Vividcon report part 2: Midday Friday
Sep. 1st, 2013 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arduinnaThis is where I stop reviewing all the vids in the vidshows I saw, and just pick out the ones that stood out strongly to me for one reason or another. (Lines in italics under the vid info are the blurbs chosen by the VJ for the program book.)
So onward to midday Friday! I stuck with vidshows to balance out the panels I was planning on attending for most of the afternoon, which means that next up is:
Vidshow: Glitterguts! (Desensitization Enconium)
VJ:absolutedestiny
Description: Join us on a merry-go-round of violent, disturbing, and gratuitously upbeat vids. Prepare to be amazed by technicolor delights, crafted by the finest vidding artistes, as they gleefully jump-cut, beat-match, and piss-take the foulest fare media fandom has to offer. Not for the stomach-enfeebled or jest-deficient.
Playlist: here on Google Docs, complete with links where available.
... Okay, so honestly, that description gave me a fair bit of pause, as I'm not especially keen on violent and disturbing vids. But I was planning on nonstop panels for most of the afternoon, so figured vids in the morning was the way to go. Plus it's never a bad thing to do some things a bit out of your comfort zone.
Although it turns out my comfort zone is pretty entrenched, and there was a lot here I couldn't watch. *wry grin* Which I feel bad about, a bit, because four of these were premieres, and I think I wound up closing my eyes for all four.
But I'm glad I went. It was a kick in the editing pants, starting right from the very first vid; the sheer spectacle of all of this blew me away, and got me thinking hard about playing around with motion, in particular.
Vid: Blow
Vidder: Kitty
Fandom: Sucker Punch
Glittergirls
This started the show off with a bang, and sucked me right the hell in. I loved the editing in this, and was fascinated by the source -- dragons and robots in the same movie?? The best part, though, was the bit where the main character gathers up the other women into a posse; I love team-forming, and all-girl team-forming is the best. Even if it doesn't always turn out so great.
The narrative here wasn't exactly clear to me, in specifics, but I could follow the emotional flow of the vid pretty well, and it carried me right along with it. I wound up looking the source up on Wikipedia, so have a much better idea of what's going on now (and why this didn't take fandom by storm, despite the mix of robots and dragons in the same source). Really well-done vid.
It's also the one I reacted best to in the entire show, so I'm really glad it was at the beginning, because that was enough to keep me invested throughout, and give every new-to-me vid a chance. If it had begun with one of the gorier vids, I would have mentally distanced myself a *lot* from the rest of the show, barring the vids I already knew I'd be okay with, without even realizing it.
The other vid that jumped out at me was purely because of the source; "My Euthanasia" had me grinning all over just for having included Battle of the Planets footage -- which I'm sure wasn't BotP, but rather the original Gatchaman, but BotP was the first anime I ever watched way back in the dawn of time, and I kept having these little moments through the vid when I was recognizing the characters. Since I'm not an anime watcher it's rare for me to recognize characters in vids that I know (rather than just from having seen them in enough other vids to know who they are), which was weirdly happy-making.
Then there was a lunch break, where I headed back to the room with my roommates and some other folks (I am not naming any names, because at this point everything is a blur, and I no longer remember exactly who was where, when) to eat some of the actual real food we'd bought at the store the day before instead of going out for sandwiches at Spuntino's or whatever. It's kinda fun heading out for lunch and seeing who picked the same place to eat you did and say hi, but it's also kinda really nice not stressing over how much time you have, or standing in line, and just having some nice relaxing cheese and crackers and fruit with a small group.
Although in retrospect, I'm a little facepalm-y, because I specifically didn't take my leftovers the night before because any time I do that, I fail to eat them on accounta going out for every meal. I totally could have had them for lunch. OTOH, if we hadn't started eating the cheese and crackers on Friday, we would have wound up throwing them out on Sunday night, so.
... Anyway! After lunch was one more vidshow for me:
Vidshow: Worlds Collide
VJ:heresluck
Description: Encounters between cultures species, timelines and universes.
Playlist: On Google Docs, with links where available
This show was much more in my wheelhouse, and I enjoyed the heck out of the whole thing. A few were real standouts for me, though:
Vid: Beautiful in Los Angeles
Vidder: Anoel
Fandom: The LA Complex
Change.
Oh, this broke my heart. I'd never heard of this show and have no idea who these characters are, but I've watched this vid half a dozen times now. It pulls me right in, and I'm just aching for both these guys, with the older (? - bearded) one trapped in his macho world that won't let him love who he loves. The other one is just as trapped, loving someone who's so trapped by his image that he beats this poor kid up to protect his image when all he wants is to be kissing him, which - Jesus. But the kid has so much more centeredness to him; he clearly knows who he is, and who he loves, and isn't ashamed of himself. And then there is learning to cope, and learning to reach out! And more sorrow, but - handholding! ♥
The narrative here was tight enough that it felt like the distillation of a movie; I was surprised to see that it was a tv show when I looked it up. Gorgeous vid.
Vid: You Were a Kindness
Vidder: Eunice
Fandom: Witness
Heartbreak
This one is more bittersweet than heartbreak to me (but it would be, since that's how I see the movie *g*). Eunice does an amazing job capturing the movie; the song choice is perfect, as is the editing, with longer, lingering clips to match the slower pace of the Amish world, but never dragging. I knew this already from Festivids, and still love it now as much as when I first saw it. It never fails to pull me right in to this world.
Vid: Love Letter
Vidder: Kuwdora
Fandom: Lilo and Stitch
Family
This is such a delight! Another one I know from Festivids, and a go-to feel-good vid for me. ♥ If you like Lilo and Stitch (and how could you not like Lilo and Stitch?), and you haven't seen this, run don't walk. You will thank me!
Vid: Lateralus
Vidders: Rhoboat
Fandom: Fringe
Fracture
This premiered last year, and blew me away. It's still blowing me away; I need to watch it about 50 times in a row, I think. What amazes me every time is the length of her intro, and how well it works. It shouldn't work! More than a minute of intro, for a five-minute vid; it should make the vid unbearable. And instead it's gripping and intense, leading you inexorably into an explosion of clips as the vid "proper" begins. It's brilliant.
Vid: The Test
Vidders: here's luck
Fandom: Star Trek: Reboot
Destiny
Reboot vids have a hard row to hoe with me; the remake didn't do a thing for me, and I really disliked Spock's telling Reboot Kirk that he was destined to be friends with Reboot Spock. And visually, JJ Abrams' love of the lens flare is so intense that it's actively offputting for me. So in the vidshow itself, I was tuning this out a bit both visually and narratively, just coasting on the Lateralus vibe.
But I watched it again at home, and -- the vid gets me to buy this storyline. A huge part of what sells it isheresluck's decision to go with very analog-looking, staticky souce for all the TOS clips; something about that really worked to make it feel like Spock was giving Reboot Kirk a window into a completely different world, through memories that had the haze of some time to them. (It also made the contrast between TOS footage and Reboot footage much, much stronger, which made the juxtaposition much more believable.) And the length of the mind-meld section also helped a lot, grounding it in the TOS universe and making me believe that Reboot Kirk really had "experienced" enough to start changing his thinking/feelings. Nicely done.
After that was panels for the rest of the afternoon, which will be a different post at some point.
So onward to midday Friday! I stuck with vidshows to balance out the panels I was planning on attending for most of the afternoon, which means that next up is:
Vidshow: Glitterguts! (Desensitization Enconium)
VJ:
absolutedestinyDescription: Join us on a merry-go-round of violent, disturbing, and gratuitously upbeat vids. Prepare to be amazed by technicolor delights, crafted by the finest vidding artistes, as they gleefully jump-cut, beat-match, and piss-take the foulest fare media fandom has to offer. Not for the stomach-enfeebled or jest-deficient.
Playlist: here on Google Docs, complete with links where available.
... Okay, so honestly, that description gave me a fair bit of pause, as I'm not especially keen on violent and disturbing vids. But I was planning on nonstop panels for most of the afternoon, so figured vids in the morning was the way to go. Plus it's never a bad thing to do some things a bit out of your comfort zone.
Although it turns out my comfort zone is pretty entrenched, and there was a lot here I couldn't watch. *wry grin* Which I feel bad about, a bit, because four of these were premieres, and I think I wound up closing my eyes for all four.
But I'm glad I went. It was a kick in the editing pants, starting right from the very first vid; the sheer spectacle of all of this blew me away, and got me thinking hard about playing around with motion, in particular.
Vid: Blow
Vidder: Kitty
Fandom: Sucker Punch
Glittergirls
This started the show off with a bang, and sucked me right the hell in. I loved the editing in this, and was fascinated by the source -- dragons and robots in the same movie?? The best part, though, was the bit where the main character gathers up the other women into a posse; I love team-forming, and all-girl team-forming is the best. Even if it doesn't always turn out so great.
The narrative here wasn't exactly clear to me, in specifics, but I could follow the emotional flow of the vid pretty well, and it carried me right along with it. I wound up looking the source up on Wikipedia, so have a much better idea of what's going on now (and why this didn't take fandom by storm, despite the mix of robots and dragons in the same source). Really well-done vid.
It's also the one I reacted best to in the entire show, so I'm really glad it was at the beginning, because that was enough to keep me invested throughout, and give every new-to-me vid a chance. If it had begun with one of the gorier vids, I would have mentally distanced myself a *lot* from the rest of the show, barring the vids I already knew I'd be okay with, without even realizing it.
The other vid that jumped out at me was purely because of the source; "My Euthanasia" had me grinning all over just for having included Battle of the Planets footage -- which I'm sure wasn't BotP, but rather the original Gatchaman, but BotP was the first anime I ever watched way back in the dawn of time, and I kept having these little moments through the vid when I was recognizing the characters. Since I'm not an anime watcher it's rare for me to recognize characters in vids that I know (rather than just from having seen them in enough other vids to know who they are), which was weirdly happy-making.
Then there was a lunch break, where I headed back to the room with my roommates and some other folks (I am not naming any names, because at this point everything is a blur, and I no longer remember exactly who was where, when) to eat some of the actual real food we'd bought at the store the day before instead of going out for sandwiches at Spuntino's or whatever. It's kinda fun heading out for lunch and seeing who picked the same place to eat you did and say hi, but it's also kinda really nice not stressing over how much time you have, or standing in line, and just having some nice relaxing cheese and crackers and fruit with a small group.
Although in retrospect, I'm a little facepalm-y, because I specifically didn't take my leftovers the night before because any time I do that, I fail to eat them on accounta going out for every meal. I totally could have had them for lunch. OTOH, if we hadn't started eating the cheese and crackers on Friday, we would have wound up throwing them out on Sunday night, so.
... Anyway! After lunch was one more vidshow for me:
Vidshow: Worlds Collide
VJ:
heresluckDescription: Encounters between cultures species, timelines and universes.
Playlist: On Google Docs, with links where available
This show was much more in my wheelhouse, and I enjoyed the heck out of the whole thing. A few were real standouts for me, though:
Vid: Beautiful in Los Angeles
Vidder: Anoel
Fandom: The LA Complex
Change.
Oh, this broke my heart. I'd never heard of this show and have no idea who these characters are, but I've watched this vid half a dozen times now. It pulls me right in, and I'm just aching for both these guys, with the older (? - bearded) one trapped in his macho world that won't let him love who he loves. The other one is just as trapped, loving someone who's so trapped by his image that he beats this poor kid up to protect his image when all he wants is to be kissing him, which - Jesus. But the kid has so much more centeredness to him; he clearly knows who he is, and who he loves, and isn't ashamed of himself. And then there is learning to cope, and learning to reach out! And more sorrow, but - handholding! ♥
The narrative here was tight enough that it felt like the distillation of a movie; I was surprised to see that it was a tv show when I looked it up. Gorgeous vid.
Vid: You Were a Kindness
Vidder: Eunice
Fandom: Witness
Heartbreak
This one is more bittersweet than heartbreak to me (but it would be, since that's how I see the movie *g*). Eunice does an amazing job capturing the movie; the song choice is perfect, as is the editing, with longer, lingering clips to match the slower pace of the Amish world, but never dragging. I knew this already from Festivids, and still love it now as much as when I first saw it. It never fails to pull me right in to this world.
Vid: Love Letter
Vidder: Kuwdora
Fandom: Lilo and Stitch
Family
This is such a delight! Another one I know from Festivids, and a go-to feel-good vid for me. ♥ If you like Lilo and Stitch (and how could you not like Lilo and Stitch?), and you haven't seen this, run don't walk. You will thank me!
Vid: Lateralus
Vidders: Rhoboat
Fandom: Fringe
Fracture
This premiered last year, and blew me away. It's still blowing me away; I need to watch it about 50 times in a row, I think. What amazes me every time is the length of her intro, and how well it works. It shouldn't work! More than a minute of intro, for a five-minute vid; it should make the vid unbearable. And instead it's gripping and intense, leading you inexorably into an explosion of clips as the vid "proper" begins. It's brilliant.
Vid: The Test
Vidders: here's luck
Fandom: Star Trek: Reboot
Destiny
Reboot vids have a hard row to hoe with me; the remake didn't do a thing for me, and I really disliked Spock's telling Reboot Kirk that he was destined to be friends with Reboot Spock. And visually, JJ Abrams' love of the lens flare is so intense that it's actively offputting for me. So in the vidshow itself, I was tuning this out a bit both visually and narratively, just coasting on the Lateralus vibe.
But I watched it again at home, and -- the vid gets me to buy this storyline. A huge part of what sells it is
heresluck's decision to go with very analog-looking, staticky souce for all the TOS clips; something about that really worked to make it feel like Spock was giving Reboot Kirk a window into a completely different world, through memories that had the haze of some time to them. (It also made the contrast between TOS footage and Reboot footage much, much stronger, which made the juxtaposition much more believable.) And the length of the mind-meld section also helped a lot, grounding it in the TOS universe and making me believe that Reboot Kirk really had "experienced" enough to start changing his thinking/feelings. Nicely done.After that was panels for the rest of the afternoon, which will be a different post at some point.
