thuvia ptarth

chaila and kiki_miserychic asked:

Is there a genre or style you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

I'd really like to do the kind of collage/art project vid that newkidfan does, or like vrya used to do (so sad I lost her vids and audio collages in hard drive crashes), where the point is the aesthetic/emotional experience rather than something more narrative. When I first started watching vids (well, and for quite some time after), I didn't really understand them -- they washed over me, they were beautiful, sometimes they were emotional, but I had no idea what argument or narrative they were building. They all felt like an emotional or aesthetic exploration, an audiovisual collage, impressionistic. I miss that. In some ways that feeling is what I am almost always trying to re-create in vids (even if I'm also trying to do something else), but I would really like to do it in a way that makes use of effects and visual distortions and key repetitions, something that creates a heightened dreamlike experience.

The problem is I don't typically have effects-heavy ideas, and when I do, I end up being wrong. I either forget the effects ("Etheric Messages") or I cut them because they're detracting from the vid rather than adding to it ("No Skin").

Actually, thinking about the vid that I'm hoping will be in this vein, it's less about the special effects than mood.

Is there a genre or style you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole?

I've already ending up making types of vids I never expected to, so I would never rule anything out. But there are some kinds of vids that aren't particularly suited to my interests or strengths, and/or that I just don't get ideas for:

I'm pretty unlikely to do a movie trailer vid, because they don't usually have the kind of emotion or character introspection that I want. This is also a disconnect for me with most multifandom vids, and also reviewing all that source exhausts me just to think about. There is one multifandom vid I'd like to make, though, so ... maybe.

I'm pretty unlikely to do comedy, because it's so hard.

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).

darlulu and kiki_miserychic asked: How many vid ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Currently, my imaginary vid spreadsheet has 29 ideas listed. ("Imaginary" modifies "vid", not "spreadsheet".) But there are 73 ideas in the Dropped sheet, so it's not like I'll end up making all the ones I'm currently planning to. (Also, given the rate at which I vid, I would probably die first.)

I tend to only work on one vid at time -- that is, sometimes I'll put a vid on hold after doing some work on it, but I don't work on multiple ideas at the same time. So for me "nurturing" isn't ideas with some work done, it's ideas that do seem likely to happen pretty soon after I finish the current vid, based on my current obsessions:

• A Penny Dreadful vid about Vanessa Ives
  
  
• An Orphan Black vid with laurashapiro. I edited the song and put three clips on the timeline, but that was before we decided to collaborate, and I wasn't sold on those clips anyway.
  
  
• A Captain America: Winter Soldier vid to the most obvious song in the world, and I just found out this week that someone has already made a vid to the same song on the same theme, and I don't care, I'm doing it anyway.
  
  
• A Wiscon premiere that I think is going to appeal to a lot of people there. Assuming Wiscon still happens in 2015. I mean, I'll make the vid either way, but I would really like to show it at Wiscon. (Also, I would like Wiscon to exist.)
  
  
• Maaaaaaaaaaybe a Club Vivid vid. jarrow has me second-guessing my song choice, but I might do it anyway, just because I would like to do a dance vid once. This is one of the only two remotely workable CVV vids I have ideas for. The other one is multifandom and will require a lot of research, and both these things make it very likely to be dropped.
  
  
• But I would also really like to do a VVC premiere next year, so that would take precedence. (ONE YEAR I WILL MANAGE TO MAKE PREMIERES FOR BOTH WISCON AND VIVIDCON. NEXT YEAR COULD BE THAT YEAR.)
  
  
• There's also a Supernatural vid that I've had on hold since *cough* 2009. I have no idea how much sense it will make to people who have watched canon develop since Season 5, but I don't care. I have over a minute of clips down and Dean is pretty and it's gonna be great.
  
  Whenever I feel like rewatching 5 seasons of Supernatural. Which doesn't seem likely to be anytime before 2016.
  

Also, if I can find songs I like for Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, or an Arrow ensemble vid, all bets are off.

I'm loving reading everybody's answers to this, so ... I'm stealing it from heresluck and rhoboat, and you should, too. Though keep in mind it took me over a month to answer the last meme.

Give me a number -- or a few! -- and I'll answer in a separate post.

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-vid.
2. Is there a genre or style you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?
3. Is there a genre or style you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole?
4. How many vid ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?
5. Share one of your strengths.
6. Share one of your weaknesses.
7. Point to a section from one of your favorite vids you've made and explain why you're proud of it.
8. Which vid was the hardest to make?
9. Which vid was the easiest to make?
10. Is vidding your passion or just a fun hobby?
11. Is there a section of canon above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?
12. What's the best vidding advice you've ever come across?
13. What's the worst vidding advice you've ever come across?
14. If you only could vid one show/movie for the rest of your life, which show/movie would it be?
15. Do you work mostly from start to finish, or do you vid sections out of order?
16. Do you use any tools, like clip notes or storyboards?
17. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?
18. Describe your perfect vidding conditions.
19. How many times do you usually revise your vid before posting?
20. Choose a section from one of your earlier vids and talk about whether and how you'd do it differently now. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).
21. If you were to revise one of your older vids from start to finish, which would it be and why?
22. Have you ever deleted one of your published vids?
23. What do you look for in a beta?
24. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?
25. How do you feel about collaborations?
26. Share three of your favorite vidders and why you like them so much.
27. Do you accept prompts?
28. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your vids being canon compliant?
29. How do you feel about smut?
30. How do you feel about crack?
31. Which is your favorite site for posting vids?
32. Talk about your current vids in progress.
33. Talk about a comment or review that made your day.
34. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

Lifted from chaila and nicole_anell:

Pick any section of a vid or a paragraph or any passage less than 500 words from any fanfic I've written and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet of what I was thinking when I made or wrote it, why I wrote it, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the vid or fic, and anything else you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

Today I managed to hit some keys that rotated my screen layout 180 degrees and could not figure out to fix it without consulting technical support.

It's not my best day ever, is what I'm saying.

So please meme:

Quote a bit of my writing at me. Find that one story of mine that you really like, and find a sentence or a paragraph that presses your prose-buttons in the right way, and comment here with it.

If anyone's interested in doing the DVD commentary meme, my stories are up for grabs, and are all here or here.

If you're planning to do "Wild Dogs," you might want to wait a couple of days. grimorie very generously offered some corrections on the depictions of Filipina characters, which I'm planning to include in a quick site update before the end of the week.