALL* (Futurama)
In Vid Review,jarrow commented that this was like a new, five-minute Futurama episode, and that about sums it up for me. My very favoritest bit is Robot Hell. I find the interpretation of Fry and Bender as representatives of fandom kind of depressing, though.
cherryice, Glass (Watchmen)
This has beautiful flow, and I love the use it makes of the changing music in the beginning, from a cappella to backing to the warbeat of the drums.
barkley, Wading Deep Water (Southland)
I don't know this show at all, but this character study moves me deeply anyway; it's definitely my favorite of this year's character studies. I get a compelling sense of Lydia's passion, persistence, and kindness.
cappylicious and sisabet, I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked (Smallville)
Despite not having seen Superman and Superman II since I was twelve and never having seen Smallville, I have discovered that I have very strong feelings about Lois Lane. Like, I was extremely indignant when people during In-Depth Vid Review characterized Lois as "trading up the superhero foodchain." Lois Lane is not a superhero starfucker, people! Lois Lane is awesome, not to mention busy. Some guys just do not measure up.
Some commenters on In-Depth Vid Review read Lois in the vid as primarily being interested in the superhero trappings, and only later interested in the men behind them, whereas my view is almost the opposite. I haven't seen Smallville, but the vid makes it look like she first knows Ollie by his everyday identity and only later discovers he is a superhero, and that part of the breakup is his refusal to admit his secret identity. He will not get naked enough for her. Lois likes to play dress-up but at the end of the day she takes the costumes (and the clothing) off. Clark will get naked with her twice over, once as Clark and again as Superman. He takes his glasses off so she can put them on. Sometimes he catches her in a fall and sometimes she catches him.
But honestly I only noticed the relationship arc on later viewings. What comes across most to me and is still my favorite part of the vid is the frank expression of female sexual desire. Lois initiates most of the kisses and most of the action; she wants something and goes for it. Probably my favorite bit is when she kicks forward a box and climbs up on it to kiss the inconveniently tall Clark. I like a woman who can improvise.
(In Smallville, does she actually dye her hair to match her boyfriend's whenever she starts dating someone new? That's kind of creepy.)
I won't be commenting on every vid, not even every one I liked, and I hope to manage actual feedback on a lot more vids than I will be mentioning here. But these are my favorites, at least for today.
The Vividcon Shows Playlists, with links to online vids
Premieres Show
danegen, Around the Bend (Multi)I did not have a pink glitter pen with me so instead I drew solid blue hearts around this in my notes. It goes on my list of happy-making vids. In Vid Review,
cesperanza (I think quoting counteragent) discussed how the vid figured women's relationship with technology and read it as a metaphor for vidding. I am more literal, and even though many of the clips are from non-American sources, I read it as a reclamation of the American myth of the highway--cars and speed as freedom, exuberant sexuality, creativity, independence, physicality, control--a myth that has been largely figured as belonging only to white males, here reclaimed for women, including women of color. I love how this goes from cars to planes and spaceships and back again, how it includes historical footage and photographs, how it opens out from individual women to groups of women, couples, women interacting with (undressing) men. (I do kind of love it that the token visible man in the vid is a sex object.) And I love that the only Thelma and Louise clips in there are of them riding out or of them blowing shit up.hollywoodgrrl and ohvienna, Seven (David Lynch films)David Lynch I find an unpredictable combination of fascinating, boring, and degrading, so I have only seen around a third of the sources here. The vid leaves out the boring, so from my perspective it's a plus. During Vid Review,
cesperanza suggested this was an exploration of how Lynch often crosses the line from critiquing Hollywood's exploitation of women to participating in it, and I thought a lot about that on rewatch: everyone has that inscrutable noir look, like they're afraid to let emotions out in case the plot contradicts them later, but when it cracks for men it's rage or laughter and when it cracks for women it's terror or tears. More highways here, open roads, but it's night, lights are mirages, things threaten, things loom, meanings shift. Endless highways become clocks, time running out or ticking monotous away. Highway dividing lines become flames become red curtains. Lynch's obsession with pairing brunettes and blondes. Drug dreams of Heaven, longed for and embodied by women; dreaming just makes it easier for exploiters to drag them down.
Mostly I take this as a mood piece, any meaning provisional.
wistful_fever, Whatever You Need (Boys Over Flowers)I don't know this Kdrama or the manga on which it's based, but the use of colored filters and bubble or circle textures give the vid an interesting feel, private, inward-turning, that reminds me of shojo manga in general because of its focus on expressing emotional states over relating events. It doesn't quite work for me here, possibly because I don't know the story behind the interactions, or possibly because some of the filters distracted rather than seduced me. I wasn't quite sure what yellow meant and sometimes it gave the whole thing a sickly greenish tinge, and the violence of the supersaturated figures seemed at odds with both the story and the tone of the rest of the vid. Very interesting as part of Fabella's continuing exploration of color and texture manipulation.
sockkpuppett, Caged Bird (Last Night at Marienbad)I have no idea what is going on, but I like it.
I like the sepia cast of the coloring, which I think Lum added?
Mostly I like the disorienting reflections and repetitions, repeated clips, repeated figures, mirrors reflecting mirrors, a woman reading a book with her own picture in it. I am not sure whether to think of the caged bird as the woman or consciousness in a more general sense.
redina, Mickey (Hana-Kimi)I'd heard watchers of the Jdrama shipped Nakatsu/Mizuki and now I can see why. (Especially since Sano looks so stern! In the manga I always pictured him more forbearing.) The actor for Nakatsu has an energy and enthusiasm that clearly comes through the vid; the cheerleaders are perfect. Unlike the commenters in Vid Review, though, I was badly distracted by the captions, which read to me as hard subs rather than the vidder's addition. I don't know if that's fair -- certainly the clips chosen add to the story of the vid.
bop_radar, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (Smallville)When all I could see was darkness, buildings, and superheroes, I thought this was a Watchman vid. It took me a few seconds to get over realizing it was Smallville.
What I get from this is that Ollie is a self-loathing adrenaline junkie who fights crime. And it's hot. (Also there's this thing where he fucks and/or fights with several hot women and possibly murdered Lex Luthor? I know Smallville only through fannish osmosis.) I love the relentless drive of the vid, the propulsion of action, sharp movement, short clips all the way through. I'm a little disconcerted by the very end, when the music changes significantly but the visuals keep running the same way.
greensilver and sweetestdrain, The Way You Found Me (Hercules)Now I understand why the makers of Legends of the Seeker were not put off by Terry Goodkind's evil chicken fixation. Clearly they recognized a kindred soul.
Now I want all comedy vids to include a giant rooster.
jarrow, Narrow Escape (Disaster films)Short, fast, to the point. I love that the titles run at the end.
cappylicious, The Pursuit of Happiness (The Wire)An effective, affectionate, but clear-eyed character portrait. It shows the strength of the main character (Avon?)'s emotional bonds with his friends and girlfriend, his tragic search for and undermining of his own happiness; it starts with equating two pairs of designer boots to his girlfriend in the kitchen and ends up with a friend murdered for business.
laurashapiro, Stay Awake (Multi)A critique of the way pregnancy/reproduction is persistently figured as rape in sf television. The pregnant body becomes both evidence of and invitation to violation; the conventions of sf telling normalize violence, both ordinary and medical, against women's bodies. It is the kind of well-constructed argument that ends up looking simple but that I personally find incredibly hard to do.
Wow, male sf writers seem to find women's bodies creepy. That is a lot more about your id than I ever wanted to know, dudes.
astolat, Watershed (Merlin)I read this as The Mists of Avalon done with Merlin footage, or at least a post-Mists Morgana. I love the slow build of the song and the visual narrative and the opening with only partial pictures of Morgana, trapped in frames, limited by boxes: helpless at windows, drugged asleep, confronting closed doors. I love the slyness of the clip of Gwen on "I'll creep into your bed." I find the talky-face at some key points distracting, though.
bradcpu, CITIHALL* (Futurama)In Vid Review,
jarrow commented that this was like a new, five-minute Futurama episode, and that about sums it up for me. My very favoritest bit is Robot Hell. I find the interpretation of Fry and Bender as representatives of fandom kind of depressing, though.cherryice, Glass (Watchmen)This has beautiful flow, and I love the use it makes of the changing music in the beginning, from a cappella to backing to the warbeat of the drums.
barkley, Wading Deep Water (Southland)I don't know this show at all, but this character study moves me deeply anyway; it's definitely my favorite of this year's character studies. I get a compelling sense of Lydia's passion, persistence, and kindness.
cappylicious and sisabet, I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked (Smallville)Despite not having seen Superman and Superman II since I was twelve and never having seen Smallville, I have discovered that I have very strong feelings about Lois Lane. Like, I was extremely indignant when people during In-Depth Vid Review characterized Lois as "trading up the superhero foodchain." Lois Lane is not a superhero starfucker, people! Lois Lane is awesome, not to mention busy. Some guys just do not measure up.
Some commenters on In-Depth Vid Review read Lois in the vid as primarily being interested in the superhero trappings, and only later interested in the men behind them, whereas my view is almost the opposite. I haven't seen Smallville, but the vid makes it look like she first knows Ollie by his everyday identity and only later discovers he is a superhero, and that part of the breakup is his refusal to admit his secret identity. He will not get naked enough for her. Lois likes to play dress-up but at the end of the day she takes the costumes (and the clothing) off. Clark will get naked with her twice over, once as Clark and again as Superman. He takes his glasses off so she can put them on. Sometimes he catches her in a fall and sometimes she catches him.
But honestly I only noticed the relationship arc on later viewings. What comes across most to me and is still my favorite part of the vid is the frank expression of female sexual desire. Lois initiates most of the kisses and most of the action; she wants something and goes for it. Probably my favorite bit is when she kicks forward a box and climbs up on it to kiss the inconveniently tall Clark. I like a woman who can improvise.
(In Smallville, does she actually dye her hair to match her boyfriend's whenever she starts dating someone new? That's kind of creepy.)