burning at the centre of time

So I've failed massively at posting to my journal of late, but. But.

I got two absolutely beautiful Master and Commander vids this year in Festivids, and you should go look at them...and leave feedback for the vidders. Also a big thanks to the festivids mods and staff for all their hard work!

Sailboats by bironic (assignment) is an absolutely lovely Aubrey/Maturin vid that is pretty much to the letter I wanted from a shippy (swear to god no pun intended) fanwork. Bironic has made this sweet and touching without hurting your teeth; the song choice is perfect, and if you like this ship, it's a real keeper.

Leave Her, Johnny by rhoboat (treat) pulls together a completely different take on the canon--the gritty reality of the naval life, good and bad. Rhoboat uses the stunning cinematography by Russell Boyd* to full advantage, which I really appreciated as it's so fucking beautiful.

Go forth, friends! And do go have a look at the rest of this year's Festivids if you get a chance--I'm going to make my way though them all soon, it's been a rough start of the month so I've not had time yet.

* Wikipedia is telling me Boyd won an Oscar for this, which I gotta say is deserved as hell. I'm still miffed there wasn't ever a second M&C.

Dragging myself out of anxiety-fueled inertia to tell you, dear readers, that you should go have a look at the two (!) vids I got for Festivids as they are both utterly amazing. (I really have got to get myself in gear to make a treat for someone, some year, to pay it forward.)

Bones (Silence of the Lambs): an absolutely stunning examination of the parallel journeys of Clarice, Catherine Martin, and Lecter through the film. Film geek me says the editing and song choice works wonderfully with Demme and Fujimoto's original photography, giving it a modern sensibility--but it's damn good at playing with your emotions too.
(Please heed all trigger warnings as there are both physical and psychological ones. The latter are in line with canon, though not gratuitous, and the problematic parts of canon are relatively minimally shown.)

You Have a Choice (Minority Report): the Agatha and Anderton vid I've been wanting for about a decade, I swear to god. This takes out Spielberg's heavy-handed sentimentality (I love the man, but no) and swaps John Williams' noir style score for an epic narrative's to do so. It ends up being about Agatha and about both her and Anderton's changing understanding of justice and fate really are. I'm just gonna be squeeful that someone gets it besides me because I never GET that with this canon.

With regards to my own vid, I was going to offer a vidlet for guessing, but realised I gave away what I was doing a few months ago by asking for help. But if you DON'T know, DIDN'T look, and still want to guess, feel free--none of you have found it yet wrt commenting, so there's still time to get in on the ground floor. And dear person who helped me with source material, you also deserve a reward if you so choose. You know who you are.

(in other news that has made me roll up into a ball and rock back and forth: Fleetwood Mac new album and tour with Christine MASSIVE SQUEE involved)

I must confess to not having a ton of experience with a goodly proportion of the fandoms on offer this year, thus the shortness of the list at the moment. sheepish rhi is sheepish.

Anyway, these are recs that will appeal to everyone, not just you vid aficionados. I promise.

Doctor Who (old skool)

Another Girl, Another Planet (Ace)
This is all about Ace, and it's therefore necessarily full of attitude and charm and blowing shit up and beating Daleks with a baseball bat. You may think you know this story, but the vidder makes it work well, particularly with the music, which is delightful. My only complaint is that there isn't moar footage from Ghost Light.

Awake My Soul (Sarah Jane)
I saw azarsuerte mention this more than once as she was the recip, and finally went to watch. Yes, it is deliberately manipulating you into wonder and amazement and weepiness. No, I do not care. It starts slow, but hits its stride about a minute and a half in and doesn't let up.


Maru the cat (YouTube)

Outside the Box (Maru/boxes)
This manages to tick the boxes of being absolutely ridiculous and hilarious while being moving almost to tears. This vidder knows hir stuff, and points have to go to Maru's human for the source material being so good.


Moulin Rouge

Ooh La La! (Christian/Satine)
Having been subjected to Goldfrapp's 'Ooh La La' about twenty million times lately in car adverts, I came into this a sceptic. I walked out stunned. It's rhythmically brilliant and heartbreakingly wonderful, and now I remember why I paid to see the film five times even though I was a high school student.


Master and Commander

Ship of Fools (Maturin [Aubrey/Maturin])
I really appreciate the gorgeous film work of Peter Weir and his team, and I also really appreciate vidders who use classic rock artists to great effect. This is a gorgeous tribute to Stephen Maturin. Old school TR people, I advise you to watch only when you're in an okay frame of mind, as it is possibly a bit painful.

I haven't got to everything, but here are my top recs for this year's Festivids. These are NOT all the vids I've watched and liked, or all the canons I know, mind...I just can't do anymore reccing right now thanks to spoons. I encourage you, even if you're not into vids, to go check out the master list, as there are gems there. GEMS, I TELL YOU, including my Lone Gunmen giftvid (rec here).

These recs mostly fit into three four-letter categories: LULS, AWWW, and ZOMG. Please check the warnings for each vid before viewing. Links go to the Dreamwidth post, but there's an LJ link on each if you want to leave comments/view there. (And do leave comments if you like what you see; each one I've received makes me smile.)

LULS

Back to the Future trilogy - Tik Tok
Ke$ha - Tik Tok
I've seen BTTF done with Tik Tok before, but this does it better, and with all three films. Look, just trust me on this. It's not only funny, but oddly touching.

The Big Lebowski - State of Confusion
The Kinks - State of Confusion
The Kinks make a perfect background for a look at the Dude, abiding. I mean, there ain't much more to say about it.

Community - Space Oddity
David Bowie - Space Oddity
I am not a fan of this song, despite liking Bowie. I am a fan of Troy/Abed, though. And this works very well and I like the song in the context of the vid!

Heathers - Still Alive
Jonathan Coulton - Still Alive
I'm particularly fond of vids that establish a metanarrative with regards to the original source text. This is one of those. Watch it.

Hot Fuzz - Blue
The White Stripes - Blue Orchid
It's just Hot Fuzz distilled down into gore and a rather manic beat.

Life After People - End of the World
Great Big Sea - It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
This would not seem likely to be on my luls list, seeing as it's from a documentary on how humanity's structures would get on without humanity. But it is. Because it is deliciously, darkly humorous.

Star Trek: TNG - Want You Bad
The Offspring - Want You Bad
You know how Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie hammed up the sexual tension between Picard and Q? No? Well, watch and learn. Hilarious.


AWWW

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Greatest Day
Take That - The Greatest Day
Both the previous vid and this one use tracks that PBS has used in promos; they do for a reason, though, and that's emotional effect. This takes the Narnia films and doesn't shy away from the painful bits.

Doctor Who (1996 TV Movie) - One Day Like This
Elbow - One Day Like This
Despite being incompetent as a fan and never seeing all of this canon, I still appreciate this vid. I think it informs the Eighth Doctor with what we know of Nine, Ten, and Eleven, and that's not a bad thing.

Punky Brewster - Father & Daughter
Paul Simon - Father & Daughter
I initially watched this because I love the song, but then I remembered how sweet Punky Brewster was when I was wee. Dim memories, tearjerker canon...bless.


ZOMG

Blade Runner - November Rain
Guns & Roses - November Rain
This sounds completely bizarre, but it is utterly perfect. I am pretty sure whomever made this has studied Blade Runner at some point (I did twice as an undergrad, don't ask), because ze deals with some issues that come up in film and lit crit of it. Or maybe I just read it that way.

Eddie Izzard's standup - Do You Want To
Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To
This vid is less in the moving category and far more in the technically amazing category. Seriously, whomever did this has the patience of a saint. You'll see why when you watch it.

Rubicon - I Follow You
Depeche Mode - The Bottom Line
If you watched Rubicon...watch this. It captures the mood of it very well, with just a hint of what might have been.

Terminator 1&2 - L.E.S. Artistes
Santigold - L.E.S. Artistes
This vid is about Sarah Connor. The Linda Hamilton Sarah Connor. Not to offend any of the TSCC fans, but...this is the Sarah Connor I know and love, and this vid is beautiful and you should watch.

This post is mostly about my documentary, all non-interested parties can skip. In other words, I've started actual editing work on the Overambitious Dissertation.

( Overambitious Dissertation update! )

Carrying on from there to a couple other things that have rocked me of late:

- Music: I'm almost done with that Hunger Games mix. You're all excited, I know. I may have nicked the OpenTape idea from melloniel for my own use. Also, is Fleetwood Mac in the studio? I keep seeing bits and pieces to that effect.

- TV: The Good Guys (FOX, Friday 9/8c)
As you may have detected from my post the other day, I'm loving this show. It took a few episodes to really get its swing, but from thereon in, it becomes an amazing satire/pastiche of every kind of cop show of the last twenty-five years. If you like comedy, go back and start at about episode five. It's clever, non-linear, and doesn't take itself too seriously, not to mention Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks have fantastic chemistry. (And if you're not watching solely because you're sketched out by pr0nstache Whitford, we are no longer speaking. It's about character.)

- Fanfic: The Completely Authorised, Un-sensationalised, Fact-Checked, Permissioned Biography of Dr. Faiza ‘Excalibur’ Hussain by dhobikikutti (gen, Captain Britain and MI: 13)
Hard knowledge of this comic series isn't necessary to enjoy this fic--anyone who's been living in Britain lately or who's interested in social history and/or cultural critique in fandom should have a read. The author makes the comic story relevant to the narrative of Muslim people in the UK today, and it is also damn fine writing.

- Webcomics: FreakAngels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield (NSFW)
Warren Ellis can be problematic, but damn, the man can tell a good story. I sped through the first twelve chapters of FreakAngels last night, and I'm really glad I've got nearly a hundred more to go. Another rooted-in-the-UK story, yeah, deal with it.

- Webstuff: Horizon: Mellow Mint userscript by gossymer (h/t bzzinglikeneon)
Ah, LJ, I don't know how to quit you, but I do find your changing banner and nav to be irritating. Luckily, Gossymer's coded something for those of us who'd like things straightforward. I'm not sure how it is in terms of accessibility, though--if someone more tech-savvy could have a look, that'd be ace.

- 'Lifestyle', whatever that means: Health Month
Thanks to inkstone, I'm now a Health Month beta tester. It's a nifty sort of tool/game to promote healthy lifestyle changes, it involves mental health rules as well as physical ones, and it's far less focused on IS YOU FAT than most challenges of this nature. I must say that accountability really does help (I'm keeping to only two caffeinated bevs a day, deep fried food only once a week, and trying to eat fresh fruit five times a week). If you want to change a pattern or two in your life and you're interested in getting on board for November, I'd say it's worth a try, though if you want more than three rules in your game, it'll cost you.

Oh, and thanks to that userscript, I've now installed Greasemonkey. Yes, I know, years too late...are there any other scripts anyone here recommends?