Sleep-speaker

Shamelessly stolen from frayadjacent and chaila! Give me a number (or a few) and I will try to answer things! Some numbers are missing because my intelligent predecessors went through combing for questions they didn't think they'd be so interested in, but I'm, um, lazy, so I just copy-pasted one of their lists and ran with it. YAY ME.

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?
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?
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?
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'M NOT DEAD!

I do need to find more time to post here. So to start with, I was just inspired to write something reasonably lengthy over on tumblr, so I'm actually going to copy it here because god but I loathe tumblr as a space for complex human interaction or discussion. And this is my place of Archiving Thoughts.

Also I think we all just have to accept that a large percentage of this blog will be Comic Books for the forseeable future. I'm genuinely sorry. <3

So the setup:

There was a text post as follows:

MARVEL: *makes Avengers*
MARVEL: *makes Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Captain America sagas*
MARVEL: *makes Agents of Shield*
MARVEL: *makes Guardians of the Galaxy*
MARVEL: *makes Black Widow movie*
DC: hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... MORE BATMAN.

To which there was then a response effectively composed of animated .gifs of DC's television/film output from the last decade, but unusually including all the stuff Warner Brothers makes based on DC properties that aren't part of DC's main superhero universe but were published under various imprints (primarily Vertigo).

I sort of wasn’t going to reblog it because it was a little petty? But then I saw the “makes Black Widow movie” and got bitter because what the hell, if you're going to do that, I'm going to pretend there's obviously an upcoming Wonder Woman film and that they're casting Dwayne Johnson as Shazam and SCREW IT I SUCCUMBED TO PETTY BITTERNESS!

But I also reblogged it because I really liked that it included DC's Vertigo output in there, but...I've been wondering for a while now how that stuff should figure into the conversations we have about these companies and/or about their shared superhero universes.

This is a genuine question to which I have no good answer. Because DC and Marvel generally ship a comparable number of titles; DC more often ship slightly more but that includes all their Vertigo stuff (as well as, I think, more licensed comics, though particularly with Star Wars, that may be shifting).

And on the one hand, it’s only fair to compare like with like - superheroes with superheroes. That’s a specific genre with representational problems, and it’s a specific type of story we all love (or well, us superhero fans do, I mean). Vertigo publishing a 70s gangster comic, a revenge-thriller, a creepy supernatural book and a retold set of fairytales, all starring women, doesn’t fix my problem if what I want is a woman in spandex punching a volcano. It really doesn’t. The Losers’ majority poc team doesn’t fix the whiteness of superhero universes.

"Go somewhere else," isn’t a useful response.

"We do that stuff, but in our Vertigo line," sends a message of ghettoisation.

But at the same time, Vertigo forms part of DC’s output and almost never figures into conversations about what DC is doing, media-wise. They put time and resources into maintaining an imprint that specifically exists to publish original “indie” style comic books, even though they could almost certainly make more by putting out another Bat-related title.

I mean, a certain amount of this is nostalgia. I’m probably a comic book fan at ALL because of Vertigo in the 90s, and I think that’s likely true of a lot of women my age. Karen Berger probably did more than anyone else in the industry to normalise the graphic novel and its place on the shelves of our bookstores. (And I guess I also think it’s cool that Vertigo has only ever been headed up by women; Shelly Bond succeeded Karen Berger).

But…okay, knowing Watchmen is somehow a DC property is probably not that unusual, but I honestly wonder how many people know that movies like Red, the Losers, Road to Perdition and Stardust are all also based on graphic novels and comic series originally published by DC?

Probably not many?

And like I said, I think you can use these points to dodge the issue. Agent Carter is a big deal because a woman is anchoring a TV series - they are making superhero-related media starring a women. Pointing out that DC (well, it’s parent company) are putting out iZombie, which also stars a woman, isn’t a cleanly relevant parallel.

But it also seems sort of shitty to pretend iZombie isn’t there.

Also amusingly nowhere in that gifset did I see the 2004 Catwoman movie. There are just some things no one can bring themselves to mention voluntarily... (Lol, except me: SKIN LIKE LIVING MARBLE!)

Anyway, yeah. There is my unanswered question. I hope you've all had a nice month while I've been in posting limbo. :)

OKAY! SO I've been gone a long time because this month has been soooo busy. In addition to a lot of VidUKon prep (IT'S IN TWO WEEKS! EVERYBODY PANIC!) I also had the very cool opportunity to get involved in the My So-Called Secret Identity Kickstarter. I made the promotional video!

You can see it here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mscsi/my-so-called-secret-identity

You can also read the first four issues at:

www.mysocalledsecretidentity.com

Like, I think the project itself is cool? But also like, I MADE A THING GO LOOK AT IT. I would make you all stick it to your fridges if I could, but since I can't, I'm just going to point at it and wave my arms around a lot.

Also yeah, that is where I've been and what I've been doing. :)

Just in time to get given overtime at work! :P

Because I'm torn. I'm probably leaning towards Counting Stars, because Diana, but also, I actually think that I Say Fever is one of the better vids I've ever done, but it's for a fifteen year old show, buried in a 30 day vidding project and maybe this'd be a nice way to say, hey, you know, look at this thing I made because I think a lot of people will already have seen Counting Stars? But also, Counting Stars. And it's more of a crowdpleaser, I think.

My indecision!

(Or convince me of a totally different vid in the comments, if you are so inclined...)

So, for reasons that are complicated and boring and not entirely unrelated to a reflexive pushback against yet another attempt to get me to watch A:TLA (which I DO want to watch one day, but the last time he pushed it, I went and watched the entirety of Gargoyles instead, so basically his insistence and my YOU'RE NOT MY DAD! childishness is leading to some rather interesting education in 90s animated telly), I finally watched Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Which people have basically been telling me to watch since I discovered I adored Martian Successor: Nadesico (another 90s anime) but was sort of hovering somewhere towards the lower end of my "to do" list of media because I have a complicated relationship with anime. I want to love it. I feel like I should love it. It's an endless supply of amazing, complicated fantasy/sci fi stories, without the same kind of budget limitations because they're animated, that tell complete season-long stories, so I don't have to cry when it inevitably jumps the shark, and the fact it's animated doesn't bug me at all.

That said, I find a lot of the tropes and stock characters really distracting and sometimes straight-up gross. Some of that I overcome through immersion in the series, particularly if it plays its surreal hyperreality sections well in the context of the narrative (Nadesico with its crew-of-misfits humour, Utena with its straight up magic realism). It's always tricky calling out things you find offensive (or even empowering) across cultural lines, not cus other cultures should get a pass at treating people badly, but because you lack context. While trying to work out some of my thoughts on this, I read a couple of really interesting articles about the way Western audiences interpret anime. One I found particularly fascinating was the fact that some of the Magical Girl series that are touted in the West as being strongly feminist are, in Japan, primarily aimed at adult men who fetishize the cuteness and even infantilisation of the main characters. Another complicated and fascinating area was the way characters that are commonly interpreted in the West as transgender or genderqueer would in Japan be interpreted as an assault on brutally rigid gender roles rather than cisnormative identities.

And like, how do you navigate that? From my uneducated position, I don't see that there's much conflict between a kid in Britain watching Utena and seeing someone affirmatively genderqueer and a kid in Japan watching it and seeing a girl assert her identity as female through nontraditional means. But I think it gets more complicated if you know something may have an actively negative connotation in its original context, even if that context is invisible to you before it's pointed out? Fortunately, I don't believe Utena is not one of those series that is misogynistic in its original context - or at least, not in the ways I outline above. But as we'll get to, there are things about it that leave me slightly uneasy, as well as things I think are completely fascinating.

It's essentially impossible to talk about, well, anything without spoilers, so if you plan to watch it and are strictly spoiler avoidant, it's probably best to skip the upcoming cut. However, I will do my best to keep this at a "review" level of spoilers for those interested in reading on.

( Minor spoilers + discussion of statutory rape follows. )

I think...if you have tried watching anime before and the format isn't your thing, then this won't be either. But if you have watched it before or if you haven't and want to some, give this a shot.

The last thing I'll say is that if you watch this, for the love of god, watch the subbed not the dubbed version. I am not usually picky about that kind of thing. I often watch the dubs even when I know they're sorta shoddy and just deal with the not-so-amazing voice actors because I'm lazy. I'm a terrible person and I mutilate art.

But in this case, please, please, please do not do that. I actually went back and rewatched the episodes I did watch dubbed when I realised what a terrible mistake I was making. The problem is that Anthy, a pivotal character, whose emotional arc completely depends on being able to tell whether she means what she's saying or she's faking it via her tone of voice, is voiced by an awful voice actress. I don't know if she's just plain bad or had weird direction or what, but she acts like a cheerful, vacant Stepford Wife the entire time. Like during explosively personal, painful scenes, she's like...Barney the Dinosauring, "I'm sorry! I caused you so much pain! Silly old me!" Argh.

Just...for your own sanity, use the sub.

Also, I have discovered that Welcome to Night Vale and Revolutionary Girl Utena make the most beautiful mashups. I am completely obsessed with the perfection of this tumblr. It honestly makes me feel like I understand RG:U better. Which...probably tells you something about its storytelling style.

Anyway.

It has been too long since I posted, and now this post is also too long. So I bid you all sweet dreams.

Hey dudes.

So, festivids is happening. That's a thing. Apparently it's pretty cool and full of awesome vids you should be watching?

I really haven't had time to sit down and go through them like I wanted to. That's sort of a lie, I've had the time, but not the inclination. Basically January has been kicking my ass. ( The short version is, my grandpa died. The long version is, a bunch of stuff happened and then my grandpa died. )

January 2014, ladies and gentleman. I will not miss you.

Title: Hymn to the Hollow
Video: Sleepy Hollow
Audio: Hymn of Acxiom // Vienna Teng
Summary: Nothing is forgotten, unseen, unimportant. [Abbie, Ichabod, Katrina, Jenny]
Warning: Very fast flickering cuts (less than a frame long).
Notes: Part of the Aims Vid Album project heroically organised by silly_cleo!

Direct download available here. 81 megs approx. RightClickSaveAs.



Cross-posted to vidding, vidding and sleepy_hollow.

Other vids available here.

( Lyrics )

Okay. So firstly, I apologise for my long absence. I've been sort of busy with real world things as well as a number of side projects for various things and I may have become obsessed with a 90s cartoon. But I'll talk about that later, because this is a sort of...sober post.

For those not aware, allegations have been surfacing over the past few weeks, culminating in the past few days, that comic author Brian Wood serially harasses women at conventions, despite having a public reputation as a feminist ally. These allegations are troubling, upsetting and not fun. My opinion of the industry response has been...mixed. I am not an enormous Wood fan myself, although I did respect his attitudes on many things from afar and currently buy at least one of his books (about which more below).

This is a story that I've been following since the beginning, but one which has developed in fragments. As a result, when the story proper broke yesterday, it was no longer clear why this person, why now, why in this way, or even, what exactly had been asserted and when.

I've decided to put together a resource timeline, with editorial commentary, followed by my own thoughts.

( Timeline: this is a train wreck. And a really long one. )

( Related developments. )

( Further personal thoughts. )

This isn't complete, but it is, I hope...completeish.

ETA: As I reference above in relation to several articles, but also as I do not want missed by the majority who will not slog through it all, this timeline got a lot more attention than I ever imagined it would. This was surprising and humbling. I hope that it has been useful to you. If you have comments on its content or accuracy, I would be glad to hear them.

I want to talk about Bioshock Infinite. I'm not sure how to begin. This game has been spectacularly successful, critically and commercially, with good reason, and also subject to some criticism, also with reason, and I'm just, I'm in a weird place with it. It's doing some interesting, difficult things with the narrative, but I can't help but feel that it holds up this dark, uncomfortable mirror, one almost pointedly aimed at the entitlement and violence of these...stubbly, world-weary white, masculine protagonists. How hard it must be for them to watch their wives and daughters brutalised and stolen, to be emasculated, to save them at such personal cost to their honour and self-respect, to make such dark, morally ambiguous decisions. Oh! How this new white man's burden is written in every cocked eyebrow and condescending, sarcastic remark about the way things really are and how they're just passing through and do not want to get involved.

But. Of course. We need a hero, and it must be someone bitterly disinterested with exactly the correct ratio of beard to razor.

Bioshock Infinite constructs a beautiful noose around this idea. It hangs you with it. And then it bends over backwards to hide what it's doing for fear of upsetting you.

( Spoilers EVERYWHERE. )

And those are my thoughts...

Title: Atlas
Video: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Audio: Poor Atlas // Dessa
Summary: I'm building a body but the architects only drew blanks. [CYLONS]
Vidder's Notes: Made for the occasion of cyborganize and metatxt's wedding. No lesser event would have made it feel right to go back to BSG.

Password: vidses



Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 19 megs approx.

Cross-posted to vidding

Other vids available here.