This Year's Model of Humanity

Just in case it takes me forever to do the rest of the vids, I wanted to jot down my thoughts on the Premiere Show vids right away. Briefly, on the Con itself: every single year, I've had more fun. I've known more people and gotten to meet yet more people. It was really delightful this year.

Highway Cafe of the Damned (Stargate SG-1), vid by jmtorres and niqaeli: I found this vid to be hilarious and witty (some great connections with the lyrics!). I thought it was clever and delightful and it made for a really good opening vid for me. The musical portion, with the Jack/Daniel conversation, was particularly amusing. Michael Shanks and his funny, funny faces. I really enjoyed it.

Creep (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), vid by bradcpu: This was a very deft exploration of the similarities between the Buffy & Faith (insert slash as desired) and Buffy/Spike relationships. It covered the ways both of them mistakingly put her on various sorts of pedestals and then it brought in the Buffy PoV, where she's just as screwed up as anyone else. The Buffy PoV switch is what made this vid feel fresh to me, but even before that, there's a lovely delicacy to the way the build-up is done. The actual switchover I really love because it... it kinda attacks you. Because up until this point, it's been all about Faith and Spike being all woe because they either desire Buffy and/or desire to be Buffy (depending on your reading of Buffy and Faith's relationship) and Buffy breaks into that to say -- "hey, I'm fucked up, too. I'm not perfect. I'm not some porcelain ideal for you to focus on. I'm a very real, very damaged person. Treat me as a person, not an object."

And then I loved this vid even more on the rewatch. It's all good.

Handlebars (Iron Man), vid by deejay: I haven't seen the movie. There are several reasons for this: a) the Batman effect, which was everyone telling me how fantastic Batman Begins was and then watching the movie and hating it (my favorite recent 'superhero' movies are two that had very mixed reactions: Hancock and Daredevil) and b) I don't get the RDJ thing. Many people love and adore him and flock to his movies. I don't understand the appeal. He isn't my type. He just always seems to have this scummy veneer of smug to my eyes. As soon as I look at him, I start to dislike him. I suspect that this would be a draw-back in any movie where he isn't the bad guy.

So, taking all that into account, I did enjoy this vid. The first time through, it felt lighter at the end than the beginning, but on rewatch, the ending feels very ominous. This is probably due, in part, to my not fully parsing all the lyrics the first time through. I'm also very impressed by how incredibly different this vid feels from the later vid with the same song. Because of the difference in editing and pacing, the songs feel like two different versions of the same song, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure that they're the same one. Those differences place the emphasis differently in each vid and that draws my attention to distinct parts of the song and takes the focus off others.

The Horror (A Scanner Darkly), vid by dualbunny: None of the vids in the Premieres show were badly-edited. However, some of them I just didn't connect with emotionally. I've never seen A Scanner Darkly and the vid just really didn't speak to me. I was informed afterwards that it's all about drugs, which I can definitely go with. But that makes it speak even less to me than back when I thought it was someone going crazy or slipping into a fantasy world. Also, I wasn't sure at the end whether or not the woman that he'd slept with was dead or just unconscious.

Four Seasons in One Day (Heroes), vid by greensilver: This is one of several vids where I didn't actually 'get' it the first time around, but enjoyed it anyway, and then liked it even more once I actually knew what it was about. First viewing, I didn't figure out that it was primarily a Nathan character vid. I'll say up front that Nathan is not one of my favorite characters, but still... on the second viewing, it was so obvious that it was about Nathan and the vid was cooler and made more sense. This vid does a really good job of covering everything that happens to Nathan and how... sudden and intense it is for him. It very successfully showed me (on that second viewing), how deeply Nathan feels about all this stuff that's happening to him and to the people around him, and it showed how hard he fights to protect the people he cares about (mostly Peter, but not solely).

Love Turns 40 (Closer), vid by jarrow: I must share with you my hilarious misinterpretation of this vid. So, we have Natalie, Julia, Jude, and Clive (note the use of the actors' names: yes, I have never seen this movie). We start with some shots of a couple in bed, but I didn't really get a close read on that until the second viewing, so the first image that stuck for me was Julia and Jude getting frisky with each other. I assumed that they were a couple. Then we had Natalie and Jude together, so I assumed that he was either cheating on Julia with Natalie or that they'd broken up and he'd started dating Natalie. And we saw Natalie come into a function with Jude but then go talk to Clive, so I assumed that, having slept with Julia's guy, she was ditching him for Clive. Around this point, there is a lyric about how 'mother and daughter will reconcile'. It's metaphorical.

I didn't realize that.

So, I assumed that Natalie was Julia's daughter and that Natalie had stolen away her mother's boyfriend for... kicks, I suppose. And now she had her own boyfriend and mom Julia decided that she should sleep with him for revenge. And then people started yelling at each other and Jude slaps Natalie and she's all, "I can't believe you did that!" And while Julia is still sleeping with her daughter's boyfriend, the daughter decides to get herself out of the whole crazy mess and leaves the lot of them behind.

This is, apparently, not the plot of the movie. Natalie and Julia aren't related. Julia is with Clive in the beginning and she has an affair with Jude. Natalie strips for Clive but never sleeps with him (she's a secret stripper). People argue and relationships are tested.

Much fun as my constructed reality was, the vid was even better when I actually had some backstory on what was happening. Knowing the basic facts gave me a good framework to place the vid on and all the clips slid right into place and I went, "Oh!" It's a really good vid and it worked really well with the song. Great edits (there's this section that's basically just heads turning, yet it's absolutely riveting). Excellent work.

Try Not to Breathe (Torchwood/Doctor Who 2005), vid by gwyn_r: For this vid, I felt very strongly that it was a... yearning vid. These are Jack's desires, his hopes and his dreams. He knows that he's been separated from the rest of the world by what's happened to him and he longs to reconnect -- particularly through Gwen and Ianto. It was sweet.

Why Walk When You Can Fly (Stargate: Atlantis), vid by Clucking Belles (Sandy and rache): The first time I saw this vid, I really liked both of the vids that I saw. The first half of the vid felt very McKay/Sheppard and the second half felt very much like gen team-fic. I just couldn't quite see the place where the transition occurred. On the second viewing, I found that I didn't need a transition anymore because the first half felt much less slashy to me and more about friendship between the two guys and that led more naturally into the formation of the familial love that the team shared and the good and wonderful things about the Pegasus galaxy -- that sense of wonder and joy.

Mandara (Dune 1984), vid by astolat: Someone at vid review mentioned that this felt like the movie being used to vid the book and I agree. The heavy weight of water was something that came across very strongly, which was appreciated. I really enjoyed the vid and I'm totally squeeing over the fact that there's a high-quality Dune (1984) vid in existence. That makes me happy, just on a fundamental level.

Synergy *It Had to Be You* (House M.D.), vid by queenzulu: Absolutely adorable and sweet. This vid picks out some wonderful moments of the House/Wilson slash pairing and, while showing you House realizing that he's in love with Wilson, she makes you believe in it all over again. Delightful! I think this has become my definitive House/Wilson vid. Plus, it also makes great use of the way House gestures and the brilliant facial expressions that Hugh gives us.

I Am the Drug (Dexter), vid by chasarumba: Very awesome. This vid distilled the essence of Dexter's character and why he's so fascinating to watch. I loved this song for him. It works so very well. And the scene with Rita at the beginning to set us up was beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful editing, particularly with the blood spatters.

Use It (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), vid by caphricacorn and sisabet: This vid had great motion and energy and a severed finger. And a decoy gay kiss, which is a lot of fun. Actually, this vid did a really good job of making this movie (which I haven't seen) look very enjoyable to watch, though I think that actually watching the movie might hit my embarrassment squicks. Hard to say for certain.

I Quit (Doctor Who 2005), vid by diannelamerc: This vid works better for me if I decontextualize the clips (because, for example, the 'you turned into another liar' on the Doctor going off with the Daleks is otherwise making Martha look disturbingly shallow). Also, as other people pointed out (somewhere... I'm not sure if it was Vid Review or just a group of people I was hanging out with), most of the times the vid has Martha going, "I quit!" she actually doesn't. She stays. The part that worked the best for me, in context of the show, was the Doctor saying, "Rose," in "Utopia" and Martha's reaction to that, which is set to the line "I'm taking back that heart of mine."

Hard Times Come Again No More (Peacemakers), by Jill and Kay: I could see that this was well-made, but not only do I not know the show, I'm also really not a fan of Westerns (with a Joss Whedon exemption). I couldn't really emotionally engage.

45 (Battlestar Galactica 2003), vid by bananainpyjamas: This would be the last of the vids where I completely mistook the point of view, but actually really liked the vid anyway, and then the vid worked even better in the second viewing with the knowledge of the proper point of view.

I haven't seen Razor. I assumed that the guy in the Viper was Lee because I missed the 'Husker' clue at the beginning of the view. I had no clue that there was Young!Bill Adama footage in existence (because all the reviews of Razor that I've read focused on the bad handling of the lesbian relationship).

So, the first time through, I thought it was a father & son vid with a focus on Lee. The second time through, it was very clearly a Bill Adama vid that often addressed his son. A small yet crucial distinction. Knowing that there's footage in there that I have no context for helped so much because during that second viewing I wasn't trying to slot the shots away into what I'd already seen. I knew it was something new.

Climbing up the Walls (Supernatural/Firefly/Heroes), vid by obsessive24: This would be the graphic siblingcest vid. It is, in a word, breathtaking. In another word, it's disturbing. Brilliantly and deliberately so. She does such a perfect job of creating all these logical extensions from the protectiveness that Nathan/Simon/Dean feel for Peter/River/Sam and how easily that can be extended into incest (as fandom has done for years). And then she continues to remind us that this is incest, that it creates a tiny world that only these two people can ever inhabit and cuts them off from the rest of the world. If it weren't for one other vid in part two of the show, this one would be, hands down, my favorite vid to come out of the Con.

I 'ship the cest (though, in Heroes fandom, I actually go for the uncle/niece in the form of Peter/Claire rather than the sibcest). It's fictional, so I don't have any issues with it. But I like it best in those stories where the psychology of that connection is explored. Because it is disturbing and, in many ways, very damaging to the older/young protective bond that is so wonderfully illustrated in this vid. She starts out with these images of blood from each of the universes because it's blood that she's exploring. Blood in the way of family and in the way of damage. Then there are these amazing parallel scenes with the younger siblings looking at their big brothers and us seeing a drawing. She constantly shows us the connections between the sibling pairs and she constantly reminds us that they are siblings. There is blood between them. It binds them together and starts to kill them, bit by bit. The older brother would like to do nothing more than to shield his younger sibling from all the pains of the world. There is so much bad shit going on for the younger siblings and the older brothers would do anything, anything to make it better. Die with your beloved younger sibling as they burn or sell your soul to bring your brother back -- there's no cost too high for these brothers.

But taking this step, the sexual step, distorts and warps the sibling relationship and we see the toll that it takes on them, how trapped they become and how the older brothers see themselves as monsters by the end of it. 'Anything' wasn't supposed to mean this and how do you protect your kid brother/sister when the scary thing in the night is now you? Amazingly done. And I would just like to mention, since it might be a while before I get to talking about the challenge vids, that I saw Tear You Apart  (the River PoV Simon/Kaylee) vid as River's response to this vid and mentioned that to Nicky (it's kinda 'and this is what happens when you don't sleep with your crazy little sister' vid) and she mentioned as to how there had been some communication along those lines. So, I got to feel smart there, which is always nice.

Here It Goes Again (Stargate: Atlantis), vid by sisabet: Really cute. It was the adorableness of McKay/Sheppard all wrapped up in a few minutes. It made me bounce and go... "yes! Those guys! I *heart* them!" The frustration and all the crazy-ass shit that goes on in their lives and the misunderstandings and the gesturing and... yes. Them. This felt very them.