Meet The Vidder: kaydeefalls
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Meet The Vidder: kaydeefalls |
| Interviewer: | such_heights and other fans |
| Interviewee: | kaydeefalls |
| Date(s): | May 15, 2010 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | Vidding Workshop!, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Meet The Vidder: kaydeefalls is a 2010 vidder interview.
Part of a Series
See Vidding Workshop!.
Vidder Intro
So my name is kaydee falls, and I've been vidding for about a year and a half. This is not a very long time, but basically, vidding has eaten my brain. I primarily vid in Whoniverse, Band of Brothers, and, of course, Merlin. So far I've made three Merlin vids: What It Is (series 1 gen), and then Harbor (Gwen-centric) and its companion piece The Tower (Morgana-centric). Because I am somewhat obsessive about patterns and symmetry (which, actually, explains a lot about my vidding style as a whole), I'm currently working on a Merlin-centric vid, with Arthur-centric and OT4 vids waiting in the wings to finish up the sequence.
I knew absolutely nothing about vidding before I started. I didn't even watch vids very often. And then one day I got a vid bunny and decided, well, time to learn how to do this. You know how annoying it is to get a song stuck in your head? For me, vid bunnies are like getting one song stuck in my head on loop until I finish the damn vid. So, yeah. Now I watch every vid I can find, good and bad, because that's the best way for me to learn what works and what doesn't. With every new vid, I tend to discover something new about software capabilities or stylistic possibilities, so this is very much an ongoing learning process for me.
In terms of tech, I work on a MacBook. I am tech-competent but not particularly tech-savvy, and I only use free programs for vidding purposes.
Merlin is a fantastic source for vidding because it's such a visual show. Castles and torches and long flowing dresses and swordfights and magic -- pretty much every clip is viddable, and that's awesome. :D
Excerpts
I'm curious about Harbor and The Tower, and how they work together for you - were you always intending to do a series, or did that come about later? I also imagine that making them both would have given you some insights into the differences in Gwen and Morgana's stories, especially in S2.
"Harbor" was just supposed to be a happy Gwen/everyone vid, and so that was fun. And then [personal profile] fiercynn remarked that "The Tower" was her Vienna Teng song of choice for Gwen, so I had another listen and thought, no, actually, that's a Morgana song. Followed shortly by ...and now I'm doomed. So, that happened.
I hadn't consciously been thinking about the parallels/contrasts at first, beyond both being character pieces to Vienna Teng songs, but the more I worked on "The Tower", the more interesting the contrasts became. Gwen's story is all about bringing everyone together, being there for the others, having so much love to share, and "Harbor" is really as much about everyone else as about Gwen. But Morgana's story is about gradually pushing everyone else away until there's nothing left -- "The Tower" has a much tighter focus just on Morgana. Clipping S2 for Morgana was really heartbreaking -- she just becomes so very alone, and utterly stripped of agency, and it hurts. Gah. MORGANA. In my mind, anyway, "The Tower" became a sort of dark mirror to "Harbor".
Aaaand now apparently it's going to be a series. NOT MY ORIGINAL INTENTION. I'm honestly not sure if the boys' vids will work as well as the girls', or if there will be as strong a dialogue between the pieces, but we'll see. (Next up: "Augustine" for Merlin, coming soon[ish] to a laptop near you!)
One of the things I like about your vids is that they seem very character-focused and you show us multiple sides of the people in them. Could you speak it a bit about that--do you think about it or does it just happen naturally? One of the things I noticed about Harbor is that we get to see so many different expressions on Gwen's face, and yet the general emotion of the vid remains consistent. Whereas with The Tower we see Morgana both connecting with the friends she has and pushing them away, and connecting with others, and that contrast feels very powerful. I'd also love to hear more about your obsession with patterns and symmetry--I'd like to work more on them in vids but am not sure how.
First off, thank you!
When it comes to fandom, I'm always drawn in by character first, so using vids as character studies just kind of follows naturally to me. As a fandom, Merlin in particular is all about the character arcs for me -- possibly because frankly, the plots are mostly just kind of silly. ;)
Patterns! Symmetry! Um, yes. So I have a thing for storytelling, and one aspect that always interests me the most is how certain themes recur in all stories, in all cultural traditions. I'm fascinated by the ways in which history repeats itself over and over again, and how the act of creation is primarily in finding new ways to tell old stories. (This sounds so pretentious, and I'm sorry.) But, yeah, so I'm constantly looking out for those thematic and visual patterns. In vids, they can be used to draw out parallels between characters or experiences, and repeated images -- torches, doors opening and closing, people's physical positions, whatever -- can help the vid flow more naturally from one clip to the next. Also, it's just pretty. You can also subvert this -- set up a pattern and then deliberately break it, which can highlight differences (think "one of these things is not like the others...") for dramatic or comic effect, depending on the style of the vid as a whole.
Augh, I'm sorry, so much blather, so little of it useful except in my own head! Does that make any sense at all?