More VVC recs + vidding questions

[bop_radar]

I am hopelessly sniffly at the moment, thanks to a pesky cold that descended on me on the last day of a long weekend. It's been hard to take time off work (I've got some really high maintenance authors at the moment) but today I couldn't string long enough between sneezing fits to actually drive to work, so I've been at home watching 30 Rock, which, may I say, is perfect sick-person TV.

In my efforts to catch up on Vividcon vids I've been kind of OD-ing on great vids to add to the backlog of recs I already had to make. But a few standout favourites I must rec straight up are:

- mranderson71's This Is Matrix Life, a total must-see. It has comedy, slick moves (from vidder as well as in source!) and the perfect marriage of source + song.

- laurashapiro's Shut Up and Drive--the best Martha (of Doctor Who) vid I've seen, and that girl definitely deserves kickass vidding!

- keewick's Sorry is a sequel to last year's 'Sugar', the Lana vid that I loved so much. And I'm delighted she revisited Lana here to explore the later season material. (There's also a snazzy Gossip Girl vid and some SGA goodies I haven't checked out in that post.)

- Not strictly a Vividcon vid, I think, but if you missed it in July's International Day of Femslash, charmax's I'm Your Man showcases an exceptional number of sources, in a documentary of femslash set to music (it really reminded me of 'Celluloid Closet').

All the great vids mean I've got vidding on the brain at the moment (what brain is left behind the cold) so I have a couple of questions for other vidders :
1. Do you find that you vid better when you are unwell or otherwise impaired? It seems to remove my inner critic to some degree and I get way more decisive. Admittedly sometimes the results are a bit sloppy but they can be tidied up later. I have found that I often have 'breakthroughs' when under the weather and 'just vidding' (rather than putting pressure on myself as I normally do for results).
2. Do you ever find songs that you feel would be perfect for your source... but not quite yet. Like a song that you think would be great for a show once it had finished--but it depends on the exact way the show ends up, and you don't know for sure yet whether it will produce the source material you need for the vid? This seems to happen to me A LOT. And it's a weird feeling to (for instance) start hoping some characters get nuked before a finale just so your vid will be awesomesauce. ;)
3. Do you find that the more fannish you are about a show, the better your vids are? I feel like this is true for me but I wonder if other vidders value emotional distance from their source more.

Comments

[bradcpu.livejournal.com]

Does this mean I have low brow taste?!!!
Bwahahaha!

Personally, I think it's that when a vidder is (somewhat) emotionally detached from the source, it's easier to see it objectively and make a statement about it. A statement that people who are *in love* with the fandom might not have seen because they're so close to the subject matter. The "can't see the forest because of all the trees" syndrome. That's not *always* the case, but I do think it happens.

It's a completely different type of connection when you vid a show you love *for* other people who love the show. You're invested in it, they're invested in it, and there's a lot of deep reading and context going on. But someone who doesn't know the show may not get much, if anything, out of it.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

Mmm, good points. I think I wasn't factoring in intended audience enough when thinking about it. I still think I tend to prefer vids made by people who are genuinely invested in their source, but perhaps it comes back to the degree of that emotional detachment you mentioned. Because I think some emotional detachment from source is necessary even for vidders vidding their show for other fans of the show. And that can be a hard line to tread when you love the show--it's hard to find that unflinching eye you need to portray it accurately.