Just let me lie here on the tile

Vividcon challenge vid: Swing

I made this vid in 2009, and the download links for it still work. (Sorry, no streaming, I don't want to deal with the hassle.)

Nichelle Nichols still shines in every scene she's in. 💖

Vidder: marycrawford
Music: "Mystery Dance" by Elvis Costello
Fandom: Star Trek: TOS
Length: 1: 47
Description: Birds do it, bees do it -- surely a starship captain can figure this out.
Notes: This vid premiered at Vividcon 2011, as an auction vid for the fabulous thefourthvine.

Download from my website: Big (.mp4, 38 Mb) | Medium (.avi, 23 Mb ) | Small (.avi, 14 Mb) | Lyrics | Subtitles


Feedback extremely welcome!

I found out about the vid Forever by Zi thanks to mrs_underhill, who posted about it on kirkspock, and I just adore it.

It's a Russian Kirk/Spock vid, with the mythic, larger than life feeling that I also get from killabeez' gorgeous TOS vids As and Dante's Prayer -- THEIRLOVEISSOFUCKINGEPIC pretty much sums it up, and it makes me so happy. This vid is classic in terms of editing style -- no heavy effects, fairly long shots, but a great sense of mood and building up to emotional impact.

Also, I think what Forever does with landscape is really cool, and something I can't recall having seen elsewhere; the closest related vid I can think of is sisabet's due South vid Icebound Stream, where the polar bears in the snow are used as a metaphor for Fraser and Victoria. In the first minute of Forever (which is all instrumental), the imagery is intercut between Earth and Vulcan, then deserts and oceans, and then finally the two meet in a flyover shot of the beach, then up into the clouds, above the clouds into space...and to the Enterprise. It feels dreamlike and gorgeous and uplifting, and it sets the theme and the mood perfectly. I thought this was partly external footage, like the polar bears, but I am assured that it's not -- all the desert, ocean etc. shots are from Trek.

I love the Russian song, and it inevitably loses something in translation, but I did my best: I've made an English subtitle file for the vid, with the vidders' permission and based on mrs_underhill's initial translation of the lyrics. I went a bit more literal in places, because all of a sudden I had my translation professor in my head telling me to cut out the poetry, so you may like her version better!

Vid: download and streaming links - I recommend the "worksafe" version, I think it's by far the best. On their website, click the download link below the streaming video. This will take you to a Russian download site, similar to mediafire or megaupload. Here's what to do next in handy screencaps: step 1 - step 2. It may take a while for the vid to download.

Subtitle file: (right-click and save)

The way this works: you save both the vid and the subtitle files to the same directory. Then you open the vid in VLC player (or another player, but I know it works with VLC *g*) and VLC will automagically pick up the subtitle file. If necessary, you can then turn on the subtitles by clicking Video > Subtitles Track > Track 1, and turn them off again with Video > Subtitles Track > Disable. You can also change the size/color/font of the subtitles in Tools > Preferences > Subtitles & OSD.

It's a lot easier to make an .srt file than I thought; you can even do it in Notepad, but I chose to use an editor. If anyone is interested I could do a how-to post on that later?

I love it when fans make fannish crafts. One of my favorite comms is crafty_tardis, for Doctor Who crafts (motto: For when you absolutely, positively must have a macrame Dalek). There's never any shipping wank, just people posting pictures of crocheted Daleks or their kid dressed up as the Tenth Doctor for Halloween (this one is seriously adorable).

Another comm I've just discovered is claycreations. This isn't actually a community - it's where vandonovan posts his clay puppets of various fannish favorites, and they are fab.

Check out his clay versions of Avon and Vila, Zoe and Wash, Sam and Dean and my favorite - Kirk, Spock and McCoy. I love Kirk's smirky grin and Spock's hands-behind-back stance. <3