My class ended early today and I took advantage of the time to watch VVC DVDs, leave feedback, and make some recs. Look at my productive self. I'm all caught up with my college courses for today, but tomorrow is another story when we get more assignments. College makes me sleepy.

VID RECS (VVC disc 1 - premieres part 1):
halcyon_shift's VVC Premieres Intro 09 Star Trek In 60 Seconds (Re-enacted by Llamas) - Massive LULZ.

DC's We Are (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) - Calculated action, beautiful overlays, great pacing, and interesting lyrical interpretations.

bradcpu (and laurashapiro)'s Hard Sun (Firefly) - This is the vid that knows where I live.

I love the sounds in the beginning and how it just flows into the vid with all the twists and turns. Love the ivory tower. Love it like burning. It's amazing how well it all fits together and feels so right to me. It's like it couldn't be any other way than to see the lens flares at 1:09 blend together. The introduction of the rain is beautifully done and I love how the vid continues while the original footage is of walking away at the end. It's so full of love and appreciation that it bubbles up inside me and makes me smile and feel a bit better about certain things. There is sadness in the vid, like in the 2:20s when they walk away and the weeping, but I'm ultimately left with the crews and happiness.

jarrow's Learning to Crawl (Battlestar Galactica) - DAYUM, that's hot and I want to make out with it. There's so much tension and sexiness in the tight editing. Beyond the femslash and sexiness there's deep character beats within the vid and that's something beautiful.

mlyn and Jo's It Comes and Goes In Waves (Varg Veum) - Beautiful use of the source with the beautiful framing compositions and colors. I love the progression of the vid and how it changes into something so dark and violent, yet still beautiful with the changes in the music. The symbolism and emotions are so engaging that I connect with the vid without knowing the source.

hollywoodgrrl's Marble House (Doctor Who) - The editing and atmosphere is stellar. I think my favorite parts are the use of the watch in the instrumental section because it's so finely edited and heartbreaking. Honestly, the whole thing is edited with great skill.

At first I was reading as the Doctor has the choice to run off in the TARDIS, while the humans have to stay and face the fights. The Doctor plays with humanity, including John Smith, without having to face the darker aspects of it. He can go hands off whenever he wants. The Doctor can deal with aliens fine, but he doesn't stick around for humanity's darkness. That he leaves to us (and Torchwood I suppose). The Doctor leaves humanity to its own darkness. A darkness that isn't supernatural, but coming from within ourselves, which makes it all the more frightening, especially for The Doctor, who wants to love humanity. He just wants to run away from the darkness in our hearts.

dualbunny's Video Killed the Radio Star (Wizard of Oz - Elphaba [Wicked]) - I don't know Wicked very well, but I still was able to enjoy the vid. The motion and jumpcuts in the editing are great. I love how you take the footage and have us look at it from a bit to the left. The zooms make the footage more interesting and grabbing, while it also has me thinking about the scenes differently in my mind because they look different than I'm used to. It's so fun and even more fun with femslash goggles!

I started back at college and this is my last semester before I graduate with my Bachelor's Degree (yay accomplishment). It pretty much means the only thing I'm going to be doing for a while is going to classes and student teaching.

I've been meaning to make a post about vid_commentary, but never actually did it. I posted commentary for charmax's multifandom (Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: Sarah Connor, Terminator movies) vid, Unnatural Selection. Also, thuviaptarth posted commentary for my Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles vid, Ding! Dong!

I'm considering participating in Challenge 2: Combined Vidder & Viewer, but I can't figure out what I want to do for it. The idea is a comparison of point of view from creator and audience on a vid, which sounds like it could be incredible and enlightening.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and the super cute virtual gifts (nursedarry, bop_radar, talitha78, and sol_se).

nightchik and I complied the Understanding Meta Vids (I C WHUT U DID THAR) vidshow (she ran the panel at VVC) for 2009 vividcon.

Vids that exist on a meta level, working in more ways than one, often suggesting a basis beyond the individual fandoms of the source andmore about a larger concept and/or fandom itself. Vids that go beyond the narrative of their source, commenting on the nature of that narrative, connecting with outside meanings, or placing the story in alarger culture context.

Everytime I thought we had a good description I'd realize it was excluding some type of meta or possibility for meta. I had no idea how tediously difficult it would be a write a definition for what meta vids are. We went for a wide range of meta topics, so I hope people didn't look at it and reject the vidshow in the basis that it's not what they consider to be meta. Meta has a wide variety of possibilities and these vids are some of them:

( On to the playlist! )

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? While this was the playlist for meta vids used in the vidshow, I encourage others to drop links in the comments to other meta vids. Feel free to spark discussions as well. I'm sure they'll be notes coming from the meta panel and I'd love for online discussion as well.

I'm over at halcyon_shift's 2000 comments for her 2000th post offering some minivids, so head over there and help it get to 2000 comments. All things welcome, like drive by hi comments, meta, random poetry, jokes, comment fic offering, teh eye candy, recs, links, recipes, guess the song, quotes, etc.

Do you want to see something cool?

The BAMF bradcpu has started creating monthly vidder profiles featuring an audio interview with the vidder over excerpts from his or her vids. I'm the August Vidder Profile, so watch if it so pleases you. I discuss my frequent use of sexual or violent source material, my take on vidding as an art form, my concepts, my influences and more. After watching the profile I realized how much a giggle when I talk. Weird.

In conclusion, I am a Disney Princess.

August Vidder Profile (kiki_miserychic)

The FNVA vidding tournament needs 3 more entrants to make it a pool of 32, so at least consider entering. :)

I realized I'm terrible with words, so I started making book covers for the fics I enjoy as a form of feedback. I also made a little vidlet for one as well.

FIC RECS:

millylicious's The Music Box - Sylar/Claire, Nathan/Claire(ish) of Heroes. (Broken things need fixing.) -Download link for vid.

kuwdora's Through the Gates of Pandaemonium - Sylar/Mohinder of Heroes. (Abyssus abyssum invocat (Hell invokes Hell).)

dollsome's Lines - Sierra/Victor of Dollhouse. (Victor, Sierra, and crayons.)

raphaela667's the ups and downs of you - Kirk/Spock of the Star Trek Reboot. (Starfleet first officers did not regress to childhood without at least submitting prior warning to their commanding officers. They'd established that after the whole Pon Farr mess last year. There were rules about Vulcan biology and scaring the hell out of Jim now. This had to be in violation of at least three of them.)

beccatoria's The name of this story is your name. - Caprica of Battlestar Galactica. (What if Caprica didn't actually die. Ever.)

It's been a while since I've done a recs post. I had some ridic computer problems, then I was vidding non-stop and I don't watch vids while I vid. I have this deep fear of ripping someone off without realizing it. I've missed a ton of recent vids and these are a few that I've enjoyed.

VID RECS:
aycheb's Nobody loves you (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) - Amazing structure and use of the black and white. The change of pace and flow into Weaver is glorious, especially with the added layer of it being her voice. I really like the way the vid takes time with clips and allows them to breathe. I love how long and drawn out it feels. The doors opening is brillantly edited. Coming back to Ellison as the focus with Weaver and then John Henry brings Ellison into focus and the things he was faced with and how he reacts and interacts with the new information. This vid connected me with Ellison in a way I didn't in the series. Beautiful plays of light too. And the use of the graves with "all humans die eventually."

kuwdora's Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect (Heroes) - The movement and meticulous nature of the clip choice is thrilling. The song is so perfect for Sylar. He's right there in the lyrics and in the feel of the song and Abbey was able to pull him out and calculate him exactly. Sadly, there are some amazing Heroes vids that are underappreciated because of the lack of interest in the show, but that shouldn't hold anyone back from enjoying this vid. It's so freaking good. My reading of the vid is colored by my view of Sylar, so I see Sylar trying to change for other people, but ultimately rejecting it. He's so many different people and things, but some of them were forced on him instead of a choice. He's a watchmaker's son, then he was a Petrelli, then he was an orphan, then he was a million other things. But in this vid, he dreamt he was an architect instead of fixing the work of someone else. Death is his art and he makes it with his hands day after day.
With bonus vid commentary.

mithborien's Goodnight, demon slayer (Supernatural) - Extremely well edited with how Sam and Dean as grown ups are barely in the vid at all and their adult faces are obstructed or distorted when they are. Very cool idea of keeping the on them when they were younger, yet still hinting at their grown up lives within the show.

Macro rec for obsessive24's Fall of Man (Supernatural)

sol_se's So What (Prison Break) - I want to know this Gretchen character. She looks like my kind of woman. I stopped watching Prison Break before she was on, but I'm able to get the gist with clip choice, parallel clips, interesting interactions and connections, facial movements, and narrative. I want to be her PIC because Grechen is in ur show, brakin' up ur sausage fest.

winterevanesce's Like a Boss (Supernatural) - Oh shit. Great clip choice and sync. HI-LARIOUS lyric use too.

I don't know if I've ever publicly declared it, but my dream for the last half of Supernatural season five is for it to be the apocalypse. Not the usual last minute prevention, but actual end of the world and hell on Earth for the couple episodes. So reading this about an episode of Dollhouse makes my apocalypse-loving self fill with glee. I've always wanted to see a series go there. Buffy was always able to save the day, Angel was able to hold it back, Terminator comes close with flashbacks, and BSG was all about the end of the world technically. I want to see the WORLD END... on a tv series, then watch the character deal with living in a post-apocalyptic world.

I WANT TO GO TO THERE.

Last week I posted the trailer and information for RiP: A remix manifesto. Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers. Today I finally had a chunk of time to sit down and watch the film. Streaming video of RiP! A Remix Manifesto is available via NFB.ca, a web site produced by the National Film Board of Canada.

Chapter 1 - Meet Girl Talk. Today we're going to make a mash-up, find out who Girl Talk is, and why his music holds the key to the future of culture.


( chapter 2 - 13 embedded videos )

RiP: a remix manifesto

In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.

The films central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil's Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow are also along for the ride.

A participatory media experiment, from day one, Brett shares his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix. This movie-as-mash-up method allows these remixes to become an integral part of the film. With RiP: A remix manifesto, Gaylor and Girl Talk sound an urgent alarm and draw the lines of battle.

Which side of the ideas war are you on?

Watch full movie here.

I was going to be humble vidder linking to the award site polls and encouraging everyone to vote however they saw fit... But then I remembered I have loose morals and I secretly covet shiny awards, so:

Art of Vidding Awards - Best of Best Round (The Return)

Driver Picks the Music - Second Annual Viewers' Choice Awards

The Fourth Wall 2008 winners were announced with their pretty awards and awesome reviews. I'm going to be pillaging the vids and such all week. I Want You (She's So Heavy) was winner for achievement in innovation. Wee! I has award and excuse to post this Ellen Tigh monologue from a cut Battlestar Galactica scene that Ronald Moore read on his podcast. Transcribed by beccatoria.

Self-awareness is not confined to the 'real world.' In theatre fictional characters are sometimes given a form of self-awareness. This is called breaking the fourth wall. The device is a form of metafiction, allowing characters to address the audience directly and comment on the narrative in which they themselves are participants. In doing so the characters transcend their fictive nature and enter into a dialectical relationship with the viewer, with each side seeking to persuade the other of the innate truth of their reality.

But does a character actually exist? Does it have form and shape beyond the page on which it is written? Can it ever truly break the fourth wall and address the unseen, undreamt of audience that watches its every move from the safety beyond the footlights?

The Lords of Kobol once felt that man could never break the fourth wall; could never look upon the gods with understanding and grasp the divine nature of life. They believed this until one day man stole their fire and created the first cylons the first artificial life.

And then man, in his arrogance, believed cylons could never break the fourth wall. And man believed that right up until the moment the first centurions rebelled and then the great exodus from paradise began. You see Boomer, we are not finite creations, we have the ability to evolve, you have so much more potential.

I should be vidding right now. Why aren't I vidding?

Via sol_se, I read a very interesting article, Sarah Connor Creator Talks Killer Bots, Cyborg Sex, Surviving the Future.

Summer Glau is pretty. Really pretty.

VID REC:
giandujakiss's Hell of a Place (The X-Files) - The X-Files was my first fandom, so the vid vid filled me with love, happiness, and joy, while reminding me of the epic and important weight of the show. The use of the symbolic clips with the lyric interaction and editing is amazing. The pacing is killer too.

A few friends and I went out the other night not realizing that the holiday would effect bars. It was so empty and boring for the first half hour because there were 10 people in the whole place that I played I Spy with a guy down the bar. The owner felt bad, so he gave out free drinks and if it was boring after that, I didn't care or notice.

I made cupcakes today, which is a major thing for me. The first time I decided to make cupcakes I stood in the baking isle of the grocery store looking for cupcake mix for ten minutes. I ended up asking a stock boy where it was. Needless to say, he looked at me like I was made out of stupidity and said cupcakes are made from cake mix. So I've come a long way from that to making cupcake so good you'll suck dick.

VID RECS:
balistik94's Awakening (The Maxtrix Trilogy) - I love the sense of beat and editing. There's a strong stylization to the effects and use of them.
balistik94's Exterminating Son (Blade Trilogy) - I'm a little bit in viddinglove with balistik94. There's an amazing ability to get a feel for the music and the source with the pacing, editing, and just plain coolness inherent in the vid. It has some very cool musical edits.

humansrsuperior's end. (Doctor Who) - Interesting concept that ties everything together and it fits perfectly. The effects are soft and organic. A whole mood is created with the music, clip choice, visuals, and audio work.

jagwriter78 and rhoboat's Anything the Doctor Can Do... (Doctor Who) - EHehehhe, I still have a huge doofy smile on my face from watching this vid.

ladymajavader's Powrót (The Return) (Multi) - I think everyone will see something a little different when they watch this vid, but it will be beautiful.

tearful_eye's Promises, Promises (Torchwood and Doctor Who) - Excellent jumpcuts that really create a taped together atmosphere. It's like the pieces of Ianto put back together with some of them covered by Jack.

thedothatgirl's Venus in Furs (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - A disturbingly hot vid with great song choice, concept, music matching, structure, and black and white.

Mondays are now my favorite day of the week. I get up super early (or just stay up all night) to go to McDonald's with my grandparents. There's a group of people from their church that meet at 6am for 2 hours to have coffee and talk. There's usually a dozen senior citizens (I call them cool old people in my head, but that might be offensive...) and every once in a while a younger person comes along. I totally love going. Everyone is so happy sweet. It's pretty much just the people I miss from when I went to church. For me, it's as close as I'll get to going back to church. I take my sketchbook, talk, listen, and drink a hugemongous caramel iced coffee.

The funniest part is how my grandfather goes to the register before we leave to pay. He's the only person I have ever heard of that can run a tab at McDonald's. It blows my mind how he's such a baller that he can get coffee for me, himself, and my gramma; 2 cherry pies for us to split; and an occasional cinnamon roll for my gramma and not pay until later. They were training a new clerk this morning, so when he listed off everything, she turned around to collect the items, but the other clerk explained that he already had his order and he was paying for it before he left. The girl was as amazed as I was the first time I went.

VID RECS:
arefadedaway's The Bells (Doctor Who) - A beautiful opening and bringing the Doctor fully in with the rising of the music. Great pacing and clip choice, as well as interesting parallels and overall progression. It never stops being awesome.

tallulah71's Hera has Six Mommies (Battlestar Galactica) - A beautiful interpretive dance-like vid about how the 6 women come together to form Hera. Just as Hera is the shape of things to come, I think this vid is the shape of things to come as well. There's an elegance of execution, planning, and forethought. It's a complex and interesting study. The remix track used brings in many layers of the songs all come together in the same way that all the women, Cylon and human, come together in the devastation and culmination of gaining and losing Hera.

tzegha's Dirty Hole (Life) - Kickass editing, inspired clip choice, and amazing thesis. It's about Charlie, his prison; Dani, her prison; Ted, his prison; and all the things that signify them.

sapote3's The Test (Torchwood) - It's like there Gwen and Tosh and this vid is the line between them.
sapote3's Teeth in the Grass (Doctor Who) - While it may shatter any illusions as to how awesome it would be to travel with the Doctor as a Companion, the music matches are excellent and there's beautiful moment in the 1:40s to watch for.

A handful of long overdue VID RECS:
charmax's Cry Me a River (Lost and Delirious) - Blissful editing that contains so much pain and love.

gigglemonster's Breathe Me (Friday Night Lights) - With such texture and effects, it feels light, yet heavy in a meaningful way.

keewick's Recessional (Dead Like Me) - Beautiful and understated editing that emphasizes the quiet motion and natural connections.

kuwdora's Reinvent Yourself (Heroes) - Great motion, use of beat, and pacing.

special_trille's Twist (Dexter) - A bittersweet mixture of music and source with blissful use of beat and lyrics.

crickets's Karma Police (Battlestar Galactica) - After watching 4x01 of BSG, I went back to watch some Final Four vids and fell in love with this interestingly distorted and desolately disjointed (yet connected) look at the Final Four.

tearful_eye's Back Then (Doctor Who) - Lovely editing style, song choice, and a killer piano section.

wistful_fever's Four Years (Stargate: Atlantis) - A comprehesive and graceful exploration of Sheppard/McKay.

Having a snow day is so great. I get so much done.

VID RECS:
giandujakiss's Origin Stories (Buffy and Angel) - Commissioned by untrue_accounts, this vid hurts my brain with how amazingly intricate it is. I downloaded and watched it the first time seeing the Slayer/Vampire/It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat layer. I watched it the second time seeing the gender/It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat layer, then I refreshed my flist to find many recs and commentaries pointing out the race issues. Because I am dense sometimes, I watched again to see the race/It's Nikki Wood's fucking coat aspect. Everytime I watch it I see something else and that is the mark of a truly amazing vid.

Nicky's Piece of Me (RPS) - Well meshed sources, editing, and thought. I can't get over how well she was able to take Britney Spears' collection/life/videos and produce this incredibly telling, thought provoking vid that comes to a startling and plausible conclusion.

Last week I posted Sarah Silverman's song I'm F*cking Matt Damon and now Jimmy Kimmel's response - I'm F*cking Ben Affleck, along with Elizabeth Banks' parody - I’m Fucking Seth Rogen (NSFW).

It's interesting because a lot of people have been going back and forth with vid responses lately, including greensilver, who thinks Ianto won't dance, fan_eunice, who believes Ianto got his groove back, and kuwdora, who thinks Ianto dances with Weevils.

From now on all arguements will be settled in vid form.

I broke one of my resolutions on January 4th. I wasn't going to "be all up in celebrity gossip", but com'on. Britney Spears was taken to the hospital for a mental evaulation. How can I not "be all up in" that?

I almost, almost got to see a real hardcore bar fight last night after the game. One of the guys was two seconds from doing one of those hard chest pokes to the other guy, but his brother and wife settled him down. In hindsight it was stupid to go get drinks when the game was on. Amanda (Noel Fielding to my Russell Brand) and I met up with Marcus and Nikki at the smallest bar I've ever been in, The Joyful Mug.

VID RECS:
astartexx's Take Me Home (Deadwood) - Harsh song and recolor that suits Alma completely with the melodic editing and fades.

raspberry_splat, humansrsuperior, and leviathan101's Winter in My Heart (Doctor Who) - Perfectly alligned layers and effects that make the vid feel ghostlike.

sweetestdrain's Growing Up (Supernatural) - It's a giant ball of Supernatural awesomeness with motion, movement, editing, and pacing to die for.

Since a few people have asked for it, I'll post a link to my the girl or the weapon? edit of Michael Andrews' score here as well.

CD meme
Follow these easy steps:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result in your own journal:

Thanks, charmax, I love my 2008 glasses. :)

My finger is doing much better, so to celebrate I made an LOLCAT complete with bad spelling:


Best news today: Tim Burton to direct Alice in Wonderland. In my mind it's the perfect fit. I can't wait to see who Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter play. I think Ellen Page would make an interesting Alice, but no one agrees with me.

All of my holiday cards were so wonderful. I have to make another memoboard because I still have more to put up.


( My Holiday Loot )