thuvia ptarth

November 11 was the ten-year anniversary of finishing my first vid, and sadly I did not manage to post a commemorative vid that day. But I'm a little chuffed to have seen the anniversary, especially because in 2016 I was considering abandoning the idea of vidding altogether.

I am not going to do the full End of the Year fanworks meme, because for the past two years, I have only managed to post one vid per year. (I have managed to post at least a vid per year, though, so I am pretty happy about that.)

( Vid notes 2017-2018 )

( Things I learned this year )

( 2015 Goals as Accomplished 2017-2018 )

( 2019 Goals )

As usual, stealing this from kiki_miserychic:

If there is any question you would like to ask me about any one of my vids or stories, then go ahead! What I meant by a particular clip or sequence, why I chose to highlight that characterization, why I chose that song, what crack I was taking and where you can get some...anything. Anything you might like to know about how I made a vid, I shall do my best to answer. Or any questions about vidding or writing that I can answer in general, I guess. Or we could bring back that vidding meme.

Hello! I picked skygiants' Chicago Typewriter vid, "Our Ghost", to discuss in one of the In-Depth Vid Review sessions for Vividcon 2018. The audience at In-Depth assured me that this is a good recruiter vid even without context, so maybe you should watch it without context first. And then you can read this and watch it again! It’s a great vid, you can watch it more than once.

I tried to narrow down the context to what was most relevant to the vid, so this summary both leaves a lot out and spoils some stuff revealed fairly late in the series. skygiants’ own summary includes a lot that isn’t here and leaves out some that is. (I’m still surprised the vid doesn’t include the adorable dog, to be honest.)

Despite valiant efforts by absolutedestiny and heresluck to save me from my own lack of preparation, I was unable to show the helpful visual aids I had prepared. Therefore, I am inflicting them on you now.

( Show summary, with pictures )

( Vid commentary )

Hey! Are people still here? Have you all run off to Tumblr and Twitter?

I will be at VVC this year. If you are here and you will be there, let's hang out!

I am even more discombobulated about prep than usual, so you will be able to recognize me as the least fashionable and most undressed-up person at Club Vivid.

Out of all the great Festivids I've watched so far, these are the ones that've stuck with me most:

Love God Herself (Bitch Planet)
You're So Beautiful (The Get Down)*
Tanz aus der Reihe (Ku'damm 56)*
A New Day (Luke Cage)
The Greatest (Pitch)*
Voodoo in My Blood (The Witch)*

* = I haven't seen the source, so -- definitely no source knowledge required

I am in a terrible mood, so I would like to make it better by seeing people say nice things about vids. Let's do a vidding love meme.


Instructions/Rules

1. Comment with your username, a link to your vids, and the fandoms you vid for (or a selection you've vidded the most for, if you're all over the place).
   
2. People will comment telling you what their favorite vid by you is, what show/character/pairing they think you vid best, and other positive comments. They can also mention what they think you should vid more of, or anything else concerning what they like about your vidding. If you don't want anything like suggestions for what you should vid more, just mention it in your original comment.
   
3. Post it to your journal!
   
4. This is a love meme. No wank, no insults, no concrit. Just the love!
   

I'm here and in desperate need of food and coffee. Is anyone up for a Dominick's run?

Vids premiered in 2014

March
Hey Ho (MCU/multi)

May
She Knows (So Close)

November
Repetition (MCU/Iron Man)

( Vidding meme )

( General notes )

( Vid notes - Hey Ho )

( Vid notes - She Knows )

( Vid notes - Repetition )

( 2014 goals )

( 2015 goals )

Stealing this from kiki_miserychic:

If there is any question you would like to ask me about any one of my vids, then go ahead! What I meant by a particular clip or sequence, why I chose to highlight that characterization, why I chose that song, what crack I was taking and where you can get some...anything. Anything you might like to know about how I made a vid, I shall do my best to answer.

In the unlikely event I haven't already told you more than you want to know above.

Summary: Engineering is a process of iterative development.
Fandom: Marvel/Iron Man
Music: TV on the Radio
Length: 3:19

Content notes: Flashing images

Additional credits
Diagram of the arc reactor mark 1 by MarkFinn
Diagram of the arc reactor mark 2 by Beresclet

Download: mp4 1920x800 (130MB) | mp4 960x400 (42MB) | mp4 480x200 (17MB) | Subtitles

Elsewhere: AO3 | DW | LJ | Tumblr | YouTube

( Lyrics )

( Acknowledgements & Notes )

kiki_miserychic asked: Which is your favorite site for posting vids?

Tumblr seems to get the widest distribution (with the longest tail), but I love the comments I get on DW/LJ. Which is not to say I don't also appreciate the kudos, likes, and reblogs! I appreciate everything. But comments, especially detailed comments, are my favorite.

But there's probably a synergy: I'm pretty sure some people see the vids on Tumblr and then come over to comment.

frayadjacent asked: If you were to revise one of your older vids from start to finish, which would it be and why? and Point to a section from one of your favorite vids you've made and explain why you're proud of it.

Revising an older vid
Ahahaha, this is a terrible question for me. I was horribly tempted by elipie's Take 2 challenge, because I NEVER LET THINGS GO. So even though I already made some changes when I remastered it, I would pick "Low Red Moon."

I wanted it to show people why I loved Ruby and I wanted the vid to look pretty, and I think it does manage both of those things. But I also saw the whole vid as an argument Ruby is having with Sam: Look, people are dying, and if you don't demon up, more people will die, including your brother. And not only does that not get across, the vid moves over to focus on Sam (instead of Ruby's view of Sam) for long periods of time. Part of the problem is that I carried over POV ideas from text, where my favorite POV is a very tight, immersive third or first from inside the character's head. And just showing you what a character sees doesn't work in visual media; to form an attachment to them and to get their reactions, you need to see their face. I would think of it as Ruby looking at Sam, and all the audience got to see is: lots of Sam.

It's still a problem with my vids, but I'm better at correcting it now.

I also could do a lot better with the pacing now. And I could do a lot more of the color modifications I originally wanted -- I was going to desaturate everything slightly except red. I pumped up the red in a lot of individual clips, but I had trouble making the desaturation work properly. The bridge, with all the sepia and red, is the only part that really lives up to the color scheme in my head. (The rest of the vid wasn't going to be sepia. It's just that the bridge looks the way I wanted the bridge to look, and the rest doesn't look exactly the way I wanted the rest to look.)

I'd also planned to do more with the gender politics of Supernatural and associating Ruby with witches, and how women's magic was always demonic or harmful and men's magic was prayer and good, which came with grand plans to make the verses full of circular imagery and the choruses full of more rigid lines. I dropped the political part because it was way too complicated for me to pull off and I dropped the shapes part because I wanted to use circles everywhere. (I always want to use circles everywhere. I love circles. If there is circular imagery anywhere in the source, I will put it in a vid.) Those parts would have to stay dropped.

But this is ALL IN THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD, because I am LETTING IT GO.

A section I'm proud of
So, I actually like all my vids. After posting, I go through a period where I think they're great and then I go through a period where I think they're terrible, and then I settle into liking them while recognizing the many places I could have done better. They were as good as I could get them when I posted them. I try to think of all the errors I see now as signs of how much I've learned rather than signs of how badly I failed. This does not go well for any other part of my life, but I manage it for writing and vidding.

Since I mentioned a small percentage of the things that are wrong with "Low Red Moon", I still really like the bridge (2:41-2:59). It was the first part I put down (the bridge is frequently the first part I put down), and I love putting in all the deals with demons, and all the circles, and all the red.

(I might cut it a little differently now; it's a little overcrowded and I could use the beats to emphasize things as well as just cutting points; but I AM LETTING IT GO.)

I also like the bridge in "Etheric Messages" (0:55-1:09). It uses the rain and thunder sounds well, both visually and thematically, and it is so pretty. As I mentioned in your comments yesterday, I really like dissolves and composites, because creating new images gives me the same feeling as coming up with a good metaphor. I loved putting together all the images of the worlds colliding (the gate, the book; the Twin Towers, the smashing snowglobes, the spilling water).