fray-adjacent

snowflake_challenge  Day 5

Recommend a fannish or creative resource. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Someday I will build up the nerve/mental spoons to challenge Youtube blocking a few of my vids (especially my favourite vid by me, Starkville, which is blocked in the US and Canada -- but not on Vimeo, hence the link!). When I do, I will definitely make use of Lim's post about fighting back against YT and the BBC and winning. It's especially useful for vidders in the UK -- I learned too late that my references to 'fair use' were not relevant here.

1. I'm very slowly making my way through Festivids, alphabetically, only skipping vids with "chooses not to warn" (though even then if I'm familiar with the source or I see lots of "that was fun/delightful/sweet" type comments, I'll go for it). I'm really enjoying the vids! A lot of people have posted recs and I'm not going to do that, but if you like vids and you haven't checked out Festivids yet, here they are. Also I've been pleased to find that after watching a vid I can leave not just a semi-coherent comment but I can usually say something specific that I liked about the vid, which I chalk up to having more experience watching and talking about and especially beta-ing vids. It feels nice to have the vocabulary and mental framework to be able to do that without difficulty.

2. kuwdora is going to mentor me/work with me for the rest of the year on vidding! I am very excited about this arrangement. To that end, today I wrote out a timeline of vid projects for 2015, keeping in mind con deadlines and whatnot. It's ambitious but doable if I stay on top of vidding, and if I make the seven vids on the list then I'll have said the most important things I currently want to say about my two most beloved fandoms, BtVS and Xena. If I manage to actually do it, I wonder how that might change vidding for me. I've had a few things hanging over my head and the idea of having them finished this year sounds really really good.

3. I am finally really running again! So much so that I bought a new running shirt, because I was going through them too quickly. My mileage is still painfully low. I look back on the days when I regularly ran 4-6 miles without stopping and I can't imagine it; I'm going more like 2-3 miles and having to stop and walk several times. BUT I'm doing it.

4. I've been really struggling to focus lately. On everything: work, vidding, chores, Festivid-watching, even relaxing. And it's felt related to a general crankiness and uptick in my (mild) anxiety. Last weekend was one of those that just happened, and at the end I didn't even know what I'd done. I hate that feeling and the listlessness keeps building with it, but today I came to a realization: not every day has to have a perfect story arc, a Thing I Did. I don't have to clean the whole house or have an epic day of vid-farr or hang out with people all day. I can poke at a vid and chat with people on Twitter and watch one episode of one show and do a chore or two and go running and just kind of hang out, and *that's fine*. And I immediately felt much better. And I know this will pass; like most people, I imagine, I have phases where my focus is better and phases where it isn't.

5. Shows I'm enjoying right now: Elementary, The Mindy Project, Selfie, and a Key Episode Farscape rewatch. And tonight I'm going to check out Fresh of the Boat.

A working from home day turned into "I have inspiration -- vid now and work later!" And it's a good thing too -- I'm taking stock of potential con submission deadlines. Here's what I have so far:

 - Escapade: 15 February

 - Club Vivid: late April or early May

 - Wiscon and VidUKon: early May

 - VVC challenge: late May

 - VVC premieres: mid/late June

It's highly unlikely I'll make all these, but some of my vid plans should line up. I've never submitted to Escapade before but my latest project seems good for it, so the deadline is great for motivation.

The list is very piled up in the first half of the year. Are there later events that I'm forgetting?

Uh, try like 300 days of vidding, at the rate rate I'm going...

Day 11: Genre: do you prefer making certain genres of vid? What kind do you tend to vid the most?
Gen, definitely.  I'm not a super enthusiastic shipper, most of the time.  I guess I'm most interested in making vids that offer up some sort of commentary or interpretation of source -- vids that feel like essays, in a way.  OK, you could argue that all vids offer a commentary/interpretation of source.  What I mean is a vid that says, e.g., "this character is acting this way because of this thing that happened in their past and it influenced them in such and such way which is shown here" or "see the parallels between these two characters' arcs" or something like that.  My vids usually focus on one or two characters rather than ensembles.   I enjoy watching ensemble vids, but it doesn't often occur to me to make them.

Though it seems that my favorite vids that I make are the ones that are more just about celebrating an aspect of the source that I love.  It's a kind of vid I'm coming to appreciate more all the time. 

Broadly speaking, those are also the two types of vids I'm most inclined to watch over and over.

However, many of my current vid ideas/plans have at least an element of femslash in them -- it's something I'm feeling excited to vid more of lately.

Day 12: Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" vid of a favorite media source but set in a different fandom? (I.e., attempted to bring the 'feel' or 'mood' of one source to a different fandom, like the zombie Mary Poppins vid.)
No, and I don't have any ideas that sound like that either.

Day 13: Do you prefer canon or fanon when you vid (canon shots vs. using shots out of context; AU vs. canon)? Has vidding for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
Canony?  I'll use shots out of context sometimes, though I try not to, and I would definitely avoid it if it was a well-known shot amongst the fandom.  And I'd be using the out-of-context shot to support a reading that is probably not that far from canon.  I stick pretty close to canon in my general interpretation of source, so it makes sense that that's how I vid too.  I'm definitely not comfortable vidding AU, though I suppose that could change. 

In other words, for me, vidding is much more akin to writing meta than it is to writing fic.

Vidding only really changes how I interpret source in that it forces me to watch source more, or at least to watch certain parts.  Which can heighten my emotional connection to stories or characters, but I don't think it's fundamentally altered them, except in a few minor ways I've already discussed.  And it's not the process of vidding per se, just the process of rewatching, that does this.

( Complete list of questions. )

This is a two year-old meme from sdwolfpup.

Day 4: Do you have a "muse" character or fandom that speaks to you more than others? Who are they, and why did that character/fandom became your muse?

Huh, I feel like I sort of answered this already, but I guess I can go into more detail? 

I'm not sure I'd call her my muse, but Buffy is my favorite television character of all time, and I got into vidding to express my Buffy feels and thoughts.    Her characterisation is complex, multi-dimensional, and yet remarkably cohesive across 7 seasons.  She's kind, funny, big-hearted yet emotionally closed off in a way that personally connects to me a lot, she loves what she does and is good at it, she resents what she has to do.  She has an inferiority complex about her superiority complex.  Plus she gets a lot of action, she's in many -- most? -- scenes of 144 episodes, and the show overall is highly visual.  OK, in terms of camera work and especially film quality, most of BtVS doesn't hold a candle to current shows, but still, it's pretty damn great for vidding.

To put it another way, Buffy -- and Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- is my muse for the same reason that there are journals and conferences and web forums and tons of other vids even ten years on from "Chosen".  There's just a lot to say about them.

All that being said, I have moved on some since I started vidding.  A year and a half ago I had no interest in vidding any other fandom, even Angel.  But now about half my vids are in other fandoms.  And while I do plan to make more BtVS vids, right now I feel most excited about a couple of other fandoms, vidding-wise.

( Complete list of questions )

HOORAY!! Now can I have that vid farr back please????

Actually vid farr in two weeks would be better.  Right now I need defense prep farr.

Interested in vidding Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles this spring?  Check out tightpresent, a T:tSCC vid exchange!  Sign-ups are happening now, with offers and requests matched on characters or character combinations.  Vids will be revealed in May. 

\o/