cosmic_llin

For anyone wanting to know, my fandom_stocking is HERE!

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amaresu said: Vidding!

Quite a broad topic there! :D 

Like so many people, I started vidding because there was a vid I had to make. When I was living in St Petersburg as part of my year abroad, when I got homesick I  would watch Sarah Jane episodes of Doctor Who. At around the same time I discovered a Cerys Matthews song called Open Roads (Never Said Goodbye). I  realised that it would make an awesome vid, but from previous failed experiments I knew my computer was too slow to handle it. (Someday I will remake that epic Scully sciencing vid that just refused point-blank to render.) So I played the song over and over and thought about what clips would go where, for months, until finally I  got a new computer that could just about run Windows Movie Maker ok.

My next stint in Russia was in a rural community with basically non-existent internet access, and I made some of my next few vids there as a way to amuse myself and make myself feel less lonely. For the first couple of years that I vidded I only made Sarah Jane/Doctor vids - when The Sarah Jane Adventures started I branched out into that, but at first for me vidding was very connected to Sarah Jane and the community at sarahjane_fic on LJ, where I spent most of my fannish time. It wasn't until I dived head-first back into my first fannish love, Star Trek, that I started to branch out a bit, and now I vid mostly Star Trek but also other things now and then.

That was when I realised that vidding, as well as being a fannish activity in many fandoms, was also a fandom in and of itself. It was an interesting change - I went from being basically the only big vidder in a very small pond to discovering that actually there was way more to vidding than I'd thought and that some vidders were hugely popular across fandoms, and some vidders were doing amazing things with special effects that I hadn't even imagined, and some vidders were using vids to make their own narratives, and some vidders were having conventions that were all about vidding! 

Sometimes now when I watch my early vids I cringe a bit, but when I watch that very first vid, it still says exactly what I want it to say, albeit possibly in a different way than I  would choose to say it now. I'm still on a very steep learning curve, vidding-wise, and I don't think I'm naturally talented at it, especially the whooshy, make-it-pretty side, but I do have a lot of fun doing it!

 So, I thought I'd do snowflake_challenge this year since so many people seemed to have fun with it last time. Here goes!

Day 1: In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

1. Secret Agent - I've made a lot of vids that I really love, but this one still makes me feel extra-bouncy every time I watch it in a way that nothing else can quite match. 

2. Never Said Goodbye - This isn't the first vid I ever made, but it's the first that's still around (it was preceded by a Jack/Sam vid that I've lost and a Scully vid that never saw the light of day). It's also the first vid that sprang into my head almost fully-formed when I heard the song and practically begged me to make it, and considering how little I knew about vidding then, I think it still stands up, and still says exactly what I wanted it to say.

3. London - There were a couple of other fics I considered mentioning, ones that I think are really good, that I enjoyed writing and that I still enjoy reading back now and then. But this one won because it's about Deanna Troi, and for basically as long as I can remember Deanna Troi has been my muse - except that where I used to run around the house pretending to be her, now I write stories where she's a badass.

Festivids was really exciting this year! I got not one but two vids, both of them fabulous, and both of them by the awesome Nancy Blackett.

This absolutely perfect and wonderful dinnerladies vid, and this cute and fun and fabulous Nyssa vid.

I made a MASH vid, which was quite a challenge because it's a big canon and I'm not as familiar with it as I used to be, but I worked hard on it and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's here. I may make a proper vid post for it at some point.

Fandom Stocking was lots of fun too! I got an adorable Ace/Mel drabble, a delightful Team Crawley Sisters ficlet, fabulous Cybill icons, and cute beautiful happy-making DS9 fic that makes my pupils turn into little hearts! (Cleo and others still watching, don't click, may be spoilery!) Plus lots of nice good wishes! :D

I wrote eight ficlets in Deep Space Nine, Next Gen, Doctor Who, Vorkosigan Saga, Downton Abbey and SJA, and they're here.

Since I'm supposed to be spending this time doing aaaaall the things, here is a procrastinatory post! I just wanted to rec a few of my favourite fandom things from 2011 - bearing in mind that I will probably forget a lot of things and the list will be weighted in favour of the last few months, but yes, anyway, here is some awesome stuff that I liked this year!

Fic:

Sanity Will Be Graded on a Curve (M*A*S*H) - BlueMorpho - I don't read a lot of M*A*S*H fic these days, but this wowed me. I suspect it's probably still quite interesting even if you don't know the show, but it especially is if you do!

I Get That Line All the Time (Star Trek) - Thistlerose - OK, so, this one's cheating a bit because it's a remix of my own fic, but I love the way Thistlerose took the brief scenario I'd written - Uhura and Lily Sloane meeting - and ramped the awesome up to eleven.

Mutual Attraction (Star Trek) - Oparu - I. Just. Lwaxana Troi. And Kate Pulaski. This story makes me ridiculously happy.

Theoretical Principles (Star Trek) - sophiegrace - This story not only has one of my favourite pairings (Seven/B'Elanna), in it they work exactly the way I see them working - they're funny and snarky and hot and adorable.

Before I Go (Star Trek) - carawj - Yeah, I know she's my girlfriend but Cara writes awesome fic. Doctors! Worf impressions! Enjoyable drunkenness! :D

Vids:

Born Too Late (ST: DS9) - Bironic - This vid is the soundtrack to my life right now. It is absolute perfection when it comes to the folk of DS9 being adventurey and teamy and wonderful.

If You're the Captain (ST:VOY) - thingswithwings - I giggle every time I watch this because it so perfectly explains the way Captain Janeway and her crew work.

Suddenly I See (Firefly) - purplefringe - This is just a ridiculously lovable and joyful and sweet Inara/Kaylee vid and it makes me smiiiiile.

Suzanne (Doctor Who) - such_heights - Of all the flurry of Doctor/TARDIS stuff that came out this year, this for me is the one that feels the most true. It's the perfect mixture of wistful and loving and delighted.

Christmas in the Delta Quadrant (ST: VOY) - touchdownpossum - This is just super-cracktastic, awesome Christmas fun!

I was inspired by last night's Doctor Who to make a little vidlet:

( Spoilery... a bit, anyway. )

I still can't quite believe she's gone.

Elisabeth Sladen shaped my fandom life for years, and without knowing it, she had a huge influence on my life in the 'real' world, too. As Sarah Jane, she inspired my wardrobe choices, my writing, and my very first fanvid. I devoted hours, days and weeks of my life to chronicling her appearances in Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures for my website. I watched her episodes of Doctor Who and SJA whenever I needed to relax, or cheer up, or feel a bit closer to home. I even bonded with the Russian children I taught over showing them SJA in class.

Not only that, but having Season 2 of SJA to focus on and get excited about helped me to deal with my own mother's cancer diagnosis, and watching The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith helped me to come to terms with some of my family issues.

Most importantly of all, through Sarah Jane fandom I met some lovely people, many of whom are now an important part of my life. Including my BFF and Awesome Twin, ladyvivien, without whom I would never have met my wonderful carawj, and silly_cleo who has become one of my very favourite people.

She never knew me, but the gifts she has given me will stay with me for a very long time.

So, I'm not really in the mood to do my usual Christmas wishlist post and stuff, so instead I decided I would make a list of some of the fics and vids that I've really enjoyed this year. With the caveat that most of them will probably be quite recent because the beginning of the year is hard to remember. And there are probably plenty I've forgotten that ruled. Anyways:

Fic:

Like an Elephant, by biichan - Mel and Donna (one of my favourite unusual DW pairings) being awesome.
A very short exploration of phone (actually telegraphic) sex and orgasm control, in which this title is several times longer than the fic itself, by Skud - I don't even read Sherlock Holmes fic, but this made me LOL so hard...
Terra Firma, by carawj - Best Naomi Wildman fic ever. And I'm not even saying that just because my girlfriend wrote it. Although she did.
An extract from "The Witch’s Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Baby Care", by Alarica Rosier. Chapter Nine: What if my Baby is a Squib?, by Nineveh_uk - This is very sad and disturbing. Also it was originally written in 2007 but it as posted to AO3 recently so it totally counts.
Reflections, by sophiegrace - The only thing better than one Kira is two Kiras. Especially if one of them is evil. Muhahaha. Rated Mature, click at your own risk!
A Memory of Stars, by eponymous_rose - Gorgeous little moment between Kira and Jake.
Modern Love, by Penknife - OK, so this is from last year but I discovered it this year. I don't usually read Discworld fic at all, but this is about LGBT dwarves, and it's AWESOME.

Vids:

Dance of Joy, by Talumin - Multifandom, people dancing. It makes me go :D
I Can't Hear the Music, by Settiai - Awesome Kai Winn character study
Say, by sarasdano - Another DS9 vid, a wonderful team one
I Wish I Was James Bond, by kuwdora - I know everyone has recced the crap out of this recently, but it's JUST. SO. COOL. Julian Bashir wants to be James Bond. Just watch it, y'all.

Feel free to rec me things if it looks like there's great stuff I've missed!

Ok, so, carawj, silly_cleo, jakera, shinyjenni, Hannah and I just got back from the Doctor Who Prom. For those who don't know, the proms are a series of concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, they do it every year, and there's all sorts of different ones and you can get very cheap standing tickets and they're accessible and informal and fun and stuff.

And yes, today was the Doctor Who one. We queued for nearly seven hours to make sure we got in, and it was totally worth it.

The cut below is mostly a 'skip my incoherent squeeing if you can't be bothered' cut, but also some really cool stuff happened that you might not want to know about if you're planning to watch it when it's on TV.

( Amazing! )

I have stuff I want to reply to but I may not get to it all this evening, exhausted! But I wanted to get this down while it was still fresh!

Well, I watched both Doctor Who and Glee tonight, and... gah, I don't feel equipped to respond to Who yet. So here's what I thought of Glee...

( Spoilers and slight rantage )

So, we're having another go at cc_sff, which is the women in SF&F discussion group that deccaboo, seti_fan and I ran on Yahoo! Groups way back when. It would be super duper to see some of you there! At the moment we're talking about Sarah Jane Smith, yay!