jetpack_monkey_ljarchive

rhoboat requested:

7. Point to a section from one of your favorite vids you've made and explain why you're proud of it.

The first four seconds of Slippery Slope were huge for me. I wanted to give the audience the foreknowledge that things were going to go badly without giving away the ending. I also wanted to do it before the lyrics kicked in. Ending that little pre-amble just a frame or two after Sgt. Howie's look of indignant horror fully forms ended up being exactly the thing that worked. It's something in a vid where the editing choices and the effects of those editing choices feel entirely mine.

16. Do you use any tools, like clip notes or storyboards?

It depends entirely on the vid. For multi-source vids that aren't for a limited canon (for instance "all black and white space movies made before July 1969"), I keep spreadsheets that track potential source, whether I've acquired it, and whether I've clipped it. I also make a lot of clip notes (either in text documents or actual physical notebooks) for projects with more than, like, four movies worth of source (or source I'm not familiar with). For complex character vids, I've been known to outline the vid on paper -- I did that with All the Rowboats to track the general rise and fall of Michael Corleone against the lyrics.

So, here's a list of questions about vidding. Toss some numbers at me in the comments and I'll answer them in posts. Probably. Until I see a butterfly.

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-vid.
2. Is there a genre or style you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?
3. Is there a genre or style you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole?
4. How many vid ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?
5. Share one of your strengths.
6. Share one of your weaknesses.
7. Point to a section from one of your favorite vids you've made and explain why you're proud of it.
8. Which vid was the hardest to make?
9. Which vid was the easiest to make?
10. Is vidding your passion or just a fun hobby?
11. Is there a section of canon above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?
12. What's the best vidding advice you've ever come across?
13. What's the worst vidding advice you've ever come across?
14. If you only could vid one show/movie for the rest of your life, which show/movie would it be?
15. Do you work mostly from start to finish, or do you vid sections out of order?
16. Do you use any tools, like clip notes or storyboards?
17. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?
18. Describe your perfect vidding conditions.
19. How many times do you usually revise your vid before posting?
20. Choose a section from one of your earlier vids and talk about whether and how you'd do it differently now. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).
21. If you were to revise one of your older vids from start to finish, which would it be and why?
22. Have you ever deleted one of your published vids?
23. What do you look for in a beta?
24. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?
25. How do you feel about collaborations?
26. Share three of your favorite vidders and why you like them so much.
27. Do you accept prompts?
28. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your vids being canon compliant?
29. How do you feel about smut?
30. How do you feel about crack?
31. Which is your favorite site for posting vids?
32. Talk about your current vids in progress.
33. Talk about a comment or review that made your day.
34. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

I am learning how to use Motion 5.

Expect at least one vid that's just pointless effects.

Title: Carries On
Song: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Carries On
Source: Jim Henson (productions and behind the scenes)
Length: 4:29
Vidder: jetpack_monkey 
Mentor: fan_eunice 
Warnings: Feelings.

Summary: Take what you've got and fly with it!

Youtube embed:

Vimeo embed:
Password: lightthelights

 

Download MP4

Notes: 

( behind the cut )

Vividcon is in, like, a week and a half! *GLEE* Who else is going? Can I get a show of hands?

- Within the last few months, I've finished rewatches of Buffy, Angel, and Farscape. Now I'm pondering my next big pop culture move.

- jmtorres is our roommate now. It is awesome. She brought oh so many books.

- I really, really, really want to make an album-vid of Farscape a la Luminosity's Scooby Road, but finding good, consistent albums that are also salient to the subject matter throughout is *hard*. This is especially true since I only really discovered music in the era of MP3s, so I don't keep a lot of albums in my head.

- I'll have DVDs for sale at the orphan vids table at Vividcon again. Nothing new, just a repackaging of Volumes 1 and 2 from last year as a single unit. If you have one and not the other, let me know and I'll bring a few single-volume of each as well.

- Poking at a couple different vids here and there. Finished one vid, then decided it wasn't awesome enough, so I unfinished it.

- Went to see Puppet Up! on Friday. Puppet improv from the Jim Henson Company. Dirty, dirty dirty puppet improv. It was hilarious.

- Running Fiasco again at the con. Interest posts at Dreamwidth and Livejournal. There's still plenty of room on both Thursday and Sunday nights.

That's... pretty much everything I can think of right now.

Doing my "Bad Decision Bear" playthrough where I get as many people killed or pissed at me as possible. Including shooting Wrex on Virmire. Saaaad. I just finished the first game, which is pretty straightforward in how to screw people over. Mass Effect 2 will be trickier, as I'm going to have to be kind to some people like Mordin and Jack so I can really f**k them over later. I should make a list.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting is that I had a moment of terror during this playthrough. That moment when Sovereign, a Reaper and representative of all things Other, docks with the shining spire of the Citadel's Council chambers, the gleaming representation of our powerful and advanced civilization... and Sovereign aligns perfectly. It's such a powerful moment, realizing just how screwed we are.

Marvel's posting some quick behind-the-scenes stuff, including our first listen to Rocket Raccoon speaking!

( Embedded videos behind the cut )

I made four vids this year!

Battle Without Honor or Humanity (Danger 5, for seekingferret )
Raise Your Glass (Space Cases, for elipie )
Radio (Hey Ash Whatch Playin', for bradcpu )
The Ballad of Wesley Crusher (Star Trek: The Next Generation, for thirdblindmouse )

All posts have streaming. Downloads coming later, but if you're impatient, Vimeo's download option is enabled for each vid.

Also, thank you to valika56 who made The Good, The Bad, The Ugly And The Other Guys (Space Patrol Orion) and thirdblindmouse who made me TWO vids -- Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Space Patrol Orion) and I Was Made for Sunny Days (The Thin Man series)

Title: Radio
Song: Beyoncé - Radio
Source: Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?
Length: 2:52
Made for: bradcpu, Festivids 2013

Summary: Gaming = Insanity = Awesome

Password: butt

Radio from Jetpack Monkey on Vimeo.

Download 39.8MB MP4 file (right/cmd-click and "Save link as...")

( Notes! )

So! Festivids have been up for nearly two weeks now. I've been slowly picking through and I have some recs.

First I want to talk about the vids that were made for me and why they are examples of everything I love about Festivids. In the lead-up to GoLive, elipie and I would try to guess what the other would receive. She and I agreed that I'd probably end up getting a vid for one of the more modern fandoms and that I might, might, might get a single vid for either The Thin Man series or Space Patrol Orion.

I didn't get one vid. I got three. One Thin Man and TWO Space Patrol Orion. Only in Festivids, folks. Only. In. Festivids.

The two SPO vids have atypical music choices that just really work.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by thirdblindmouse  - 1966 German sci-fi to 2001 French electronica? Hell yes! Daft Punk have always had a weird future-past streak in their music, a tinge of the 1970s as interpreted from the 2070s (or vice versa). So as strange as the pairing might seem at first, it is absolutely appropriate to the subject matter. This vid really takes advantage of some of the more creative camerawork in the series while using rapid edits to cut through some of the more static sequences and enliven them. Awesome use of transitions and musicality.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly And The Other Guys by valika56  - Now we move to era-appropriate music (1967), but a complete genre-bender. Ennio Morricone's theme for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is iconic and conjures images of wide-sprawling deserts and a dust-covered Clint Eastwood chomping on a cigar. Putting it to Space Patrol Orion seems almost sacrilegious, except that it makes a lot of sense. Space shows, especially in the 1960s, were just as much about the frontier as anything. There are still fistfights, showdowns, heavy drinking, and exciting chases. Oh and the "bad" guy gets the "good" girl. Some really great cutting here, some of which is appropriate and some of which plays with the song a bit and subverts expectations. I really dug it.

And last, but in no way least, the Thin Man vid: I Was Made for Sunny Days by thirdblindmouse. This is an entirely appropriate and lovely music choice for a vid that really demonstrates just how freakin' adorable the chemistry between Nick and Nora really is. A charming love song for a charming series, with lovely moments of the two leads strewn throughout. This vid is an utter delight and it's so good to see some love come to these movies through Festivids.

Some other recs from this year (limiting myself to 20 or so):

Feeling Good by Mithborien (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Run The World by elipie (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
How Does It Feel? by Joyo (Almost Famous)
This Could All Be Yours by fan_eunice (Big)
Never Seen the Light of Day by vi0lace (BioShock Infinite)
Ah Ha by sol_se (Deep Blue Sea)
Who Are You, Really? by obsessive24 (Dredd)
Waterfall by Gianduja Kiss (Gattaca)
Who Shall I Say Is Calling? by Trelkez (Ghostwatch)
All We Got by Anoel (The Great Gatsby)
Ride With Me by elipie (The Heat)
9 to 5 by eruthros (Lego Star Wars)
A Night Like This by thirdblindmouse (Marx Brothers)
Dirtee Disco by Nancy Blackett (The Muppets)
Love Can Move Mountains by Nancy Blackett (The Muppets)
Feel The Love by echan (Portal series)
Toxic by Rhoboat (The Red Shoes)
What I Like About You by Deirdre C.(RPF - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis)
(You Drive Me) Crazy by CherryIce (Sharknado)
Wherever You Will Go by Rhoboat (Wallace and Gromit)

There you go! I also made some Festivids this year. Not running a guessing game, because I think my vids are fairly obvious (OR ARE THEY) (they are).