Sleep-speaker

First vid in a year...

Title: America
Video: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Audio: America // Tracy Chapman
Summary: hashtag:colonialism.



Passwordvidukon

Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 78 megs approx.

Also available on tumblr and twitter.

Other vids available here.

I love the Mass Effect trilogy. It’s one of my favourite stories; one of my most treasured narratives. I’ve spoken about it extensively here, so (given that I think I have to admit the effective dormancy of this journal), it seems right to resurrect this place in order to add my thoughts about Mass Effect: Andromeda. In short, I am disappoint.

Listen, I’m not here to yell at anyone for what they love. The cliff’s notes version is that I enjoyed the game enough to finish it, but kept waiting for plot resolutions and thematic coherency that never arrived. Sadly, the longer I sat with the story after I had finished it, the more it frustrated me. Basically because it’s colonialist as all hell and half the plot is never resolved.

If that’s not something you want to read, that’s cool. You may disagree with me. You may agree with me and like it anyway. I am all about being able to love and critique at the same time. You are glorious, savvy media consumers and none of you need a permit to operate this game responsibly.

But, If you want to follow me down a rabbit hole of frustration and disappointment, read on. (Safety spoiler: don’t worry about me, I still love the original trilogy.)

(Spoilers spoiler: spoilers for the whole game.)

( Lol, colonialism. )

( Lol, plot. )

That’s how I felt about a lot of the characters in Mass Effect: Andromeda. They couldn’t hate me, not really, because they were NPCs.

And the plot was frustrating.

And it was colonialist as hell.

And I guess that’s about all I have to say about the game.

Next, my actual Premiere for the Premieres show!

Title: Run Boy Run
Video: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Audio: Run Boy Run // Woodkid
Summary: Aang: fight or flight?



Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 82 megs approx.

Cross-posted to vidding and vidding

Other vids available here.

*RE-EMERGES FROM THE WILDS*

Hey all of you! :D

So, lithiumdoll and I are putting together a Vidding 101 panel for VidUKon and we need your help, good people! You don't have to be planning to attend - if you might be there via VirtUKon, or read the notes online afterwards, we'd love to hear from you!

Very briefly, it'll be a mix of practical advice on the basics of how to make clips, how to put clips on a timeline, etc., all using multiplatform free software as far as possible.

The second half is gonna be a more subjective section where we're hoping to answer audience questions and put together some stuff that will be of interest to you guys. So if you have any big questions you'd really like addressed in this panel, we would REALLY like to hear from you!

The post is here: http://vidukon-cardiff.dreamwidth.org/27490.html

It's gonna be great! :D

Behold, I have written a ten thousand word essay on the Legend of Korra and its multi-season trajectory. Because apparently that's how I roll. And how long it takes to write down everything I think. But also: fair warning - this is an essay. I'd love for you to read it, but for real, take your time.

 

( Avatar: the Last Airbender )

( Book One: Air )

( The Opposite of Aang )

 

( The Bridge Between Worlds )

 

( The Death of Aang and the Age of Korra )

 

( Build Yourself a Metal City and Build Around the Vines )

 

( Post-Industrial Political Revolution )

 

( On Earthly Bodies, Enlightenment and Sin )

 

( Korra Alone )

 

( There's a collision at this intersection )

 

( The Legend of Bryke )

 

( Love )

Title: Republic City
Video: The Legend of Korra
Audio: Atlantic City // The Gaslight Anthem [Springsteen Cover]
Summary: Everything dies, baby that's a fact. (But everything that dies, some day comes back.)



Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 83 megs approx.

Cross-posted to vidding and vidding

Other vids available here.

Title: Blue/Pink
Video: Steven Universe
Audio: Blue Lips // Regina Spektor
Summary: Human, Gem. Boy, Girl. Blue, Pink.

PASSWORD: vidses



Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 80 megs approx.

Cross-posted to vidding and vidding

Other vids available here.

So FIRST, oh my god, the VidUKon auction was an amazing success! We raised almost £250 including £111 for RAINN. So that was pretty fantastic. Many thanks to the vidders (buffyann, LithiumDoll, jagwriter78 and purplefringe) and all the bidders!

Also, I finished this a while ago but I should probably post it. I'm not sure it's as epic or successful at evoking a particular tone as my string quintet, but I'm pretty happy with it in the sense I feel I started cracking the use of accidentals for some deliberate dischordant...ness. Plus, a wild key change appears!

I do think I probably should have not been quite so minimalist with the left hand obsession with repetitive thirds, though. Oops?

Okay! So it's been a while since I posted about my musical adventures. Not because I haven't been working on it (well actually I took a pretty long break to play Dragon Age: Inquisition, but I'm back at it now) but because I've been...simultaneously working on a few things and not really finished with any of them. My original plan was to post this, along with another piece I mostly finished but am trying to go back and polish a little and a piece I'm currently working on but is a bit stalled. If I do that, though, who knows when I'll be brave enough to post anything, so screw it.

I give you 20 Strings, a piece for string quintet in C Minor.

It's my attempt at a sort of minimalist style so there's a lot of intentional repetition and slow builds because, well, I like that sort of thing. Hopefully you will too. Or at least not think it sounds terrible.



I'm...actually kind of happy with this because I feel it's long enough it feels complete, but also feels consistent throughout. (What I'm working on at the moment, for instance, I'm quite pleased with on the one hand because I feel I'm getting the hang of using accidentals and some chromatic harmony, but I've got a tonal shift in the middle I'm not entirely sure works).

I do think I should have bitten the bullet and put bow markings in. I didn't because Musescore can't play them back properly and I was all GRR MINIMALISM FINE FUCK IT everything will be bowed! But whatever I'm not actually a hipster, I should've put them in for completeness. On the other hand, it's a piece made up of layered repetitive phrases so I think most people would guess correctly where to put 'em.

Finally, for some reason, the custom soundfont I use with Musescore didn't include a viola so I'm stuck with the default viola sound which is a) not great and b) clashes with the custom stuff so, with deepest apologies to the viola, which is a beautiful instrument, the audio here is three violins and two cellos.

I think that's everything.

But seriously, guys, I'd love to know what you think. I'm sort of new to this and not entirely sure where I'm going with it. I don't actually know almost anyone else who's into composing stuff. It's hard to know what it would sound like outside of my own experience. It's not really like when I got into vidding and there was a ready made community of enthusiastic people of varying skill levels, you know? As far as I can tell "composing" fandom is super hardcore people who understand...a lot more than I do when it comes to musical theory.

But, I think I like doing this. So. Onwards.

(ALSO ALSO, festivids went live this weekend! I haven't had a chance to watch that many vids, though, cus I suck. I will try to have a recs post up before the reveals, though!)

So, the Legend of Korra finished last month and it was actually pretty awesome. Over the course of the series I felt it made up for a lot of its first season missteps, even if the fact I know the first book was written to standalone means I am unwilling to say that everything wrong with it was intentional. But yeah, overall, it was a great wrap-up and while I have a few reservations - things I wish they'd done slightly differently - don't we always? I feel far more joy.

I feel like the whole series - all four books - deserves an epic review post, meta and all sorts, but for right now I kind of just wanted to address one piece of criticism I've been seeing because I think it's worth some attention.

( Forgiveness, compassion, anger, justice and suffering. )