#leave the vidder some love if you like it!

[olderthannetfic]

You've encountered site changes over time as a fan elder, what do you make of Tumblr potentially being put out to pasture? Tumblr was my coming of age fan site, and im looking for advice to transition to the next thing with grace and less bitterness than I feel now.

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Ahaha. God, you should have heard the howling about LJ. "Fandom is over!" "Never again shall we dwell in fandom's True Home!" etc.

Hell, this endless "only LJ was good" crap turns up in replies here on posts where I as OP have very clearly laid out why that's rose colored glasses nonsense and you can so make friends on tumblr, have a conversation on tumblr, etc.

I had my crabby phase about this during the transition from Yahoo Groups to LJ. A lot of the real olds had it over paper zines and the transition to the internet.

I don't know if reading these hilariously samey old posts would help. It does give perspective, I think.

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As for what you should do, do what I did with Tumblr:

1.

Look around to identify the Next Thing fandom is going to camp out on.

It may take a few guesses and some time to figure this out. You will likely not be an early adopter. Fandom was well established here by the time I joined at the end of 2010. Of course, by now, all those 2009 and before accounts are long gone, but at the time, I was a n00b joining other people's space despite having been in fandom for ages.

2.

Don't expect to enjoy it

I didn't join tumblr because I liked it. In fact, I despised it. I kept right on despising it until a brief stint in Sherlock fandom, a fandom that was so active here at the time that I was able to finally see the good aspects of the site's structure and features.

This is the mistake a lot of people make. They give things a cursory try, don't enjoy them, and go "not for me", forgetting that the last site also had a steep learning curve that was either difficult or that they didn't notice because they were in a different phase of their life.

Bitterness and grief are, frankly, an inherent part of the process. You can try not to be a debbie downer in your public comments, but you can't just not feel those things during the awkward part of the transition. Sometimes, acting positive and cutting off excessively negative thoughts can make you feel less negative overall, but it doesn't happen immediately.

3.

Accept that feeling cranky and old is both a you problem and a state of mind, not a property of the new site

Relatedly, the way we remember fandom platform X feeling usually has more to do with us being in college with fandom friends down the hall or having discovered Our People for the first time or some other time when we had a lot of energy and positive emotions. Often, we were in the throes of a first or new fandom love too, probably for some megafandom that other people also cared about at the same time.

When fandom is leaving some site, there's a grieving process anyway, but we're also often in a worse part of our lives for starting new things. We're busy. We're tired. We're between fandoms. We feel like we already paid our dues to build up our community. Why should we have to start again?

But let me tell you, you always need to start again eventually. I go to a weekly vidders' zoom chat, and a lot of the people in there are old as balls, including Kandy, the person who invented vidding back in the 70s. She's a lot of decades and a few cancers in, and she had to relearn how to vid on a computer after transitioning from slideshows to VCR vidding back in the day. If bad health, platform changes, and dead friends were going to stop her, she'd be long gone.

It's like sharks: you stop swimming, you die.

This isn't just about fandom, obviously. It's about avoiding a midlife crisis and, later, about avoiding feeling emotionally geriatric even when your body is falling apart.

Change gets us all, but being mentally old is a choice. The real reason I gave tumblr such a try was that I had been so resistant to getting on LJ. I was 20. Even a year later, it was fucking embarrassing to have been a crotchety old hag as a college student. I promised myself I'd soldier through the next change instead of dragging my feet about it. And it totally worked in the end! But boy did it not make the transition any less unpleasant emotionally!

4.

Find your joy

As is obvious from the above, the vast majority of the problem is just emotions. Fandom has been on a million broken sites with shitty features. We go where the people are, regardless of whether it has the technological aspects we liked at the last place. The actual shape of that platform is largely irrelevant.

What does matter is whether we as an individual fan are still excited and happy about something. I was between fandoms recently and went looking around for BL series I hadn't watched yet. People kept suggesting things set in the present day with too-cheesy production values and too many banal schoolboys in modern day settings without even anything spicy going on. I realized that the BL/danmei scene wasn't really cutting it for me and I should go for production values and genre and non-canon ships. You probably scrolled annoyedly past the picspams that resulted.

(Of course, hilariously, someone has now shown me the trailer of Red Peafowl, so someone may be making BL that feels like it's for me after all. Look at all that badwrong and very dark color grading.)

When you're in a good place emotionally, it's a hell of a lot easier to weather any change, and when you have a new fandom, it's a lot easier to connect with other fans.

A lot of people wait around for lightning to strike twice. They found their first fandom by accident, and they expect it to happen seamlessly again. For me, it's far more productive to brute force it: collect up a big list of what's popular or what's new and go through it till you find things you might like, then try them all.

And part of this, obviously, is not waiting for other fans to make the party happen. The more you need to join something other people are already doing, the less choice you'll have in fandoms or in platforms. If you aren't picky and just go where the tropey longfic is, that can work, but even then, favorite authors disappear or go to fandoms you hate and former megafandoms dry up. If you're the one bringing the party, it's a lot easier to find a new fandom or platform or community to have fun in.

[batrogers]

On Podfic and Community

Sometime last week, I was in a voice call in a fandom server and witnessed by chance an interaction that reminded me of the work we must do to create community, and the work already done, specifically the Fanwork Permission Statements site:

A small group of people witnessed art shared during a voice call and asked about it. More art was shared, and the story it was based on was linked and discussed. One of those people mentioned their intentions to set up a podfic for it.

The story was one of mine, and while I do not, in fact, have any objection to people podficcing my works... I didn’t have blanket permission up yet. And they hadn’t asked me. Even knowing I was present, they did not ask. Frankly, they ignored me entirely.

Now, I don’t want to be treated like a god among men or anything of the sort. I’m not even that offended by their behaviour towards me, but I’m not the only person this has likely happened to. I can see how, in someone less confident, this would hurt – possibly enough to make them pull their work.

Podfic is important to the fanfic community. It’s accessibility for many people, and it’s a labour of love. It deserves affection and adoration all its own. But you have to remember you are NOT reading your own words. You are reading someone else’s; this makes your work a collaboration, when done right. If done carelessly, it’s only a few shades short of theft. You have to at least TRY to ask permission. If someone does not have blanket permission on their author profile, you need to leave a message somewhere, in a comment or otherwise. You need to ensure people can find that original work, because that’s how collaboration – how community -- functions.

This did finally get me to place blanket permission on my profile, and to look up a database for authors like this, where – if your goal is to podfic anything, not a specific thing – you can find authors with recorded blanket permissions. If you, as an author, want your work podficced and can’t do it, you can even add yourself so others can find you! There is, in the About page, a link to a generator that helps you formulate a permission statement you can just copy and paste.

But please. Try to remember when you’re doing transformative works of other transformative works, you’re not doing this to some distant creator with their head in the clouds. You’re doing this to a peer, someone just like you. They may, in fact, be in that self-same Discord server you’re making these plans in.

Being ignored by the people who adore your work so much they want to record it hurts. Not being in the call meant you didn’t hear the talk about how that comic was made. You didn’t hear the permission asked and given to share it. You didn’t see community at work, and I know that’s how people learn.

So please, remember you’re part of a community and treat your peers well. We all want to have fun, and I really do hope that podfic of my work gets made – there’s even blanket permission up, now.

[witchercommentcrawl]

How to Leave Feedback on Fanvids

Since people were interested in how to leave detailed comments, here they are! Remember that even an I loved this will make a creator's day!

You are welcome to use this as a resource or ignore it, reblog it or send us an Ask if you'd like some specific help or ideas for writing a comment!

Contributed by @kuwdora

Table of Contents

Definition & Examples of Fanvids and Animatics

Best Practices/Suggestions

Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Feedback for Fanvids

Additional Reading

Definitions & Examples of Fanvids and Animatics

A fanvid is also known as a songvid, a video edit, tribute and sometimes a fancam. GMV is also a popular term for video game specific edits, just like AMV is for anime music videos.

This fanwork is usually some kind of television or film source with clips arranged in a certain order to create a narrative that is set to audio (usually music and/or dialogue and sound effects).

Example: War Pigs (2:17) by Grabel424 - a gen Witcher Netflix vid focusing on the theme of violence from season 1. This has some very sharp editing that matches the beats of the song to some really interesting visuals from the show.

Example: Just Like Fire (3:33) by Tami - an Eskel, Ciri, Geralt, Triss and Yen vid featuring their perseverance from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The vibe and lyrics of this song give emotional weight to the clip choices as they fight and survive the events of the game.

An animatic is a type of fanvid that features storyboarded illustrations and is set to some kind of audio (music, sound effects, dialogue). 

Example: Ciri Portrait | A Witcher 3 animation (0:27) - by abuzzybee. This animatic features a Ciri scene with incredible sound effects and illustration style.

Example: Hard To Be The Bard | A Jaskier animatic (0:59) - by CosmicWahoo. These illustrations are so fun and well edited to a song from the musical comedy ‘Something Rotten.’ This features a song sung by the Shakespeare character himself. Very fitting for Jaskier! 

But I don't know ANYTHING about fanvids!

Vidders value ALL feedback they receive, even from–especially from–from non-vidders. Vidders are spending hours making their vids and putting it out in the world. Vidders REALLY want you to watch their vids and know what you think!

This type of fanwork has typically received less comment activity than fanfic over the years because people are afraid of not knowing what to say or saying something wrong. If this sounds like you, please join me in learning how to make a vidder’s year by leaving them some feedback.

Best Practices/Suggestions

Watch the vid more than once!

Just like watching a film or TV episode for the first time, you are absorbing new material. Watching a vid a second time will allow you to absorb the song choice, lyrics and narrative the vidder is trying to tell with the character, pairing or subject.

Vidders watch and rewatch their vid and song a hundred million times during the process of making the video.

If you watch the vid multiple times, tell the vidder what you took away from the vid during your first watch. Then on the second viewing, describe if you saw anything new or had a better understanding of the lyrical associations with the character or ship or narrative.

Ask questions!

There are MANY ways to make a fanvid and every editor has a different process. They use different tools, techniques, and ways of telling a story. Different sources of inspiration and tricks they picked up along the way to finish their vid.

Ask about music selection. They might reveal their inspiration and how it influenced the way they arranged the clips to tell their narrative. Example: A common question is "Did you have the song idea first or the pairing/narrative idea first?"

Ask what software or apps they use to make their video. You can ask them how long it took (some people can work fast, other people will spend months or years to complete a single project). This will give you insight into the work they undertook before they even started putting the story together!

Ask about their feelings about the subject they're vidding. The canon. The characters. The pairing or themes or emotional content of the vid. "Why did you choose this character's story arc from the first season?"

Insights from a Vidder

In my 15 years of watching and making fanvids, you never know what the vidder planned and what happened serendipitously unless you ask.

Some vidders spend hours or days on a 5 second sequence that no one will notice.

Many, many times the vidders will create amazing sequences, effects or clip choices by pure accident, serendipity, or trial and error. It's rarely what a viewer assumes when you're watching a vid unless you are familiar with a vidder's process or style.

Learning the story of how vidder's make their story can give you insights of how they approached a canon's visuals, character's emotional arcs and what choices they are making to create the story they are sharing with you. This can reveal new or different ideas of how to view characters, pairings, and themes in a canon source.

Basic/Advanced/Intermediate Feedback

Basic Feedback (Examples/Suggestions): 

Simply showing up and saying, “I liked watching this!” will mean the world to vidders. So will a string of emojis, keyboard smashing and gif reactions.

Describe how you felt while watching the vid. Example: “I am SOBBING, this vid has ruined me.” or “I cannot stop laughing because Jaskier is DEFINITELY Taylor Swift… OMG.”

Ask the vidder a question about the song or clip choices to gain a better understanding of what story the vidder is trying to tell. Example: “Is there an additional meaning when you used this shot of Yen looking sad to [specific lyric]?” 

Intermediate Feedback:

Did this vid make you see a character, ship or subject in a new light? Example: “I would have never guessed Fiona/Donkey from Shrek would parallel with Yen/Jaskier so perfectly…WTF omg 😍” 

Let the vidder know if you made a connection between their song choice and subject matter. Example: "The lyrics of 'Control' speak about being trapped by the world, by your own demons. It fits so well for each of the women in the Witcher. Fringilla and Yen and Ciri all wrestle with villains that live inside their heads. And all these characters really ARE bigger than their bodies or the boxes that society has put them in, whether it's the Brotherhood or Nilfgaard... oh my god. This has me all thinky!" (a comment I have about "Control" by walktheeagle)

Advanced Feedback (aka quoting a line of fic, except it’s a clip or sequence of clips, to the vidder): 

Identify specific visual or emotional elements in the video. You know something in the vid wowed you and you don’t know how to express it. Rewatch the vid and note a timestamp where the thing happened that made you sit up and go “OH MY GOD???” Example: “Oh my GOD at 0:35 i started screaming because of the lyrics of this song for Yen!!!  ‘Some of them want to use you / some of them want to be abused..’ and you used the shot Sabrina STABBING Yen on ‘use you.’ And THEN you put that shot right next to Yen kissing Geralt on the ‘abused’ lyric at 0:40!! It made me SCREAM because Geralt does walk himself into that connection with Yen and gets abused. That violence and softness parallel is so good.” Example: “And then at 0:41 the cymbal crash is timed to the opening of Yen’s eye!!! I liked that!!” (comments I have for the vid Sweet Dreams, a Yennefer vid by mithborien)

A starter pack of places to discover some fanvids

AO3 Vid Tags

Fanvids (13,776 results)

Embedded Video (5,143 results)

Fanvids, Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types (50 results)

YouTube Searches

Yennefer edit

Witcher Tribute Edit

Witcher Wild Hunt Fanvid

@mmhm-vids - a vid rec community on tumblr.

Additional Reading

Vidding Feedback 101 by sdwolfpup

Hate the Song, Like the Vid? By sisabet 

The Feedback Project by thefourthvine 

Visual Vocabularies by gwyn

[marley-manson]

i want to know everything lol but let's try 4, 8 and 11 for now. i'm sure you'll get other asks but alsoooo curious about 15 but for your top 5 fave characters since you are a talented vidder, i'm sure you have interesting thoughts.

Thank you, both for the ask and the comment on my vidding 💖 Sorry I couldn't answer this last night lol, it actually took me a while to answer the song question.

4 . what’s your favorite line ?

lol it's so impossible to choose, I've seen this in a few mash themed ask memes and I have a different answer every time. Today I'm gonna go with a fave gay joke: "Captain Sodom and Captain Gomorrah. He's Gomorrah."

8 . what’s your favorite ridiculous storyline ?

Hmmmm well I love the vibes of Adam's Ribs a lot. Klinger's subplot in The Trial of Henry Blake is a stone cold classic. Lyle's crush in Springtime. God the pony contest in Life With Father. Genuinely love the erectile dysfunction episode for the freudian stuff. The Klinger/Zale fight in End Run for the sardonic commentary on the war. The tray subplot in The Life You Save for the complementary absurdism.

Uhhhhhh I'm going with pony subplot. It's fun, it's shippy, it's cute, it's light, it leads to one of the best episode endings ever, and it thematically ties into the rest of the episode in a neat way.

11 . favorite random object in the swamp ?

I love the basketball with a jack o lantern face drawn on in marker in Trick or Treatment. It's that or Hawkeye's picture of Truman, because I like to imagine him occasionally directing exasperated commentary towards it.

15 . pick a theme song for one of the characters . why do you think that song suits them ?

Oof lol this is hard because the hardest part of vidding for me is finding the right songs. I actually don't have very many associated with Mash characters for some reason. But I'll give it a shot!

I am going to go with my first vid song for Hawkeye, Waltzing Along by James. May your mind set you free, may your heart lead you on. It's perfect for his vibe imo. The rebellion in spirit despite being trapped, the ways he keeps sane, the love.

I do already have a main song I associate with Margaret: Happy Meal II by The Cardigans. Margaret always on the search for someone to complete her, faking her way through relationships by presenting a facade and trying to be perfect for them, the insistence that she's happy that sounds more and more forced the more it's repeated.

Arrange my books in order Make up some nice stories to amuse you Make things look smart and easy Shape up the place Hungry for the meeting The dinner we'll be eating Wine that we'll be drinking And kinky thoughts I'm thinking All because of you

Though actually I've mentioned that before in another meme, so have a different Cardigans song for her as well lol, Slow:

There'll be rain on our wedding day Rotting roses in my bouqet There'll be rain on our wedding day Gray be the sky Too late to cry

For Trapper... okay I consulted my tiny Mash playlist and found one that I think fits him. Left and Leaving by The Weakerthans. Not the type of song I usually listen to but hey it works.

The sidewalks are watching me think about you Sparkled with broken glass I'm back with scars to show Back with the streets I know

Okay BJ might not be in my top 5 but I actually have a few songs associated with him so he gets to jump the queue. I'm going with GMF by John Grant. I wanted to vid it but it's such a long song with some tricky lyrics to match I couldn't get it started, but I dig it for BJ. Especially this bit:

I am not who you think I am I am quite angry which I barely can conceal You think I hate myself, it's you I hate Because you have the nerve to make me feel

I wanted one for Klinger but if I had one for him I'd be vidding it lol :( So I wracked my brain to think of one for Frank, and realized my all time favourite song actually fits him lol: Lovefool, once again by The Cardigans. Just genderswap it and it's perfect in its pathetic shallow neediness.

ask meme

[dontbesoevil]

tia’s CQL fanvid recs - wangxian #7

Nothing better for wangxian than some bittersweet and heartbreaking vids so here have some!

(If you want more information on the project, you can find that here.)

Please go and give some love to the videos on youtube (and to the vidders on tumblr for those for which i could find a tumblr) and leave a comment.

The Untamed – Lan Wangji & Wei Wuxian – Tether Me (FMV) by Earl Hatter Music: Tether Me - Galleaux Mood: “they’re spinning me out of control. tether me” Strength(s): different colourings for past and present, a nice use of the lyrics (“for a moment I was gone” *shot of wwx falling* I am fine) and of selected of dialogues to show their relationship and underscore the images, an editing to the beat and showing the parallels throughout the show.

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The Untamed MV || Would you still love me? by Anabelle Music: Burn – Nathan Wagner Mood: “why can’t I trust now…not a single soul” Strength(s): So this vidder really knows how to create a story and choose the moments that both tell a devastating story and tell it in a way that feels true to the way it is devastating in the show Notes: tw images in very quick succession at one point in the video. In the words of the vidder: “I have seen plenty of videos about how much Lan Zhan and Wei Ying loves each other, that they're alway there for each other, and they can win every battle with their love. So, what about a song, when Wei Ying has doubts about that if Lan Zhan truly loves him?”

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Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji (WangXian) | Without You by Bright Moon Music: Without You - Ursine Vulpine & Annaca Mood: “I will watch the world burn without you” Strength(s): The edit is almost constantly on the beat and the use of the lyrics is very nicely done to tell a story about those two with parallels and memories (wwx remembering his time in cloud recesses at the same time as lwj remembering their dates). Notes: It is a very long song to vid, but contrary to some other vids with it, I did not felt like it was too long because of the story it managed to tell.

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Wangxian || Sacrifice (The Untamed) by Mrseclipse555 (on tumblr @redxblueihateloveyou / @redxblueihateloveyou​) Music: Sacrifice – Zella Day Mood: so many sacrifices, so. many. Strength(s): A deep colouring with speeding and slowing down effects to fit the beat of the music, a good use of the lyrics to tell their story! Notes: People keep putting one after the other the lotus pier golden core scene and the nightless city scene and it hurts, but also it works you know!

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Can’t help falling in love | Wangxian but Wangji suffers (The Untamed FMV) by Polish edition Music: "Can't Help Falling in Love" Cover [DARK VERSION] (feat. brooke) - Tommee Profitt Mood: oof Strength(s): A dialogue-heavy fanvid focused on wangxian from lwj’s perspective and uh, it hurts. A selection of all of the most painful moments for lwj’s in this show and there are a lot of them. The edition of them together (lwj pointing his weapon at wwx/jgy at the temple mixed with lwj doing it at nightless city – oof) is here for maximum pain Notes: I mean the title of this one is just oof and perfect you know.

[nonsensegnomes]

hope is okay to ask! but what sorta program do you use for your fanvids? any tips ?? ty ily :)

hello sorry you sent this like 4 months ago, hi hope you're still hanging around 👋

i use kdenlive altho i would NOT recommend it – at least not without some caveats!!! it is free & (technically) industry standard, but like. you can get that other places, such as davinci resolve which i know my sibling is happily editing fanvids on, so 🤷‍♀️

i am personally gonna stick w/ kden just cause i'm over the learning curve now & don't care to slide back down it again, but it IS a rather steep one with this program cause the finer detail controls are kinda counterintuitive & the tutorials available are not extensive/searchable/particularily clear :/ also it's slow & prone to crashing but honestly i think that's my poor old laptop with its 8gb RAM lol

ANYWAY complaining aside it is in fact a capable little program that has served me well!! if you want the full package, i'd also recommend jdownloader (for downloading footage - i prefer full episodes so i can flick through the whole thing for Context, but it's also good for ripping yt videos) & gimp (for editing text & stills, e.g. subtitles & thumbnails - also a bit of a learning curve)

in any case, fare thee well in your editing & fair warning: it DOES make you feel like a god amongst mortals, bending reality beneath your fingertips! biggest tip would be above all you have to be in it for the love of the game, like you haveeeeeeee to strike out with that weird & niche idea that would not leave your brain every time you listened to an unreleased mountain goats song or whatever!!!! bc otherwise What Is The Point

if this is your Very First edit, i cannot stress enough that imitation is essential to understanding how everything works: pick a vid (from another fandom just so we don't get into murky plaigiarism territory) with a song you're obsessed with, then break it down literally section-by-section to kind of see how it works & reverse-engineer that. this shouldn't mean a 1-for-1 transfer: if say character A pulls a gun at 1:34 in theirs, that doesn't mean character Z has to pull a gun in yours, just that 1:34 might be part of the building tension before a chorus so you should show some decisive actions Z is taking. or if there's a montage summarising the b-plot of an episode, think about what equivalent might fit there for you. idk this isn't a hard & fast rule or like, Your Initiation Rite To The Secret Club Of Vidders, but it's something that helped me with MY first vid that i modelled off of this insanely good spn one

+ like any art medium the more amvs you consume and the more you care about unpicking how they achieve the effect they want, the better you're going to be at choosing what works or doesn't for you even if it goes against ~Conventional~ styles... at the very least, following someone else's guidelines helps you figure out when to place/how to integrate dialogue, which is one of the hardest things to do well at the start imo. just make sure you credit them as an inspiration underneath the vid of course!!!

anyway, once again, good luck!! wishing you many happy hours lost in front of an editing suite lol 🫡

[swissmissficrecs]

one sided or unrequited fics? i want smthn to be sad abt

Reply: First off, I have a few fanvids to offer:

Title: Habits (Stay High), Johnlock Edition Vidder: superoreoman Length: 3:40 Rating: Unrated, contains scenes of drug use Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/Mary Morstan Summary: John drinks, Sherlock gets high

Title: Never Had the Chance Vidder: johnlocklover221 / BakerEdits Length: 2:04 Relationships: John/Sherlock (unrequited) Summary: None given, but this is supposed to be John expressing his regrets to Sherlock.

Title: John’s Letter Vidder: johnlocklover221 / BakerEdits Length: 2:12 Rating: Unrated, SFW Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: None given, but this is supposed to be a letter from John to Sherlock after series 4.

Title: Gone Away Vidder: johnlocklover221 / BakerEdits Length: 4:22 Rating: Unrated, SFW Relationships: Gen Summary: John can’t cope after Reichenbach and Sherlock is the one left grieving when he returns.

Title: Replacement Vidder: the-7-percent-solution / Paige Aleece Length: 1:25 Rating: Unrated, SFW Summary: Sherlock narrates his thoughts as he leaves John’s wedding. Just what was racing through his mind as he left the reception? Hear the sorrow from his own mouth, if you can stand it.

Title: Let him go Vidder: MrJunjouYaoi (? not sure, maybe just the uploader) Length: 2:11 Rating: Unrated, contains suggestive imagery and partial nudity Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/Mary Morstan Summary: БИ-4, клип: “Let him go” Шерлок ВВС, видео, Шерлок/Джон, R, ангст: http://slashworld.diary.ru/p197835673.htm

Title: The Things He Meant to Say Vidder: Intriguue Vid length: 3:00 Rating: Unrated Characters: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Summary: “John, there’s something i should say” This video is about all the things Sherlock wanted to say before he took that goddamn plane to get killed somewhere in Eastern Europe. All the things he wanted to say to John, but never did.

Beyond those, I'm not sure I have any completely unrequited, one-sided fics. I think everything I've read with that tag ends up with Johnlock at some point. But these may come close for you:

Ease Your Way Into Occupied Spaces by joolabee (11K, E, Johnlock, Warstan) One thing’s certain: this wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen.

Variations on Happily Ever After by iriswallpaper (65K, E, Johnlock) No one is all good, no one is all bad. Relationships that start out good can turn bad. People change. Relationships change over the years. Sometimes changes start so small that they leave both partners confused, and things go bad so slowly it’s easy to ignore warning signs. It’s easy for Sherlock to ignore warnings of John’s growing darkness because he loves - deeply, truly loves - the image of John he carries in his heart.

White Tulip by withoutawish (40K, E, Johnlock, Warstan) Sherlock is in love with John Watson. John Watson is in love with Mary Morstan. Sherlock likes Mary Morstan just fine. Sherlock likes drugs more. And most importantly, Sherlock doesn’t like Sherlock.

You Can Tell Me Anything series by coletta (44K, M, Johnlock) After Sherlock comes out, John thinks he's happy for his flat mate until he starts struggling with unexpected feelings of homophobia. Sherlock's trust is shattered when John breaks his promise to accept him unconditionally. CelibateSherlock/StraightJohn.

And finally, if you just want the sads generally, here are some rec lists:

Sherlock is sad/depressed

Major character death

#Sad ending tag on my rec blog

[widowkills]

I just really wanted to tell you how I love your vids! I watched the Fringe ones! All three are great! I checked them out when I started to follow you! Like I said in my reply to your ask (in case you won't see that), you're a great vidder! :*

If you don't know, I've been here since March 2012, and I was an only Fringe blog in the beginning, I watched the show live, and was a big fan in general! Still my No. 1 show! So I really can appreciate those fan videos! <3

omg I don’t even know what to say, thank you so much!!!

those three are definitely some of the favourite vids I’ve ever done, and I’m so glad you enjoyed them ❤️ I’ve felt out of touch with vidding for a while now even though I love it so much, and a bit discouraged by the youtube landscape nowadays in general… so what you said really means a lot to me, thank you 😭 knowing that my old videos can still connect with people makes me so happy!!

and wow!! watching the show live must’ve been quite the experience… I binged the show a few years back and it made me feel so inspired that I just HAD to make edits for it! but gosh I can’t imagine having to wait weeks, even months between episodes... especially with a show that loves leaving so many questions hanging hahaha. but being part of the fandom while it was airing must be quite magical too, and I can totally feel how much you love the show still whenever you blog about it!! thank you again for taking the time to watch my vids, and to tell me all of this, you made my night!!! 🥹

[funforahermit]

Headline award winners 2021

- With links to the winners’ pages and original size banners -

Artists:

The 1000-Words Artist

Dr-Horrible  -  "These emotionally life-like draws somehow capture things about these characters that even the cameras miss.”

The Triple-Take Manip Maker

51kas81  -  "Two plus years and I haven't recovered from Archaeologist Rupert “Indiana” Giles. If anyone needs me, I'll be here just looking at Archaeologist Rupert “Indiana” Giles. Have you guys seen Archaeologist Rupert “Indiana” Giles? I highly recommend it. Archaeologist Rupert “Indiana” Giles <3”

The Unsung Hero Artist

Funforahermit  -  “I have no idea how much work it takes to make a banner, but I sure know they did the work with love. Having read/watched the works that won, and enjoy the banner as part and celebration of them, it really shows how much thought was put into making them. I'm a fan of the banner makers, no doubt.”

______________________

Video Makers:

The Good Time Vidder

KatrinDepp  -  "Listen, this vidder makes the content I need when the world needs a tune up. The feelings these videos awaken in me can restore my soul with only one watch (or 15).”

The Vidding Story Teller  

Gilescandy  -  "Her gripping narrative videos are a feast in themselves, which leaves you with a craving to turn to her fics for more.”

The Vidder of Romance  

Humblequill  -  “As a Giles multishipper, I can always find ship content in this vidder's channel. It's like a romance buffet for all.”

The Vidding Comic

Gilescandy  -  “Gilescandy is, among other virtues, one of the funniest vidders in all of ASH fandom.”

______________________

Fiction Writers:

The Feel-Good Writer  

ljs  -  “Sweet, believable, and engaging plots that were my first introduction to Giles/Anya.”

The Funny Bone Tickler

Gilescandy  -   “Sometimes it's a strange sense of humor, but they're stories that make me laugh.”

The Heart Melter

Timeladyleo  -  “This writer is one of the most prolific for one of my favorite ships, Herc/Carolyn.  But it's not only their spot-on interactions that melt my heart. It's Herc's treatment of Author that gives me all the feels.”

The Screen Seamer

Antennapedia  -  “She is a Goddess of Smut, creating a world in which we can live through our favorite characters in some of the most intimate and satisfying moments their lives.”

The Sultan of Sagas

Littleotter73  -  “Littleotter is one of our stalwart headcases. Long recognized for her shorter works, it's time she got a shout out for her enthralling longer works and series as well.”

The Dean of Drabbles

il_mio_capitano  -  “Known to everyone who has been fortunate enough to be a part of the Giles_Shorts community over the years, il_mio_capitano can pack a punch (or a squeeee!)  into amazingly few words.”

The Thought Provoker  

Antennapedia  -  “This writer is one whose works I return to over and over again. I love their characterizations and the way they engage with the relationships in their stories.”

The Brilliant Beginnings Writer  

DHW  -  “I just..... please.... I need more! ..... <3”

______________________

Congratulations to the winners! You can right-click your banner and save it if you want!

Comments copied from the headline awards website, credit goes to the nominators.

[ageless-aislynn]

When I do my Mass Effect: Andromeda playthrough as Scott, I plan on bringing this lovable dork energy with me as I craft my version of Alec Ryder's baby boy, lol!

This is such a fun vid, so if you enjoy, be sure to leave the vidder 211Shinobu some love! 💖

PS - This is honestly the first time I've seen somebody manage to flip the NOMAD completely over (at 2:11) and, believe you me, I've done some truly terrible flying off a cliff, driving up a wall at full speed, trying to run over things the NOMAD isn't meant to run over driving and I've never had it go completely upside-down in a corkscrew flip like this!

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

👀🤣 Lol!

[mindmypensieve]

5 Works Tag Game

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I was tagged by @thegirl20​. Thanks for tagging me. I wasn’t really sure what to pick. I’m mostly a vidder so it’s almost all vids on this list. 

Yennaia Moodboard Rainbow - Yennefer x Tissaia - The Witcher

These were the last two moodboards I made in collaboration with other artists on the Yennaia discord server to celebrate us completing the 50 Yennaia Moodboads Challenge. This challenge was created by @tiredthinkbucket and myself after I gently persuaded her that we needed more Yennaia moodboards and wouldn’t it be cool to set a target and try and get up to 50 moodboards between all of us on the server. It was super fun being a part of the challenge and I loved seeing all the beautiful moodboards everyone created. 

Let Me Down Slowly - Miranda x Andrea - The Devil Wears Prada

So, depending on how long you have been following my Tumblr or my YouTube channel, you may or may not be aware that I have a wee Mirandy obsession. They are one of my original otps. I have made many videos for this pairing in the past. If you search YouTube you will probably find that half of the Mirandy vids on there are actually made by me. lol. What can I say, I am a sucker for a niche pairing. That being said, this was the first Mirandy vid I made since 2012 after receiving a request from a loyal subscriber. At first I wasn’t really sure I could vid them again after so long, but I really wanted to make one to show my appreciation to all my wonderful Mirandy subscribers who had always given me lovely, supportive comments. I still really love this pairing and I will probably make another vid for them at some point. 

You Broke Me First - Yennefer x Tissaia - The Witcher

This vid is pretty recent. I just can’t resist an angsty Yennaia vid. I really like this song by Tate McRae. I’m a bit proud of this one. I’m just really happy with how the colouring, effects, texts and music all blend together. 

Exile - Charity x Vanessa - Emmerdale

I’ve recently fallen head over heels in love with Charity Dingle and Vanessa Woodfield from Emmerdale. I completely blame @thegirl20 for introducing me to the Vanity fandom. They are just such a gorgeous couple and I adore them. I’m so sad that they are broken up at the moment and I hate what they are doing with Charity right now, but I’m holding out hope for a most beautiful, meaningful Vanity reunion once Michelle Hardwick returns from maternity leave. This is my second vid for this pairing. I tried to capture the pain and pathos of their breakup with this vid. 

Guys My Age - Miranda x Andrea - The Devil Wears Prada

Another Mirandy vid. I really like this short silly little vid. I experimented with a few new effects in this one and overall I think it turned out quite well. 

Tagging @tiredthinkbucket, @yanana94, @myannaburing, @clydethistles if you wanna play. ;)

[educatedinyellow]

For the vidder meme: 26 and 32 :)

Yay, thanks so much for asking! :)

26. Share three of your favorite vidders and why you like them so much.

1. Oh, this is tough! First of all, I’d like to raise a glass to one of my favorite vidders, humansrsuperior (HRS1812 on YouTube), who vanished off the internet along with all their vids some years ago. This is a depressingly common phenomenon among fan vidders, and *many* of my favorite vids live only in my memory. Some of my favorite of humansrsuperior′s vids included: Two hilarious BBC Sherlock ones dedicated to celebrating The Coat, both set to 1940s swing music, they were swishy bundles of pure joy!; an incredible multi-layered puzzle-box of a vid called “I Don’t Know,” which I gushed about over here; a hilarious behind the scenes Dr. Who vid celebrating Karen and the Babes; a couple of fantastic BBC Sherlock character studies called “Mind Palace” and “Hello” (the latter of which had the most perfect character song for BBC Sherlock that I’ve ever heard -- the fanvid is gone, but I’m going to link you to the official music video for that song because the music’s excellent AND it’s got creepy-cute stop motion animation, I think you’d enjoy it!); and she also made a seduction-by-deduction charmer of a S1 Sherlock vid set to the velvety song “Show Me What You’re Made Of.” Gosh, so many wonderful vids. I did not know her personally, but she added so much to my S1-S2 Sherlock experience. She is missed!

But moving on to favorite vidders whose work is actually still available...

2. I only recently discovered Rhoboat’s vids, but I am bowled over by this vidder’s talent, and she has such a pleasing variety of vids in her catalogue, both in regards to source material and musical style. She can do funny, she can do intense, she can do heartwarming. She knows when to hold back from directly matching lyrics to images and when to go for it. She’s great at editing action. Her visual storytelling is so confident and fluent, and there’s originality in her vidding voice and in the concepts she chooses to create for -- she just makes a lot of vids that I’m interested in watching. I love her stuff. Let me share some personal favorites:

One of the best Ritchie Holmes vids I’ve ever seen: Poker Face [remastered]

The Wallace & Gromit song of eternal devotion that we all deserve: Wherever You Will Go

Okay, even though I personally like J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies, this is the most hilarious, clever, and on point hate-vid for them I ever hope to see!: Star Trek: This is a Trent Reznor Song

A BAMF, punchy-in-more-ways-than-one Agent Carter vid where we party like it’s 1941: 1941

A kinetic, feel-good vid for A League of Their Own: Va Va Voom

An intense, action-y and angsty vid focusing on the relationship and parallels between Bond & Judi Dench’s M (I love the split screens! & the scorpion under glass! well played): Supremacy

A pitch perfect crossover vid in which the events of Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity and the Star Wars spin-off Rogue One take place in the same universe: House of Mercy

A bracing sea shanty of a Master & Commander vid: Leave Her, Johnny

And if you’ve ever wanted a Red Shoes horror vid -- and I bet you have! -- congrats, here it is: The Red Shoes (1948) - Toxic

And she has many more vids in her catalogue! To sum up: check out her YouTube channel or her tumblr @rhoboat77, she’s great.

3. Di Wey is an older vidder (by which I mean, a lot of her work that I love is 7-12 years old). If you go back as far as a decade plus, she was working with older technology and lower quality footage, so her vids don’t look as sharp and clear as many more recent vids. But that doesn’t matter. Her editing is so joyous, & her songs so insightful and fun. She made a lot of vids that are really dear to my heart, including:

My favorite Granada Holmes vid, it’s just so full of energy, love, joy, panache, the whole thing (”you never returned that call,” rotfl!!): Read My Mind

A great vid examining the Martha/Ten relationship (Doctor Who). It’s insightful and captures with such clarity the way the many bad things in their dynamic co-exist and are powerfully interwoven with the good things, and it’s one of those rare vids that’s ABOUT a ship without being either shippy or anti/bashing. It’s about saying: this relationship will never work, but it’s still important, without being the only important thing either, and anyway I love Martha and this vid: Foundations

And now that we’ve done the angst, please accept the floofiest goofball geeky-sexy chic Ten vid, its charm is probably visible from space: I Am A Scientist

This constructed-reality fake trailer for a Sherlock/Who episode crossover is still satisfying to watch: A Study in Time

Oh hey it’s my favorite Eleven character vid, sweet! Focused entirely on his first season. She chose a really great song for the Doctor, it just GETS the most important things: Eleventh Dimension

Okay, thank you very much for letting me ramble, I’m done now! Since this got so long, I will save question #32 for a separate post. I appreciate getting to play the meme, thank you <3333

[witchercommentcrawl]

Fanwork Feedback 101

contributed by @flightsfancy1

Table of Contents: 

What is ‘feedback’?

Who is feedback ‘for’?

Why should I leave feedback on a fanwork?

Additional Reading

What is ‘feedback’?

In broad terms, ‘feedback’ is ‘any response to a fanwork’. Fanwork creators engage in a huge variety of artistic mediums: writing, drawing, painting, making comics or animations, creating podfic recordings, editing together vids, music playlists and gif sets, and textiles (including props and cosplay costumes!). 

Because fanworks are created in a huge variety of mediums, the kind of feedback generated often depends on the type of artwork. Most people leave written feedback as a way to let a creator know that they enjoyed their work. Feedback is usually left as a comment (a written reply attached directly to the posted fanfic/art/podfic/vid/etc), but feedback can take many other forms. 

Leaving ‘kudos’ on a story posted to An Archive of Our Own is a form of feedback. So is ‘liking’ a Tumblr post, or giving a ‘thumbs up’, or leaving a reaction emoji ❤.

Recommending the story in a Discord chat is a form of feedback. Reblogging a post on a social media site is another form of feedback. Bookmarking a fic, adding a link to a longer recommendation post, subscribing to a creator’s blog, or even clicking on a Tumblr post or an Ao3 story link can be considered feedback. Even saying to a friend, “Hey, check out this cool poster someone made!” is a form of feedback. 

As you might guess from the list above, however, not all forms of feedback are the same. 

Who is feedback ‘for’?

Most often, comments, ‘likes’ and kudos are all intended for the creator. This is a direct line of communication between yourself and the creator. They will read and see what you’ve written and, unless you sent a private message, your comment/reblog/like/etc will also be posted publicly. This means other people will see your feedback too, even though they aren’t the primary recipient. (More on that later).

Beta-review comments and constructive criticism (con-crit) reviews are also intended for creators. However, this sort of feedback is solicited from specific people directly by the author/artist. It is also usually provided through a private channel, usually as part of the editing phase before a fanwork is posted for general viewing.

Other forms of fanwork feedback are directed to a more general audience: other fans. When you review a fanfic as part of a recs post, or reblog a piece of art, or post a link to a fanvid on YouTube, your feedback points other fans to something they might not otherwise see.

Why should I leave feedback on a fanwork?

There are probably thousands of great reasons to comment on a fanwork, but I’ll focus on the three most important ones:

Creators want feedback.

Ask any writer, artist, vidder or cosplayer, and they will tell you straight up: they love feedback. Comments make their day. Reblogs and likes and retweets are manna from heaven. Feedback is a major part of what drives creators: it’s what keeps them motivated. Creators want to share their work, and they want to know that you’re enjoying it. 

More Comments = More fanworks. 

If you want fanworks, you have to encourage the people who produce it. It’s that simple. Writers, vidders, podficcers, and artists all spend weeks, months and even years on a single project or learning the skills to make these projects. That drawing you glanced at for 5 seconds on Tumblr and immediately scrolled past? It took someone weeks of effort to produce. And while an artist might continue to work ‘for themselves’ for a while, they will eventually stop producing work. Everyone needs at least some degree of external validation or encouragement, right? 

If you like reading/watching/consuming it, leave a comment! Let someone know you enjoyed their work! Without comments, people stop creating. And then we wouldn’t have a fandom, which would be sad.

Fandom is engagement. Feedback is fandom. 

Fandom exists because we want to connect with each other. It’s a basic human need. When you’re obsessed with a TV show or a book, or you want to squee about a character, or debate the particular merits of Episode 2 versus Episode 8, you hop online and connect with your friends in fandom. Sharing our joy and excitement with other people is a huge reason why we’re all in fandom in the first place. 

If you’re only reading fics or consuming fanart in isolation, you’re missing out on some of the  real fun of fandom: the dumb jokes and shared memes, the challenges and gift exchanges, the shared love and enthusiasm. Lurking is also great! Some people just have enough energy to read and maybe leave kudos, and that's okay--we love an audience! But for people who want to be more social, fandom connections are fun! 

So join in! Engage! Leave comments, and experience the fun of fandom!

Additional Reading:

History of Feedback in Fandom (Fanlore)

[dontbesoevil]

tia’s CQL fanvid recs - ladies and their ships

Not a lot of female characters and not a lot of shipping vids with them as a result (which is a shame!), but i have found a few worth sharing with you, so here we go!

(If you want more information on the project, you can find that here.)

Please go and give some love to the videos on youtube (and to the vidders on tumblr for those for which i could find a tumblr) and leave a comment.

[陈情令] Wei Wuxian & Wen Qing MV 'I Would’ve Followed You' by Blue Bunny Music: Say Something - A Great Big World ft. Christina Aguilera Mood: always there for each other Strength(s): A nice and slow video to explore wwx and wq’s relationship with a muted and crisp colouring. Notes: the vidder made the video as a wwx/wq ship vid, but even if, like myself, you don’t ship it and only see it as a sibling-like relationship, it works very well.

--

What if || Xuanli – Jiang Yanli x Jin Zixuan (The Untamed FMV) by Polish edition Music: What if (I Told You I Like You) - Johnny Orlando, Mackenzie Ziegler Mood: cuties Strength(s): Nice exploration of these two’s relationship and what an awkward disaster jzx is. Notes: Not enough fanvids about these awkward cuties.

--

Editing pairings who are just not there in a show and are all about the potential, the “what if” is always something I am very impressed with. One of my favourite channels is after all a multi-crossover channel. So here is a selection of some Yanqing videos that are really nicely done and edited (including a few by @onceuponavideo​):

Jiang Yanli & Wen Qing | Bury My Love (AU) by PetitPapillon Music: Moondust – Jaymes Young

[Yanqing] I found [Wen Qing + Jiang Yanli] by Onceuponavideo Music: I Found – Amber Run

[Wen Qing] The Yilling Matriarch [+Yanqing] by Onceuponavideo Music: Gasoline - Halsey

[Yanqing] Coming home to you by Onceuponavideo Music: Ride Home – Ben&Ben (Y’all need to watch Gaya sa Pelikula <3)

[pennywaltzy]

To Fight For The One You Love (4/? - A “Harmony” Story)

So this one may be longer than the under 7K limit for this challenge, but I’m having fun with it so we’ll see how it goes. Tagging @the-consulting-strange-vidder since this was her prompt that inspired it.

To Fight For The One You Love - Something is peculiar about his flatmate, Molly Hooper. In a new world where nearly everyone has a superhuman ability of some sort, Molly seems...different. And she arrives home early in the morning all beat up to Hell. What is she doing? Khan is determined to find out.

READ CHAPTER 1 | READ CHAPTER 4

He saw Molly was wearing the tuned amber that many in the guilds wore, but not even nearly as much as the rest of her team. He managed to get assigned to her team, but they were a close-knit group and weren’t exactly the warmest towards him. Not that he cared; he just wanted to see just what Molly went through in a typical night before they started the task of finding who had ransacked her home.

After enough time to get briefed on what they were trying to do the group went into the eerie green structure through what looked like an open door. He could feel himself tense as he walked in with his Augment senses opened wide; something about the structures but his Augment senses on edge when he went into them. It was tolerable in most of New London when he went to find the family members of his that would not stay in respectability near the ruins, but being surrounded by them was another matter.

Molly walked up in front, guiding the team. Even if a section of the tombs had been cleared of ghosts, there could always be a new one in its place, or some other specter to deal with. He almost wished the ghosts were like those from Old Earth, where he could have used the new technology at hand to build a proton pack like the Ghostbusters and suck them up, meaning no one had to trigger the traps as Molly did.

Christ, he really was old to remember Ghostbusters…

His attention was brought up abruptly by a tingling at the back of his neck. There was a ghost nearby, and it was a large one. Molly saw it first and the rest held back. She reached into her cargo pants and pulled out a pair of gloves that he saw was specially studded with amber. From what he could see, she could easily replace each piece if it got burnt out and still have a powerful totem. Any hunter would kill to have something like that, and he wondered how she had gotten it.

But what she did next made his heart nearly stop.

Once the gloves were on, she walked forward to the ghost and pushed her hands into the center of it. He knew his eyes widened as the energy flared for a moment, and then winked out. He’d seen other hunters taken down by far smaller ghosts, and with not much more than a touch, she had canceled it out.

He watched her perform the task over and over, only needing the assistance of her team once. He could see now why she had the bruises; her team grabbed her roughly to get out of danger, not caring that they were leaving lasting impressions on her skin and simply trying to make sure she got out of the situation alive. He knew that she did this to keep the clinic open but he would beg her to stop and finance anything she needed for the rest of eternity if she would just stop throwing herself into danger.

The ghost that had caused her teammates to interfere had blinked out, but not without causing some burns to her face. She sat in a corner as the scientists were ushered into the tomb room to catalog the contents and see what was of scientific use and what would end up in the hands of private collectors later.

“You’re going to push your luck too many times,” he murmured as he sat next to her, offering her water from his canteen. “And one day it will push back.”

“I know,” she said with a sigh, splashing some of it on her face. The burns were already rapidly healing; now they were just dull red marks on her face. “Perhaps I will take you up on funding the clinic.”

“I hope you do.” He took his canteen back and had a drink. “I never understood why the scientists insist on bringing out the artifacts that have the least energy. it’s almost as though they think it’s pretty and that’s enough.”

“You noticed that?” she asked.

“The private collectors want things with more energy, the more dangerous artifacts.”

“You don’t have any in your home.”

“I’m almost always on the edge of tolerance from being near the tombs,” he said. “And I prefer other things. Silks, scrolls, things from Old Earth that I managed to salvage. The pieces of my home that I had to leave behind for the most part.” He had some more of his water. “Put in your notice tonight and tomorrow we’ll look into what happens behind the scenes in the guild with my contacts.”

“Won’t that put me in more danger, though?” she asked.

“I’ll protect you. You can be assured of that.” He was surprised when she quickly reached over and grasped his hand before someone called out “Singh!” and he stood. He cast a glance back at her and then went back to work. No, he would protect her no matter what happened.