House of Leaves

First off, thank you so much Zohar for your lovely Christmas card! *big hug*

Second I have a new classier layout – thanks to the amazingly talented nv1978 and her new lj style comm butterflybox where I totally snagged the style sheet and yeah, I need to work out some random stuff, because I miss my tags and filters, but at the moment I’m just pleased. I wasn’t in the mood for something fannish and getting charmax Christmas present made me a vain so I went with peacock feathers, because nothing says I’m royal and totally self-centred and ruler of my universe better than these – on a whole metaphorical level, of course.

In regards of layouts and such stuff, I joined the mob and opened an account on imeem.com, nothing uploaded yet, but two comments made in spirit of vidvent. You can find me under http://astarte.imeem.com/ and I really like this changing ‘Vidders out and proud’ attitude which made me actually sign up there. Sure, we are walking a thin line in regards of copyright violation, but no harm is intended and I think that we promote our music, shows and films in the best way we can. There are so many amazing music artists I discovered through fanvids and bought their stuff. So many shows that I itched to have on DVD, so the royal they made enough money through my hobby and its just for entertainment purpose only. I also feel that if the collective we of vidders don’t step up to the broader audience we can get more easily be targeted by evil forces and other people have said this more intelligent and with better arguments.

Apropos vidding, bad news the SPN vid I worked on before XF took over has been finished by another vidder. Not in fact, but same song and while my take is totally different and there was actually just one scene we used in the same spot, it still made me reconsider and more importantly think about trivial stuff. Good news? The Scully vid comes together nicely, slowly but it’s me we’re talking about and I don’t feel guilty for spending hours in front of my pc for seconds. Besides it has been years since I saw X files and I’m anal enough to first rewatch the show, in order to vid.

But the question raised is how other vidders approache their projects, maybe it’s part English - foreign language - my own limitations of understanding the fine print or hidden meanings sometimes that makes me hyper-aware of lyrics and harder to lose myself in the mood. Or maybe that’s just me and my adoration for interpretation and double entendre that makes my mind a maze with endless crossroads. Although I got the impression that many vidders have storyboarded their vids in great detail, while for me vidding is a very fluid experience. Even the key elements of the lyrics, which created an immediately image or sparked the vid idea can get dumped, if they don’t fit visually were I first envisioned them. For example a scene is too bright for my taste, be it because of daylight, cloth or lightening or another insane reason, my mind instantly goes through the alternatives, because most shows repeat their themes of choice. (Actually the alpha masks in ‘To be a ghost’ are a good example here for what normally lands on my cutting floor – I search very simplified for what works best in that instant.) There is rarely an ultimate changing point for any TV show character that can’t be shown in another scene or context this probably touches on overused footage, but my point is less theoretical and more, well at least for me practical. I love transitions. I want them to look good and if that means I have to rework a previous segment to make them look prettier or shove scenes around the timeline I do it. The whole vid has to flow for me and while there might be more obvious scenes to pick, I won’t use them, if they stuck negative out for me. So how do others solve this? Because for me a vid is a puzzle were I know the pieces, but not how the whole picture will look at the end when I start it, so I often feel like I go in blind into it and wait for the click were I just know this is it.