jetpack_monkey_ljarchive

As usual, I go off of release date rather than when I made/finished it:

February (Festivids reveals):
White Telephone (Halloween / Halloween H20)
Moves Like Yaweh (Prince of Egypt)

August (Vividcon):
Electric Avenue (Robots)
Right Round (Classic Hollywood Serials)
Madhouse (Psychonauts)

Misc Related Works:
Leonard Nimoy Tribute (Escapade/KiSCon)
End of the World remaster

Depending on how you count it, that's either five or seven works. In either case, it's my least productive year since 2011. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

( What do I have to say for myself? )

Fromviolace andkillabeez 
1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-vid.

I absolutely adore making multisource vids centered around a particular theme or film series. Drawing out meta-narratives and tropes is totally my jam. It's not just the vidding process, though. It's the research. The deep delve into film/television history, looking for those rare sources, finding new favorite sources (or suffering through sources that Should Not Be). Example vids: 

Fromviolace andkillabeez andkiki_miserychic :

2. Is there a genre or style you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

I am trying my hand at comics vidding right now and I really really really want to make a video game vid at some point. Mass Effect, probably, but I had a terrible idea for a Mario Kart vid (or, well, jmtorres had it and I stole it)

shati wants to know:

5. Share one of your strengths.

I have a strong sense of film/media history that informs my vidding. It's a bit like having an Intersect for movies in my brain (what? I've been watching a lot of Chuck lately).

Also, I'm apparently crazy fast when I want to be.

6. Share one of your weaknesses.

My sense of montage is very weak. I'm laser-focused on individual clips, but I have difficulty parsing the interactions between a group of adjacent clips in terms of primary and secondary visual attractors, movement, lighting, and color.

Also, I don't know if this is a weakness, but I strongly emphasize the literary (especially in terms of narrative) in my perception and vidding of visual media. This means my vids tend to emphasize important Narrative or Thematic visuals and I don't spend a lot of time with aesthetics beyond what's provided for me. My vids have a lot of medium-to-close shots and very few landscapes or inanimate objects.

More answers to come!

I just finished up notes for my Dracula and Jim Henson vids and I realize that I'm probably not covering the bits that people find interesting. If you have any questions about *any* of my vids (source, editing process, tips and tricks, etc), leave them here and I'll answer them whenever possible. If I like my answers, I'll append them to the notes for the appropriate vid.

Vid list

I highly doubt I'll have any vids I'm releasing between now and December 31st, so here we go:

Vids premiered in 2013

February (Festivids reveals)
All the Rowboats (The Godfather series)
The Angelic Look (Charlie's Angels)
Back to Avalon (A League of Their Own)
Feel Dead Inc. (Cabin in the Woods)
I Don't Speak Hungarian (A koppányi aga testamentuma)
Wolfsbane (The Wolf Man series)
Burn Brighter (Firestarter)

May
Wonderful World (multi)
Blow (The Prisoner, VidUKon)

August (Vividcon)
crushcrushcrush (Star Trek: DS9)
Let's Go to the Mall (Dawn of the Dead 1978)
A Quite Serious Thematic Analysis of the Works of David Cronenberg (David Cronenberg)
Slippery Slope (The Wicker Man - 1973)
Starships! (Monochromatic Remix) (multi)
Va Va Voom (I Love Lucy)
Vividcon 2013 Premieres Intro (Werewolf multi)

My favorite video this year (of my own):
It's a tie between All the Rowboats -- where I really challenged myself -- and Starships! Monochromatic Remix, which was fun to make, fun to watch, and was an overall educational experience.

My least favorite video this year:
I'm still not completely comfortable making vids about interpersonal relationships, so I feel like The Angelic Look could have come out so much better than it did.

Most successful video:
My instinct here is to say Starships! remix, but that one is such a gimme based on how great and loved the original by bironic is. So I'm going to go with Blow, because it was a labor of love for me and it had an unexpected, nigh-overwhelming response.

Video most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Wolfsbane. Hands down. Some of my most emotional, angsty work there.

Most fun video:
It's probably a tie between Starships! remix and Feel Dead Inc. The latter was just a blast to make and I still have fun watching it.

Video with single sexiest moment:
David Cronenberg has a whole spate of them. I worked really hard to make that vid both sexy and uncomfortable at the same time.

Biggest vid fail:
I still owe nakedbee a vid for making my amazing Prisoner jacket for Club Vivid. It's going to happen, I promise!

Hardest video to make:
Different levels of hard. Va Va Voom was the most difficult in terms of work-to-enjoyment. It was really kind of a slog, because while I was theoretically a fan of I Love Lucy, in practice, I wasn't feeling it. All the Rowboats represented a challenge I gave myself to bring my vidding to the next level and really be more than just the guy who makes fun vids or horror vids.

Most unintentionally telling video:
This is always such a weird category, so I'm going to go with the vid that told me the most about myself in the making -- Starships! (Monochromatic Remix). I have always been a film history buff, but I was astounded at how much easier it was to make that vid (which encompassed 77 different sources) simply because I was learning while I was doing it. I've always known that my external reason for vidding is to curry the respect and admiration of my peers. Making the Starships remix clarified my internal, personal reasons for vidding -- I do it to learn. I gain an intimate insight into editing, cinematography, and film history with this one hobby. The more I vid, the more I understand how film works and the more I understand I have more to learn yet.

Other vidding miscellany:

So I wanted to repost one of my responses from last year's iteration of this meme, where I talk about my expectations for 2013:

I honestly think 2013 is going to be a big year for me. I have some really interesting vids planned (or already made in terms of two Festivids vids). I plan on hitting Vividcon with all rockets firing and really pushing myself in terms of technique, musicality, and narrative. I don't think I could have come to this point as a vidder without the amazing community and I plan on doing more in terms of volunteering at Vividcon, running panels, and putting together vidshows.

I just got really emotional re-reading that because I am not a goal-setter and when I do set goals, I usually disappoint myself. But I feel like I accomplished all of the above. I'm a more assured vidder now. I've made vids that would've seemed impossible to me 18 months ago. It's been a good year.

For 2014:

I released 16 vids in 2013 -- I think I'm going to take a step back. I'm going to hunker down and focus on a smaller set of vids that are really important to me. And a couple of silly ones, too, because I'm me. And I'd like to make a video game vid this year. That would be cool.

Borrowed from everybody:




Convenient list of my vids broken up into four arbitrary categories.

Yes, I should be working on my Festivid. Shush.

This year's vids:

1. Invincible - Tank Girl (with echan )  [available only on the Apocalypse West 2011 DVD]
   
2. Invincible - James Bond [Vividcon 2011]
   
3. The Gremlin Show - Gremlins [Vividcon 2011]
   
4. A Sophisticated Song - Classic Hollywood (Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn) [Vividcon 2011]

Wow, I only made four? What is that? *checks vidding history* Oh, I guess that's about average for years that aren't 2008.

( Meme answers behind the cut )

Not that I don't have a lot to do, but it's not exactly taking up a load of brainspace.

So, I give you the opportunity to know more about the weirdness that is me. Ask any question about me or my opinions (fannish, silly, personal) in the comments and I will answer.

Ganked from empressvesica -- post the first line of your first post from each month of the year.

January: As very special presents for our shiny new 2008, midnightfae and I were both given nasty cases of viral gastroenteritis.

February: Previous part is here. (referring to my SPN/Doctor Who crossover fic)

March: So, Mario Bava Retrospective at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.

April: Much as this might seem like an April Fool's joke to those "in the know", it's not.

May: For those who might not know, I have an icon journal at jetpackvampire, which I share with qkellie.

June: My speculation? (talking about "Silence in the Library")

July: I was watching Father's Day to get clips for my vid, specifically the scene where Pete and Rose are talking in the car on the way to the wedding.

August: This is why I love Neil Patrick Harris.

September: Using Google's Chrome browser, which is kind of awesome.

October: Zombie Scavenger Hunt went well.

November: I picked up Boa vs. Python at the grocery story for no discernible reason other than it was $10, has David Hewlett as the leading man, and its the film that gave rise to the equally large boa meme.

December: See icon. (the icon was 10 saying, "I'm off my meds!")

01. Answer each of the questions below the cut using the [Flickr] search engine.
02. Choose a photo from the first three pages.
03. Copy the URL of your favorite photos [here].
04. Then share with the world.

( Large image under cut )