1st of the year

[bironic]

Travel

I just returned from a week in rural Tennessee, where my mom's boyfriend bought a house for them to retire to in a few years. It's perched on the side of a mountain abutting Cherokee National Forest. It felt like vacation as soon as I heard running water and smelled wood smoke. Beautiful land,* spacious home, largely off the grid, although the steep slope made me nervous. We saw turkeys and Carolina chickadees along with many neighbors' pets and livestock. Went for easy hikes, ate venison steaks, played games, sang along with my mom's guitar on Christmas Eve—she has adopted the bf's Italian-American Catholic traditions—and discussed the ups and downs of their relationship. I fired a gun for the first time; took out some bottles with buckshot. When in Rome...

*stolen, sigh

Festivids

Hauling my desktop (vidding) computer 800 miles proved worthwhile, as I squeezed in two productive editing sessions. The draft is nearly complete. I'd like to send that out for beta soon and try for a treat. It would be sad to break the streak of making at least two Festivids per round.

Vidding anniversary

May will mark the tenth anniversary of posting my first vid. I'm planning some short write-ups for the occasion that can be spaced throughout 2019, like "favorite opening credits" and "vids that never made it." Is there anything you'd like to know?

In memoriam

I was saddened to hear about the recent passing of stardreamer. I had only just begun to get to know her here on Dreamwidth, where she was an engaged, insightful, compassionate commenter. It took longer than it should have for me to subscribe to her journal, which is when I learned that she had been struggling with pancreatic cancer for a while. It finally got the better of her in November. A real loss. Among other things, I'm sad I didn't finish the Midnight, Texas fic in time for her to read it; it's a tiny fandom and she'd said she was looking forward to it.

May her memory be a blessing.

Comments

[chagrined]

I like "vids that never made it." maybe idk thoughts on how your process has evolved over the years?

[bironic]

Cool cool. Can do.

[topaz_eyes]

I thought you'd been vidding for longer tbh. Ten years of vids! How awesome is that? \0/

I'd be curious to know, how you'd compare your vidding process to fic writing. Similarities, differences, etc.

[bironic]

Oh, hm! I will think on that.

Yup, first vid in 2009, first fic posted online in 2006. Both House. :)

[alpheratz]

I'd like to hear about any fandoms you haven't vidded in and why.

Your vacation sounds wonderful. Glad you had a productive break. Also, I'm sorry to hear you lost someone you were becoming friends with.

[bironic]

Thank you. <3

And yes, that's the good parts version of the trip, anyway. There was also bickering and a broken furnace switch and a sensitivity to the smoke from the wood stove we had to run because of the broken furnace switch, plus the afternoon we flooded the basement...

Anyway, good question about vidding fandoms! I will ponder.

[alpheratz]

Ah, fire and water! An all-encompassing trip.

[bironic]

Oh, ha, that's true! And earth and air, for a full set of elements.

[minoanmiss]

Oh my goodness, what a vacation. Wow.

[bironic]

That's the rosy side of it, anyway! But yes, a pretty plot of land and a good opportunity to spend time with my mom, including the 10 hours it took to drive between there and her current house in NY. (It still feels weird that they have two houses right now? Because two houses are for rich people, which they are not?)

[timespirt]

Did you take a picture of the view below the mountain from a window?

Sorry to hear about your friend hon... "HUGS"

[bironic]

Sure did. Here's one out the front (green) and another looking back from partway up the trail in back.

[timespirt]

So beautiful. That second shot tells the whole story.

[seascribble]

<3333 I'm sorry to hear about your friend's passing.

Your family holiday time seems much like mine, but more chill and idyllic. The guns are the same though (I actually am in Rome, but the Appalachian one)

[bironic]

Ha! Too bad our paths didn't cross over the break. I was sorry to miss you and Venom.

And yeah, it was a pretty nice time, other than making myself scarce when they got snippy with each other.

Thanks for the condolences. I wish I'd talked with her more before the end.

[kuwdora]

I'd love to read more about how your vidding process has evolved since you started vidding. Maybe talk about what you did when you worked on your first vid versues what you would do differently now? Or something like that.

I plan on writing a few process posts this year. Or at least copying and pasting what I write in a Slack thread and putting it in my journal since I'm letting the folks at TGIF/F know what it's like to make a dance vid for them 3 and a half weeks before the deadline, haha.

[bironic]

Oof, good luck with that deadline!

Adding your question to my list. I never know what to talk about process-wise - maybe if I read more about other people's processes so there were things to compare and contrast. Could look through VVC notes, I suppose!

[kuwdora]

spitballing here

do you have song or source or concept first? why?

do you vid linearly or out of order?

do you do one draft or many drafts or work on a single draft and nitpick at it until it's done before moving forward with the rest of the timeline?

why do the extra work for multi-source? what makes you want to do these multi-source vids? what's it like being "known" for these big multi-vids when you have vidded everything from SGA to House and books and vampires and Robot Chicken and classic movies and RPF and.. okay I would have to look at your vid tag or AO3 to remember more than what's off the top of my head. but you get my point. your multisource babies take a lot of spotlight. how does that make you feel?

Feelings about what "going outside your comfort zone" means in vidding and what you could get out of it.

[kuwdora]

also you could always bitch/champion your operating system and software as that plays a big part in the process.

[kuwdora]

p.p.s why aren't we gchat and/or twitter friends, I feel like we should be.

[bironic]

Aren't we friends on Twitter? @bironicwastaken

[kuwdora]

I thought we were but twitter said I didn't follow you?? I usually follow ppl back that I know from fandom!

[bironic]

Ooh, those are great prompts, thank you!

[kuwdora]

what would you ask me specifically, if I were to theoretically make a few posts about vidding?

[bironic]

Hmmmmmmm, off the top of my head:

If you were to do a commentary on one or more of your vids, which would you have the most to say about?

How do you view your vidding arc over the years?

What's your balance between vidding for yourself and for others?

Have you ever quit on vids in progress? What makes or breaks a draft? How do you solve problems?

[kuwdora]

oh, excellent! i love these! thankyouuuuu