in my heart is the pain of disco

New vid: Radioactive (Dragon Age: Inquisition), VVC premieres

shati — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 20:00:31 GMT

Source: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Song: Radioactive (Imagine Dragons & Kendrick Lamar)
Content notes: lots of flashy video game lights; persistent gore; no elcor; surprisingly few dragons; ironically, spiders

Summary: Welcome to the new age.

Thank you to agonistes, thirdblindmouse, and some_stars for betaing!

Download link

I virtuously wrote this post on Wednesday, then left my laptop (and as a result, the actual vid file) in Boston. I was going to add more that wasn't just a list of flycam tragedies, but then...I did not.

In the end, the real epic struggle was the process of getting footage. Even though it's like 90% cutscenes! An incomplete list of things I did for this vid:

Replayed the intro scene with a human PC, because the intro with the elf Inquisitor isn't calibrated right for her height, and her hand ends up hovering over Justinia's upper arm, and it's like...some of the drama is lost...because she could easily grab the outstretched arm at any time...

Played EVERY SINGLE possible ending of the Winter Palace, which (a) got pretty boring, and (b) meant I needed every single halla statue, which (c) meant I had to get the one in the kitchen, which (d) meant I had to run across the entire kitchen on the ceiling beams, on a timer, again. Fuck that halla statue, fuck that kitchen.

Treacherously played both the mage and the templar plots early on, which was actually fun! I still like the mage one more, though. No timed sections.

Enabled Leliana's murder habit, got Cullen back on lyrium, killed Hawke with Varric there, made Cassandra so angry she got drunk and yelled that she like invented me, sacrified the Chargers, and...er...never finished Blackwall's quest, I just realized. Like, I found out his secret, he was gonna be on trial, and I think...I think I forgot to follow up? at all? Like I left him there but without actually making the decision to leave him there...sorry, Blackwall.

Played through the Fade, killed Loghain. Replayed the last fight, left Hawke there instead, insisting to myself that she was still alive. (Played through again with Varric there, left Hawke again.) Went through my save painstakingly editing all the flags I could find that referenced the Alistair vs. Loghain parts of DA:O, reloaded a save prior to the Fade, went to the Western Approach, and found Alistair was there, great! Excitedly tried to play through the Fade again with Alistair. Realized that -- not every time, not consistently, but just often enough to scare the shit out of me -- Alistair would open his mouth and both his line and Loghain's line would come out. HE SOUNDED LIKE A DEMON. IT WAS WAY SCARIER THAN THE ACTUAL DEMONS, WHO ARE PRETTY CHILL. Played through the Fade again, killed Alistair. Breathed a sigh of relief.

The best unused mage armor I had at the point of the time travel quest was the skimpy stomach-baring armor, so I put it on Dorian. And forgot I was going to be using several clips of Dorian in it. Then I got better mage armor, so I gave the fancy bra armor to Varric because I didn't bring him to literally any fights and Varric likes showing his chest, and then...I forgot, again. He is in that ridiculous armor in the shot of him finding out Hawke is dead.

Edited the Divine flags, and reloaded a Trespasser save where I think Vivienne was already there, because when I got to the Divine, both Vivienne and Cassandra were staring at me in their Divine robes. Cassandra looked disgusted.

Tried to get the Wicked Grace game to trigger. Realized I'd have to do Varric's quests. Did Varric's quests, started Wicked Grace...realized Cassandra wasn't there. Decided it looked too meaningful to have that one empty seat. Did Cassandra's quest. Did Cassandra's other quest. Unlocked new areas to continue fulfilling Cassandra's endless demands. Finally learned about Cassandra's erotica preferences, was like, Yes! We're friends now! She'll -- No: still no Cassandra in Wicked Grace. Turns out I had to actually ask Varric to write more porn, and if I tried to ask him the Wicked Grace game started (without Cassandra) first, so I (a) edited the game so Varric fucking hated me, and asked him, my sudden worst enemy, to write more porn (Varric: a nice dude, will write more porn for you even if he hates you), relayed the good news to Cassandra, (b) edited the game so Varric loved me again, and (c) triggered Wicked Grace. Cassandra was there! Everyone who can show up was there! The clip I used from that scene is literally about a second long. At least Cassandra has her porn now. I hope she's happy.

I couldn't bring myself to actually disappoint Cole, so I edited the save to make his approval low, clipped the scene where he leaves, and then apologetically reloaded the original save.

I really wanted some alternate angles on the opening scene, so I tried...like fifteen times...to recreate my Inquisitor and replay it with flycam. Here's the thing nobody told me about flycam: flycam doesn't load where your Inquisitor is. Flycam loads wherever it wants to. Sometimes that is under the ground. Sometimes it's inside of a wall. Sometimes it's somewhere in the middle of a random mountain in the Fade. I spent at least a half hour zooming slowly through the Fade, unable to find signs of life beyond the occasionally spider, totally unable to tell which direction was up, and then...unflycam'd, and found myself staring at my Inquisitor's face in the interrogation cell, except she wasn't saying her lines. She wasn't frozen, either, she was just staring into space. I hit flycam again. I was zooming softly through the green spidery void. Unflycam'd. My Inquisitor stared blankly into space. I felt like I was watching onscreen a beautiful metaphoric expression of my own impending fugue state. I zoomed through the Breach and found myself in the Temple of Sacred Ashes. My Inquisitor stared blankly into space. I exited the game.

The first time I tried to use flycam was in one of the temples in Trespasser. It loaded in the middle of a wall on a different floor than the Inquisitor was, and everything was dark, and I didn't know where I was. I screamed continuously until I zoomed up through the skull of an alive raven to reach air. I think both roommates checked if I was dying.

Either fraps or I kept messing up on the cutscene after the battle with Corypheus, so I played that battle about 5 or 6 times (and still never got a good full clip of the cutscene). By the end I was kind of grateful that Corypheus is an anticlimatic failure of an antagonist.

Went back to a save in the floating Eluvian library to get some more clips with flycam, and accidentally stumbled on the schematics for the armor made from skin. Tried to find my way out of the floating Eluvian library so I could find the Golden Nug, and just...couldn't. I spent like two hours just desperately jumping through mirrors clutching this creepy skin amor sewing pattern, and I never found my way out. In that save branch, I'm still there. Waiting. Probably once you're in you need to finish the whole thing before you get out, but I'll never know, because I got two days' worth of lost in that library the first time, and THERE ARE NO MAPS THAT HELP. I CAN'T EVEN NAVIGATE A GRID CITY. I like to imagine how this reality went on: Solas getting increasingly huffy about the Inquisitor failing to arrive, Orlais and Fereldon impatiently waiting for the trial to resume, the Inquisitor sitting on a chunk of weird rock, staring into space, clutching this fucking skin thing, forever.

When I first played through the scene where Solas explains his plans, I asked every single available question, because I wanted to collect as many expressions/reaction shots as possible. Well, as usual, I messed up, or fraps did, and I lost almost all of the scene. I was too annoyed to replay the whole thing, so when Solas said "I assume you have questions" I picked the "Actually, no" response and his huffy offended Cliff Notes version was honestly beautiful. What a good scene. That is what is in the vid.

I used fraps to capture footage, the DAI Cinematic Tools to get lost inside walls and start screaming, and a save editor I will find again someday to get the Divine variations and to edit demon Alistair into existence.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

new (...ish) vid -- Uptown Funk (Avatar: the Legend of Korra), Club Vivid

shati — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 22:03:24 GMT

Fandom: Avatar: The Legend of Korra
Music: Uptown Funk, Bruno Mars & Mark Ronson
Length: 4:29 (74.9 MB)
Content notes: No standard notes apply probably

20 years ago, I made a vid for Club Vivid. Sometimes I can still hear its voice...

Download link (Tumblr post)

Probably 80% of the reason this exists is I wanted Iroh to be the dragon who wants to retire, man. The other 20% is day drinking. (Maybe it was night. Club Vivid vids were due this past winter, right? All of February was a single hideous night.)

I think lost the video project when I got home, then found it, then tried several different streaming hosts, was denied, lay down and wailed, uploaded it to archive.org, saw weird artifacts, and decided everything was ruined instead of checking back after it had more time to process. A noble history. I would like to take this opportunity to thank morgandawn, who I think looked in the fanvid tag and reminded me that I had not finished...this post? anything? I am not finished. I can't retire. man.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

new vid -- Memories of the Heart Already Gone (Utena)

shati — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 02:16:01 GMT

I was going to post my Korra vid first, in the order they actually played, but, fun fact, I have no idea where it is. The greatest threat is not hardware or format obsolescence, it's me. I am the threat.

Fandom: Revolutionary Girl Utena
Music: Memories of the Heart Already Gone, Titus Jones
Vidshow: Challenge 2015 ("Memory")
Length: 03:44
Notes: Strobe

Download link (and Tumblr post)

I've had this song in mind for years, but I abandoned it as too much a retread of familiar ground after making my vid for last year's Premieres show (and after the realization that I've technically already vidded one of the component songs in the mashup). But then the Challenge theme was memory, and if we can't weirdly reuse structural generalities, clips, and even music from previous vids for a vidshow about memory, when can we? Answer: when it is not an anonymous vidshow! Maybe next year I should vid Supernatural.

[2015 VVC Challenge: Memory] Memories of the Heart Already Gone from shati on Vimeo.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Festivid: Look Around You: Penguins (Mawaru Penguindrum)

shati — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 07:22:38 GMT

Recipient: rhea314
Fandom: Mawaru Penguindrum
Music: Look Around You, episodes: Water, and Ghosts
Length: 03:50
Content notes: I think no standard notes apply

Summary: Have you worked out what we're looking for?

Download link

look around you: penguins from shati on Vimeo.

This vid exists in part because Rhea314's letter said "if you just want to vid surreal and weird using this series go for it" and I tried to imagine a vid that actually looked as surreal as the show was.

But it also exists because when I was clipping for Once Upon a December, I needed non-flashback clips of the Takakura siblings being happy and affectionate and I found a clip of Kanba smiling at Himari and Shouma and IN THE CENTER OF THE FRAME THERE WAS AN OCTOPUS PINNED TO THE WALL BEHIND HIS HEAD. There's no salvaging that (without masking). I could not use that clip and expect anyone to focus on Kanba smiling. THE OCTOPUS WAS STILL ALIVE AND IT WAS TWITCHING.

Watching that episode, I barely notice the octopi. Like -- they are there. But while you're watching, they just register as an echo, they are not active players.

But I couldn't use that clip.

I am sad there's not going to be a festivids bonfire though. I kept forgetting that I knew who made this and thinking: maybe joyo's guess will turn out to be wrong and she'll set a fire! No...no. That's not how reality works.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Festivid: Semi-Charmed Life (The Craft)

shati — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 02:56:40 GMT

Recipient: trelkez
Fandom: The Craft
Music: Semi-Charmed Life, by Third Eye Blind
Length: 04:07
Content notes: I prefer not to give content notes (viewer proceeds at their own risk: could be anything), Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills), Other: suicidal imagery, a shit ton of creepy crawlies

Summary: The 90s called.

Download link

shati semicharmed from shati on Vimeo.

(May add a 1280x720 option later!)

Vid notes:

I don't really have notes on the vid. Story time! I first saw The Craft at a sleepover. We enjoyed a wacky friends learn witchcraft movie, and then -- once I was the only one left awake, sitting alone in my sleeping bag in this dark room surrounded by like 10 other sleeping kids -- that movie segued into a friends try to kill one friend with bugs everywhere movie. Stick with me, this is almost relevant. Also in the 90s, the Third Eye Blind CD that "Semi-Charmed Life" was on became one of my first CDs. Not the radio edit. Friends: confused by idea that song was about meth. Me: confused by idea that song was 100% cheerful. Years later, perusing Festivids letters, I was struck with the conviction that The Craft was basically the movie version of "Semi-Charmed Life" and I needed to make a treat. I'm still not sure if this is about the 90s, meth, or everyone else falling asleep before the end.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Festivid: Once Upon a December (Mawaru Penguindrum)

shati — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 06:39:29 GMT

Recipient: Rhea314
Fandom: Mawaru Penguindrum
Music: Once Upon a December, by Deana Carter
Length: 03:31
Content notes: I prefer not to give content notes (viewer proceeds at their own risk: could be anything), Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills)

Summary: To not be chosen is to die.

Download link

Thank you to skygiants for -- not just betaing, but for the 5 or 6 times I think I basically turned to her and said "but why were the children in boxes" out of the blue and she gamely tried to piece together the sequence of events in Penguindrum. And for not mocking me when I thought the Princess of the Crystal being rude made sense for one beautiful day.

So much of the process of this vid was just trying to work out what the show is even about. I'm still not completely sure, but I'm...more sure...about what I'm not sure of...now.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

new...vid...ish

shati — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 02:42:21 GMT

the secret of climbing up on solsbury inish from shati on Vimeo.

This is a vid mashup of my Challenge vid for VVC this year to Solsbury Hill. I think this more accurately captures my own feelings about seals stealing babies, which are: awwww.

I just remuxed it, I didn't adjust the timing at all because attaching cables seemed like a herculean intellectual effort, so there's a lot of instrumental trailing off at the end.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

VVC Premiere: Where is My Mind (Utena)

shati — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 23:48:47 GMT

Source: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Adolescence of Utena
Music: Where is My Mind, Yoav ft. Emily Browning
Length: 04:39
Content notes: Choose not to warn, strobe

Once upon a time there was a princess, and she was very sad.

Download link (49.3 MB)

Where is My Mind - VVC premiere from shati on Vimeo.

AO3

For the Vividcon Premieres show.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Challenge vid: Dream Within a Dream (Secret of Roan Inish)

shati — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:56:19 GMT

Source: The Secret of Roan Inish
Music: A Dream Within a Dream, The Glitch Mob
Length: 05:14
Content notes: various people kidnapped

Download link

dream within a dream - vvc challenge from shati on Vimeo.

Summary: What the sea will take, the sea must have.

Thank you to skygiants for betaing!

This year's Challenge theme was: Gift. For some reason what really spoke to me on the subject was seals absconding with a baby and then giving him back years later. They gave him back!

This was a formative childhood movie for me. I'm just not sure what it formed.

I enjoyed the, um, diversity of reaction to the seals/selkies, and conversation after the show about selkies.

(My premiere will be up after I get home, I had a tragic mixup about where I had the project file saved. /o\)

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

New vid: Complicated (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

shati — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 22:03:58 GMT

Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: the Series
Music: We Are Complicated, Raheemdaplaya (Taylor Swift & Avril Lavigne)
Length: 02:47

Download link

complicated - vvc femslash show from shati on Vimeo.

Many thanks to yhlee, jetpack_monkey, and par_avion for betaing!

Made for the Femslash vidshow at Vividcon.

"#this sounds like the act 1 finale of a teenage lesbian jukebox musical"
-- tumblr user lovecatcadillac, re: the mashup

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Festivid: Kids (Spirited Away)

shati — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 03:37:11 GMT

Recipient: frith_in_thorns
Fandom: Spirited Away
Music: Kids by MGMT
Length: 03:05
Content notes: overeating as metaphor

Summary: Take only what you need.

Many thanks to shoroko and ryfkah for betaing but also for letting me burble incoherently about the movie.

Download link

So at one point I was ruminating on the weirdness of the official music video* for "Kids" (a kid seeing monsters adults don't see) which led to thinking about what kind of vid I'd make for it, and I was like, Spirited Away. Obviously.

I rewrote this paragraph like five times. It was basically just me saying that I have a lot of feelings about Spirited Away.

* so many officially music videos are so fucking weird they have nothing to do with the lyrics this has offended me literally since childhood

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Festivid: Let's Get It Started (Raging Phoenix)

shati — Sun, 19 Jan 2014 05:35:43 GMT

Recipient: genusshrike
Fandom: Raging Phoenix
Music: Let's Get It Started by The Black Eyed Peas
Length: 03:37
Content notes: No standardized notes apply

Summary: "It's called 'meyraiyuth.' Drunken fighting technique."

Download link

[knees vid notes in the face]

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Festivid: Paper Planes (Bandidas)

shati — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 03:22:17 GMT

Recipient: mithborien
Fandom: Bandidas
Music: Paper Planes (cover) by Beautiful Small Machines
Length: 03:57
Content notes: guns, explosions

Summary: The magic of friendship. And bank robbery.

I cannot thank some_stars enough for betaing.

Download link

I'd been meaning to watch Bandidas for like years after I very specifically looked for bank heist movies starring women (I no longer remember why) (I mean does anyone need a reason) and I finally did this year before signups and mithborien's letter spoke to me AND SO ... I apologize to anyone who watches the movie and is totally bewildered by the appearance of Sir Not Appearing in This Vid, I'm sorry, I couldn't figure out how to fit him in while also focusing on BANK ROBBING BFFS.

At one point I listened to the audio commentary while rewatching for clips. I was slightly worried it would be about anything but what it was and I'd get bored, but no, what it was was Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek talking about how they are the greatest BFFs for like an hour and it was good times. This has nothing to do with the vid really, I just feel it is important.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

shade/off

shati — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 16:53:37 GMT

One of my roommates had a tragic collision with one of the paper globes on my beloved but impractically large lamp, which gave me an excuse to do ARTS AND CRAFTS.

That picture was my Halloween costume (I ... cut it out and held it in front of my face ...), I didn't print it specially for the lamp. Er, and for those who don't recognize him and are curious, it's Nicholas Cage, I apparently still find his existence hilarious.

Our living room is so ugly, seriously this is the least of its problems (in the first picture you can see on the mantle where McDonalds Happy Meal Mulan is riding a Beanie Baby unicorn into battle with a wall alligator against plastic rolling Jesus), and it makes me so happy.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

VVC karaoke premiere: Total Eclipse of the Heartsword

shati — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 07:13:48 GMT

Fandom: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Adolescence of Utena
Music: Total Eclipse of the Heart (Literal Version) by PersephoneMaewyn and dascottjr
Length: 05:32
Warnings: Strobing, everything about Utena

Here's anoooother shot of fencing.

Download link

password: mullet with headlights

So even before the literal mv was made I've been convinced the "Total Eclipse of the Heart" music video was set in Ohtori Academy, or maybe Ohtori's Amsterdam sister school. (skygiants was that your idea?) Then the literal version came out. Then (okay this is years later) I found out the deadline for karaoke hadn't passed yet. The path before me was prepared. I had no choice but to make sure no one at karaoke who hadn't already seen SKU would ever be able to take it seriously.

Thank you to agonistes and skygiants for persistently believing this was a good idea in any way, and to revolutionaryjo for singing with me. And to Bonnie Tyler for setting her music video in Ohtori but why. ಠ_ಠ

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

VVC Premiere: Hope on Fire

shati — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 07:10:17 GMT

Fandom: Queen Seondeok
Music: Hope on Fire by Vienna Teng
Length: 03:45
Content notes: Non-graphic violence

"But if you divide the world horizontally, then there are only two kind of people...ones that rule and the ones that are ruled. So, if you divide the world horizontally, then you and I are on the same side. We are the ones that rule."

Many thanks to troisroyaumes, skygiants, and some_stars for betaing! Seriously, thank you. Also thanks to thirdlbindmouse for lending me her laptop so I could post.

Note: There was some confusion at Vid Review, so to clarify, Deokman (the younger woman who has the first verse), has a twin sister in the show, but her twin sister doesn't appear at all in this vid. The other main character in the vid is Mishil, who isn't a family member.

Download link 848x480 (62.5 MB)
HD Download 1280x720 (119 MB)

A forgiving eye to the footage quality is appreciated, including in the HD version. I tried so hard and got so far and in the end it didn't even matter. ;_;

maybe i'll add notes later

BONUS ROUND: The end of the vid, set to "I Want It All" from High School Musical. Because.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Club Vivid premiere: Follow Me (Chocolate)

shati — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 05:10:30 GMT

Fandom: Chocolate (2008)
Music: Try to copy me by 2NE1, areia remix
Length: 03:18
Content notes: Martial arts violence

Zen beats up everyone.

Download link

I pretty much just wanted a vid of people getting kicked in the face to dance music. My rule for myself with this one was not to alter the speed on any clip of fighting (there are a few in the beginning where I sped up or time-toggled where she's just watching TV or whatever). Partly because I really wanted to showcase the fight scenes, which to me meant 100% speed and cuts as long as I could and partly because obsessive24 did a lot of speed work in her Tony Jaa vid, and if you can't beat 'em, anxiously avoid comparison.

Go figure my first vid to a Korean song, after a year of watching almost nothing but Korean TV, is to a Thai film...?

From what I could see very few people were dancing, but this is obviously because everyone else was STUNNED MOTIONLESS by beautiful fight scenes and you can't tell me otherwise. >.>

Translation by GEE & kimchi hana @ YGLadies.com

Follow me

날 따라해봐요
날 따라해봐요
날 따라해봐요 이렇게 (x2)

[CL] 한숨따윈 제발 그만 쉬고
어서 나를따라와
이제 생각은 다 버리고
그 저 네 맘대로 자 움직여봐

[BOM] 거칠게 달려보자
Feels good tonight
더 빨리 갈 테니
절 대 눈 감지마

[DARA] I got that thang thang
If you know what I mean
It goes bang bang
You can’t handle it

[MINZY] Ha-ha-ha
재밌는 girl
Say la-la-la
난 특별한 girl
Call me M-I-N-Z-Y
M-I-N-Z-Y
Yes, 자 빠져봐
Let's go

날 따라해봐요
날 따라해봐요
날 따라해봐요 이렇게 (x2)

[CL] 눈치따윈 제발 그만 보고
어서 너를 보여봐
네가 원하던 거잖아
Step by step
절대로 멈추지마

[BOM] 더 높이 날아보자 up in the sky
더 높이 갈 테니 정신을 붙잡아

[DARA] I got that thang thang
If you know what I mean
It goes bang-a bang-a bang
Bang-a bang-a bang

[MINZY] Ha-ha-ha
재밌는 girl
Say la-la-la
난 특별한 girl
Call me M-I-N-Z-Y
M-I-N-Z-Y
Yes, 자 빠져봐
Let's go

날 따라해봐요
날 따라해봐요
날 따라해봐요 이렇게 (x2)

Eh eh eh eh

Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
You've got me feeling like
Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
Eh eh eh eh eh
Come again (x2)

날 따라해봐요
날 따라해봐요
날 따라해봐요 이렇게 (x2)

Follow me

Try to follow me
Try to follow me
Try to follow me just like this (x2)

[CL] Please stop sighing and whatnot
And just follow me quickly
Throw all your thoughts away now
And just move however you want

[BOM] Let's run intensely
Feels good tonight
We're gonna go faster
So don't you ever close your eyes

[DARA] I got that thang thang
If you know what I mean
It goes bang bang
You can’t handle it

[MINZY] Ha-ha-ha
A fun girl
Say la-la-la
I'm a special girl
Call me M-I-N-Z-Y
M-I-N-Z-Y
Yes, now fall for me
Let's go

Try to follow me
Try to follow me
Try to follow me just like this (x2)

[CL] Please stop staring and whatnot
And just show yourself quickly
It's what you've wanted
Step by step
Don't you ever stop

[BOM] Let's try to fly even higher, up in the sky
We're gonna go higher so get a hold of yourself

[DARA] I got that thang thang
If you know what I mean
It goes bang-a bang-a bang
Bang-a bang-a bang

[MINZY] Ha-ha-ha
A fun girl
Say la-la-la
I'm a special girl
Call me M-I-N-Z-Y
M-I-N-Z-Y
Yes, now fall for me
Let's go

Try to follow me
Try to follow me
Try to follow me just like this (x2)

Eh eh eh eh

Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
You've got me feeling like
Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh
Eh eh eh eh eh
Come again (x2)

Try to follow me
Try to follow me
Try to follow me just like this (x2)

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

New Vidlet: Accidentally in Love (SKKS)

shati — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 06:50:16 GMT

Fandom: Sungkyunkwan Scandal
Music: Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows
Length: 01:00
Content notes: Spoilers for the whole show; sexual assault

Download link

Accidentally In Love from shati on Vimeo.

Password: but not with in soo

I made this in three days, technically, but most of that was one day like a month ago. The thought process was something like: 1) this is the least Cho Seon-sounding song I will ever hear, 2) profit??

You will have to imagine the part where Hyo Eun swoops in at the end.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

How to make a con vid

shati — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:52:47 GMT

1. Realize the deadline for submission is, like, two days away. Stare at screen.
2. Watch good vids for inspiration.
3. Compare own draft. Find draft astoudingly, offensively incoherent/sloppy/repetitive.
4. Stare at screen.

eta: oops it turns out this is actually how not to make a con vid, my bad

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

things that make me sad:

shati — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 06:28:54 GMT

1. I don't have any suitably epic and historical songs about the creation of alphabets and I want a Tree With Deep Roots vid about language and writing to exist. I like a good murder mystery with political shenanigans and tragic backstory as much as the next bloody-minded fiction enthusiast with a short attention span, but writing systems! are exciting! especially hangul! And I want a vid of just that to watch. Or at least a song to imagine one too.

Although I would watch a vid about the rest of the plot too, because I dozed off during about twenty different important plot developments today. (I wasn't bored! Just exhausted.)

2. I have learned again what Worcestershire sauce is and will forget again in about a week. I think magic is involved.

3. I will probably never get to talk with a cuttlefish :(((

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

New Vid: What Makes You Beautiful (SKKS)

shati — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 20:00:59 GMT

Fandom: Sungkyunkwan Scandal
Music: What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction
Length: 01:14
Content notes: None apply

Download link

What Makes You Beautiful from shati on Vimeo.

Password: maybe he's born with it

skygiants: the timing of Geol Oh's dorky running
skygiants: to the music
skygiants: is my new favorite thing ever
shati: IT'S NOT DORKY
shati: HE IS THE NIGHT!!!

These things would not happen if you guys would recommend good music to me. And lock me in a tiny room with my ears taped open and the good music playing on loop. And maybe brainwash me?

Anyway I think we can all agree that Jae Shin does not know he's beautiful.

(And Yong Ha does.)

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Festivids reveals!

shati — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 22:43:53 GMT

I guessed both of my festividders right!

ghost_lingering made ~~me cry~~ Brave. The only part of this that's surprising is how long it took me to actually guess her. She actually TOLD me she was offering Capital Scandal and I thought she was talking about someone else. I am not very bright, okay? Like, "I'm asking for a friend!" "Oh, cool, who's the friend?" I finally reread her comment a day or two before reveals, wondered what was wrong with me, and then realized that the reason it wasn't pinging me as her vidding style was because I was comparing it to vids to very different songs and found one that was more similar musically and was like, Aha! And then I realized she hadn't commented to it and I knew it was hers because I just could not imagine her not loving it otherwise. And I love this vid and I love Cha Song Joo and everything is beautiful AND everything hurts.
thirdblindmouse made The Birds and the Bees, which also brought tears to my eyes (of laughter). And that was amazing and beautiful, right? Like, the fact that that vid exists makes me happy. And then it's just everything I ~~love~~ laugh at about the movie wrapped in a ribbon of bees. But then. BUT THEN. We were talking about "Summer Girls" in #vidding and how it has the worst lyrics ever written. And how it actually has the line "stole your honey like I stole your bike" and Nic Cage steals a woman's bike at gunpoint in The Wicker Man.
thirdblindmouse MADE ANOTHER VID TO "SUMMER GIRLS." SUMMERS ISLE GIRLS, Y'ALL. And it is MULTIFANDOM because the song makes NO FUCKING SENSE. But now it does. When you take a sip, you buzz like a hornet. Two terrible, terrible tastes that taste great together.

So I guess what I am saying is ghost_lingering, thirdblindmouse, and Cha Song Joo are perfect human beings. And Nicholas Cage likes girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch.

As for my vids:

I made two Chak De! India vids for scribe: Hadippa! and One Girl Revolution, each stuffed full, in its own way, of feelings about teamwork and how much I love the hockey players and their feuds and their McDonalds brawls and the movie.

I also pounced on a pinch hit for vesperregina and made a Dororo vid to Hand in My Pocket, which was stuffed full of how much I love Dororo. I was half expecting someone to guess me for this one just based on the giant fetus (look at my life, look at my choices), but fortunately many people interpreted it as a giant odd-looking baby.

This year's theme for me was crotch blows (I did not intend this theme). Overall, I continued what my first Festivids began by picking up a new movie with Anna Tsuchiya in it. When Ji and I got to the butterfly demon I mentioned that her face looked familiar, and then she opened her mouth and we were like, "ICHIGO, why are you a butterfly demon? What would Momoko think?" So Anna Tsuchiya is my personal Festivids patron saint.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

Festivids!!

shati — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:43:28 GMT

Festivids is live!

I have won fandom challenges this year. I'm sorry that I have hogged so much excellence. Look look!

Brave (Capital Scandal)

And she's the only one who's not afraid to drown

I've been trying to think of a good way to describe this vid so that everyone who reads my journal will go watch it immediately, and I kept devolving into tumblrisms because Cha Song Joo.

Seriously though, I can't imagine a better character study; the lyrics and the sound of the song are both perfect, and the editing is beautiful and moody all on its own. Slow deliberate movements and jerky flashes of violence and lights flickering on and off and the eyebrow raise, omg. I have needed to watch this vid since I saw Capital Scandal. And now I have. About thirty five times.

Sometimes I really I wish I was better at explaining why things are wonderful.

If you watch the vid and think, Wow, I need to watch this show! and you can't find it, you should PM me, I am just saying.

The Birds and the Bees (The Wicker Man - 2006)

There's a random painted highway and a muzzle of bees

Tears of laughter. It is a vid of Nic Cage/bees to a bee mashup (bee medley?). I think my favorite part is how it's like a highlights reel of the ~~best~~ ~~worst~~ best scenes in the movie: truck little girl splat! bike theft! bear suit punchings! honey jars of fetuses! how'd it get burned? MUZZLE OF BEEEEES! It just makes me so happy, you don't even understand. I think it may have cured my bee phobia, at least a little. How is this movie so bad.

My least favorite part is that it is actually a skillfully made vid, because that just seems wrong.

I haven't watched very many of the vids yet, because I was in Denver, but here are some recs:

Man Not a Monster (Attack the Block): I couldn't stop watching, just like the movie.
Lady Marmalade (Cleopatra 2525): Gina Torres y'all.
Face/Off (Face/Off): In my heart this is the year of Nicholas Cage being fucking ridiculous.
A Combat in Tribute to You (Hero 2002): Beautiful, as befits a Hero vid. Guh, motion. Colors.
Somewhere a Clock is Ticking (The Hollow Crown): I don't know the source but this is just really well done.
Living in a Box (Maru the Cat): REAL CAT VIDS BECOMING A THING and lol omg at the song.
Give Me Everything (Parks and Rec): This went from funny to kind of epic, I don't even know.
Complicated (You're Beautiful): Avril Lavigne + crossdressing boy band nuns is just everything I want in life. There's another You're Beautiful vid still waiting for me to watch it, too.
2+2=5 (Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame): Gorgeously atmospheric.

Still working my way through the list. Down with alphabetical order!

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

End of year media post (2012)

shati — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 21:35:37 GMT

I don't expect to read or watch very much tomorrow, so here is my book/film list for 2012. Same as last year, I pretty much stopped reading once winter hit; it's weird. I can only guess it's some combination of mild SAD symptoms and devoting all my mental energy to fandom exchanges.

Also, I clearly need to find a better manga-reading system.

Favorite new books:

Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein, like the rest of the internet. I don't have anything to add to what's been said by others except that I hope Verity's popularity means that more people read Elizabeth Wein's Aksum books and write piles of fanfic about Telemakos and Athena and everyone else.

The Pillow Book, by Sei Shonagon, was a treasure; I finished it and immediately wanted more like it. If only history class had been gossip and lists and general old-time blogging by witty and not particularly nice ladies! I'm not sure I've ever felt more: The ~~stars~~ people of the past! They're just like us! than while reading this.

The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner. If I admit how hard the plot of this book makes me laugh you will all probably think I'm a serial killer, but seriously. It was like I picked up a fantasy thriller and finished a (toned-down) Kaori Yuki manga. Please note that the laughter does not mean I wasn't on shiny-eyed tenterhooks the whole way through.

Particularly frustrating new books:

I was really looking forward to Finnikin of the Rock, but it rubbed me the wrong way on a few different sides; the bones of the story were so exciting and then almost nothing in the execution was really what I wanted. Also it was a mess linguistically. On the plus side it helped me formally declare my aversion to [spoiler] revelations! This was my reaction at the time.

Worst-titled new books:

Star Crossed, Elizabeth C. Bunce
The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Rae Carson

Neither really fits the genre or tone of the book. Which is a shame, because I enjoyed them both, but I wouldn't have picked them up at all if I'd been browsing paper books by title (instead of Goodreads summaries).

Favorite new movies:

~~SHOWGIRLS~~ I didn't watch very many new movies that I thought were brilliant. The Avengers was a lot of fun, but it doesn't feel like it can be my favorite since so many other people loved it so much more than I did, if that makes any sense. It was a rollicking good time! but I will probably never write fic or anything.

I was pleased to finally see live action Mulan! I did discover, disconcertingly, that neither of my two roommates knew that Disney hadn't invented Mulan. Like when I suggested we watch the live action movie, one said, "How are they going to do Mushu?" and it took a few minutes before we got to the root of the disconnect. I'd thought that was common knowledge, and now I feel a little weirder about Disney Mulan.

I think Attack the Block, [redacted], and Haywire were my favorites; I enjoyed them all a lot.

Particularly frustrating new movies:

The Dark Knight Rises, omg, I spent all the long action scenes imagining other characters into the movie (mostly from A:tLA and Capital Scandal) to have adventures I cared about. I hate long smash-heavy action scenes! That goes for you too, Hobbit. Stop smashing! Someday I will make a post about fight scenes I've enjoyed and ask for recs, because I am sick of tuning out action sequences. Also Catwoman was a grave disappointment to me too, I say with all respect to everyone who liked her.

I enjoyed aspects of Brave (including her hair), and I like it better than any other Pixar movie so far, but it didn't gel for me, I'm sick to death of the rebellious princess angle, and I'm unfairly bitter about my mixed feelings since it's also their first realization that girls can be protagonists or something. So I am more frustrated with it than most of the movies I saw, but I didn't necessarily like it less.

Favorite new TV shows:

I'd been meaning to watch Capital Scandal, Haibane Renmei, and Sungkyunkwan Scandal for ages, and they did not disappoint. Haibane Renmei was much less creepy than I'd expected and much more -- touching? That sounds silly. Capital Scandal was as glorious as skygiants promised. Sungkyunkwan Scandal was just generally lovable and also included, as promised, a fakeout makeout between a guy and a girl disguised as a boy disguised as a girl.

My Cat From Hell taught me many valuable lessons about interacting with other living creatures, and I am being facetious but also not. It's also one of the very few things all three inhabitants of my apartment enjoy.

Also Arang and the Magistrate has stolen my heart mostly but not entirely because I adore Arang. Her brawling! Her failed aegyo! Food for both beggars, omg! Peach dreams! Her yelling at Heaven! Plus there is my instinctive affection for girls with messy hair, and the charm of the funny/spooky tone. I am so worried -- you know how sometimes in a TV show you find a female character who is perfect and everything you wanted and then it kind of falls off in more generic writing when you get further into the series and establishing her personality isn't the writers' top priority anymore? (If you don't that's okay, you can just smile and nod and wander off.) I am so worried this will happen with Arang, but I will love her anyway if it does. I also need fic about her and the shaman, because for some strange reason, I, um, enjoy relationships where one character just annoys the other relentlessly. Strange, isn't it? That's definitely not how I friendship. that is a lie

Particularly frustrating new TV shows:

Black Rock Shooter started off so promisingly weird and then just kind of fizzled into a puddle of not at all promising weirdness. Probably shouldn't have watched a sequel to an OVA I didn't see of a game I didn't play.

The Legend of Korra -- I love the world and I love or am waiting eagerly to love most of the characters, but I wanted it to be so much better. It is a big problem for me when your central antagonist can be read as a (flawed) analogy for anti-Semitism or for anti-racism, for instance? I think half the fandom wars over this were because we DO NOT KNOW to what extent benders are actually privileged in Republic City and the greater world, they just totally fail to establish tons of important details. And I know outside factors influenced this, but structurally it was a mess, the central romance was terrible, and the resolution to the season just ... wasn't good. Sigh! I liked first season A:tLA wholeheartedly, too. But hopefully it will improve.

The first episode of No. 6 was flawless in my eyes, and then the rest wasn't. But the shounen ai/sci fi combo was nice! If not the BEES.

I cannot list Mawaru Penguindrum as a frustration, because it wasn't frustrating, it was just HORRIFYING and it meant to be, and it did not give any fucks at all if I understood the basic plot. I gave at least one fuck; we were at odds. dfkd;lfd FROGS

Greatest TV failure

I still haven't finished Princess Tutu. A few years from now I'll watch another chunk of episodes then stop cold, and so on and so on until I get to the end, I guess. It's not because I don't like it! I really don't understand.

If you want to discuss any of the ones I didn't talk about also, feel free!

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!

End of year vidding meme (2012)

shati — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 07:29:49 GMT

I usually skip this on grounds of not enough vids, but I guess four is okay. Vids I made this year:

Outside the Box (Maru the cat)
Sucker Punch (of Adolescence) (Revolutionary Girl Utena/Adolescence of Utena)
White Rabbit (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
Kim Yoon Hee's the Man (Sungkyunkwan Scandal)

My favorite video this year (of my own):

Sucker Punch (of Adolescence), I think. At least it is the one that is the most self-indulgent.

I've wanted to combine the show and Adolescence for years, and I'm a total sucker (sorry) for concepts like Sucker Punch's, and I had buckets of qualms about how Sucker Punch was actually executed, and Utena's reality is so stylized and so surreal ... I think the relatively small amount of feedback compared to my other vids makes me love it more in a weird way: it's mine! All mine!

My least favorite video this year:

White Rabbit. It's not that I hate it, but I used clips that were higher quality than they needed to be, which slowed down the timeline fiddling process for me a lot, and it wasn't an idea or a source I was super invested in. So it wasn't particularly fun to vid, and the end product isn't one I'm in love with.

Most successful video:

Outside the Box! It was amazing to get that much feedback, but even more than that, I loved how many people joined in the spirit of the vid and expressed profound sympathy for Maru's epic struggle, whether they were playing along or in earnest. You don't even know, I was clutching my heart and beaming at my computer.

(And then I was a dick and didn't answer anyone's comments because I was a little overwhelmed. /o\)

Plus there was the Vividcon karaoke. I laughed, ~~so hard~~ I cried, it was made of cats.

Video most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

I guess Kim Yoon Hee's the Man got the least reaction on DW/LJ. Which is fair, since it's a joke trailer for a show not a lot of people on my flist have seen. I need more friends who watch SKKS! Um, and most people don't have the She's the Man trailer memorized, probably, which is ... also fair ...

Most fun video:

Outside the Box, of course! I spent weeks just watching Maru videos and taking notes. Then I spent days piecing them together and analyzing which combination would make me laugh the most. Keepvid gave me the videos in small mp4s that Premiere handled just fine, so I DIDN'T HAVE TO CLIP or prerender. Probably the most fun I've ever had making a vid.

Video with single sexiest moment:

Kim Yoon Hee's the Man, because sometimes Moon Jae Shin was onscreen. Even though skygiants made me take out a totally gratuitous shot of his chest. Killjoy.

Biggest vid fail:

~~Kim Yoon Hee's the Man, because there wasn't enough Jae Shin onscreen~~ Actually I guess all the others failed even harder at that.

I should have polished White Rabbit more if the point of it was going to be the nice footage and the editing. (Well, the mostly nice footage. I did try to avoid the off-model long shots.) It's one thing when I let sloppiness slide because the vid is driven by squee or a complex concept or a really clever joke, but "being meguca is tripping balls" is not deep or clever.

Hardest video to make:

Definitely White Rabbit. In addition to the stupidity of using 1080p clips, which meant I spent like 80% of my time rendering and rerendering, I started out with what I think was TV footage? In any case when I went back and replaced it with the raws, there were some shots that had been remastered/redrawn in ways that messed with the sync. And it just wasn't an idea I was in love with, though I liked it and wanted to make it, so there wasn't enough of the joy of watching it to balance things out. On the plus side, that made it a good vid for my first premiere at Vividcon, since it wouldn't have been too painful if everyone told me it sucked!

Also, it was exciting to work with animation so much nicer than Utena's, and I appreciated the (creepy) variety of styles the witch dimensions brought into it, but I still hate the character designs and I had to stare at them a lot.

Most unintentionally telling video:

Probably Sucker Punch. What is Shati drawn to? Blurring of internal worlds and external reality, depictions of schools as scary prison-like places, lesbians. Pop-up penguins.

The things I've learned this year:

RESIZE MY SHIT WHEN NECESSARY.

Include more Moon Jae Shin ~~in all vids.~~

As I keep an eye on varying clip length, also keep an eye on varying what kind of visual change I sync on: cut, movement, flash, etc. And don't be afraid of wide shots. If I'm going to use an effect, try to use it in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end; unless it's part of the point, stick with one effect (time-toggling, jump cuts) per vid and use it sparingly but consistently.

Get messy, take chances, make mistakes! Hah, but no, I already knew to make lots of mistakes.

Will I use any of this knowledge? Probably not.

This entry was also posted at Dreamwidth. It has comments. Reply wherever!