House of Leaves

Day 8 – Have you vidded with original source? If so, why did you use original source?

This one is easy - No. I haven't even used outside/external footage in a vid. I'm all for source purity in my vids it seems, but I certainly see the appeal for meta fandom vids.

Day 7 – Have you ever had a vid (of yours) change your opinion of a character?

Plenty of times. I rarely come out of a vid seeing the character or couple the same way as diving in. So my opinions always change in small ways, but it's harder to come up with a grand example right now. I would like to say, that I had a big epiphany while vidding 'Clear the area' or 'Wood and Nails', but that would be a lie. I knew the character depths were there, diving in and it was just about digging deeper for all I wanted to say.

What obsessive24 said in her meme seems also very true for me, it's like getting into a relationship with someone you adored from afar. Either you feel dreamy and have hearts in your eyes every time you talk about the character your currently vidding, see Scully in my recent entries. Or when the pendulum swings the other way and that happened one time to me, I loathed the character by the end of the vid. Needless to say, I wouldn't have chose to finish that vid on my own, because the song was such a bad mood fit for that character. So even I knew my hatred wasn't rational and I had to blame myself, because 'Dear God, what was I thinking?' Nobody is happy in Deadwood, least of all Joanie.

What I find more interesting, is the way I get slutty with the source, best example is AtS/BtVS, I know that by the end of the vid, I always want to vid another character or ship of these shows. Recent example 'Dizzy' made me interested in Xander, because he was in so many Willow scenes, which resulted in 'Broken', because the triangle vid song for Spike/Willow/Xander wasn't showing up on time. And I wouldn't have vidded Willow in the first place, if not for the Remix-Challenge. So the posting announcements like 'I have to vid XXX next - s/he's awesome' are always heartfelt and genuine. It often gets derailed by the next step, not finding a good song first.

Day 6 – When you vid, do you like vidding a certain kind of male or female archetype?

I'm drawn to smart, fucked-up underdogs in vidding, who keep a sense of humor about themselves, are able to scheme and are striving for better. Sci-fi elements are also my weakness, I like a dented and bent mirror to explore themes and metaphors. It makes everything more interesting for me, not only visually.

Female archetype would be what I would describe as Queen: Warrior queen, Ice queen, Queen B - I love female characters that are flawed and have a reign over their emotions and are willing to rule, lead, fight and are finally in recent years allowed to fuck on TV. Strong women with their own agendas. HBICs. So yeah, the what I would describe as Bitch is high on my vidding list.

Xandra tells me that I prefer in males the brooding anti-heroes and I would add Chess Masters, Tricksters and Magnificent Bastards.

Day 5 – If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a vid, what did you do about it?

In ship vids it's not a problem, because the shift often works with the lyrics and PoV. On pure character vids that I wanted to hint at the whole ensemble, it's just a question of finding the right clips to make an equally strong point from another character. I had this issue in 'Shades of Grey' with the ladies taking over, so I had to think harder to find good Gunn and Connor clips to make an equal strong connection to Wesley. Lindsey pushed Angel(us) out of 'Bite you' with Xandra's help, which was only logical, so I surrendered. I let Veronica take over Ted's vid 'All Star' more than I first intended. Same goes for all my TXF vids, by now Scully is pretty much my focal point into the show's mythology.

So I would say, it depends on the project, either I allow it or I search harder to get correspondingly good clips from another character. This isn't usually a problem with character vids, I tend to focus too close on that one character anyway and have to remind myself to pull back a bit to include more of their world. And then there is always the 'possible next project', if one character really catches my eye, while scanning through the source.

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?

Characters who speak to me strongly are listed here and there are a two thirds I haven't even vidded yet in a character vid.

But my No. 1 Scully will always have a special place in my heart. - I can't fight it and so I tend to vid her like I would do with a male character, which sometimes leads to interesting readings of my vids. I think the main reason why I vidded AtS for such a long time - and didn't became tired of it, - was, because there were always more characters and relationships I could investigate. I mean ten years later, if I find a perfect song for someone, some ship or something, I still would vid it in a heartbeat.

I'm not so sure, if I would call it a muse, it's more a drive to explore a show and finding things that haven't been said about it. Or say things in a new way or let nostalgia reign. A big advantage is that I don't have to prep my old or favorite shows, they are ready on my external hard drive to vid and thanks to the multifandom vids there are a lot more also prepared to go.

Day 3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to vid?

I vidded Angel more than any other character, but he is certainly not my favorite. Not even my favorite AtS character. He ended up in most of my vids, because he had interesting relationships with Cordelia, Wesley, Connor, Darla, Drusilla, Lilah and Spike. I mean it was his show and he was a big part why I liked it, just not the main reason. So he was a bit of blank canvas to draw the other character against and explore them. Same goes for Spike in BtVS, but I liked his black humor more.

Dean wins SPN hands down. Scully is my girl crush. Deadwood is a great ensemble show. But I found Alma very aesthetically beautiful to vid, especially in her widow black. My crush on Brad Pitt shows plainly in the movies I vidded. The Multifandom vids were all collaborations with Xandra and had strict themes we wanted to explore. So these four Multi vids are the reason, it feels like I vidded way more fandoms than I actually did.

TV Shows:
Angel the Series: Cordelia Chase
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike
Supernatural: Dean Winchester
The X Files: Dana Scully
Multifandom: Damon Salvatore
Deadwood: Alma
Lost: Sawyer
Alias: Sydney Bristow
Veronica Mars: Veronica Mars
Better off Ted: Veronica Palmer
Haunted: Frank Taylor

Movies:
Se7en: Det. Mills
Troy: Achilles
Interview with the Vampire: Louis
and Die Hard: McClane

Day 2 – Name the fandoms you've vidded in, and how many vids you've made in that fandom, and if you still vid in it.


TV Shows:
Angel the Series: 31 vids - yes
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 9 vids - yes
Supernatural: 10 vids - yes
The X Files: 5 vids - yes
Multifandom: 4 vids - yes
Deadwood: 4 vids - yes
Lost: 3 vids - not really, it plays part in some Multifandom vids
Alias: 1 vid - not really, it plays part in some Multifandom vids
Veronica Mars: 1 vid - not really, it plays part in some Multifandom vids and I have to fight the itch to remaster 'Feeling Good' from time to time
Better off Ted: 1 vid - yes
Haunted: 1 vid - no

Movies:
Se7en
Troy
Interview with the Vampire (do you see a trend?)
and Die Hard

I included the remasters as 'new' vids

As seen on my flist:

30 Days of Vidding

Day 1 – How did you first get into vidding, and what was the first fandom you vidded? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

I think like most vidders I tended to vid my favorite shows in my head long before I knew what vidding was. So when I discovered my first XF fanvid my instant reaction was, 'Of course, people are doing this - ' followed shortly by the thought, 'I want to do that too.' But the whole technical aspect was too daunting for me, so I mainly watched these little 5MB vids that took twenty minutes to download. I started further investigation into the whole thing, when I had a flat rate and one friend was kind enough to point me towards Adobe Premiere 6.0. I opened the program look around for twenty minutes and then closed it for months. When I decided to try again, figuring the basics out took some time, by then I was in the AtS/BtVS fandom and had some clips on my hard drive.

The result was Runaway - a Spike/Drusilla/Angel vid with a total of 8 different scenes set to Linkin Park and released in January 2002. It's gloriously bad and encoded in realmedia, so that I can cop out of showing it again, because even I had to search for the alternative codec today. But I still remember the feeling of accomplishment I had, when I first watched scenes I chose set to music I loved. When the timing of some cuts hit right, I was giddy. The thrill was great - all these possibilities, so when the vid was finished, I instantly started the next one.

So the first fandom I vidded was AtS/BtVS and what pulled me in was the way technology changed. My TXF eps were on vhs tape, I wasn't motivated enough or had the equipment to get them on my hard drive. With faster connections - I think 56 k - and a flat rate and the whole internet getting about sharing, it was becoming easier to get quality clips or even eps. DVDs were becoming cheaper too, so what pulled me into vidding AtS was timing. Two years earlier The X Files would have been my starter vidding fandom, ten years earlier Star Trek: TNG, before that Robin of Sherwood. But in January 2002 I just discovered Angel the Series and I loved Cordelia and Angel wasn't too hard on the eyes either. And then I discovered their back story on BtVS and I was hooked and more importantly? Ready to go.

( 30 Days of Vidding Meme  )

Can you guess mine?

List fifteen of your favorite characters from different fandoms, and ask people to spot patterns in your choices, if they're so inclined.

TV and Film/Book  characters

( I provided visual aid to help spot the patters -  )

A few days ago I got my laptop back from repairs, it was once again the motherboard that caused the trouble. So far everything works, I still want a new one, but I think I’ll wait till January next year. We’ll see. I’m currently busy writing, I have 8.400 words of a Wincest story and it‘s a fun ride. I think it’ll clock in around 12.000 words, which will make it my longest. Heh.

( The Icon Expression Meme )