Life and Vidding, among other things

[butterfly]

God, I'm busy lately. I'm near the end of moving (I've been moving all this month and will do my final move this weekend, thank God, it'll be done with).

Anyway, I just thought I'd hang out a 'not dead' sign and let y'all now what's going on with me.

So, some thoughts I've been having recently:

I. The idea that a guy can't or shouldn't be a feminist is very disturbing to me -- in a perfect world, all men and women would be feminists, because the definition of a feminist is someone who believes that women deserve the same rights as men. So, I do hold the belief that Joss Whedon is a feminist, because he holds men and women to the same standards and because his female characters are as complex as his male ones. In fact, for each of his male characters, you can generally find a female equivalent, and vice versa. For every Spike you have a Faith, and for every Buffy you have a Wesley (okay, that one may only make sense in my own head, and I do plan to go into more detail on it another time).

II. Shuddering disgust at the idea of het!sex is something that confuses me. I personally know more than one person who has this reaction and it makes as much emotional sense to me as the idea that some women don't get off on boykissing. But this is because I'm very much sexually attracted to both men and women. Therefore, any kind of 'ew' reaction to attractive people getting snuggly baffles me. It's not the visual image of Jack/Sam (Stargate SG-1) that bothers me, it's the legal, emotional, and long-term ramifications. And this emotional confusion is as much an instinctive personal reaction as the disgust that triggers it. Like, I don't get people who do not love Frannie (due South). Frannie is beautiful, funny, and such a sweetheart. This is what I see when I look at her. Other people see different things -- just because I cannot understand what they see doesn't mean that what they see is invalid. I just don't get it. And that's okay, as long as people don't try to tell me that I'm wrong for seeing what I see.

III. I like season six of BtVS. I like season seven of BtVS. I liked them when they were airing. This does not mean that I am a) a moron, b) easily satisfied, or c) someone incapable of seeing the big picture. It just means that I got what I needed out of the show. Every person watching the show is watching for different reasons. Just because my reasons aren't the same as someone else's doesn't make them wrong, it makes them different.

Also, I'm trying out Adobe Premiere Pro for my Wes vid and trying to figure out if I want to invest in getting the program. Any suggestions from vidders in the audience?

Comments

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you on points one and three. My only differing thought on #2 is that I've grown up seeing hetsex as the norm, and during some years of my life as the ONLY sex. So my current lack of interest in most het pairings in fandom isn't because ewww icky girl parts or anything, it's just because I've already been inundated with that image, and now I'm interested in exploring other images. Which I know isn't specifically what you're talking about -- but I can't help but feel the need to justify my LACK of interest (which doesn't equate to a negative reaction, just an 'eh' one) in hetsex pairings.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

No justification needed. Even if you were ew!het sex, I'd understand. It's a complicated reaction, with many factors to consider.

And I have your same problem with a certain subset of (mostly) het romance -- Epic Eternal Love tends to make me roll my eyes. The biggest example being John and Aeryn of Farscape fame; Buffy/Angel used to get that reaction from me when it first aired, but over time, I've come to adore them as the perfect example of a First Love that stays in the heart. Totally different.

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

Glad you aten't dead!
I like bits of 6 and 7 but I think the parts are much greater than the whole, unlike most of the other seasons.
It's the sloppy plotting that bugs me in 7.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Part of what I like about season seven is that for the first time, I liked Willow and Spike as characters. I'm big on characters.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

I. Word.

II. I don't get off on the idea of boy!kissing. It honestly does nothing for me. To put it bluntly, the idea of two men having sex is about as arousing to me as two dogs having sex. No offense to those who find that kind of thing attractive and arousing; it just doesn't do anything for me. I'll read boyslash for the relationships and character exploration, not because I find it hot. Different strokes.

III. Word to the second power. Yes, I liked those seasons; yes, I thought they had something good to say; no, that does not make me deficient. Power, sister!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Re: boykissing

And while I definitely understand that intellectually, it still leaves me with this odd baffled feeling. That whole 'other minds' 'everyone is unique' feeling that makes me so interested in other people to begin with.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

The obvious followup question on point III is, do you think they were as good as the earlier seasons? I mean, I like S6 and S7 (in parts, anyway), but I don't think they (or, to be honest, 4/5) are a patch on S1-3 when you really get down to it. The later seasons are good tv, but the first three are essential.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Sorry to butt in, but season 1 is by far my least favourite season. And I do think season 2 is very overrated because of the arc near the end, which ultimately was what 8-10 great episodes. That season also has its fair share of truly bad episodes, and some very poor pacing *cough Go Fish cough* I'd choose both seasons 6 and 7 over those seasons.

Seasons 3 and 5 are my favourite seasons overall, closely followed by season 6.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Currently, my personal order would be two, six, three, five, seven, four, one. And one is at the end mostly because it's short and suchlike.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

III. I like season six of BtVS. I like season seven of BtVS. I liked them when they were airing. This does not mean that I am a) a moron, b) easily satisfied, or c) someone incapable of seeing the big picture. It just means that I got what I needed out of the show. Every person watching the show is watching for different reasons. Just because my reasons aren't the same as someone else's doesn't make them wrong, it makes them different.

Or D) Doesn't mean I am in denial and have an agenda of only watching the show for one character. I just liked those seasons, deal :p

Also, I'm trying out Adobe Premiere Pro for my Wes vid and trying to figure out if I want to invest in getting the program. Any suggestions from vidders in the audience?


I'm getting sick of WMM collapsing on me, but Premiere scares me because I've heard it's so complicated. It's one of those things I keep thinking I should move on too sometime though.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

Or D) Doesn't mean I am in denial and have an agenda of only watching the show for one character. I just liked those seasons, deal :p

Amen.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Or D) Doesn't mean I am in denial and have an agenda of only watching the show for one character. I just liked those seasons, deal :p

Right, there's that one, too.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

When I first started watching Buffy, Season 7 was half over, and I didn't start watching new eps right away, so I watched everything except the last 6 episodes in reruns. Because of that, my viewpoints tend to be a bit different than people who've been watching for years. I thought that both Season 6 and Season 7 *started* brilliantly, then about a third of the way through the season, they lost what made me love them. There's no season of Buffy that I love unconditionally, but Seasons 6 and 7 are the ones that fascinate me the most. Those (especially S6) are the ones where the themes and the character arcs (all of them) speak most to me and move it from, "hey, this is a really cool show" to "this is GREAT television," even if I didn't like the execution of a lot of it, and even if some of it really ticked me off. Because of that, most of my fannish involvement deals with those seasons. I liked Season 1, for instance, but I don't have a whole lot to say about it, and most fanfic from that period just bores me. Season 6 or 7 fanfic (and post-those seasons), however, gives me the chance to look at what fascinated me, and see it executed differently than the writers did it, with different takes on the themes or conclusions of those arcs.

I don't believe I've ever heard the "big picture" argument. What do they mean by that?

I'm also looking forward to Buffy = Wesley.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I don't believe I've ever heard the "big picture" argument. What do they mean by that?

The whole 'well, parts of the season may have been good, but you can't possibly really think that, as a whole, it didn't suck eggs' argument.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. Well, I thought parts of those seasons were better than others, but I could say that about any season. As a whole, I still really liked them, despite what I consider to be their shortcomings.

Mostly advice on movie editing programs.

[amalthia]

I can deal with some het relationships in fan fics..it depends on how good the author is, though I'm more likely to read bad slash than okay het, which is rather bad of me. :)

As for buffy...season 2 and 6 were my favorites. Though I think I liked 6 because it was something I never thought I'd see on TV...

Now as for Vidding advice...I prefer Ulead Video Studio 9. It will convert your avi files to MPEG if need be, it's user friendly, and I think cheaper than adobe premeire, plus it's easier to use. If you want to know more about each of the programs, go to Kawoosh Music Video Forum http://www.kawoosh.co.uk/forum/index.php there have been many discussions on the various programs available to vidders. A lot of people like Pinnacle (I Don't because it eats up all your memory and crashs often, and you can't use AVI files unless you pay more money for some patch?) Adobe is good but hard to learn (BIG learning curve) Ulead is my program of choice and if you want to know how to get these programs for free, email me. But honestly, I'd try out the trials first before I spent a dime. I tried all three out before I choose Ulead Video Studio 9.

Re: Mostly advice on movie editing programs.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely try out Ulead and see what I like best. Thanks for the suggestion.

Re: Mostly advice on movie editing programs.

[amalthia]

If you need any help figuring out Ulead just email me and I can try and answer some of your questions.

Like the split scene, and how to load the scenes into the library manager. It may look like the program has crashed but it hasn't. it just takes about an hour with 1 gig of memory and a fast processor to load the episode. basically the library manager is what you are going to need to use for your video clips and music files.

Hmm there were some other areas that took me about a while to figure out. Also if you try to delete your thumbnails from the library manager it'll delete the whole file from your harddrive if you don't hit shift-delete first. but you should be able to pull the file from your trashcan. Anyway good luck with the program. On kawoosh, we've had a discussion about starting a vidding manual for the various programs...I planned on doing hte Ulead section since I'm probably the only one that uses it.

the het, in canon and fic

[danamaree.livejournal.com]

Het doesn't squick me, I just never had any interest reading about it.

I like some canon het pairings on television, I was fond of Angel/Cordelia, love Garret/Lily (in Crossing Jordan, Sayid/Shannon Lost and was really looking forward to Wesley/Illyria before they decided to cancel the show (damn you WB).

But as someone said above, het is something that is explored so thoroughly in television and movies, the popular media is so saturated with it, that it just doesn't hold any appeal within fanfiction AU pairings. I adore femslash, slash and gen fiction, I'll happily read het pairings as part of those stories and if the writer is extremely good I'll even read het, but rarely.

Some canon het pairings annoy me because they are so damn predictable. The main character must always get involved with some leading character of the opposite sex, they must always have UST for a number of seasons and then they usually get together and live happily after, Whedon the exception. See Buffy/Angel, Jordan/Woody (Crossing Jordan), Muldar/Scully, Jack/Sam, Marissa/Ryan OC etc.

And some het pairings are wrong and seem forced because they are the two single secondary characters that must get together when the primary characters are having hiatus from their het ship drama. Wesley/Fred, Bug/Lily, and countless other examples.

For once I want to see a show where the main character's love life isn't so damn important.

Re: the het, in canon and fic

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

For once I want to see a show where the main character's love life isn't so damn important.

That would be nice. Sadly, most writers go with the love=drama thing.

[jic]

I'm looking forward to the move being complete, too! By the way, I got a closet organizer at the rummage sale that may be of use.

1) Guys can wayyyy be feminists. Sometimes they refer to themselves as "pro-feminist men," and if you'd like to meet one, visit http://hugoboy.typepad.com/hugo_schwyzer/.

2) As one of the people squicked by het sex *wink* I admit it's based largely in my damage and baggage. I just don't know how to view it as emotionally healthy. (Hence the therapy. Something to remember when I see Tracy tomorrow.) Occasionally, an impeccably done relationship in fic will gain my admiration, but I can't tolerate any kink at all in the sex because it lands too hard on the very damaged parts of my psyche. (And sometimes I squick out of habit -- for instance, if I've squicked on Wash and Zoe.)

3) I have no opinion. My relationship to the series is not deep enough. Yet.