My Vid Needs Purpose. And then I Turn Into Cap'n Mal. But First I am Bobbyhobbes. Or Something.

[sisabet]

So yesterday renenet told me she was not the counselor to me and my vid - she was the travel agent.

And that struck me as so beautiful that I had the strength to go in and rip out the first verse, because while it was servicible and nice - it wasn't *enough* of something... something the vid needs and it is on the tip of my tongue what that thing is (OMG LIKE BOBBYHOBBES!) but just out of reach.

The replacement stuff is closer but missing that moment - that sense of purpose, you know what purpose is, right? It is the little spark that lights a fire under your ass? Yes.

And I know what my purpose is with this vid - as an overall concept. I think I am achieving Overall Purpose. Now I have to look at each bit and think about "What do I want to say here? Am I saying it? If I am getting that point across, could I make it more effective?" and this is very hard to do. It involves removing perfectly servicible footage and thinking really hard. This is also why taking time away from a vid is very beneficial - at least to me.

For example: I was told a clip was not quite working as effectively as it could in a current location and I might think about relocating it. Well - my initial reaction is "No! I love it there and the clip is happy and they have a liquor store just around the corner and a grocery store within walking distance and they live above a really good and cheap Mexican Restaurant! What more could they want?"

Time away and I see that while this is a location that *I* love - my clip does not drink, has a car and really bad ulcers and can't eat any spicy food ever. My clip also has a nervous dog and the stream of constant street traffic is causing the dog's hair to fall out. This location is only working for me. I did notice a nice little (quiet) duplex 2 measures over and this might be a match. We shall see, we shall see.

I'm also having to let go of some of my source snobbery - which is interesting. DVDs have spoiled me. Totally spoiled and I admit it. I am spoiled. I want pretty source with no network bugs and I want it now. And I can't have it for this vid and that kept me from even starting the project for months. Now I keep forgetting that the source sucks and then I actually *look* at the thing and wow, the source kinda sucks. But I do not care. Well - I stopped caring last night when I personified the problem. My vid is a little strange looking and has a limp and his glasses are held together with duct tape and y'know - at least he is an individual. He is a vid only a mother could love.

::pinches vid cheeks::

But I worked on my vid last night and did not chat and I got some things accomplished and I am closer to having finished something and that is a very good thing. I will not think at all about how much more I have to do or how much *work* is left or I will become very very sleepy. This is the final stretch and it is the hard part because the initial throw of clips is fun and exhilarating. This is all evaluatory - and even if something is not working, by now I am used to it and even taking that down is hard. At first. And then it is liberating. I just have to remind myself that when I am finished I will have the vid I want to this song. That is my reward. Awww, My Beautiful Reward -- like MAL!!! OMG!!!

DUDE - so I think the vid is my reward and I'll be all happy watching it but actually I am wrong - my reward is the *people* I get to interact with along the way!!

::hugs people tightly::

So is the vid Serenity? Wait - Lum already vidded Serenity. Wait - that is another Firefly vid. How did everything become Firefly all of a sudden? How did I become Mal? I am not a Mal. I am... well I am definitely not Zoe. Renenet can be Zoe. Lum is much more Mal-like than I. I could be Simon. Sometimes I am River. Is elynross Book? Or is she Simon? Wait -is Ellen Zoe? Who is Kaylee? I would like to be Kaylee, she's sweet. Maybe I am Wash. I kind of look like Wash... well I burn in the sun easily. Is tzikeh on the ship? Or is she the Metatron? Wait... Now I am really confused.

basingstoke posted i-man fic today. Go forth and be her bitches y'all cause I got nothing left.

::blood sugar plummets::

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Your metaphors fill me with delight, giggles, and knowing nods.

renenet *is* a vidder's travel agent (or, perhaps to go with your relocating theme, a vidder's real estate agent). She just helped me move a bunch of new clips to a neighborhood that had previously been populated with sad old people who were living alone waiting to die, with too many cats and piles of newspaper up to the ceiling. Those clips have been moved, and I just know they're all enjoying their supportive community structure in a new assisted-living facility a few blocks away.

The new clips looked around them, recycled the newspapers, gave most of the cats to loving families, and have been slapping fresh paint on the walls. The colors are *much* better now, and they have some interesting decorating schemes.

In short, Renenet rules.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Renenet raises property values.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Oh - but now that I think about it - it was Ellen that first suggested the clip might not be as comfortable in the neighborhood as I thought it was.

It is like Renenet/Ellen are this tag team combo of not so much travel agents as Clip-Consolidators. They look and identify unhappy footage - or even footage that could be made happier or more useful and then they work and lobby and campaign to get the vidder to make the happiness for the footage happen. They are Clip Advocates.

And Eunice is Kaylee. I just figured that out.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

You're right to include Ellen in the mix. I didn't have the benefit of her eagle eyes this time (with all these people clamoring for beta, you'd think she'd be a lot less together than she is!), but I'm hoping to reserve her early with my next vid. Clip Advocates book up fast, because their services are in demand!

I wanted to be Kaylee. ::pout::

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Eunice is the only one who knows how to work the After Effects. She gets to be Kaylee, plus she is sweet and all. Next time you can trade her for it. Do you want to be Book? I promise this will not be the ep where you get shot. Also, since tzikeh is the metatron, we are apparently not limited to characters that actually have appeared on Firefly.

Now I really want to get a bunch of vidders and vid watchers together to play "Firefly" like I used to play "Charlie's Angels" with my cousins when we were kids. And I will be Sammie Jo from Dynasty.

And yes - you have to reserve Ellen as a beta far far in advance. She is like a hit Broadway play or a really popular five star restaurant in that way. Ellen is Commander's Palace!! She's never beta'd for me - I don't know if I could live up to her beta - but she has seen the vid and offered some insight. Which I love.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Since religion keeps appearing in my vids even though I appear to be kind of naughty, I think Book actually fits me. Thank you, I'll wear him with pride. And try not to get shot. (:

We played "The Wizard of Oz", as I recall. I wasn't allowed to watch "Charlie's Angels" (old skool feminist mother). If there were only time at Vividcon, I'd love to play "Firefly", but you know I'm going to be watching vids instead.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

God, I adore you people! Also *blush*.

I would kill to be Zoe, myself. *g* Or Simon, since in my world, Simon gets Mal...

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

*in vidding jealousy goes round to bully your vid out of town*

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Don't be mean to my vid! He is *special* and also? Prone to outbursts.

Seriously - pick on him just a little bit and he'll probably tear off his shirt and bite your ankles just like Dewey on Malcolm in the Middle.

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

oooh I better be careful or this could turn out to be a dancing West Side Story-like muscley camp face-off of rippling doom!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well, if there are going to be Musical Numbers then it can't be *all* bad...

[renenet.livejournal.com]

I love you so much all I can do is die. Or go do mindless work tasks while focusing on love of you. One of those. Or both. I mean, I love you when you are talking about me and beta and Firefly and your vid and everything? But likening your vid to Dewey just put a cap on it. I am dead. ::goes to work on mindless tasks::

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well my vid certainly isn't Forrest.

Hmph.

Look at this vidchild! He is Dewey through and through.

[permetaform]

::glomps you:: the Frou Frou suggestion for Eternal Sunshine of the Mind is PERFECT, I found a song for it already.

And? Thank GOD for avisynth because I think I'd cry if I was forced to vid Hero with lossy compression...

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

awesome! You, Frou Frou and ESOTSM sound like a vidding match made in heaven. I can't wait.

And yes, Hero is pretty. I found it a bit numbing in the cinema but I can't deny the prettyness. In a similar vein, there is a hong kong DVD release of House of Flying Daggers which is the natural successor to Hero (same director, actress etc). If you want a link I can provide, it's really cheap and has english subs.

[permetaform]

=D actually, my mom owns both DVDs. My cousin warned me again House of Flying Daggers but I'll go take a look at it.

What cracks me up vidding this is that I suddenly realized that a great deal of the purpose of the girl is to have reaction shots. I wonder what it means that she was basically the only one free (in character? in purpose?) to express emotion...or I could just be overanalyzing this again...

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Having just watched Firefly for the first time, your character metaphors killed me. You are brilliant like River and hilarious like Wash. You love your people like Mal and you are wise like Book.

But most of all you are lovable like Kaylee.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I think we need to hook you up to a continuous I-Man drip you can drag around with you.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

NEED MORE FIC....

[permetaform]

::just giggles SO MUCH:: =D

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Where ya been!!! We need to do the vid exchange thang!

"It's the Great Vid Exchange, Charlie Brown" would be a good thing to call it. You send me what you have and I poke you with Darien on the ground. Like ya do...

[permetaform]

home =D AND YES! 'cause like, been vidding Hero, have you seen it? The movie?? I swear I've been vidding this and just squealing in delight all the way and yes! Is this the one with the needle?? 'cause that WAS HOT.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Dude - find me online. I love HERO. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT

And yeah - still working on the needle vid. I'm trying to make it hotter. Or more loving or...well for this pairing the hot *is* the love.

Sigh, my Dewey vid.

[permetaform]

hee! I'll pop on once the encoding is done (IM makes Premiere cry).

Oh btw, do you know a vidder who's narratively orientated or narratively strong who *hasn't* seen Hero? I'm weak narratively and am getting the sense that this vid might make no sense to someone who hasn't seen the movie, but it's always good to confirm, y'know?

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I don't know anyone who has not *seen* Hero. Hell, I think most of us were lined up at the theater opening night or bought the DVD from China a year before. It is a vidder's dream movie.

[permetaform]

...poop.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Sisabet, you are fucking insane.

Thank you, I needed the chuckle.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I wish renenet and others would come to my neighborhood and increase property taxes values. No one wants to come to my neighborhood because it is a western and hardly anyone likes those real ranch houses. And I'm all alone and I can't vid for shit and I suck, but no estate agents or trip planners to help. Plus I have never made a Magnificent 7 vid without Jo and so I suck even worse because I'm all alone. I'm so depressed about my vid it makes me want to cry. Or leave town with a note on the door saying foreclose! go ahead! I don't care.

I have no direction, and my vid does not love me, and I loved it very much when it was a twinkle in my eye but not so much now that it is born and all it has to offer is messy diapers and spit-up, but is not even to the fun and functional toddler stage. You're blessed that you have vid friends to help. But obviously, you know that!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I was there!! I was - it is really hard to be working in a fandom either your regular peeps don't watch or don't like. I also remember the first vids I made without Dawn watching over my shoulder and that was its own struggle as I kind of need another person *physically* in the room to keep me focused.

You just have to remember who is the adult here. Your vid is going through its terrible twos for sure - but soon that clip combination is gonna come together and it is going to do something so cute that your heart will swell. If you are me and it is my vid - that cute thing might be biting the mailman - so it is all in the eye of the beholder.

And I am sooooo lucky to have tricked renenet early on in her beta-life into being my regular beta. See, she sent me feedback and I loved it so much I stalked her. Now she knows there is no escape.

Lum has to beta for me - otherwise I might abscond with the brain.