Fanvid recs party!

[dolorosa_12]

Today's post is going to be a quick one — just answering the current snowflake_challenge prompt, which is: In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create.



I'm going to use this post to rec three of my favourite fanvids of all time. By way of preamble, I'll clarify a couple of things relating to how I define 'favourite.' Firstly, I'm not an avid consumer of fanvids, and far less a creator (as I said in a previous post, any kind of fanwork involving graphics is basically like witchcraft to me) — I tend to engage with fanvids when someone I know has either a) created or recced a fanvid and b) it's in a fandom with which I'm familiar, so my engagement is somewhat haphazard. I have pretty clear things that I look for in a fanvid: I have to like the music, I have to feel that it fits well with the focal character(s) and the story being told in the vid (or is so outrageously incongruous that that's basically the point), and the editing has to be smooth enough that errors are unnoticable to my untrained eye. I also personally dislike fanvids that have dialogue from the source spliced into the video — I want it to tell a complete story with music and images, without needing source dialogue as a scaffold.

There are some well-known, beloved fanvids that get recced to everyone wanting to know the greatest hits of the medium, and I like them a lot, but I've steered clear of them here as most people will have had them recced before.

With that in mind, here is my totally biased, subjective, created-from-a-place-of-complete-ignorance list of favourite three fanvids:


There's a war going on for your mind, Sarah (Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles), sadly now only available as a download as far as I can tell. Edited to add that the download link gave me a 'malicious file' warning, so proceed with caution if you want to download it.

Elastic Heart - Fanvid (9 words) by JoCarthage
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mad Max Series (Movies), Mad Max: Fury Road
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Characters: Cheedo the Fragile, Toast the Knowing, Capable (Mad Max), The Dag (Mad Max), The Splendid Angharad, Furiosa (Mad Max), Nux (Mad Max), Immortan Joe, Max Rockatansky
Additional Tags: Embedded Video, Fanvids, My First Fanvid
Summary:

I wanted to make something to talk about Furiosa and her resilience in the face of violence, and Angharad, Cheedo, Toast, Capable and The Dag’s resilience. I was writing fanfiction about it, but that wasn’t getting it how I wanted. Mad Max is a visual story in a visual medium and filtering it through text was forcing me to drop some of the subtlety and depth of the movie. So here is me, trying to get to that depth with the help of one Sia and her "Electric Heart."

Blood on Your Shirt (Peaky Blinders) Note: this doesn't have content warnings, but you should expect canon typical violence, and there is an image of a person hanging from a noose.

Bonus extra two recs:

Vid: Na Na Na (0 words) by violace
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Furiosa (Mad Max), Max Rockatansky, Nux (Mad Max), The Wives (Mad Max), Immortan Joe, The Vuvalini
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Video, Vividcon, vid
Series: Part 15 of vids by violace
Summary:

The aftermath is secondary.

The Polka Slayer (51 words) by Milly, bradcpu
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Angel/Buffy Summers, Spike/Buffy Summers, Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers, Tara Maclay/Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris/Anya Jenkins
Characters: Buffy Summers, Scoobies (BtVS), Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Rupert Giles, Angel (BtVS), Spike (BtVS), Faith Lehane, Tara Maclay, Dawn Summers
Additional Tags: Vividcon, Vividcon 2013, Video, Embedded Video
Summary:

Into every generation a polka is born.
 

Length: 4:24
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Song/Artist: Polka Power by Weird Al Yankovic
Premiered at Vividcon 2013.

Do you have any particular things you like in fanvids? Do you have any particular favourites?

Comments

[spikedluv]

The notion of the polka one makes me laugh! I need to wait until I'm at McD's again to DL the Sarah Connor vid. Thank you for rec'ing these!

[kingstoken]

Both those Mad max vids were amazing!

[lirazel]

I also personally dislike fanvids that have dialogue from the source spliced into the video — I want it to tell a complete story with music and images, without needing source dialogue as a scaffold.

ME TOO.

Haha, I had totally forgotten about the existence of The Polka Slayer!

[evewithanapple]

My favourite fanvid of all time (OF ALL TIME!) is Trelkez's "Praying," for Alias Grace. It's just such a perfect marriage of source material, music, and real-world context that makes it an utter stab in the heart. I love all their vids, honestly - After The Storm (The Magicians) is another great one, and the only part of canon I will acknowledge at this point. Sweetestdrain's Hot In Herre (Cabaret) is another one I love for the way it mirrors the increasing darkness of the source material. And Lilly_the_kid's "Pumped Up Kicks" (Young Guns) is a standout in the "so good it got me into the source material" category.

[hamsterwoman]

OMG I'd not seen the polka one before and that's amazing! Thank you for introducing me to it!

[schneefink]

After The Storm (The Magicians) is another great one, and the only part of canon I will acknowledge at this point.
Same, that vid is the only part of The Magicians I still occasionally revisit. Well, that, and the Under Pressure scene.

[darkmarcy]

Oh man, I'd like to make a fanvid or an AMV one day. I too have lots of Opinions on them though, very similar to yours!

There is one (1) fanvid I am okay with using original sound effects/few words of dialogue. It's for Hannibal so TW for gore, blood, violence, cannibalism etc. Glitter and Gold. And it's so short! But pure editing perfection IMO. Everybody else can go home and mute their source clips, please xD

[senmut]

Awesome recs.

[corvidology]

The Polka Slayer cracked me up, ta! :D

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, the Polka Slayer made me smile!!

I'm disconnected enough from the general fanvid world that these might be recced everywhere, but seekingferret's "Warning: Might Lead to Mixed Dancing" and "The Sequel" fill me with a slew of feelings every time I watch them. So far as I know, the only fantods out there to make an argument about gender in observant Jewish spaces! And joyful, at that.

I actually made a list for my own reference last year, which I managed to dig up: all my favorites.

[muccamukk]

Lots of people doing vids this challenge, and it's been really fun!

[scintilla10]

Ahh, love the Mad Max Fury Road vids!

One of my absolute fave vids to rewatch is Level Up by starlightandstatic (Pacific Rim).

[dolorosa_12]

The polka one is fantastic — it's absolutely brilliantly edited, it's made with utter nostalgic love for the source material and fandom, and weirdly the humorous song choice does a great job in capturing the blend of humour and heart-wrenching emotion that was the hallmark of the show.

Regarding the Sarah Connor one, just be warned that the download link gave me a 'malicious file' warning, so proceed with caution if you want to download it.

[dolorosa_12]

Aren't they just incredible? Such different tones, but both perfectly capturing the essence of the film and telling the two major components of its story in a short video clip.

[dolorosa_12]

I know it's just a stylistic choice, but the inclusion of dialogue just feels so intrusive to me!

The Polka Slayer is such a fabulous vid!

[dolorosa_12]

Oh, those are fabulous! The Alias Grace one is utterly gorgeous, in particular.

[dolorosa_12]

Isn't it just fantastic?

[dolorosa_12]

The source material sound effects work fine there, because they're not really dialogue, and they've been edited perfectly into the song, so they work more as points of emphasis, if you see what I mean? I never watched Hannibal, but the video does a great job of capturing the kind of dreamy/nightmarish imagery.

[dolorosa_12]

Thanks!

[dolorosa_12]

It's so perfect, isn't it?

[dolorosa_12]

Those two 'Mixed Dancing' vids are amazing, and I really enjoyed reading about the process of putting them together, the broader cultural context, and the choices of material to include in the vids — thank you so much for sharing!

I have bookmarked your longer list, and I will work my way through it!

The Polka Slayer is so much fun.

[dolorosa_12]

I love seeing what other people share for this challenge — lots of great vids, as you say!

[dolorosa_12]

I'm glad you liked the Fury Road vids — such different tones, but somehow they both capture the two main threads of the film. I love them so much!

I've seen Level Up before — it's really great.

[spikedluv]

Thanks for the warning!

[darkmarcy]

Oh yeah, I get you! This is such a well made video it has kinda ruined the original song (which I first heard thru this) for me :'D If it doesn't have Hugh Dancy gasps edited in, it doesn't sound right to me xD Hannibal is too body horror-gross for me to watch but I enjoy this video a great deal.

Not to drag anyone but I once saw a link to a She-ra fanvid, and thought hey, let's for once watch a fanvid that is not 18 years old! But it had dialoue left in -_- With the music actually fading to the bg for the lines to be heard clearly... Nope. Sorry but no, that was just Wrong. In my fanvid opinion.

[impala_chick]

I'm so excited to check out the Peaky Blinders vid!

[dolorosa_12]

I hope you like it!