[sticky entry] Sticky: Introductions

Dec. 12th, 2018 09:53 pm
readmethesigns: (sc » alexis (head))
I anticipate this journal will mostly be used to talk about television, so I'll use this post as a way to introduce which shows I'm most likely to bring up – a more complete list can be found at one of the tv-tacking sites I use below. Note: relationships listed below include both platonic and romantic relationships.

links
screencaps: cap to it
icons/graphics: skystillblue
books: goodreads
music: last.fm | 8tracks
tv/film: followmy.tv | trakt | letterboxd
other: tumblr | youtube | twitter


main tv fandoms )
It has been five whole years since the Veronica Mars movie was released, so now seems like a good time to kick off a rewatch I have been meaning to have for quite some time now! These reviews will be retrospective so I will make references to future episodes/spoilers.


Read more... )
What an unexpectedly charming show! During the first episode I thought the show was just going to be this silly, over the top – which I was fine with – but by around the third episode I was thinking, 'aw this show has heart!' A lot of the characters were fleshed out really nicely and the relationships were good, too.

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Well, I've finally finished watching The Americans – what a ride that was! I'm not sure there's a show that does quiet tensity better than this show because throughout my watch, the tone felt unique to anything else I've ever watched; of course there was quite a bit of action but the show was otherwise very subdued, I felt, in that these big plot twists would happen in the middle of the season when other shows would hold off on these moments, waiting until the finale in, often, predictable ways. In that way, The Americans was always unpredictable so I never really knew where stories were leading to or what would happen next – like, I was so sure that Pastor Tim would not make it out of this show alive but... that moment never came. I think this added to the quiet tensity of the show because you could never tell if someone was safe or something bad would happen and the show would just let the moment play out; no ominous or loud music use to cue or prime your reaction. It's a difficult thing to describe if you haven't seen the show, but it was a very interesting experience. There's a lot of silence in this show and

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Popping in for another day! I always find hearing about peoples creative process to be really interesting, so I look forward to checking out other posts from today.




Day 11 – In your own space, talk about your creative process(es) — anything from the initial inspiration to how you feel after something’s done. Do you struggle with motivation or is it a smooth process? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to pull out when a fanwork isn’t cooperating? What is your level of planning to pantsing/winging it?

When it comes to gifs, it depends on what kind of set I'm going for – if it's a set that only really relies on visuals, like a general character or episode set then I'll usually just go through screencap galleries and narrow down which scenes I want to use. If it's a set like my Buffyverse character arc appreciation series (that I do plan on continuing!) that has... not quite sure of the right word to choose here, but a theme, maybe? then I tend to do more thorough research. Back to the character arc series example, I went through the transcripts for all of the BTVS/ATS episodes Faith is in and made a big list of all the relevant quotes from Faith that I believe exemplified Faith's character journey and somehow narrow that list down to 10 quotes! Inspiration usually comes very spontaneously; often I'll just pick up on a pattern while I'm watching a show and then I want to visually explore that.


For fanvideos, most of them are products of a rewatch – except my Buffyverse ones because I know the show pretty well – and I'll think, "Oh I really want to vid this ship!" When I hear a song that makes me think of a show/ship I make note of it so I don't always have to do song research, but when I do, I listen to playlists, watch other vids for inspiration, and check out songs on some of the youtube channels I follow that just post, like, indie songs and all of this usually results in me finding a song... it can take a while, but I haven't come up empty handed yet.

Once I have the song, I break the song down lyric by lyric just onto a note on listography and make notes as I rewatch the series of moments that I think either just fit the song or fit a specific lyric from the song and match it accordingly. Sometimes I think to myself how over the top it appears but it's a good way to keep track of what moments I've already used and also I'm very forgetful/my thoughts are super fleeting so if I don't make note my ideas, then I'll often forget them... I'm not sure if my explanation here is very clear so I'll post a little snippet from my Buffy/Angel – Favourite Colour vid:

Paint me up, me up, me up / You're my favourite colour / Paint me up, me up, me up / You're my favourite colour
  • 107 – Cross burn
  • 312 – Always, 320 – Buffy&Angel4Ever, A107 – Buffy's photo
  • [A vampire got me hot. One.] 322 biting and 403 scar
  • [Do you realise how rare that is? True happiness?] 213 – In bed together
Paint me up, me up, me up / You're my favourite colour / Paint me up
  • 101 | 214 – Cross
Please don't go / Look real close / Eyes that show / Kaleidoscopes
  • A108 ending
  • 304 – Gets humanity back
  • 222 – Gets soul back
  • 107 – After Angel stakes Darla

So basically... I guess I put a lot of thought into vids so I really appreciate the times when people comment on things like my scene selections. When things aren't going the way I want them to, I'll usually just take a break and return to the vid another day and things go a lot more smoothly after that break. Because I do all of the planning before even making the vid (same with gifs), any complications usually have to do with trying to figure out transitions and beat-matching.


All in all, I have lots of ideas but I definitely struggle when it comes to getting the motivation to actually bring these ideas to fruition which can create a cycle where I get overwhelmed, not knowing where to begin on my to-vid/gif list and because of that, I am super inconsistent when it comes to posting new things. Maybe that's something I'll work on in 2019...
I've been keeping track of the Snowflake Challenge, but I personally haven't quite felt inspired to participate until today mostly due to being overwhelmed by all of the options I had in mind and not knowing where to even begin. Today, though, I feel pretty well complete in my choices!




Day 8 – In your own space, post self-recs for at least three fanworks that you created.

1. Buffy/Angel – All I Want [Video]
It's rare for me to still be proud of a vid this long after finishing it, but I'm still really proud of this one! It was a long work in progress, which I'm thankful for because it ended up being my first BTVS vid using the HD episodes, which are so so much easier to edit. I feel I was able to capture a complete image of the B/A relationship: the tragedy, the tenderness, the intensity, the selflessness, the yearning,... I think it's very balanced in terms of giving focus to each Buffy and Angel's perspectives on the relationship and the lasting impact they had on each other as well, like how Buffy inspired Angel's journey of redemption. The editing is very simple but I think it works with the song and I really wanted to focus on the story of it, although I do like how the 'Our love was made for movie screens' bit turned out. When the song builds, so does the video with the scene choices and voiceover/quote choices and I'm just really proud of how I was able to tell the B/A relationship through the song; it can be really effective when vids include these (mostly) diegetic sounds that aren't dialogue such as during fight scenes, just one example, so I was kind of excited to use Buffy's scream after Angel vamps out in season 1 as the song really builds and gets intense. I think the thing I struggled most with was how to end it – I knew I wanted to end with the final scene in Chosen but as for what to include between the Amends scenes just before the song slows down to that scene from Chosen, there was a lot of indecision and it's probably the only major thing I would change if I were to do it all over again.

2. BTVS – "We're taking a moment... And we're done." [Gifset]
The high school years of BTVS are far and away my favourite seasons of the show and I've always loved this quote so much in relation to the series! I really love the recurring 'high school is hell' metaphor and how it all plays out during seasons 1 through 3, and this moment in Graduation Day is a nice culmination of that by recognising the literal and figurative battle that was high school for The Scoobies. Struggling to fit into a new school, cliques, rejection, romance, heartbreak, teachers, bullies, having to participate in the talent show,... they survived it all and it was a hell of a battle. This set also took quite a while to make between choosing which specific scenes I wanted to use and then of course syncing them all up so they transition through the seasons at the same time.

3. Logan/Veronica – Let's Get Lost [Video]
My most recent vid, and I'm still happy with how it turned out! It was a fun one to make, but also took a lot of time to finish because of how fast-paced the song is and all of the beats to hit while still connecting the story of the song with the LV relationship. Lots of experimenting with transitions in this vid and I think for the most part, they turned out well! It's the opening verse and the 'Baby let's take the long way home' line that quickly made me connect this song to LV, and then paired with all of the time they spend in/around cars I already had a vision of how I wanted the vid to look and the final result turned out to be very close to that vision, which isn't always the case so, yes, still proud of this one :)


And just as a preview of what I have planned next for vidding: well, I have lots of ideas! But next up will probably be a Buffy/Angel one, it's been long enough and there's a song that's just stuck to my head when I realised a B/A vid hasn't been made to it yet.