Spinning on that dizzy edge

So I was going to post about how I'm proud of myself for making a treat for Festivids, and accepting that it received an average response and not the glowing dozens of comments I've had in previous years, which is fair because it was kind of a slapdash effort, but then I tested positive for Covid yesterday and I'm just done with this week.

I mean, I do have a lot of feelings, like determination that NEXT YEAR I'll have made an impression on the vidding community such that someone will at least post my vid in the "Guess the Festividder" chain, even if my name isn't mentioned, maybe by working on a treat in advance so it doesn't end up a hot mess.

I also have feelings about the friend who attended a gaming session sick and didn't mask or test beforehand, thereby infecting me AND the kid, but I'm trying to be gracious, because 4 years was a good run to avoid it, and it's partly on me for not getting the family in for the latest vax (though I did get the flu shot, and spend most of December and January slogging through with an unrelated cold), and apologies were offered, but we're still sick. At least our schedules are flexible enough that it's more of an annoyance than a crisis, and so far our symptoms have been pretty mild, and I am not borrowing trouble by worrying about Long Covid just yet. Though the taste of a metallic rat having died in my mouth can go away any time, thanks Paxlovid. Today we wait to see if the spouse is also positive; it was almost cute yesterday the way he kept forgetting that maybe he shouldn't be in close quarters with me until he's confirmed one way or the other.

I took yesterday and today off work, since my brain is noping out of concentrating right now. Heartstopper in its various forms has been keeping me company. Bless fandom for sharing.

In short: UGH.

It's been a long, long time since I made a vid. The last one I created was for my brother's funeral over three years ago. That took a lot out of me and kinda squashed any vidding urges I had for quite a while.

When I saw skygiants' Festivids requests pop up on the pinch hit list, I was lured in by the thought of making a "Much Ado About Nothing" vid. I've loved that movie since the first time I saw it, with its amazing banter and chemistry between Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh. I dithered long enough that the pinch hit was claimed, but the idea had taken root and wouldn't let me go, and since it had been so long since a vidding idea grabbed me so hard, I decided to go for it. I spent a few hours looking for music, and with that nailed down, the vid came together over three days. There were a lot of meetings that week at work, so multitasking FTW!

With a solid version finished, there was a bit of time before the submission deadline. I had the source already and a different take, and the vidding bit between my teeth, so in the time left before Go Live, I pulled together "Girls Chase Boys".

I hope the condensed timeline in which I made these doesn't show too badly, not to mention the music alterations and cuts. I was certainly blown away by all the positive comments left on the posts, especially the ones from skygiants. With that kind of enthusiastic and detailed feedback, I would make vids for her any day. :D

I tweaked a couple things in the updated version, and built subtitle files for the first time (!!!), so it's taken me a bit to write up a vid post. Vid in haste, review in leisure?

You can watch them here or on A03:
Much Ado about True Love
Girls Chase Boys

( Much Ado About True Love )

( Girls Chase Boys )

If anyone wants copies of these, let me know and I will upload them.

I made three Festivids!

The Pirates of Penzance:
Rock This Town, PG. DW, LJ, AO3. The Pirates of Penzance are gonna rock this town.

RPF - Chris Hadfield:
Satellite, G. DW, LJ, AO3. These are the voyages of Col. Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut, science educator, and generally cool dude.

Spy:
Level Up, NSFW. DW, LJ, AO3. Susan Cooper: Analyst. Secret agent. BADASS.

I am very happy with how they were received. I am super relieved that they're finished. Well, all except replying to the comments, which at this point is a crapshoot at being done.

I thought about signing up for equinox_exchange, but I was just a little burned out at that point. I think, though, my vidding well is sufficiently full again to make nefarious plans about that glorious time of year - VIVIDCON! For starters, I have a couple of ideas for Club Vivid that I need to mull over and get approved.

However! This year, I am also seriously pondering offering my services for the Auction, because every little bit helps. Buuuuuut, my anxieties about my abilities are rearing their ugly little weasel heads, so I'm flopping back and forth, and could really use some reassurance. Someone out there would pay twenty bucks for a vid from me, right? Right? And someone else out there would perhaps cheerlead or beta my efforts, yes?

UGH, brain, why you gotta be so mean?

Title: Level Up
Source: Spy (2015)
Music: "Level Up", Sway ft. Kelsey
Vid Download Link: 65 MB at Sendspace

AO3 link.

Summary: Susan Cooper: Analyst. Secret agent. BADASS.

A Festivid for awkwardlyary

Notes: I was feeling cocky about how easy my assignment came together, and how much time I had left to make some treats. Then I saw several posts asking for pinch hits and thought it would be nice to help out. On awkwardlyary's list was "Spy", which I hadn't seen but had heard many enthusiastic reviews about, and given it was a lot of the same people involved as "Ghostbusters", I had to try it out.

I loved the movie, from the humor, to Cooper's evolution and build to total badass, to the fact that the star was a woman of size and yet there were no fat jokes. Such a basic thing, yet such a revelation to witness! I googled for songs about leveling up to see what felt right; the first hit wound up being the one I used.

I had fun pulling together the opening credits. I got to learn all sorts of new tricks, from tinting to splitting and freezing. I may yet graduate to using 5% of all the options available in Sony Vegas Pro. :) Everything came together pretty smoothly, aside from having to mess with the speed of several clips. Filmmakers just love their slo-mo moments of awesome, but they don't translate very well to fast-paced vids.

I'm pretty pleased with how it all turned out, considering it was basically a week from claiming the pinch hit to finishing up the vid.

Many thanks to the wonderful comments on the original Dreamwidth and LJ posts.

( Vid here! )

( Level Up Lyrics )

Oh my goodness, what a difference a week makes! I am officially off all meds, though still resorting to my inhaler multiple times a day. I am sleeping through the night! Every night! I forgot what it was like to not be afraid of my bed and the night time. Sleep is where I'm a Viking, y'all.

( Better health, parenting tests, shame, and guilt )

But sleep! I can haz it! G'night everybody.

I got my Festivids entry completed and submitted well before the last minute, which is a record for me. I would say it came together really quickly and easily, except for the part where I spent literally months trying to get my hands on the source. If I don't already own the source, I try to get it through my library, which is normally excellent in its range of materials. This time, however, was a screwball comedy that I will share when my reveal post goes up.

While waiting for the source to come through, I spent some time thinking about treats, but I would not let myself actually get started until I finished my assignment. Then I got sick, and punted on everything after submitting my main vid, so the extras wound up waiting until last week. After a frantic few days, I have a first draft of one set aside to percolate while I work on a second. Bless my husband for encouraging me in my creative passions, as he waves off my guilty feelings about not doing more around the house while I'm brain-deep in vidding.

( Ongoing ick, family schisms )

I am maintaining a list of phrases to use in place of putting the word "President" next to that asshole's name in any context. Thus, Presidon't, Presiwon't, Dishonest Don, Hair Furor, The Yam in Chief, Ugly Bigly, and so on. Have you heard any good ones?

The Festivids reveals are live! I am so happy to be able to go download my favorites for constant rewatch.

I made two, Lose Yourself for "Hamilton" (now unlocked! *sigh*) and Welcome to the Jungle for "Henry V".

I got to thank caramarie for my fun Heathers vid, Don't Try Suicide, as well.

Now I'm off to register for Vividcon, wahoooo! I have the best inspiration for a Club Vivid entry that was already approved, so I'm holding that as my reward for making progress on all the crap I need to get done this weekend. If anyone wants to volunteer for beta/cheerleading/idea bouncing (*AHEM* heresluck), that would be fabulous.

Title: Lose Yourself
Source: Hamilton (various recordings)
Music: "Lose Yourself [Original Demo Version]", Eminem
Vid Download Link: 63 MB at sendspace

AO3 link here.

Summary: Lose yourself in this music, this moment. We own it, we won't never let it go.

Notes: This is a Festivids 2015 treat for sdwolfpup, one of several people who requested a "Hamilton" vid. I really wanted to make a vid for this recent musical obsession of mine, and I wanted to express my thanks for her ongoing contribution to fandom that is More Joy Day, so here's the result.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has said that Eminem is one of his inspirations, listing the "8 Mile" track "Lose Yourself" as a specific song. I love the beat and build in that tune, but the lyrics weren't doing it for me, so I went looking and found Eminem's original demo for it, and nearly lost it at how perfect this version was.

After throwing together most of the vid, I approached heresluck for feedback. Her squeeful response was extra gratifying, and then her masterful betaing was beyond what I could have hoped for. This vid is a 1000% better because of her. Thank you thank you thank you!

Thanks, too, to all my fellow "Hamilton" vidders, and the enthusiastic people who left wonderful comments on the original Dreamwidth and Livejournal Festivids posts!


( Vid here! )

( Lose Yourself [Demo] Lyrics: )

Title: Welcome to the Jungle
Source: Henry V (1989)
Music: "Welcome to the Jungle", by 2Cellos
Vid Download Link: 147 MB at sendspace (Let me know if you would like something smaller, and I can post a link for that as well.)

AO3 link here!

Summary: Welcome to the jungle...watch it bring you to your knees.

Notes: This is a Festivids 2015 gift for condnsdmlk, who asked for a Henry V vid. I remembered being enthralled by the movie when it first came out, so when it came up as an option in the Festivid request list, I jumped on it.

I love the 2Cellos' transformative take on music, and they perfectly fit the bill for what I wanted: something on the surface that had a classy orchestral sound, but at the same time was big and bombastic with a good match on the unsung lyrics. Their adaptation of Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" fit perfectly.

Thanks to all the enthusiastic people who left wonderful comments on the original Dreamwidth and Livejournal Festivids posts!


( Vid here! )

I made two vids for Festivids!

Creator (Eureka, Jo Lupo)

What's Your Naked (What's Your Number, Ally/Colin)

They were both really well received, especially by the intended recipients, so I'm happy about that. gwyn guessed correctly that I had made the WYN vid for her, so I owe her a prize. You want icons with that? ;)

I still want to go back and respond to all the comments, which sets up a weird pressure in my head to find umpteen different ways of saying "thank you". Oh, fangirl problems...

I finally got a new laptop to replace my current workhouse with the broken hinge. The new one has Windows 8.1, UGH. I forget each time how much I hate setting up machines to have all the correct bells and whistles, and deleting all the unwanted crap. (McAfee can go suck it with their horrible protection and whiny "don't remove meeeeeee!" warnings.) Having this new awful OS on top of that just feels me with dread. Once I'm done, though, it will be zippy fast, and I can gift the Emperor with my old one (set up in the basement with a monitor, so he won't destroy it with the wonky hinge).

January blurred into February, and now February is almost done, too. As much as I love snow, I'm good now, so spring can arrive any time. Plus, March means my birthday and a visit to kass! Note to self: start planning media to bring for the trip for potential recruitment.

Speaking of new fandoms, I have fallen hard for "Arrow". I blazed through most of seasons 1 and 2 last weekend. I knew it was full of fabulous ladies, but no one told me just HOW full it was! Ladies everywhere! Duplicitous DAs and CIAs and CEOs, a whole rainbow of HBsIC. I was spoiled for a lot of it, thanks to Tumblr GIFs and such, but I'm still enjoying small unforeseen twists. However, I am getting tired of the Identity Angst and SECRETS EVERYWHERE. Hasn't that shit bitten them in the ass enough already?

Speaking of fabulous ladies, "Agent Carter" has ended, alas; I'm trying to manage my expectations so I won't be utterly crushed if it doesn't get renewed. We had a sublime run of it, and the DVDs can't come soon enough. I'm really hoping that "Agents of SHIELD" can build on some of that energy and keep me excited for Marvel on TV.

In other news, "Glee"'s final season is filling me with complicated (and CAPSLOCKy) feelings. What a long, strange trip it's been.

What all are you watching?