Meet The Vidder: such heights
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Meet The Vidder: such heights |
| Interviewer: | such_heights and other fans |
| Interviewee: | such heights |
| Date(s): | May 15, 2010 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | Vidding Workshop!, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Meet The Vidder: such heights is a 2010 vidder interview.
Part of a Series
See Vidding Workshop!.
Vidder Intro
I've been vidding for three years now in a range of fandoms. I hold myself as a testament to the idea that if I can make a vid, anyone can, because I'm really not very good at any other kind of visual art. But I've always had strong visual associations with music and made up stories based on lyrics and tone, and vidding's a great way to put that instinct into practice. I often vid for myself as much as anything else, because once I'm happy with a vid I really enjoy rewatching it - it's my brain on screen! I also find it easier to see improvements in my work than I do with my writing, and that's pretty satisfying too.
I've made four Merlin vids to date (The Book of Love, Night at the Opera, Handlebars and Bad Romance), and vid number five - a very belated Merlin/Arthur auction vid - should be posted soon.
I think Merlin's a great vid source because there's a lot of variety packed into not very many episodes, as the huge diversity of vids based in the first season alone demonstrate. I've enjoyed being able to express very different ideas about the show through the vids I've made, from crack, to a rather more serious look at power in the show, to 'omg Morgana's pretty gay isn't she'.
Excerpts
Aside from the fact that Bad Romance and Book Of Love are my go-to vids when I need some unabashed Gwen/Morgana love in my life, one of the things I love about your vids is how fluidly you move between parallels - you used it to chilling effect in Handlebars. So, question: how do you use the technique to tell your stories?
Aw, thank you!
Mmm, parallels. I love them, because they sort of speak to how my brain works - I tend to notice visual parallels when they come up in the source anyway. I find it's a really simple way to get a point across - here are some similarities in the relationships Morgana has with Gwen and Morgause, here are ways in which Arthur and Merlin are similar, etc. It can also work almost as a visual rhetoric, a way of getting the viewer on board with your argument.
If all but one of your vids are erased from history, never to return (you can't reconstruct them, nor can you get anyone else to do it for you), which one would you keep and why? AND, if all but one of the vids that you've ever watched are erased from history, never to return, which one would you keep and why? And, name ONE vid that's had a formative influence on you as a vidder and tell us why. (Yeah, I'm sure there is more than one that's had a formative influence on you as a vidder. Suck it up and whittle it down. ;) )
Ack, tough! Okay.
The vid of my own that I would keep would be Glorious, I think - not necessarily because it's the best thing I've made, but because I'm still very emotionally attached to it in a way I'm not with a lot of my other vids. It was a really satisfying experience of vidding on gut feeling, mostly, and having that translate across to other people so they could respond in kind.
One vid to keep - this is really hard. I'll go with eruthros and thingswithwings' One Night Fandoms. It's filled with so much unbridled joy and love for fandom, is a masterpiece of cohesive multi-fandom editing, and I never get tired of watching it.
And my formative vid is definitely hollywoodgrrl's (Boulevard of) Broken Songs, which really blew my mind when I found it. It showed me Doctor Who as I saw it, full of the epic story of the companions, and I really had no idea before I watched it that vids could do that. I was hooked from there on out.