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Half my friendslist seems obsessed with vids and vidding, and the other half is obsessed with BPAL.
(Vids: clips from TV or movies, set to music. BPAL: A company that sells perfume in teeny vials that people can trade or buy on ebay. The names and descriptions of their products are most amusing and erudite. Apparently they all smell different on different people, and have three distinct scents, one when sniffed in the bottle, one when first applied to skin, and one when dry on the skin.)
ETA: The best BPAL reviews have been from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oyceter, who has been testing them on her rats.
Now there are two things I know nothing about, music videos and perfume. Unlikemrissa, who can apparently distinguish one person from another by scent, with her eyes closed and from ten feet away, I have a poor sense of smell and the only time in my life I've ever worn perfume is when my mother put some of hers on me. And I grew up three thousand miles from MTV, so I have never watched music videos.
The BPal thing would be wasted on me, but since vidding is a fannish activity I've watched a couple, and have been flummoxed by my total inability to get anything out of them other than, "There's clips from a show. And there's a song. So they must relate in some way. Um, the song's about love and the clips show a relationship?"
The trouble is, although I love music, I have very little technical vocabulary for it, nor a very good ear. I can sometimes identify that a key is minor, but that's about as far as it goes. Also, it typically takes me repeated listens to a song before I can really follow the lyrics. And though I'm good at writing visual narrative, I'm not that good at noticing or analyzing other people's visual motifs unless I can look at the work at my own pace (ie, a comic book and, to a certain extent, theatre) or watch it repeatedly. Clips flashing by rapidly are tough.
However, I did see one vid that I really liked, even though I failed to understand it. It's "The Mountain," byastolat and melina123, set to a gorgeous trad-country song by Dave Carter and Tracey Grammar. So I watched it a couple of times. Then I watched a few more from astolat's site, hoping to get a handle on the vidding thing.
http://www.intimations.org/vidding/
These notes are going to be pretty incoherent, since not only am I having trouble with the media, I don't know vidding vocabulary either. I did watch "The Mountain" repeatedly, though, and took notes.
"The Mountain" is from Lord of the Rings. I think it's about accepting one's destiny, and the price of doing so, as seen in the journeys of Frodo and Aragorn.
The lyrics here are more directly tied in to the images than in some other vids. The first verse mentions "paths of glory" and "ice and fire." Ice and fire are some of the repeated visual motifs here, as the color palette goes from the ice of Caradhras and the shadowy blues of some of Aragorn and Frodo's scenes, to the fire of the ring and Mount Doom and the forging of Narsil.
It opens with Tracey Grammar singing "I was born on the mountain" as the camera sweeps over Caradhras.
ETA: Actually, the lyric is "I was born in a fork-tongued story."
"I see the mountain
Mountain come to me
I see the mountain
And that is all I see."
Then it cuts to Frodo in the Shire, with the intro to the song, and close-ups of Gandalf, and then Bilbo, laying his burden on him. The mountain is the thing you're bound to, like it or not: now, the ring. There's a great bit matching a shot of the quarrel at Elrond's council reflected in the ring and fire swallowing everything with the music, though sadly I'm not sure what about that bit in the song matched so well with the shot. This bit seems to be about Frodo accepting his mission. Frodo's motif here is the ring.
"Some will chase us" plays over a shot of the Nazgul-- "and some will call us"-- Galadriel. Pretty clear narrative there.
With the next verse, I think, the focus switches to Aragorn. Lots of shots of Boromir here, in a parallel-within-a-parallel: Boromir picks up the ring, Aragorn takes his hand from the sword where he'd been planning to use it on Boromir if necessary, and shots of the broken Narsil. Aragorn is now accepting his task. Lots of snow and blues, cold colors. Aragorn's motif is the sword.
Also, lots of shots of hands in both sections.
Back to Frodo, having a hard time. Now the mountain in the song is not just his task, but Mount Doom. "I see the mountain/and that is all I see," as Frodo begins to see nothing but the wheel of fire. The lyrics become doomy ("scatter my bones") as he slogs through Mordor. "Maybe some roving bird will find me" as the Nazgul steed flaps its wings, and Frodo almost offers it the ring. Creepy.
Back to Aragorn. Now he's getting some fire images, as Elrond appears, forging Narsil. It's still all about swords for Aragorn, and then a crown as he becomes the king... and then the colors go cold again as he dies, and his body becomes his monument. The lyrics end, it's just instrumental music, as the autumn leaves blow across the tomb, and it goes to black.
In a totally different way, I really liked "Mundian To Bach Ke," which matches Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon with the world's catchiest Punjabi rock song, by Panjabi MC. As far as I could tell, this one was purely about matching the movement to the music. It's fun and witty and kinetic, and if there's any narrative or particular theme, I totally missed it.
"Jig of Life," a Kate Bush song and Witchblade, was my attempt to see if I could get anything out of a vid when I know nothing whatsoever about the source material. So... there's this woman who's linked with a figure in armor. I think they're the same person, either literally or in some psychic or metaphoric sense. There's an armored glove with a red jewel which is also an eye that opens and closes. (A marble statue also opens its eyes.) There's a narrative here, but I couldn't get much of it except that at first the armored figure seems creepy and threatening to the woman, and then she seems to accept it (or accept that it's her) and that's when the armored glove becomes part of her. I was watching the images so closely in this one that I mostly lost their connection to the music, which is completely missing the point, but that's why I'm not commenting on the music. I liked it, but it didn't make me want to run out and watch Witchblade, although now I am a bit curious about it.
"Uninvited." Song by Alanis Morissette, clips from Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. My sample "vid where I don't like the source material." The relationship between Clarice and Hannibal, but mostly Hannibal. Obsession, voyeurism, lots of shots of people looking at people and POV shots through bars, through glass, etc. I didn't connect much with this one, possibly because-- duh-- I don't like the source.
"touch me fall." Song by the Indigo Girls, clips from the X-Men movies. The only vid where I had previous familiarity with both musical and visual sources. I happen to be a fan of both. I took notes on this one, too.
This starts out as a Xavier/Magneto vid, or at least seems to be about their relationship. (Come on, does anyone not think they had a really horrible break-up many years before the series begins?) Then it becomes about the school and the wider world and the anti-mutant prejudice that's causing all sorts of horrible things to happen: "everything is getting bigger." The relationship between Xavier and Magneto, who want to touch (for whatever value of that word you want to read into it); Xavier can telepathically connect the entire world, but individuals can't connect with each other. I liked this one too.
Xavier puts on the Cerebro helmet in silence. Then the music begins, slow intro. Circles, circles, everywhere: the X logo, eyes, the Cerebro room. Everything's blue or transparent. Xavier and Magneto in the transparent room, many shots of Magneto all sexy in that black fedora. Xavier enters the prison, a needle enters skin, the camera pushes through a tunnel. More circles and spherical things, like the blobs of iron. Xavier rises from his chair, Magneto falls from his.
The "touch me" part of the song begins as Xavier touches the minds of the world. More floating things, spheres, circles, and the camera circles too. A reference to the sphere of the Earth? As the instrumental bridge plays, more shots of the people Xavier is connecting with via Cerebro-- all the souls and individuals in danger without knowing it, but also an image of connection, which goes back to the theme of the song.
At this point the focus shifts from Xavier/Magneto to the Xavier school. The attack on the school is paralleled with the attack on Stryker's lair. More eyes and circles.
The fast violin part begins. People are running, fighting, there's an explosion at a musical crescendo. Fade out on Xavier at Cerebro.
Anyone care to add anything? Talk about vids? Tell me if I caught anything at all of what was intended? Recommend anime vids that don't require a subscription? Recommend other vids?
(Vids: clips from TV or movies, set to music. BPAL: A company that sells perfume in teeny vials that people can trade or buy on ebay. The names and descriptions of their products are most amusing and erudite. Apparently they all smell different on different people, and have three distinct scents, one when sniffed in the bottle, one when first applied to skin, and one when dry on the skin.)
ETA: The best BPAL reviews have been from
oyceter, who has been testing them on her rats.Now there are two things I know nothing about, music videos and perfume. Unlike
mrissa, who can apparently distinguish one person from another by scent, with her eyes closed and from ten feet away, I have a poor sense of smell and the only time in my life I've ever worn perfume is when my mother put some of hers on me. And I grew up three thousand miles from MTV, so I have never watched music videos.The BPal thing would be wasted on me, but since vidding is a fannish activity I've watched a couple, and have been flummoxed by my total inability to get anything out of them other than, "There's clips from a show. And there's a song. So they must relate in some way. Um, the song's about love and the clips show a relationship?"
The trouble is, although I love music, I have very little technical vocabulary for it, nor a very good ear. I can sometimes identify that a key is minor, but that's about as far as it goes. Also, it typically takes me repeated listens to a song before I can really follow the lyrics. And though I'm good at writing visual narrative, I'm not that good at noticing or analyzing other people's visual motifs unless I can look at the work at my own pace (ie, a comic book and, to a certain extent, theatre) or watch it repeatedly. Clips flashing by rapidly are tough.
However, I did see one vid that I really liked, even though I failed to understand it. It's "The Mountain," by
astolat and melina123, set to a gorgeous trad-country song by Dave Carter and Tracey Grammar. So I watched it a couple of times. Then I watched a few more from astolat's site, hoping to get a handle on the vidding thing.http://www.intimations.org/vidding/
These notes are going to be pretty incoherent, since not only am I having trouble with the media, I don't know vidding vocabulary either. I did watch "The Mountain" repeatedly, though, and took notes.
"The Mountain" is from Lord of the Rings. I think it's about accepting one's destiny, and the price of doing so, as seen in the journeys of Frodo and Aragorn.
The lyrics here are more directly tied in to the images than in some other vids. The first verse mentions "paths of glory" and "ice and fire." Ice and fire are some of the repeated visual motifs here, as the color palette goes from the ice of Caradhras and the shadowy blues of some of Aragorn and Frodo's scenes, to the fire of the ring and Mount Doom and the forging of Narsil.
It opens with Tracey Grammar singing "I was born on the mountain" as the camera sweeps over Caradhras.
ETA: Actually, the lyric is "I was born in a fork-tongued story."
"I see the mountain
Mountain come to me
I see the mountain
And that is all I see."
Then it cuts to Frodo in the Shire, with the intro to the song, and close-ups of Gandalf, and then Bilbo, laying his burden on him. The mountain is the thing you're bound to, like it or not: now, the ring. There's a great bit matching a shot of the quarrel at Elrond's council reflected in the ring and fire swallowing everything with the music, though sadly I'm not sure what about that bit in the song matched so well with the shot. This bit seems to be about Frodo accepting his mission. Frodo's motif here is the ring.
"Some will chase us" plays over a shot of the Nazgul-- "and some will call us"-- Galadriel. Pretty clear narrative there.
With the next verse, I think, the focus switches to Aragorn. Lots of shots of Boromir here, in a parallel-within-a-parallel: Boromir picks up the ring, Aragorn takes his hand from the sword where he'd been planning to use it on Boromir if necessary, and shots of the broken Narsil. Aragorn is now accepting his task. Lots of snow and blues, cold colors. Aragorn's motif is the sword.
Also, lots of shots of hands in both sections.
Back to Frodo, having a hard time. Now the mountain in the song is not just his task, but Mount Doom. "I see the mountain/and that is all I see," as Frodo begins to see nothing but the wheel of fire. The lyrics become doomy ("scatter my bones") as he slogs through Mordor. "Maybe some roving bird will find me" as the Nazgul steed flaps its wings, and Frodo almost offers it the ring. Creepy.
Back to Aragorn. Now he's getting some fire images, as Elrond appears, forging Narsil. It's still all about swords for Aragorn, and then a crown as he becomes the king... and then the colors go cold again as he dies, and his body becomes his monument. The lyrics end, it's just instrumental music, as the autumn leaves blow across the tomb, and it goes to black.
In a totally different way, I really liked "Mundian To Bach Ke," which matches Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon with the world's catchiest Punjabi rock song, by Panjabi MC. As far as I could tell, this one was purely about matching the movement to the music. It's fun and witty and kinetic, and if there's any narrative or particular theme, I totally missed it.
"Jig of Life," a Kate Bush song and Witchblade, was my attempt to see if I could get anything out of a vid when I know nothing whatsoever about the source material. So... there's this woman who's linked with a figure in armor. I think they're the same person, either literally or in some psychic or metaphoric sense. There's an armored glove with a red jewel which is also an eye that opens and closes. (A marble statue also opens its eyes.) There's a narrative here, but I couldn't get much of it except that at first the armored figure seems creepy and threatening to the woman, and then she seems to accept it (or accept that it's her) and that's when the armored glove becomes part of her. I was watching the images so closely in this one that I mostly lost their connection to the music, which is completely missing the point, but that's why I'm not commenting on the music. I liked it, but it didn't make me want to run out and watch Witchblade, although now I am a bit curious about it.
"Uninvited." Song by Alanis Morissette, clips from Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. My sample "vid where I don't like the source material." The relationship between Clarice and Hannibal, but mostly Hannibal. Obsession, voyeurism, lots of shots of people looking at people and POV shots through bars, through glass, etc. I didn't connect much with this one, possibly because-- duh-- I don't like the source.
"touch me fall." Song by the Indigo Girls, clips from the X-Men movies. The only vid where I had previous familiarity with both musical and visual sources. I happen to be a fan of both. I took notes on this one, too.
This starts out as a Xavier/Magneto vid, or at least seems to be about their relationship. (Come on, does anyone not think they had a really horrible break-up many years before the series begins?) Then it becomes about the school and the wider world and the anti-mutant prejudice that's causing all sorts of horrible things to happen: "everything is getting bigger." The relationship between Xavier and Magneto, who want to touch (for whatever value of that word you want to read into it); Xavier can telepathically connect the entire world, but individuals can't connect with each other. I liked this one too.
Xavier puts on the Cerebro helmet in silence. Then the music begins, slow intro. Circles, circles, everywhere: the X logo, eyes, the Cerebro room. Everything's blue or transparent. Xavier and Magneto in the transparent room, many shots of Magneto all sexy in that black fedora. Xavier enters the prison, a needle enters skin, the camera pushes through a tunnel. More circles and spherical things, like the blobs of iron. Xavier rises from his chair, Magneto falls from his.
The "touch me" part of the song begins as Xavier touches the minds of the world. More floating things, spheres, circles, and the camera circles too. A reference to the sphere of the Earth? As the instrumental bridge plays, more shots of the people Xavier is connecting with via Cerebro-- all the souls and individuals in danger without knowing it, but also an image of connection, which goes back to the theme of the song.
At this point the focus shifts from Xavier/Magneto to the Xavier school. The attack on the school is paralleled with the attack on Stryker's lair. More eyes and circles.
The fast violin part begins. People are running, fighting, there's an explosion at a musical crescendo. Fade out on Xavier at Cerebro.
Anyone care to add anything? Talk about vids? Tell me if I caught anything at all of what was intended? Recommend anime vids that don't require a subscription? Recommend other vids?