Lots of H:tLJ stuff. Also, Xena. And vids!

[marycrawford]

For the Xena fans on my flist, and esp. for killabeez who is planning more gorgeous Xena vids: the 5th season of Xena: Warrior Princess is coming out on October 19th, according to TVshowsonDVD.com. No word on H:tLJ yet other than 'Fall 2004', although I believe the Xena releases are ahead of the Herc ones. Sob.

I need season Five! No, it's not my favorite season and I haven't watched most of season Four yet, but I need it for almost all the vids I'm planning. Which brings me to the meme I gacked from every vidder on my friends list:



In order of ideas:

Live 'Til I Die (Frank Sinatra) - the Iolaus vid. Also known as "Mary attempts to teach herself vidding without losing her sanity". Fun, upbeat, and about as deep as a coffee stain. This one is almost done, I just need to find the right clips for the ending.

Let's Face The Music And Dance (Frank Sinatra again, good grief) - the Herc & Iolaus approach to life vid. "Mary tries to figure out how to make stuff move on the beat, part two." Halfway done, needs more source clips and better ideas.

Do You Dream Of Me (Tiamat) - Dahak Speaks, also known as the vid from Hades. Requires song editing (no clue), transitions and other effects to convey nightmarish aspects (again, no clue) and extremely interesting POV issues (clue? there is no clue). Nothing done yet, I can't even begin without season 5.

Don't Be On The Outside (Sarah Vaughan) - The Jester vid. Evil, evil idea, but fun. Have no clue if I can pull it off, because I need (wait for it) season 5 to source it.

If I Ever Lose My Faith In You (Sting) - Hercules post-Dahak. Succesful song pimpage by ltlj. Season 5, please arrive!

Nebula vid. No song yet - Aretha, Nina, Sarah? But Nebula needs a vid of her own, dammit.

X X X X X (I'm so not saying) - Twankey and Hercules are made for each other. According to Twankey, anyway. Song and vid idea pimped by falzalot, plus inspirational squeeing by halimede. This is the vid that will get me unfriended by every vidder on my friends list, and I want to make it so much. But it, too, needs season 5 for that third Twankey episode.


And now it's time for a story rec:

Sylvia posted a delightful H:tLJ fanfic over on GoldApple, and I've been waiting for it to go up at the Library so I could rec it, but no luck. (Ditto the Sandman moodpiece - amorettea, you out there? Put it up already! *g*) Anyway, by mad Googling I found Sylvia's webpage.

The story is Hecate's Chalice and it's a long gen adventure story, the kind of story you can sink away in and not come out for a while. It has terrific original characters, great dialogue, serious hurt/comfort and Iolaus at his feisty best:

Iolaus wiped water from his eyes and his face, then flicked his hands dry. He didn't mean to splash the guardsman; the space under the arch was cramped and these two were wearing way too much armor for the confined area. That was his story, anyway, and he'd be sticking to it. "Just trying to get out of the rain, friend. You have noticed it's raining, haven't you?" He grinned endearingly up at Chinless, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. "That's what it means when water comes down from the sky and the dirt gets all sticky."

Comments

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

You are *so* not getting unfriended for that song. It will work! We will *make* it work! But that reminds me that I need to play around with editing it down this weekend, don't I. *sigh* No rest for the wicked. :->

I'm almost caught up on S4. One more episode to go. Yippie!

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

It will work! We will *make* it work!

Oh, I hope so, I really do. And thanks so much for the encouragement. :-D

But that reminds me that I need to play around with editing it down this weekend

You can do that? Thank goodness! I was fooling with it in Premiere, but the results were abysmal.

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

Well .... I ~think~ I might be able to do it. I've added and subtracted stuff, but I've never attempted anything quite this complicated before.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

I'm sending you honkin' big vibes in case you need them. :-)

Also, the SO will be having a look - he's never edited music, but I think he has some programs designed for just that.

And if it doesn't work, it might also be possible just to fade out somewhere around 2:55 or 3:05?

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

I've got the program for it. I just need to sit down and listen and see what I can do with it. And if I have problems, then I grab my friend who has been doing digital audio stuff for years. I WILL SURVIVE, dang it!

But no, 2:55 is probably a good minute too long. Then again, since this vid will have an audience of like 10 people, 3 of whom are either working on it or squeeing about it, maybe it won't matter. :-> :->

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

But no, 2:55 is probably a good minute too long.

I knew you'd say that. Okay, just keep all the good parts, then. *grins evilly*

Then again, since this vid will have an audience of like 10 people, 3 of whom are either working on it or squeeing about it, maybe it won't matter. :-> :->

Hee! No, but it still matters even if it has an audience of 1 hapless person who inadvertently stumbled on it. We must serve Twankey as best we can. :-D

[barbaraa.livejournal.com]

Oh, you'll have all the closet Twankey fans (there's a pun buried in there somewhere) watching it, just not admitting it. :)

All your ideas sound so great! I'd love to see them all come to fruition.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the encouragement! And I do wonder how many people know of Twankey in the first place. :-)

[halimede.livejournal.com]

Fade? Why fade? Dude no! It's perfect as is, it's got the whole dramatic build up, why would you want to get rid of that?

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

Because it's hard to keep a comedy vid going that long without losing your audience. I've seen vids that should've been cut. The audience that started off laughing ended up whispering, "is it over yet?" It's not a pretty sight.

--> not a vidder, but listens to a lot of them. :->

[halimede.livejournal.com]

I've seen vids that should've been cut.

A bad vid is a bad vid, whether it's one minute long or ten. I don't think cutting of at a random time is going to ensure that you keep your audience. Having a throughline will, and it's very possible with this song. More possible if you keep it intact, I'd say, because of the dramatic, very comedy friendly build-up of the music. I say try to script the full song first. If at that time it appears that the concept is better served with a shorter song, fine, but cutting it of at a random time doesn't help to make it a good vid.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

I think we're talking at cross purposes here - I'm not advocating cutting it off randomly, and neither is falzalot. What I was trying to say is that if we can't make a real edit work, we might be able to cut the song at a specific point to shorten it. That wouldn't be my preference, though.

I agree with falzalot that the song is too long as-is (and also has too many chorus repeats); I also think that the bad vid potential increases dramatically with every added minute.

Let's take any further discussion to email/AIM, please? I kinda want to keep the song choice under our hats for now. :-)

[halimede.livejournal.com]

I think we're talking at cross purposes here - I'm not advocating cutting it off randomly

No, I got that. But I think cutting a random part of the song before you've tried scripting it is a bad idea. *If* you are going to edit, at least edit to serve the ideas & footage you've worked out for the vid, not the other way around.

Let's take any further discussion to email/AIM

Done.

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

The vids sound mouth-watering. I can't wait!

And I had a chance to read "Hecate's Chalice." Thanks for reccing that, it was an excellent story! I had a few nitpicky subjective issues, but nothing that stopped me from enjoying it. I hope she's planning on doing some more.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

The vids sound mouth-watering. I can't wait!

Aw, thanks! I hope to be able to show the first one soon, if only to able to say "well, I finished one". :-)

I'm glad you enjoyed Hecate's Chalice too. It's such a joy to find a great story pop up like that from someone you've never heard of; I, too, really hope that she'll return to this fandom.