So the meme is this: Spend a couple minutes listing women who are awesome, and fuck you if you disagree.

I wish I’d remembered to put Veruca from Buffy on there. At least I get to use her icon.

Thoughts on Halloween (2007)

Oooh, quote. That’s deep, maaaaan.
Good song. I guess with Rob Zombie at the helm, that much is guaranteed.

Uh, so the Myers are not a middle-class family then?
“Skull-fuck the shit out of you”?
Thank Christ these people are about to be murdered.
Can you flush a rat? Really?

I know we’re supposed to cheer on the serial killer in a “fun” way, but seriously, I can’t wait for him to start killing.
It will be for the greater good.

LINDERMAN.
With cool hair.
Speaking of hair, Michael has better hair than me. *le sigh tragique*

Nasty bully is about to bite it.
Dude, you just got trounced by an eight year old.
Shouting “You’re fucking dead” to the kid smashing your face in with a big fucking log really isn’t gonna help.
Go, Michael! He had it coming. You’re doing the world a favour.

Kill your father, you’ll feel better.

Judith’s boyfriend: the only person to get through a scene without swearing.
He has long hair. I like him.
He’s clearly going to die.

Oooh, I like this version of “Love Hurts”.
Can’t we just watch Mrs Zombie pole dance for the rest of the movie?

BOOBS!
Ok, boyfriend is wearing the mask. How spooky and foreshadowy. Oooooh. </sarcasm>

Michael has a knife and duct tape. Things are about to get splattery.
Gross! Did not need to see that.
But yay! Evil dad is dead.

Boyfriend’s about to bite it. Yep.
Can you really do that with an aluminium bat?
Huh. Guess so.

“Don’t Fear The Reaper” is playing.
I get it. Irony and all that.
You see, it’s just a song to her, and she’s about to die.
Do you get it? It works on a number of levels.
Muchas cleverness.
Dead Judith.
Cool.

Mrs Zombie is no longer pole dancing.
I am sad.

Wow, Mrs Zombie seems really upset.
Guess she loved those obnoxious gits who made up her family.
Very cool freeze-frame effect, except for Michael who moves.
Looks trés cool.
Even if it breaks the fourth wall.

Blah, blah, blah, exposition via news reporter.

LINDERMAN!
Quite like this back-story on Michael.
Wrong, but interesting.
Michael remembers nothing of the killings.
Exposition via Linderman’s report.

Bonding with a janitor.
Or at least, Janitor encourages Michael to retreat into a fantasy world, while Michael scowls at him.

Blah, blah, blah, masks.
Exposition about how Michael has retreated into fantasy world behind the mask.
Michael has a screaming melt down.
Linderman is awesome.
It should be noted that Linderman is actually Dr Loomis, but since Donald Pleasance is the only Loomis, he must remain Linderman.

Michael has stopped talking.
Linderman feels a failure.
GET ON WITH THE KILLING.

Plot device so that someone can be murdered.
Why give a lunatic a metal fork?
That’s just asking for trouble.
Clever no-name nurse, turn your back on the killer.
Bwahahahaha.

Mrs Zombie, RIP.
Hope someone finds the baby.

Grown-up Michael.
He still has better hair than me.
Two idiots play good jailer/bad jailer.
Yes, skinny guy, threaten the nine-feet-tall-built-like-a-brick-shithouse serial killer.

Linderman quits.
Linderman/Michael = OTP (or at least BFF)

More justified killing. Please get on with the murder of the redneck rapists.
Yes, rape the girl in Michael’s cell. That’ll go well.
Ten minutes of screaming, and now he notices.
Kill! Kill! Kill!

Nice janitor shows up.
Michael had better kill him.
Otherwise that’s just weak.
Death by drowning, then TV.
Ok.

“Tom Sawyer” – that’s on Guitar Hero.
Swearing, people, bring on the death.
Porn. Swearing. Threatening Michael.
“What we have here is failure to communicate”.
They wanted Samuel L Jackson for this role, didn’t they?
Death.

“Mr Sandman”. Had to really. Don’t like this version.
Domestic bliss in the Strode household.
Laurie is a complete bitch. Die, bitch, die.
She’s mean to Tommy.
Why does the kid like her?

How handy, little!Michael stashed his favourite mask and knife for this very occasion.
Gotta say, like the mask. It’s all rotten and joker-like.

YAY! DANIELLE HARRIS!
I will refer to her as TK. I know she should be referred to as Jamie Lloyd, but I’ve been on a Boy Meets World binge recently.
Can we move on from this girlish giggly conversation.
Makes me want to vomit.
Alcohol boils at 78 degrees. And we care why?

LINDERMAN.
Look, it’s the pureblood vampire that Mercury kills in Blade.

Why do these girls have to bring the dumb?
Michael: *lurks*
TK’s dad is the Sheriff.

BRAD DOURIF!
BRAD DOURIF IS TK’S DAD.
THIS IS THE AWESOMEST FAMILY EVAH.

Mrs Strode is having a meltdown over a plastic skeleton.
Meh. Just die already.

Title card: TRICK OR TREAT
Oooooh.

Two teenagers screwing in the Myers house. That’ll end well.
BOOBS!
Bad sex? Huh.
Drinking.
“Don’t Fear The Reaper” is playing again. Remember how I explained how clever this was?
Well, twice as clever now. See, it’s calling back to the previous murder. Trés clever.
Rehash of original Halloween murders. Sheet. Death, etc.
Ladies and gentlemen, that there is a naked woman. Very naked.

LINDERMAN!
Buying guns from the most awesome (and blood-thirsty) salesman in the world.
Who just happens to be a Monkee.

Strode parents are dead.
Now just kill Laurie. She needs it. Have TK as a sister instead. Her dad is Brad Dourif.

Laurie is just too fucking cool to be nice to the kid she’s paid to look after.
But she can be a complete bitch to him and psychologically scar him for life.

TK is ditching the kid she’s babysitting. At least she’s honest about being too cool to look after kids.

LINDERMAN AND BRAD DOURIF.
MUCH LOVE.
Who cares what they’re saying?

TK and kid are being stalked by Michael.
TK is snarky, but that’s Danielle Harris’ thing, so I’ll let it slide.
TK is setting Laurie up with someone she referred to as “retarded”.
Laurie agrees that she “needs a boyfriend”.
She needs something. Might be a personality transplant, but a boyfriend couldn’t hurt.

TK’s off to get laid.

LINDERMAN AND BRAD DOURIF AGAIN.
Still don’t care what they’re saying.
Exposition about evil, I think.
Oooh, quote from original movie, I think.
No, it only goes as far as “I first met Michael…”
I fancy Brad Dourif in a wrong sort of way.

Newsflash: The Strodes have the worst answer phone message ever. I don’t care if it’s because of Halloween. They deserved to die.

“I need closure on this topic”?
Tommy Doyle is made of awesome.
“Leave me alone for five seconds please!”
Laurie is a lazy bitch.

TK sex scene. Bet we don’t get to see boobs.
BOOBS!
I know she’s 30, but I’ve just seen a Disney character’s tits. I feel wrong.
TK is running topless for her life. And she’s feisty.
This is my new favourite movie.
Ow. Rug burn on the nipples. That’s gotta hurt.
RIP TK.

“I’m the Queen of Sheba, bow down and worship me.”
Usually I hate kids in horror movies, but these two are made of awesome.
It could be because every other person (aside from LINDERMAN and BRAD DOURIF) sucks.

TK IS ALIVE! I LOVE THIS MOVIE!
And now Michael is going to try and kill Laurie! Yay!
TK screams for Laurie to run. TK is awesome!

“He’s found her! He’s found her for god’s sake!”
LINDERMAN just delivered his line really badly. I forgive him.

Tommy, don’t open the door. Let Laurie die.
You bastard. You’re no longer my favourite.
Too much screaming.
Lock yourself in the bathroom with a glass door. Way secure.
Distrust the copper, even though you can see him through the door.
Way to be an idiot.
Dead copper.
Bullet in Michael, don’t think he noticed.
Two dead coppers.
Way too much screaming.
Michael has taken Laurie.
Kill her! Kill her now!

BRAD DOURIF and TK are both alive.
Can the movie end now?

Screamy exposition from kids.
LINDERMAN is on the case.

Laurie, Lynda is dead. Clearly. She’s blue.
Therefore, stop screaming “LYNDA, WAKE UP!”
I hate to give Twilight any credit, but James is right, it’s always the same, “Who are you? What do you want?”

Laurie, just give Michael a hug.
He’s killed all these annoying bastards for you.
Hug him. Join him. You know, like Leatherface and co.
Or, you know, stab him and really piss him off.
And then scream, to alert him to your location.
Whichever you feel is best.
Dude, shut the fuck up.
I hope you die.

Trapped in an empty pool. Interesting.
Yes, keep screaming so that Michael can find you easier.
This is why serial killers don’t run.
They don’t have to.

LINDERMAN!
Don’t try to reason with him, just shoot him in the face with your new gun.
That’s not the face.
Nor that.
Or that.
But he’s down, now run!

Is that the boogeyman?
What do you think, dumbass?
Just let Laurie die already. He might stop once she’s dead.

RIP LINDERMAN!
Bored now. Just let Laurie die.
Boring scenes of cat and mouse, only without the suspense.
LINDERMAN LIVES!

Just kill her already, Michael.
Window!Smash
Gun. Shoot.
How are there three empty clicks?
Aren’t there six bullets in a gun?
LINDERMAN shot him three times.
Three empty clicks, followed by brainsplode!
GOOD REACTION, LAURIE!

Will now watch the commentary.

This vid has been remastered, using higher quality clips and editing the bits that I was never particularly happy with. Things have changed a little, and it is now one vid instead of two. See below for download details.

Vid Title: November Rain

Artist: Guns N’ Roses

Fandom: The Mighty Ducks

Clips from: D1, D2, D3 and Don’t Cry and November Rain by Guns N’ Roses

Summary: This is an AU vid, in which Casey and Bombay were married and Charlie is their son. This vid (or vids) deals with their break-up and Bombay’s self-destruction that follows it, not to mention Charlie’s reaction. See the Notes for more details.

File Size: See below (by the download links)

Format: Real and Windows Media

Notes: I can’t exactly remember what my thought process was, but I eventually challenged myself to make a video based on Without You by Del James (bear with me on this), using only footage from The Mighty Ducks, and the Without You music videos by Guns N’ Roses (for the non-rabid GN’R fans, that’s Don’t Cry, November Rain and Estranged).

The story of Without You is ultimately about the self-destruction of a man who appears to have everything, but still manages to screw it up. Theoretically Gordon could be that man, he’s rich, he’s well educated, he’s loved, and he could screw it up easily and lose everything. This vid tried to explore that. I have had to use footage from Don’t Cry and November Rain by Guns N’ Roses because, obviously, Casey and Gordon never got married in the Ducks fandom (but did in my mind, I love that pairing), and so forth. Any questions, hop over to the forums and ask there. I’ll answer in great detail, I assure you.

If the vid didn’t make sense, try reading the commentary.

Feedback: Always welcome. If you liked it, tell me. If it didn’t make sense, let me know, your opinion will not break me. I have never actually had any feedback on this vid, despite there being over 300 downloads. Was it really that bad?

New Version:
YouTube link removed, thanks to a scary Cease & Desist from BabyCow about my Boosh vids.
[Download Real (49.7MB) | Downloads so far]
[Download Windows Media (14.1MB) | Downloads so far]

Old Version:
Vidding Commentary
[Part 1 (8.13MB) | Downloads so far, 343 at the time of publishing the remastered version]
[Part 2 (12.9MB) | Downloads so far, 279 at the time of publishing the remastered version]

Vid Title: Save Yourself

Artist: Stabbing Westward

Fandom: The Lost Boys

Summary: Michael and Star. Not exactly a love story.

Rated: 15, same as the movie

File Size: 18.1 MB in Real, or 9.8 MB in Windows Media Player

Format: Real and Windows, but please don’t upload this video elsewhere. It’s such bad manners.

[Download Real | Downloads so far]

[Download Windows | Downloads so far]

If you’ve dropped by to have a look at the music vids here, I’d have to suggest that you watch In The Hall of the Mountain King (Needful Things), Holding Out for a Hero, and Pump Up The Volume as your first few downloads. They’re my most recent, and also the best I’ve done. I’ve gotten better at vidding over time, so the further back you go, the more amaturish the vids are. That said, Bad Reputation is much better than Every Day I Love You Less and Less.

Something that baffles me is why November Rain Part 1 has 65 downloads, but Part 2 only has 29. Do people only watch the first half and not care about the second half? I really should have edited the song better, so it was all one video. I think maybe that can be my next project.

Commentary on “In The Hall of the Mountain King” (Needful Things vid)

I know you probably have to be a big name vidder, like here’s luck to really necessitate a commentary, but I was pretty pleased with the Needful Things vid, so I thought maybe a commentary might be in order, especially since I get a fair amount of emails about vidding – very few about my vids, but plenty asking for technical help. This sort of implies that my vids don’t really speak to anyone on an emotional level, but every so often someone will think “Wow, that was cool, wonder how she did that”, which is still odd, since I rarely use special effects (Pump Up The Volume aside).

So, on to the commentary.

First of all, music. I trimmed the song a fair amount, the full song was over five minutes, and while there was plenty of source material to use, I thought I’d probably be repeating myself, and would tire a viewer with a sea of faces all reacting to seeing the object of their desire (in this fandom, literally an object, not a person) offered to them, or the “pranking” of other Castle Rock residents.

I thought the final two minutes would suffice. I chose the music because it starts slow and friendly but gets aggressive, and trimming it to two minutes gave enough of each.

I initially started the vid with a sweep-over of Castle Rock, and the approach of Leland Gaunt in his car. This didn’t work for a number of reasons; first of all, you cannot actually see into the car, and therefore get no personal link; secondly, the clips are actually quite boring, no matter how you cut them; and thirdly, the music is tentative to begin with. Gaunt is in no way hesitant in his approach to the town.

It’s the residents that are wary of approaching him, and there lay the key. Nettie’s scattered personality matched the music perfectly (which is probably why it’s used in her pranking scene in the movie itself). I knew I wanted Nettie and Brian to feature quite heavily in the vid, since they are my favourite characters, and it was only when I actually sat down with all the clips I noticed how the shots mirrored each other.

So, I stole an idea from here’s luck: intercut the scenes as closely as you can (as seen in the fantastic fight scene in “Come On” and also in “Superstar”). Only, I couldn’t get it right, so I cheated and used cross-fades between them. The shot of Nettie crossing the road had to be slowed down, I wanted to see her approach the shop, but she was striding quite briskly. It took me a lot longer than it should have to understand why that intro seemed so clunky. Eventually, I realised Nettie was causing the problem, she was moving too fast for both the music and the rest of the clips, once I slowed her down, the intro smoothed out nicely.

It’s actually only this second I’ve realised that Nettie walks across the road before peering through the window. Pretend I have a reason for that.

For awhile the scene were Nettie reaches out to touch the ornament, then pulls her hand back, and where Brian reaches for the baseball card, then pulls away, were intercut (find a vidding guru, steal everything from her), but it just never worked. Most probably because, while the scenes do mirror each other nicely, the shot of Brian is from the waist up, whereas Nettie’s is a close-up. The overall look of both clips were just too different.

After Brian and Nettie have been won over, the music becomes more definite, so at this point I stopped the cross-fades (which worked when the music was lighter) and showed a quick cross-section of residents, all eyeing up their Needful Things. The shot of Buster looking at the Winning Ticket game was something I really wanted in there, the light was so pretty, so I sped it up to 170% so the shot wouldn’t drag.

Something I love about vidding this movie was the amount of non-verbal scenes, it was all silent reaction. It’s such a nice change from vidding Boosh, where I’ve had to do some pretty sharp cuts to avoid talky-face (or have just had to live with it).

As the music gets even more intense, we see a new side of Gaunt, the one that wants a trick as part of the payment. I love the smile on his face when he shows Hugh the knife. I’m less keen on the speed of the clip where Gaunt throws the apple to Brian, but I never found a way to speed it up without making it look really odd, so in the end I trimmed it as much as I could and left it.

And randomly, we have a quick shot of Nettie making a fuss of Raider (the dog) for context on the next shot – Hugh pulling out the knife while with Raider.

As the music kicks off, we have Nettie slamming a pink slip on Buster’s wall. I wanted to start with Nettie, since I’d started with her and Brian to begin with.

The slashing of the tires was a happy accident, both stabbing in and pulling out hit the beat perfectly as I laid it down on the track, no tweaking, no trimming. I randomly get one of those per vid, where the action fits the music perfectly without any further trimming or moving around. That was this vid’s.

A shot of Brian throwing the apples. Oh, wait, I lied about my random happy accident, the TV exploding was another one. Actually, I wasn’t going to use that clip, it was on the tail end of the previous clip, but it fit so well that I kept it, even though it does seem to drag a little.

The section of clips following that, up until Nettie finds poor Raider all strung up, was actually harder than I thought it would be. There’s actually not that many “pranks” shown in the movie, and not all of them are visual (such as Polly being made to think that Alan is embezzling money). I can’t for the life of me remember why I didn’t use a clip of Buster finding the pink slips though.

There are a few clips of the town going mad (window smashes, Alan seeing residents attacking each other), although as someone mentioned on imdb, why are they doing this? Why are they looting? The whole point is that Gaunt uses people to play pranks, so that the victim will assume it’s the person they’ve had issues with in the past. Naturally, they go nuts at that person, they don’t go out looting…

Ooops, back to the commentary.

Wilma sees her smashed windows and goes for the meat cleaver, I love the lightning flashes in that scene. Tips on hitting the beat by here’s luck, “This is the sort of thing that became absurdly easy once I figured out the trick to it: place the frame with the point of impact three frames *before* the frame where the beat actually falls.”

And once more, I steal from here’s luck. I think the fight scene of “Come On” is absolute genius, I’ve read the commentary hundreds of times in the vague hope that her talent will rub off on me if I just read about it enough. Wilma slams Nettie against the fridge, Random Guy goes in for a punch with another random guy, Nettie ducks the punch, Random Guy slams other random guy to the side, and Nettie and Wilma go flying over the table. I think I flipped one of those clips to make it synch up.

Using here’s luck’s method of hitting the beat I had Nettie bring the cleaver down on one beat, and them falling out of the window, to land heavily on the next.

The next bit of music fit Buster’s suicidal insanity brilliantly. J.T. Walsh is a god.

Boom, lightning hits the church steeple. Boom, church blows up. Two well-hit beats.

Alan gets out of his car, this was a spacer before the next explosion. Since the vid never pays much attention to Alan, he could be a lunatic with a gun for all the viewer might know. Either way, it works. If you know the story, he’s trying to stop the insanity, if you don’t, well, a crazy has just gone and armed himself.

Four more explosions hitting the beat. The second needed setting to 99% speed to last the correct amount of time, as did the fourth, but overall, I was quite lucky with the speed of things.

Well, that was fun. If I ever make another vid I like so much, I might do it again.

New video, this time to Needful Things.

Vid Title: In The Hall of the Mountain King [commentary]

Artist: Sconosciuto/Edvard Greig

Fandom: Needful Things

Summary: A very short summary of the film, set to music? I think that’s the best I can do.

Rated: R – same as the source material, for a certain doggie scene. My apologies.

File Size: 18.7 MB – it’s very pretty quality.

Format: Real. Why? Because there’s hundreds of copies of Hero all over the net, thanks to YouTube, and I like to keep track of my vids – also, Real is far easy to deal with than Quicktime. I should have chosen this format years ago.

Notes: Again, I state this vid is rated R because of a quick flash of nastiness. It’s not on there long, so I can’t imagine people will be disturbed, but don’t say you weren’t warned.

[Download | Downloads so far]

Vid Title: November Rain [commentary]

Artist: Guns N’ Roses

Fandom: The Mighty Ducks

Clips from: D1, D2, D3 and Don’t Cry and November Rain by Guns N’ Roses

Summary: This is an AU vid, in which Casey and Bombay were married and Charlie is their son. This vid (or vids) deals with their break-up and Bombay’s self-destruction that follows it, not to mention Charlie’s reaction. See the Notes for more details.

File Size: Part 1: 8.13MB | Part 2: 12.9MB

Notes: I can’t exactly remember what my thought process was, but I eventually challenged myself to make a video based on Without You by Del James (bear with me on this), using only footage from The Mighty Ducks, and the Without You music videos by Guns N’ Roses (for the non-rabid GN’R fans, that’s Don’t Cry, November Rain and Estranged).

The story of Without You is ultimately about the self-destruction of a man who appears to have everything, but still manages to screw it up. Theoretically Gordon could be that man, he’s rich, he’s well educated, he’s loved, and he could screw it up easily and lose everything. This vid tried to explore that. I have had to use footage from Don’t Cry and November Rain by Guns N’ Roses because, obviously, Casey and Gordon never got married in the Ducks fandom (but did in my mind, I love that pairing), and so forth. Any questions, hop over to the forums and ask there. I’ll answer in great detail, I assure you.

If the vid didn’t make sense, try reading the commentary.

A Repetition of the Plea on Built This Way: Please give me some form of feedback. I feel that Carla and adamandcharliedude are overstretched as my only vid-feedbackers. Come on, tell me if you loved it, hated it, whatever. Just let them have a break from being the only people to comment!

Go to the remastered version entry for download details

Vid Title: Ducks Behaving Badly

Song Title: Bad Reputation

Artist: Joan Jett

Fandom: The Mighty Ducks

Summary: Just as the title says, it’s Ducks behaving badly.

Rated: PG for a little violence

File Size: 12.6 MB

Thanks/Dedication: To Carla

Notes: Carla asked for me to vid to this song. I love this song, but lyrically it didn’t fit. So I just let violence happen in time with the beat. Oh, and a little bit of a stripping Portman crept in there. Portman rocks. I like it. I think it’s my most entertaining so far.

Further Notes: There appears to be a stray frame around the 1 minute mark. I have no idea why this is, because it’s actually in the middle of a clip, and going frame-by-frame in Adobe, I still can’t figure out what it is. *shrugs* It’s a phantom flicker.

Even Further Notes: Please give me some form of feedback. I feel that Carla and adamandcharliedude are overstretched as my only vid-feedbackers. Come on, tell me if you loved it, hated it, whatever. Just let them have a break from being the only people to comment!

[Download | Downloads so far]

Vid Title: Built This Way

Artist: Samantha Ronson

Fandom: The Mighty Ducks

Summary: Despite the fact that the banner looks so happy, this is angst.

Rated: PG for a little violence

File Size: 6.23 MB

Notes: This vid is only just over a minute long. Aside from anything, the copy of the song I was using actually died in the middle, so I just trimmed it off. Add to that there are actually very few Charlie/Adam moments in the movie, and if I did vid to the whole song, you’d only have 2 more minutes of pointless dirge.

[Download | Downloads so far]