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VVC report part 7: Brand New Classic Hits
One last Saturday vidshow that I managed to write up before the streaming vanished (and then forgot to post). I didn't go to this show at the con; it was up against the Critique panel, which is what I attended. This particular show was paired with a panel, which I also didn't attend, so I'm coming at this completely cold, where attendees would have a lot more context and nuance, fwiw.
I wanted to say one thing outside of the cut, though:
If you ever wondered if one person can make a difference in how things are perceived, I say ye![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jetpack_monkey, who came to Vividcon for the first time years ago saying "hey, horror and classic film are awesome and totally viddable! we need more of that!" and kept producing more of that himself and cheerfully repeating his mantra and steadily started convincing people. There were five premieres in this show for "source from 1973 or earlier". I can't even imagine that 10 years ago.
(Which, okay, granted, is the confluence of a lot of things, not justjetpack_monkey -- more older source is available all the time, newer vidding tech makes it easier to work with all kinds of source, VVC has started shifting from "let's share big fandoms" to "let's share our fandoms-of-few" -- but the specific older-source shift has a clear beginning, I think!)
Okay, now on to the vidshow itself. Once again, this isn't the full show, just vids that jumped out at me for one reason or another.
Vidshow: Brand New Classic Hits
VJ: Jetpack Monkey & Cherry
Description: Hey kids, come back to the lawn! Let's watch some awesome vids made from movies and TV shows that are over 40 years old and see all the ways that vidders work with the very different (but equally awesome) aesthetics of older source.
Playlist: On Googledocs, with playlists where available
This is a really nifty idea for a show/panel combo (or even either one alone), although I admit I kept having moments of "wow, but 40 years is so long ago" -- then realizing that um, no, it's well within my conscious memory of things, although granted I wasn't consuming that much media at the time. And most of the source shown in this vidshow was from before I was born, which makes me feel a little better. *g*
So here we go; lines in italics are the VJ's summary for the show.
Vid: Flora/Fauna/First Wizard
Vidder: Cherry
Fandom: Georges Méliès
Witness the magic of cinema as it was being invented
This made me really happy to see. Méliès is the grandfather of cinema as we know it, and should be way better known than he is to the general public, because man. Filmmakers are still using his techniques today (just with better equipment). (On a technical note: holy cow, the hand-painting on some of those negatives! You almost never see that, and I was gobsmacked by it.)
The structure on this is interesting; there's a point where I can tell it's starting to lose me, because every time I watch this I get the same niggling sense of "this should be shorter" -- there's no narrative to follow, and the music is repetitive and doesn't really go anywhere. But every time, a few seconds later I forget about that and go "ooo!" at something else that grabs my attention, and I'm good for the rest of the vid.
Despite what I just said about the music, it's a brilliant choice for this vid; despite being completely modern and synthesized, it manages to sound sort of like an old steam calliope, exactly right for the almost carnival feel of the entertainment that Méliès provided.
Vid: We Must Be Killers
Vidder: Cupidsbow
Fandom: The Defiant Ones
Added coloration effects give added depth to the black and white source without cheapening it.
I first saw this in Festivids; it blew me away then, and hasn't stopped. This is beautiful. The summary is spot-on; the narrative here would have drawn me in anyway, but the very delicate coloration adds something really special. It doesn't look anything like a color movie would look, but the next time I see the movie, it's going to be jarring to have it be in b&w instead of tinted like this.
Vid: Alice (Disney Remix)
Vidder: Pogo
Fandom: Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Transforming both the visuals and sounds of a classic animated film.
This stood out for me, but not in a good way. Given what some folks were saying in the Song Choice panel, I'm guessing that this is one of those vids made to showcase the music more than the source (and yeah, looking more closely, Pogo is listed as both vidder and musical artist, so "showcase the music" makes a lot of sense). I liked a lot of what it did; it had some fun synching, and nice motion, and surreality.
But there was so much repetition -- identical video sequences over identical audio, repeatedly -- that I was quickly bored and a little aggravated. Maybe the vidder was going for a dream sense where things just keep happening over and over again? But if so, they interpreted it so literally that it fell completely flat for me. (There was one section where the vidder used the same scenes, but different parts of them, so the repetition was there but different -- if that had been the case throughout, that could have made for a really interesting vid.)
The beginning and end of the vid were pretty solid, but the middle weakened it beyond saving for me.
Vid: Loneliness
Vidder: Kitovraska
Fandom: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Great use of effects to introduce romance between two Disney princesses.
The credits are a little hard to read, but I managed to catch that this is inspired by fanfic; I haven't seen much of that lately, so was intrigued right off the bat.
Then I started watching, and wow. Desaturating everything into pure black and white for most of the vid was a fantastic choice; it let the vidder use flashes of color to intense effect later, and made masking the two sources together a lot easier. This is a constructed reality that I completely buy -- *deletes story so as not to spoil for anyone who wants to watch fresh*. Just. *flail* Seriously, it's so well done. Go watch this, if you haven't seen it!
Vid: Starships! (Monochromatic Remix)
Vidder: Jetpack Monkey
Fandom: Multi
A celebration of astronauts, space rangers, scientists, faithful sidekicks, and the spacecraft they love to fly.
Okay, so, like everyone else I know, I lovebironic's Starships vid. It's joyous and celebratory and yay, and when I saw that there was a remix here I was sort of "...what? why?"
Well, the answer to "why" is "because more joy!" This is fantastic, a perfect complement to the original. Watching it for the first time, it felt like a really close match tobironic's; having seen the side-by-side comparison of both vids, I'm astonished at how much of it is a shot-by-shot remix. This is amazing work, on every level.
And I gotta say, I'm withtherienne on the whole "what jetpack_monkey's place looks like" notion. Because man.
Vid: Identical Snowflakes
Vidder: Icepixie
Fandom: Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Terrific tribute to a dynamic duo of the silver screen.
Oh, this is lovely -- I'd say adorable, too, which it is, but Fred and Ginger are too elegant and refined for "adorable", really. The song choice is perfect, the narrative is sweet and delicate, and the ending is perfect. <3 What a wonderful way to end the show.
I wanted to say one thing outside of the cut, though:
If you ever wondered if one person can make a difference in how things are perceived, I say ye
jetpack_monkey, who came to Vividcon for the first time years ago saying "hey, horror and classic film are awesome and totally viddable! we need more of that!" and kept producing more of that himself and cheerfully repeating his mantra and steadily started convincing people. There were five premieres in this show for "source from 1973 or earlier". I can't even imagine that 10 years ago.(Which, okay, granted, is the confluence of a lot of things, not just
jetpack_monkey -- more older source is available all the time, newer vidding tech makes it easier to work with all kinds of source, VVC has started shifting from "let's share big fandoms" to "let's share our fandoms-of-few" -- but the specific older-source shift has a clear beginning, I think!)Okay, now on to the vidshow itself. Once again, this isn't the full show, just vids that jumped out at me for one reason or another.
Vidshow: Brand New Classic Hits
VJ: Jetpack Monkey & Cherry
Description: Hey kids, come back to the lawn! Let's watch some awesome vids made from movies and TV shows that are over 40 years old and see all the ways that vidders work with the very different (but equally awesome) aesthetics of older source.
Playlist: On Googledocs, with playlists where available
This is a really nifty idea for a show/panel combo (or even either one alone), although I admit I kept having moments of "wow, but 40 years is so long ago" -- then realizing that um, no, it's well within my conscious memory of things, although granted I wasn't consuming that much media at the time. And most of the source shown in this vidshow was from before I was born, which makes me feel a little better. *g*
So here we go; lines in italics are the VJ's summary for the show.
Vid: Flora/Fauna/First Wizard
Vidder: Cherry
Fandom: Georges Méliès
Witness the magic of cinema as it was being invented
This made me really happy to see. Méliès is the grandfather of cinema as we know it, and should be way better known than he is to the general public, because man. Filmmakers are still using his techniques today (just with better equipment). (On a technical note: holy cow, the hand-painting on some of those negatives! You almost never see that, and I was gobsmacked by it.)
The structure on this is interesting; there's a point where I can tell it's starting to lose me, because every time I watch this I get the same niggling sense of "this should be shorter" -- there's no narrative to follow, and the music is repetitive and doesn't really go anywhere. But every time, a few seconds later I forget about that and go "ooo!" at something else that grabs my attention, and I'm good for the rest of the vid.
Despite what I just said about the music, it's a brilliant choice for this vid; despite being completely modern and synthesized, it manages to sound sort of like an old steam calliope, exactly right for the almost carnival feel of the entertainment that Méliès provided.
Vid: We Must Be Killers
Vidder: Cupidsbow
Fandom: The Defiant Ones
Added coloration effects give added depth to the black and white source without cheapening it.
I first saw this in Festivids; it blew me away then, and hasn't stopped. This is beautiful. The summary is spot-on; the narrative here would have drawn me in anyway, but the very delicate coloration adds something really special. It doesn't look anything like a color movie would look, but the next time I see the movie, it's going to be jarring to have it be in b&w instead of tinted like this.
Vid: Alice (Disney Remix)
Vidder: Pogo
Fandom: Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Transforming both the visuals and sounds of a classic animated film.
This stood out for me, but not in a good way. Given what some folks were saying in the Song Choice panel, I'm guessing that this is one of those vids made to showcase the music more than the source (and yeah, looking more closely, Pogo is listed as both vidder and musical artist, so "showcase the music" makes a lot of sense). I liked a lot of what it did; it had some fun synching, and nice motion, and surreality.
But there was so much repetition -- identical video sequences over identical audio, repeatedly -- that I was quickly bored and a little aggravated. Maybe the vidder was going for a dream sense where things just keep happening over and over again? But if so, they interpreted it so literally that it fell completely flat for me. (There was one section where the vidder used the same scenes, but different parts of them, so the repetition was there but different -- if that had been the case throughout, that could have made for a really interesting vid.)
The beginning and end of the vid were pretty solid, but the middle weakened it beyond saving for me.
Vid: Loneliness
Vidder: Kitovraska
Fandom: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Great use of effects to introduce romance between two Disney princesses.
The credits are a little hard to read, but I managed to catch that this is inspired by fanfic; I haven't seen much of that lately, so was intrigued right off the bat.
Then I started watching, and wow. Desaturating everything into pure black and white for most of the vid was a fantastic choice; it let the vidder use flashes of color to intense effect later, and made masking the two sources together a lot easier. This is a constructed reality that I completely buy -- *deletes story so as not to spoil for anyone who wants to watch fresh*. Just. *flail* Seriously, it's so well done. Go watch this, if you haven't seen it!
Vid: Starships! (Monochromatic Remix)
Vidder: Jetpack Monkey
Fandom: Multi
A celebration of astronauts, space rangers, scientists, faithful sidekicks, and the spacecraft they love to fly.
Okay, so, like everyone else I know, I love
bironic's Starships vid. It's joyous and celebratory and yay, and when I saw that there was a remix here I was sort of "...what? why?" Well, the answer to "why" is "because more joy!" This is fantastic, a perfect complement to the original. Watching it for the first time, it felt like a really close match to
bironic's; having seen the side-by-side comparison of both vids, I'm astonished at how much of it is a shot-by-shot remix. This is amazing work, on every level.And I gotta say, I'm with
therienne on the whole "what jetpack_monkey's place looks like" notion. Because man.Vid: Identical Snowflakes
Vidder: Icepixie
Fandom: Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Terrific tribute to a dynamic duo of the silver screen.
Oh, this is lovely -- I'd say adorable, too, which it is, but Fred and Ginger are too elegant and refined for "adorable", really. The song choice is perfect, the narrative is sweet and delicate, and the ending is perfect. <3 What a wonderful way to end the show.