Vidder Profile Spotlight: Cherry Ice

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Vidder Profile Spotlight: Cherry Ice
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Cherry Ice
Date(s):	September 18, 2010
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	vidding
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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Cherry Ice was interviewed in 2010 for Vidder Profile.

Some Excerpts

Fannishly, I started out writing fic and making icons. Vidding was something that was on the periphery of my radar before thefourthvine started posting vid recs – I mainly related to it as 'that thing that many scary-smart, incredibly talented fans did'; her posts helped to introduce me to a variety of vids, vidding styles, and exposures. When I started mulling over giving it a shot myself, she and sprat were both incredibly encouraging and essentially told me to stop fretting incessantly and just DO it. Theoretically, I started out vidding on my own, but laurashapiro and elynross both did extensive beta work with me, especially in my first year. They were instrumental in making me question why I was approaching material and storytelling in the way I did, what worked and what didn't, and their feedback was integral to my initial growth.

I suppose the first note on this question must be that I use very little in the way of effects – the majority of my vids are held together with twine and chewing gum, and that works just fine for me. My CVV vid this year was the first one I ever actually added motion to, and I was very proud of this. For most of my vids, the entirely of my pre-planning process is some variation of "Huh, maybe I should make a vid." Be it: "Huh, Olivia is awesome. Maybe I should use that episode to make a vid about her," or "Huh, no one has done a Criminal Minds/Dexter crossover. Maybe I should make a vid that does that," or "Huh, Ten sure is a dick these days. Maybe I should make a vid about that." As such, the answer has to be that it's decided upon when the vid is in progress; however, I can usually tell by the texture of the music if I'm going to be using a lot of long overlays or cross dissolves or jump cutting, or something of the like.

I have both realized and discarded these things multiple times over the last few years. My first few vids were like pulling badly compacted tooth with a string tied to a doorknob. The first vid that had a smooth birthing process was Only, a BSG video I did for VVC Challenges 2007. It was also the first video I finished with a real rush of satisfaction, and when I really realized that maybe I enjoyed it overall – up until then, I had very much considered myself to be too low on the learning curve to figure out whether I was reacting to vidding or the learning curve itself.

With respect to 'I might be pretty decent at it', I think that it is probably related to 'Only,' again, as it did rather well in The Fourth Wall awards that year – but the realization was not with that, but the fact that several people specifically suggested that I enter something into contention.

Of course, sometimes I still think that when I grow up, I shall be a Real Vidder.