VVC 2006!

[oyceter]

Possibly the latest VVC 2006 post EVER....

So I spent most of the weekend obsessively watching and re-watching my VVC 2006 DVDs, largely because for the past few days staring too long at my monitor has caused extreme nausea and queasiness. (wtf?! how am I supposed to check my email every five seconds and refresh LJ every 2 seconds like this? computer! stop messing with my lifestyle!)

Notes are on vids on the three DVDs, as I didn't actually go to VVC and didn't see the auction vids and others. This is also going to be a HUGE post -- if I don't write these all up now, I'll probably never do it.

The SPN vids

Disclaimer: SPN fans, I am happy you love your fandom and do not mock you or your show! ok maybe a little for the show because of the many blonde women I cannot tell apart, but I also love anime, particularly anime that most people think is total crack, so feel free to mock back!

I have seen most of S1 of SPN, thanks to the combined pimping efforts of rachelmanija and coffeeandink, but despite being mildly fond of Dean and Sam, I am apparently not a fan of the show. Part of this is because I can't tell apart any of the non-Winchester characters, since all the women seem to be white and blonde and end up dying on the ceiling (wait, no! One brunette was up there on the ceiling at one point! And I think there were some blondes who didn't die on the ceiling, though they still die, probably on other planar surfaces) and all the men seem to be white, middle-aged, and slightly balding. I am fairly certain they all die too.

Also, the emo-ness of the familial interactions really does not work for me, particularly with regard to the actor who plays John Winchester, who strikes me as having eyes that are entirely too soulful.

Oh my god. I actually know his name. Clearly I have already been taken over by the borg that is SPN fandom.

Anyway, I am fairly certain coffeeandink showed me most of the vids when I last visited, so I have seen them before. The ones I remember most are morgandawn's "God Says Nothing Back, because a) it was the first SPN vid on the DVD, b) I like the song, and c) it is pretty, particularly all the greys and monochromes with shots of color (Sam's girlfriend -- whose name I think is Jessica because it was on the tombstone omg more surprise at actualy knowing names -- right when the lyrics sing "red and gold" and there's her blonde hair and her red nurse hat or something. Is she a nurse?). I am not sure how much color editing Morgan Dawn did, as I don't remember that much about the palette of the show, but it was lovely.

I also remember halcyon_shift's "Evening on the Ground," but, um, largely because every time it started, I would sit up and say, "Hey! I know that song!" And then I would sit back down and remember that I had said that about ten times already. Short-attention span? Me? What?

I did mention that these write-ups were going to be completely random and unhelpful, right?

The SGA vids

Disclaimer: SGA fans, I am happy you love your fandom and do not mock you or your show! ok maybe a little because SGA is always "That Fandom I Know Nothing About But Many People Seem to Write Lots of Fic for" but I also love anime, particularly anime that most people think is total crack, so feel free to mock back!

I read untrue_accounts' vid write-ups before watching, and so I spent most of the first time around trying to figure out who was Ernie and who was Bert. I've seen the first two seasons of SG-1 before, which I am mildly fond of but not really fannish about, so at least I know a little about the Stargate thing. But SGA seems to be very different. First: there is a city! It frequently leaps out of the water! Or sometimes it gets swallowed by it! Though maybe that is the leaping out being put in backwards; I am not too sure.

I am fairly certain that this city is the Atlantis part of Stargate: Atlantis.

I also tried to look for Teyla and Ronon, as I remember their names from the SGA race debates of DOOM, but I couldn't see them, possibly because all (?) the vids were on Ernie and/or Bert, who I am fairly certain are the Rodney and Sheppard or McKay or um... yeah. That main pairing. (SGA fans, please feel free to start mocking me, oh, ten paragraphs ago.)

The SGA vids I remember are:

sherrold and wickedwords' "Atlantis!," aka Oklahoma! in two minutes, and the vid it remixed, astolat and cesperanza's "Rumble," aka West Side Story in two minutes.

Did I mention I am a giant showtunes fan, in addition to being a fan of cracktastic anime shows?

I adored "Rumble," particularly the guy as Maria and the ending, and after watching "Rumble" and "Like Sisyphus" and "Separate Ways" about five times each, I finally figured out that the Jets and the Sharks were the pilots vs. the scientists.

Right?

It's so interesting learning about fandoms from vids!

I really loved the idea of "Atlantis!" as a remix of "Rumble," though I think it might have worked better for me if there had been longer song snippets so I didn't constantly have mental whiplash. Every time I finally IDed a song and got the joke, the vid was nearly halfway through the next one.

I also loved Lord King Bad Vid "Separate Ways," by thepouncer and barkley. I only now realized, after finding the playlist, that the vid is actually a crossover between SGA and something called Airwolf (movie? TV show?). I started snorfling at the music, which is so very 80s Top Gun, and now I can identify the tall cute guy as the pilot! I forgot his name though. I think it is John?

Also, um, the pilot guy is really cute in a puppy-dog way, and I am briefly tempted to watch some of the show because I am shallow like that.

My favorites:

• sweetestdrain's "Monochrome" (Carnivale) - I have absolutely no idea what it was about, but after I watched it for the first time and tried frantically to ID the fandom (a few minutes in, and I figured anything with fairs and tarot cards was probably Carnivale), I ran to my computer and looked it up and downloaded it, along with two more of sweetestdrain's vids.
  
  I still have no idea what it's about, except it's about this tired guy, and something to do with "Tavatar" and blood and resurrection and losing people he loves and tarot cards and snakes. The vid is creepy as fuck, and it's absolutely gorgeous; I put down my knitting a few seconds after the music started just to watch it. I love the muted colors, the imagery, the dusty land (for quite a few moments, I thought it was actually set during the Depression. Wait, maybe it is. See above re: difficulties of learning about fandoms via vids), the tarot cards and the mystical crooked tree tattooed on a man. I love the blood and the lights of the ferris wheel blinking on, the backstage behind the carnival, the nearly Jesus-like figure of a man in a chair, "Tavatar" written in blood and ink and carved on walls, the red liquid (too light to be wine, cherry soda? Cordial?) in cups echoing the red blood.



• Eunice's "Lullaby" (Dead Poets Society) - it took a few watchings to figure out who was who. I've only seen the movie once over a decade ago; and even then, I had a hard time distinguishing between guy-played-by-Ethan-Hawke and guy-who-kills-himself (Neil? Why do I think his name is Neil?). Part of me felt bad because the vid reminded me of the movie, which is so white and so male; young white men reading old dead white male poets. Of course, this is because it's about fifties prep schools, but for a few minutes, I felt very out of place.
  
  That's not a critique of the vid, by the way.
  
  The vid itself is so lovely and understated, from the start of the quiet song to a slow-motion view of a banner reading "Tradition" to the moment when Puck-guy closes his eyes at the window in despair. It reminds me a lot of Eunice's "Fragile," which also uses music and slow motion to make even happy moments in the source wistful and melancholy and bittersweet all at once, because you know about the tragedy to come. I love how "Lullaby" circles around the book of poetry the boys use and the crown of twigs (thorns?), and comes back to the boys standing on their desks in protest. I love circling back to a memory of Puck laughing in the hallway after the other boys learn of his death, along with the bridge about the dragon going to the production of A Midsummer's Night Dream, all the gold colors signalling nostalgia and loss.



• f1renze's "Ragged Ass Road" (Prison Break) - Ok, now I want to watch this show. Going along with shows I am learning about only via vids, all I know about Prison Break is that it's about one brother trying to break another out of jail. I also had some trouble telling the brothers apart; they are both white men with shaved heads. Help! I can't tell people apart if they are roughly the same age and ethnicity and then have the same hair (or lack of)!
  
  The editing in this one completely won me over; the dissolves from the prison layout to the same thing tattooed on someone's body, the REALLY COOL shot of a picture of a stone-carved window morphing into the real thing transitioning to the scene inside, the focus on grates and metal bars and escape routes and corridors, the reoccuring image of the origami bird floating down and out of the prison (I think).



• andrastewhite's "Ophelia" (Babylon 5) - I only now learned this was Babylon 5; while watching, all I knew was that it was one of the sf alien shows that wasn't Star Trek or Stargate or Farscape. I know nothing about this show at all -- even less than I know about Prison Break or Life on Mars or SGA!
  
  That said, I loved the song choice; all the women as Ophelia and the one shot of a skull dangling. I don't know who any of them are, but I just liked the focus on them all, the sadness and wistfulness of the song, the slow-motion clips of a woman strutting across the stage, another one fighting in a bar, veils and heavy fabric on the alien one. I also loved the two women holding hands (comforting each other?). I wish I had more to say about this -- none of the imagery or editing quite sticks in my head, the way some of the others do, but I love how the song comes together and tells the story of all these women, even if I don't know who they are.



• bunniqula's "Comin' Up from Behind" (Bound) - Bound vid! EEEE! Love that movie so much for all the pretty! I loved the very start of the vid, particularly the pan down that turns into the title that turns into the two women in the elevator. I think that Bunniqula did something with all the movie clips; aged them a little, gave them some film grain, added some sepia to the color. I don't quite remember the movie looking like that, though I could very well be wrong. It's been a while since I've seen it.
  
  I also did the "Hey! I know this song!" thing to this vid and finally figured out it was from the very cool Witchblade vid as well, though I think this is a different cover (which, by the way, I am dying to find). Also, I can't find this vid online, which is sad because it's so full of the pretty.
  
  Anyway, I love the sexiness of this vid, of the Jennifer Tilly character and Corky (Gina Gershon = TEH HOT). I have pretty much nothing intelligent to say about it, since most of my commentary is: Sexy! Pretty! EEEEE! Sexy! Pretty! Love the movie editing so much! Love the clips!



• destina's "Hurt" (Brokeback Mountain) - I realize this is somewhat obvious, but OUCH. This vid perfectly shows why I will never watch that movie again; everything is so closed off and limited, the only wide open spaces and possibilities are back on the mountain, and not even very much there as well. I'm not depressed about the tragedy of the ending; I'm more depressed at Ennis turning away from all possiblility of happiness time and time again.
  
  I've also never heard the song before this vid (lalala general musical ignorance); every time I rewatch this, I am amazed by the power of the instrumentation, how it grows and grows starting around "and you could have it all / my empire of dirt" until I'm sitting there just aching. Destina does a great job at holding back and waiting to build up and build up until that final chorus, with the parallel of Jack and Ennis fighting and Jack's death. I love Brokeback Mountain as the empire of dirt, everyone gradually leaving Ennis, the shots of Jack on "my sweetest friend," the wasteland that is Ennis' life, the heartbreaking last part to "if I could start again" circling back to the first happy moments at Brokeback.



• absolut3destiny's "There Is Too Much Light in This Bar (Life on Mars) - Hilarious! Awesome editing! Hilarious! All I know about Life on Mars is it's about a policeman or a detective who accidentally winds up back in the 1970s with a partner (or boss?) who is an asshole but is possibly also very slashable.
  
  There is so much I love in here, the crazy monologue and the great way the editing mimics the narration, particularly the part with the partner walking -- no, swaggering -- into somewhere paired with the shot of the partner walking in, a quick rewind, and a slower walk in. And the culmination of timeskipped cop boggling at the unpleasant nakedness of partner above him in boxers to "there is way too much light in this bar!" And just... the zany energy combined with the zany editing, and now I feel like I should go back and rewatch just for the moment where the narration yells "I'm here to fuck and do crack and I'm all out of crack!" (the quote is approximate, it's from memory and I can't find the lyrics) to partner swaggering and yelling and shaking things at people. And the moment about the most pretentious asshole in the bar -- "which is me" -- and the shot of timeskipped cop. Um, yes. Much love.
  
  Incidentally, it reminds me a lot of astolat and cesperanza's "A Day in the Life," aka the Dead Zone vid that is Creepy as Fuck. I think it's the match of the visuals with the way the music sounds, the disorienting stops and starts and the jarring noises that aren't quite music to the increasingly disjointed editing of the clips.



• Dianne T. DeSha's "That Don't Impress Me Much" (Dr. Who/9th Doctor) - Look! I actually know which Doctor it is! Um, anyway, this isn't the deepest of vids, but I just like all the shots of Rose not being impressed by the Doctor or Captain Jack, and I am not even a fan of the show! It's silly and it's fun.



• sdwolfpup's "Fix You" (BSG) - I have actually written an entire entry on exactly why I love this vid so much. Because I love it that much.
  
  Suffice to say, I have seen it at least twenty times already prior to getting my VVC DVDs, and I still love it and put down my knitting for it every. single. time. And have perfect moments of sheer GAAAAAH AWESOME to the doors opening at the chords and the Cylon ships appearing at "Lights will guide..." and the picking up of the music to all the ships blowing up and that MOMENT when all the soldiers lift their guns to the air and all the Cylons marching in to "fix you" just as the vid ends on that perfect note GAH SO AWESOME and ok possibly I am embarrassing myself again.
  
  But yes. LOVE.



• melina123's "Media Vita" (Rome) - This is another vid that makes me want to see the source. And by "see," I mean "grab all the DVDs and just ogle at the cinematography and the colors and the costumes and how some stills look exactly like classical paintings."
  
  There's so much in this vid that I feel like I'm not getting because I don't know the source, but quite honestly, I do not care because it is just that beautiful (are we sensing a theme about what about certain vids gets to me?). Particular images I love are the man with blood painted on his face fading to the gold statue of Jove (I think) fading back to another man with blood painted on his face (same man only older?) and fading back to the original image. The wall graffiti of Caesar's death. The priestess or queen or whoever in a long purple robe, back to us, framed by the light coming in from a doorway, a pool of what could be blood or water behind her. The same (?) woman facing a window, again framed by the light. The (*flails incoherently*) cinematography! Gah! I love the colors! I haven't seen the show, so I don't know how much editing Melina did of the colors, but whatever it is, it is beautiful, just muted enough, and there are so many scenes in this vid that look like paintings, the composition is so lovely.
  
  I also can't watch all of it because of the violence; the gladiators in the arena paralleled with Caesar being stabbed to death (I'm pretty sure it's Caesar?), and then the beautiful shot at the end with all the senators (?) and the young man with blood on his face in a toga bathed in light (Octavian? Is that you?), and it looks just like a painting.



• laurashapiro and halcyon_shift's "I Put You There" (meta) - Hee! Also, I now have the song stuck in my head. There is so much to love about this: FG+RG 4ever! in the credits, the brown-skinned bespectacled Fangirl, the tshirt with the LJ pencil, the Lloyd Dobler pose, and, of course, the entire concept. Alas, I don't have much intelligent to say about this except: "Hee!" and "OMG! She is IN THE SHOW! Because she drew herself in!"

Lord King Bad Vids

I already wrote up "Separate Ways" above. I think I also laughed myself sick during renenet's "Man in Motion" (Matrix) and the awesomeness of a Matrix vid to sappy seventies (?) music, particularly at "try to break free" to Neo breaking out of Agent Smith. And I laughed myself sick during dualbunny's "Lover's Cross" as well. Poor Angelus! He just wanted to be looooooved!

My mind mostly shut down during the Club Vivid vids, largely because most of the music didn't really work for me.

Wow this entry is long. I think I will save the Challenge vids and Memorable Vids That Did Not Work for Me for later....

Comments

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

Vids are yay!

-- right when the lyrics sing "red and gold" and there's her blonde hair and her red nurse hat or something. Is she a nurse?)

She's just being a nurse for Halloween.

Re: looking for Teyla and Ronon in vids-- no, you're right, I don't think they are actually featured in any of the VVC vids. But, if you're interested, mimesere made a kickass Ronon vid (just based on his first three episodes!) here (http://mimesere.livejournal.com/491187.html) and, if I may self-pimp, I have a John/Teyla vid here (http://liviapenn.imeem.com/video/wiR-4jfS/sga_handlemewithcare/). :)

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

P.S., also, you are correct, John is the cute like a puppy dog one. :D

[oyceter]

Ooo, thank you for the vid links! Already I like Teyla, as she seems to beat people up with sticks. Always good in my book.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I meant to thank you for making this lovely long post about vids.

And then I thought I'd better check in - when you get a sec and feel up to it, can you scan this post and make certain you're OK with the topics we are discussing in my LJ?

http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/650732.html

[oyceter]

Nope, no problem with any of the topics! I mean, I choose not to read/write some specific topics, but if other people do, I am fine with that.

Thaks!!!

[petersongman.livejournal.com]

Hye!!
Thank u for this amazing post!!!
Thank u again!