kiki_miserychic

January
5 - Enter the Circus (MirrorMask) - It's going to be a bumpy ride to the other side.

February, March, April
none

May
18 - When I am Laid in Earth (Utopia) - He named his daughter Jessica Hyde. Jessica. Hyde.

25 - Après Moi (Person of Interest) - After Samantha Shaw, comes the flood.

June and July
none

August
20 - That's Life (Barefoot in the Park) - Frozen skinny Bratter lovers found on 10th street, 6th floor.

20 - Who Needs Sleep? (Elementary) - Forget Sherlock, Irene, and Moriarty. Forget being a sober companion and a consulting detective. Joan Watson just wants to get some sleep.

21 - All I Need (Superatural) - Four times Dean Winchester’s loved ones overcame mind control for him.

September, October, November
none

December
7 - Endure and Survive (Teen Wolf) - Sterek zombie AU.


Total of 7 vids, 4 of which are under 2 minutes and could be considered vidlets... What's the definition of a vidlet these days? In my mind the length doesn't always equate vid vs. vidlet. Hmmm.


My favorite video this year (of my own)
When I am Laid in Earth. I was playing with connecting clips going from frame to frame. Like trying to manipulate the viewers' eyelines. Utopia is a beautifully screwy show and I think I captured a lot of that. The visuals of the show were gorgeous and I loved pulling together things within frame and moving them around. Plus, Jessica Hyde is an interesting character and I can't wait to see what happens in season two. Blood dripping from a severed down a toilet paper dispenser in a public bathroom is the most beautiful images I saw in 2013.

Least favorite
All I Need only because I feel like I could have done more to even out the visual source. I used episodes that span across seasons where the look of the show changed tremendously. The earlier seasons are dark and moody with sparse color and the recent seasons are BRIGHT AS THE SUN by comparison. I have two Supernatural vid ideas that I really, really want to do once I get the last few clips to make my points, but I do not look forward to trying to make the visual menu balanced.

Most successful
Who Needs Sleep? simply because elipie and some others got what I was going for, but I genuinely did not expect. I find that if I expect no one to understand what I was going for, I'm super happy when someone does get it. Lower expectations is where it's at.

Video most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion
Endure and Survive because I love zombies and I think that everyone else should too. I quite like how the black and white turned out with all the different sources. It melds perfectly with the fic storyline. I suppose not many people could thoroughly enjoy it without reading the fic, but IDGAF because I love me some zombie!AU.

Video with single sexiest moment
Après Moi. There's a moment at about 2:12-2:20 where Sarah Shahi's character, Shaw, is advancing in a series of clips, which is sexy as hell. Shaw could kill you or kiss you and you won't know until after she's done it. I am so into the Shaw and Root dynamic on Person of Interest that I'm actually writing kinky fic of them. I rarely write fic, so it's huge that I'm actually trying for sexy times.

Biggest vid fail
Enter the Circus because I didn't remember to post the signed version online until I went to do this meme. Oops. I also failed at posting recs to livejournal. I did a few on twitter and posted all of my vividcon recs to livejournal though.

Hardest video to make
Endure and Survive because the different sources were a pain for me technically. I had trouble evening out the black and white and contrast and levels for everything. I can stand back and look at it and see a few things that I didn't balance enough, but I had a deadline for the Teen Wolf Big Bang and I'm very happy with what I made. It's strange for me to say that about a vid, so I'm obviously happy with it.

Most unintentionally *telling* video
That's Life. Barefoot in the Park is one of the first non-children's movies I ever got to see. That and Silence of Lambs and Leprechaun II, but that's a different story. Movies and tv had a large influence on my development. The tv show Mad About You and Barefoot in the Park formed what I thought a romantic relationship was supposed to be along with my personal examples in my young little life. I think Jane Fonda's character, Corie, was one of the first, if not the original Manic Pixie Girlfriend. I'm amazed that I understood what was going on in the movie, which is basically a newly married couple's first fight that escalates to the point where they're "trapped" in their "apartment." Trying to look at it objectively, I think this movie is part of the reason why I go for the Paul Bratter type and the Corie Bratter type in my personal life, which makes it telling.

Things I've learned
I think I did better with the technical aspects of vidding this year (this is when compared to my previous years and not the epic awesome skills of others). I learned how to chop off the letterboxing once I've rendered my vid. I started rendering my vids uncompressed with square pixels, then putting them into virtualdub to fix the frame if needed, and popping them into autogk. I think that's working out...

I learned some more about tumblr and vidding by researching for the tumblr section of the Vividcon 2013 Infinite Diversity in Vidding Combination Panel. It's like a rabbit hole that sucked me in and gave me thousand of new thoughts and new ways to think. And continues to do so today. I absolutely love how helpful tumblr can do for organizing vid time lines. With certain vids I'm able to pull gifs into the timeline as a placeholder for actual video clips into funnel them in.

Things to work on
Last year I said, "I want to try vidding female characters that do more than beat people up and make things explode while being pretty." I think I failed partly on that, but I've expanded myself a bit more and want to continue trying. The ideas I've had for 2014 vids have evolved a bit from violent women ideas, more of a different angle on the characters I enjoy. Last year I also said, "This year I'm going to focus on making vids that have higher quality video instead of lower quality for artistic reasons that make them muddy." I think I accomplished this one for the most part. I always struggle with technical stuff, but this year was better than most for fixing those problems.

In the past I've tried to be more subdued in my vidding and I've tried to widen my window of vid ideas. I think this year I want to try considering the audience more to stretch myself. I started caring very little about what people thought about my vids, which is freeing. I'd like to make one vid this year where I actually vid for an audience. I made my festivids with this in mind, so I'm getting a head start on it.

Vid projects I definitely want to get finished this upcoming year
I considered only making vids for cons this year, but I find that to do more limiting than I want. Instead I'll say that I want to make vids for Vividcon, Wiscon, and VidUKon. Anything else on top of those is icing.

Resolutions for 2014
Again, I want to go to VVC and hope that my school doesn't have another in-service on the dates. I e-mailed by supervisor about the dates. Driving to Chicago after a day of boring meetings sucked HARD and I will not be doing that ever again. I won't know if I have a job next year for a while. I'll probably be riffed again along with the whole department, which isn't a positive outlook. I'll have to find another job, so I don't know if I'll be able to enjoy myself at VVC if I'm thinking in the back of my mind that I need to find another job.

I was made of epic fail and didn't properly send the e-mail for VVC about putting together a femslash vidshow with lots of premieres, so I'm trying again this year... maybe. I'm going to make suggestion of some vidshows I'd curate for Wiscon again this year. I really enjoyed curating the Thank Heaven for Little Girls Playlist in 2013.

I want to continue filling up my vidding journal. (I find an old one I started years ago, lost, found it, lost it again, found it, lost it, and found it again, which I need to scan pages from for laurashapiro from last year's meme.)

I need to be more social online too. I'm so bad at that. I always feel like I'm trying to hard to be friends with people, like this:



And in addition:
If there is any question you would like to ask me about any one of my vids, then go ahead! What I meant by a particular clip or sequence, why I chose to highlight that characterization, why I chose that song, what crack I was taking and where you can get some...anything. Anything you might like to know about how I made a vid, I shall do my best to answer.

I made a Whiskey vidlet, The Night, with the prompts: Dollhouse, epitaph one, The Night by Morphine for the Itty-Bitty Viddy Ficcy Thon.

VID RECS:
danegen's Slobo Babe (Lesbian Vampire Killers) - Has me LOLZ-ing forever. The movie is complete crack and it's well used in the vid with good timing.

giandujakiss's A Charming Man (Supernatural) - Excellent song choice, interesting lyrical interpretation coupled with brillant musicality in the visuals.

newkidfan's Human & Monster (Supernatural) - A beautifully subdued pair of companion vidlets that feel bittersweet and sad.

FIC REC:
serrico's Primogeniture is a Supernatural fic of Claire, Castiel's vessel's daughter, set post-Rapture that hurts in a good way.

Lastly, I've become a resident of Zombieland by zombifying myself.

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?

Summer is the time for memes, so bring them on.

Zombie MEME:
You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:
1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.
* Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.

MY ANSWERS:
1. The Gay Bomb
2. Róisín Murphy's Ramalama (Bang Bang)
3. John Barrowman because he's the first person that came to mind when I thought about gay dancing zombies and you know he'd love it...

Music MEME
Name me a character or fandom in the comments and I'll give you a song in return. If I'm not familiar with your choice I'll either choose a song based on what I know from the flist, or hit random on my iTunes Winamp (SEE, I LIKE THE CLASSICS!) and wait for hilarity to ensue.