PSA

Bidding is open at ao3vidders! There are 18 amazing vidders participating, and the funds go to benefit the OTW. Though the money will not be dedicated to a specific purpose, the auction is intended to show vidders' support for the OTW's plan to develop architecture for vids.

Bidding runs through May 30.

Riddle me this

At such_heights's Vidding Workshop, obsessive24 asked all of the vidder panelists a set of really interesting questions:

If all but one of your vids are erased from history, never to return (you can't reconstruct them, nor can you get anyone else to do it for you), which one would you keep and why?

AND, if all but one of the vids that you've ever watched are erased from history, never to return, which one would you keep and why?

And, name ONE vid that's had a formative influence on you as a vidder and tell us why. (I'm sure there is more than one that's had a formative influence on you as a vidder. Suck it up and whittle it down. ;) )

After tearing my hair about it, here's what I answered:

If I had to save one of my own vids, it would probably be Origin Stories. I mean, it's gotten a lot of attention for its message - which of course was thuviaptarth's - and I guess for that reason it's the most significant of the vids I've made.

As for what had a formative influence, that's actually an easy one - Killa's Highlander vid, In Your Eyes. And the reason that's easy is because it was one of the very first vids that made me "get" it - get what vids were for, get what they were about. Until then, I'd seen ones that were good and well-edited, but I was just being introduced to them and I hadn't seen ones that were my 'ships or my fandom. And you know, I've heard people say that a lot of people who say they don't like vids just need the right one - they need to see the one that's in their fandom or has their 'ship, and suddenly it clicks and they understand what it's all about. And for me, that vid was In Your Eyes - an extremely well-edited HL vid, with a Methos/Duncan 'ship, and I found it so evocative and emotional it was almost overwhelming. And I'd have to say hand in hand with In Your Eyes would be Luminosity's HL vid Don't Panic - I saw them both at the same time, and they had the same effect on me.

One vid to save? I agonized over this, I certainly couldn't possibly name a favorite vid for a million dollars. But the thing that comes to mind is Killa and T Jonesy's Closer. Which is a boring choice, I admit, but it not only shows what vidding can do, and it's not only still a model for everything that came after, but what I love about it is how it reads so differently to fans and non-fans. If you're not into fandom or vidding, it seems to read like a humorous parody - for fans, however, it tends to read as dark and really disturbing, and that kind of division really highlights fan culture, and how fans view the text, and the art, differently.

So now I turn her questions on you - what say you all? And for nonvidders, you can just answer the second question.

(BTW: Work's doing that thing where they intermittently block LJ, so I may not be able to respond to comments there for a while.)

A thousand words

By now, you've probably read about the 7-year-old girl who was fatally shot when Detroit police officers burst into her apartment.

It's this picture that kills me:



That ... really says it all.