Vid rec: Shelter From The Storm

[bop_radar]

chaila43 is making vids I can watch again! \o/ (I still can't watch BSG. I just can't.)

Shelter From the Storm is a thoughtful Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles vid, focused on Ellison. It's not so much a character study as an exploration of his point of view and his relationship with Sarah, his search for answers to the big questions and the role Sarah plays in this. (ETA: I don't mean to say it isn't a study of Ellison--just that it takes us inside his point of view on Sarah to create understanding of his character. Rather poorly expressed: sorry! very tired!) For me, it was a new lens through which to watch the show since I rarely slip into Ellison's point of view naturally (even when the show itself constructs it that way). While it might have greater (or different) resonance to Ellison fans, I feel this vid plays well to anyone interested in the overall meta of the whole show. It certainly made me think a lot about Ellison's plot and purpose. I particularly liked seeing scenes I knew well in a slightly different light.

Also! Attention vidders, students, freelancers and anyone else requiring round-the-clock work abilities! New discovery of awesome in the energy level department: homemade affogato!

Ice-cream (sugar) + triple shots of espresso (caffeine) = all night wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

(Not that I'm working round the clock or anything... really... *whistles*)

Comments

[chaila43.livejournal.com]

Sometime someone will have to explain to me what exactly makes something a character study. :) I mean, I don't disagree exactly, but I'm not sure exactly what kind of vid it is. I am particularly bad at categorization of vids, mine or anyone's. Not that categorization really matters, but still.

The real point was to say thanks for the rec! I was sad that I had so few TSCC watchers on my flist, so maybe now a few more people will see it. :)

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

Mmm, good point, and I definitely didn't mean to sound like I was disparaging your vid--rather the opposite. I wanted to convey how much the vid took us inside his point of view. We learnt about him (so in that way it IS a study) but from the inside--by identifying with him, seeing through his eyes. I think it's very successful at conveying Ellison's character, but it doesn't work on the viewer in an 'obvious' manner. Rather, at the end, you realise you now know who Ellison is. Also the gen ship focus meant we were really learning about him in that one relationship--which happens to be the most central defining one of his life though... make any sense?

I think someone else would call it a character study. I'm struggling myself with the issue of genres and how to define them at the moment. Apologies for any inadvertent confusion?

[chaila43.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I didn't think it was disparaging at all; this was an awesome rec! I tend to agree with you because it's quite a bit different than other things I've done that I would call character studies. But I have some vids that are sort of hard to classify in this way; not really a straightforward character study, but not an ensemble or really a ship vid either (though I would call this a gen ship vid if it wouldn't confuse other people :D). Rather, they are more...explorations of What It All Meant from one or more character's perspective? And I thought maybe there was some genre where this fit that I hadn't thought of? I totally didn't think you were saying that it didn't really convey Ellison's character. I really do just objectively wonder about genres. For instance, I find I often call something a character study that other people call a ship vid and wondered if there's some accepted definition of character study that explains why that is? Cause I kind of fall back on it when a vid doesn't fit anywhere else.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

If there is one, I don't know what it is. ;) I think taking people 'inside' a character is the best kind of character study, but then I see other people who don't call these character studies and I get confused. :(

I am increasingly unsatisfied with the way vidding fandom defines vids, and I am just playing around with these things myself. I think a lot of times when people use categories to describe vids what they are really trying to do is indicate audience--who they think will get the most out of the vid. Personally I'm going to try and start distinguishing that more clearly in my recs: like, if I'm talking about audience, just SAY that. Even that is limiting, because I have a biased perspective, but describing the vid a bit will hopefully help. *has reccing angst*