House of Leaves

Artist/Song Title: Lamb - Butterfly Effect
Subject: The X Files, Scully PoV, Scully/Mulder, Vid-Challenge Season5 + Fight the Future: Recovery
Summary: 'And we'll take a trip to hell exponentially.' We just had a near-life experience! (Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club)
Length: 03:41 | Size: 47 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI - zip
Links: mediafire, permanent link

( Streaming and notes )

Artist/Song Title: The Bird and The Bee - Fucking Boyfriend
Subject: Merlin, Gwen PoV, Gwen/Arthur
Summary: 'Are you an amateur or is it you're unkind?' They dream in courtship, but would wake in wedlock. Or why you shouldn't skip the boyfriend part before marrying a girl. It could leave her with the slight impression that she is your beard.
Length: 02:23 | Size: 40 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI - zip
Links: mediafire, permanent link

( Streaming and notes )

Artist/Song Title: K's Choice - Virgin State of Mind
Subject: The X Files, Scully PoV, Vid-Challenge Season4: Mortality
Summary: 'Got a knife to disengage the voids that I can't bear - ' Death is the tyrant of the imagination.
Length: 03:13 | Size: 40 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI - zip
Links: mediafire, permanent link


Again the delay is all my fault, Xandra was finished what feels like months ago and I was derailed by my vidding interview over at vid_commentary. And then I felt the need to hide from Xandra while vidding, because I knew she wouldn't approve of where I was going with this idea and I'm fragile while I vid. Heh. Plus the whole thing was off, till yesterday when the draft suddenly clicked into place after much moving stuff around. So this isn't really a season overview as much as a examination of Scully's state of mind. And for the first time I didn't use all eps, so this vid made me dare Xandra to a Season4 remix challenge, because damn, I missed out on the fun and ass-kicking. Strangely she didn't give me an answer right away.

Artist/Song Title: Stars - He lied about death
Subject: The X Files, Mulder PoV, Vid-Challenge Season3: Firearms
Summary: 'Keep watching the sky, cause you might get lucky again.' Instinct is untaught ability.
Length: 04:28 | Size: 55 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI - zip
Links: megaupload, mediafire, permanent link

The delay is all my fault, but I can blame it on Xandra and her evil ways that include messing with me and my precious Scully. So finding a song did take three days and then I just seemed to not get into Mulder's head space after a good start - the grass is always greener on the other side and all that. Xandra believes that I can only vid Mulder in relation to Scully and I might have to agree with that statement. It certainly felt very true for me in the mists of this vid.

Artist/Song Title: Imogen Heap - 2-1
Subject: The X Files, Scully PoV, Vid-Challenge Season2: Angst
Summary: 'Things are not always, things are not always how they seem - will you be ready?' Fear is nothing more than a state of mind.
Length: 04:30 | Size: 62 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI - zip
Links: megaupload, mediafire, permanent link

I love this challenge so fucking much. There were so many great scenes I had almost forgotten about, especially the way Mulder can't seem to keep his hands off Scully after she returned. Their dynamic fundamentally changed in Season 2. I was saying to Xandra, that when you compare it to the closing of the X files in season 6, it's sweet how they try to sneak around. By season 6 they were pretty much married in the eyes of the FBI and inseparable, but the foundations for this relationship are laid here.

Another aspect that was truly interesting for me, is the way I approach these challenges. The song searching is a pain in the ass for as long as it lasts, but I'm in fact surprised by the final results. These videos come together almost on their own. This song was especially cool, because the mood is so creepy and the feel of threat corresponds nicely with the feeling of enemies closing in on them. It also got more shippy then I first anticipated, but Xandra had the bigger heart and all what one of her drafts lacked were sparkling hearts. She fixed that so hard with mythology.

Artist/Song Title: Garbage - Metal Heart
Subject: The X Files, Scully PoV, Vid-Challenge Season1: Paranoia
Summary: ’But now that we know for sure they're telling lies when they say, no one gets hurt and therefore nobody dies.‘ Paranoia is knowing all the facts.
Length: 03:59 | Size: 64 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI - zip
Links: megaupload, mediafire, permanent link

While in the mists of vidding 'Matches to Paper Dolls' I said to xandra_ptv, 'We should do a TXF vid-challenge. One vid per season.' Xandra being who she is said, 'Sure.' Because this is the stuff I randomly throw at her to see if something sticks. Finding the right song on such short notice was an hair-pulling experience I will repeat in about, uhm, NOW. The season itself holds up pretty well when you consider it was filmed 1992/93, they had some really cool scenes for TV back then. So this vid happened, mostly because I found S1-Scully precious and her hair wasn't as bad as I remembered, which can only mean that S2 will be hilarious in that department.

Artist/Song Title: Dessa - Matches to Paper Dolls
Subject: The X Files, Scully PoV, Scully/Mulder
Summary: ’Built like a moth you see - I still get chills when you talk to me.‘ Truth is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
Length: 03:31 | Size: 59 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI - zip
Links: megaupload, mediafire, permanent link

So uhm, I think I broke my speed record on vidding TXF - under a week. Not bad. Perhaps one day xandra_ptv will stop making fun of me. The song was a gift, I discovered Dessa through giandujakiss amazing Nikita video Seamstress, because vids are the way to go to discover unknown artists, fandoms and shows. After listening to the album on repeat for four days, 'Matches to Paper Dolls' suddenly hit me as perfect Scully song. One week later I have a finished vid. I love when creativity strikes.

Artist/Song Title: Smash Mouth - All Star
Subject: Better off Ted, Ted PoV, ensemble, Veronica/Ted, Linda/Ted
Summary: ’Didn't make sense not to live for fun - Your brain gets smart, but your head gets dumb.‘ Ted isn't AquaTed, but surely an All Star.
Length: 03:20 | Size: 53 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI
Links: 720x400 - AVI megaupload , 720x400 - AVI mediafire, permanent link

xandra_ptv gets her 'Better off Ted'-vid and I fell in love with Veronica all over again, so she took over a lot of the vid. I really need to find a good song for her. *sigh*

Artist/Song Title: Krezip - Thought that you would be
Subject: BtVS, Drusilla PoV, Drusilla/Spike, Buffy/Spike
Summary: ’"You were my queen, you were -" And it hits me like a rock.‘ Love is rarely pure and never simple and having visions of the future doesn't help.
Length: 02:45 | Size: 42 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI
Links: 720x400 - AVI megaupload , 720x400 - AVI mediafire, permanent link

I think the story of this vid is of my failure to vid comedy or even try it. xandra_ptv put forth a simple enough challenge, vid "Better off Ted". Instead I vidded a song I had on my to-do-list since I started it almost a decade ago. The lyrics fit Drusilla and her disillusion with Spike pretty perfectly and when the stars tell you, what's to come, it's a wonder they lasted longer than a weekend.

Artist/Song Title: Billy Joel - Shades of grey
Subject: AtS, Wesley PoV, Faith, Angel, Cordelia, Gunn, Lilah, Connor, Illyria
Original Date: 2002-06-30
Remastered: 2011-06-25
Summary: ’These days the edges are blurred, I'm old and tired of war.‘ And all color fades away in the end.
Length: 04:09 | Size: 64 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI
Links: 720x400 - AVI megaupload , 720x400 - AVI mediafire, permanent link

Another remaster of an old vid almost nine years after the first release. I always loved 'Shades of grey', because the song is so very Wesley, even when I couldn't stand the vid anymore. The original only got up to 3x16 and so I gave myself the permission to use everything up to the finale. As result it's a very different vid.

Faith has still a very prominent role in it, so has Angel. But I tried to include everybody who had an impact into Wesley's 'Shades of grey'-outlook on life, which lead to Fred missing out on the fun. I could write an essay about my reasoning here, but it comes down to a white pedestal.