(no subject)

[katallison]

My tiredness is epochal. It is legion. It is like the forces of Mordor attacking Helm's Deep, or something. In the rain.

And yet it is also oh, so boring, so I shall not discuss it further. I could witter on about my guilt over having fallen behind in posting recs for crack_van -- see, I remember now why I never did a recs page, there's such fraughtness in the whole thing, the myriad possibilities of giving offense or causing sniffliness or whatever, especially in dS.

Or I could try to get a handle on some of the thoughts I had in response to laurashapiro's recent post, about losing her squee. (Laura! You know I love you! My failure to respond to your post is just due to the epochal tiredness, and also I am a jerk!) And yet the thoughts aren't really so much about Laura's post as they are about something barkley posted not long ago, about vidding and over-vidded scenes in due South, the reading of which gave me a chill. Which is not (I hasten to add) a bad thing, and I wish my ensuing comments to cause no bad feelings for Barkley or anyone else posting in that thread.

The thing is--OK, I *get* the deal about over-vidded scenes. I have heard numerous people say that they really can't deal with seeing any more Duncan/Methos vids, because every single clip extant of Methos, or Methos and Duncan together, has been included in so very, very many vids that they've burned out their emotional charge. Those scenes have, as it were, lost their squee-factor. And I *get* that.

But I find myself thinking that maybe that's an occupational hazard of vidding. Vidders, after all, are working within a really very constrained space--there's the clips, there's the song, and beyond a certain point they're unalterable, you have to work with what you're given, and you can interpret and shade and combine these given factors to create new layers of meaning, sure, no question. But--

OK, speaking as a writer? And switching it back to dS for a moment--there are indeed overwritten, as well as over-vidded, scenes in the fandom, of course, and yet I know that there's no scene in the show so overly familiar that I couldn't take it and twist it in a hundred new directions--new POV, alternate backstories, different emotional overtones and implications and flavorings. I was reading dsudis's new story lately (and hey, Dira! I owe you much feedback! Reprise the "I am a jerk!" music!), and one thing that struck me was how she took little bits and shards from the episodes, and so casually, masterfully, with a flick of the wrist, cast them into an entirely new storyline.

I feel confident that, as a writer, I could keep confabulating dS stories until I'm too old to see the keyboard, and still not get to the end of the stuff I could come up with, or want to say. The one where everyone's born ten years earlier and Ray's prime Vietnam draft-bait and flees into Canada. The one where Fraser's the charismatic cult-leader, bent on a moral regeneration of the world, who ends up wreaking havoc. The really dark one with Vecchio and RayK and Fraser all dealing with the aftermath of Armando.

Which is to say, it's all AU, but as a writer I have that available to me. I'm loosely bounded by canon, sure, in the sense that the characters are who they are and I have to wholly mindful of that when I twist them into new situations. But still ...

And, see, what's really intriguing to me is that quite a few of the most outstanding vidders I know also have made a mark as writers and have produced some really fine stories, but feel that in vidding they've really found their metier, their voice. What I keep wanting to ask--and I'm terribly afraid here of sounding patronizing or dismissive or something, when that's not at all what I'm feeling--is, how do you come to terms with the relative limitations you work under in vidding? How do you deal with the frustration of not having that *one* scene, that *one* clip, that you really need, because the goddamned TPTB didn't see fit to film it? How do you not burn out when you're looking at the same set scenes over and over again? How do you keep your squeee?

All of which is really, I guess, just a way of saying I'm fundamentally a writer and not a vidder; as much as some vids have opened my head up with a great whoooshing sound, when trying to do vids I end up feeling thwarted and hampered. But still, I'm curious about how others experience it.

And I should just set this entry aside for re-thinking and editing in the morning, when I'm less epochally tired, but I'll probably just hit "update" and take my lumps. And stagger off to bed. Maybe tonight I'll get some sleep, which would be nice.

Comments

Keeping the squee

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

I think that there is a hard, cruel reality in fan fiction and fan vidding that people keep slamming into: this isn't original work. And if you prize originality above everything else, you will be disappointed. At that point, you start working the edges -- the relationships and characters that are puffs of authorial work, or songs, images and fandoms that are obscure and unknown -- and from this, you craft a masterpiece. It's original, despite starting as a derivative work.

But most fans in a fandom look for stories that center on their favorite characters in their favorite fandoms; they are looking for the familiar. I have seen people in HL watch *hours* worth of D/M and people in DS watch *hours* of the same clips and never get tired of the images and stories that pay them back for their interest in the characters and fandom -- but anyone not in the fandom is bored by vid number three.

So the highly original fiction as well as the highly original vid may be critically praised, but it doesn't necessarily win over large audiences right out of the gate. It may be a slow builder, and over time, prove to be enduring and popular, but it still lacks that initial 'oomph.' It's hard to keep hitting that wall over and over, to feel like you've gone through all this work and effort to craft something original within the constraints of it being a fan work, and not feel that work is rewarded.

To keep your squee, when working with highly original work, I think you have to define your core group of fans as others who like highly original works. Not 'fans of the fandom' or 'fans of this pairing' or even 'fans that I know', but 'fans that value originality as much as I do.' Otherwise, it's pearls before swine, and no one will be happy with that.

Re: Keeping the squee

[killabeez.livejournal.com]

I love you. You know that, right?

[elynross.livejournal.com]

Man, I love both of you to pieces -- and Kat, as well. *g* You've both made me feel so much better about all the times I heard that particular fandoms/clips/whatever are overdone. Such wise, wise women, and so articulate, with the questions and the responses. I'm all guh about all three of you.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

This is great stuff, Rache--I've bookmarked this entire thread to come back and think more on and respond to, when I'm not slammed at work and about to fly out of town for several days. *g* Thanks so much for these comments, and I will reply at some point, honest!