cosmic_llin

 I'm running a history-themed vidshow for this year's VidUKon, and I'm currently looking for recs!

I'm after any and all vids with historical settings, but I'm especially keen to hear ideas about less popular historical eras, non-Western history and marginalised people in history, since I figure those will probably be harder to track down and I want to have a broad variety of things!

You are very much encouraged to self-rec if you have something you think might fit the bill! :D

For anyone wanting to know, my fandom_stocking is HERE!

* * *

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!

Day 6 - In your own space, pimp three comms or challenges and explain why you love them.

where_no_woman / where_no_woman  - it's less busy than it used to be, but this community is what jump-started my participation in Trek fandom after a quiet patch, and it's full of intelligent, beautiful stories, vids and meta about the women of the Star Trek franchise. The archives are well worth looking through, they're handily tagged by character and type and basically everything useful. 

ds9_rewatch - another one that's quieter than it used to be - I think that's just the nature of rewatch comms though, sometimes. We're on season five now! I don't make it to the chats every week, but I've had some really fun times in this community, and some fascinating and in-depth discussions about DS9 and plenty of other things.

halfamoon I know it's kind of an obvious one, but Halfamoon is one of my favourite fannish times of year. For two weeks, the internet is full of people appreciating awesome women characters, and it's always a blast!


Day 7 - In your own space, share something non-fannish about yourself. A passion or a hobby or a talent, something that people might not know about you. We are more than just our fandoms.

Hmm, this is a tricky one because so many of what I consider my talents - writing, vidding, crafting, costuming - are linked with fandom even if that's not necessarily what I'm always doing with them.

I guess there's Russian, although that's not exactly a passion so much as something that turned up in my life almost by accident and never left. I studied Russian at university on more or less a whim, and lived out there for a year as part of my studies. It's been a couple of years since I went back, but I've visited several times since graduation. Partly because while I was out there I taught English at a community of foster families (if anyone is interested in volunteering in Russia, let me know), and I made a lot of friends there. And partly because Russia just sort of gets under your skin (like anywhere, I guess, if you're there long enough). I love the language, I'm fascinated by the culture and history... some of the politics at the moment I find scary and upsetting. But on the whole I love Russia, and I foresee it always playing some part of my life, although I'm not sure I could live there again.


Day 8 - In your own space, talk about setting yourself a fannish goal. Big or small, it doesn't matter. 

Well, one thing I noticed when I looked over my fanworks for 2012 was that I barely vidded at all. A lot of that was down to annoying technology issues that I didn't get around to sorting, but this year I'm determined to do better. I have a huge backlog of vids I've been meaning to make, and I'm really itching to get some of them done. So, I'm going to challenge myself to make six vids this year - not including my Festivids project, which kind of straddled 2012 and 2013. This will include my premiere for vidukon_cardiff , which looks like it's going to be my most ambitious vidding project yet. Wish me luck!

 So, I realised I hadn't actually properly posted since I posted about getting engaged, and that was weeks ago!

* Wow, planning a wedding is complicated. I somehow thought everyone else who ever got married in the history of ever was making it up, but it's ALL TRUE. I mean, I understand there are plenty of ways we could have a quiet, simple wedding, but when we both have large families that we love and want to share the day with, it makes it more difficult. Exciting, though!

* Of all the unexpected things, Gilmore Girls has become my new comfort TV. I don't imagine I'll get into the fandom much but it's just really good and low-effort at the end of a long day.

* Really looking forward to Vidukon now the dates have been announced! I need to get cracking on making my premiere. I'm pretty excited about it.

* I'm rereading The Dark Is Rising because it's that time of year. <3

* The last several weeks have been hard work - my pay date changed, and the way they arranged it left me with two weeks' worth of pay to last six weeks, which was no fun. I got my first proper new-date pay at the end of November, and I've mostly spent it on Christmas presents, but hopefully the new year payday will get me back on track.

* Christmas! It's nearly here! Aaaaaaaahhhh! (I like Christmas A LOT, folks.)

* Edit: Forgot to say, and this is interesting - last week I had a root canal, and since then I haven't needed to take any of my TN medication. This could be a coincidence or it could be more. I'm cautiously excited, if a bit annoyed that I was told months ago there was no way it could be connected to anything dental... but TN does go away and come back, so waiting and seeing...

Song: I Am What I Am, Linda Eder
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Characters: Lwaxana Troi
Length: 3.05
Size: 66 Mb
Download: http://www.sendspace.com/file/378d3j
Warnings: None

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!

Song: I Am Not A Robot, Marina and the Diamonds
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Characters: Odo
Length: 3.53
Size: 22.35 Mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WF0S8CKZ
Warnings: None
Spoilers: Some, for Odo's arc up to the last season, but not including the finale.

"" (Watch on YouTube)