ExtraPenguin

Reincarnation
Fandom: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Original Trilogy (in roughly that concentration)
Music: Reincarnation by Beyond the Black
Runtime: 4:13
Warnings: rapid cuts (throughout), natural strobing (entire second half), flickering image (esp second half)
Premiered at fanworks con 2023.

  You can't run from who you were.



This is my magnum opus. The entire reason I watched the OT and ST. On the 28th of February, I told a friend over Discord "RIP to me, I have a vid idea that I super want to do and that necessitates watching the OT and ST (and clipping through all 9 movies)" after hearing the song for the first time and then, uh, went and did it. I originally planned to submit it to VidUKon, but I wasn't even done with the clipping, so I swapped to the idea I got a few days later watching ANH: Burn It Down. I finally finished the draft in August and asked on the Vidders Discord for someone to make sure the concept was clear. seekingferret answered the call, and then we ended up having a truly comedic stint of taking turns being AFK for weeks on end, but I did end up with invaluable feedback on how I needed to toss out my instrumental intro and make a new one.

General notes on how I made it: I first did the purely-ST Rey "frame", starting from ~0:31, vidding along as I clipped. This led to one false start, where I originally used TLJ and Rey holding Kylo's red saber, for the section from 2:26, but then I realized I had nowhere to go to for the instrumental from 2:50, and ripped that out and replaced it with TRoS footage after I'd clipped that. Then I watched through all the lightsaber fights I'd included, made notes on what Rey's lightsaber was doing/directions of slashes etc, and went through my clip library to see what clips would best match. Matching the TRoS Rey-Kylo fight footage with OT Vader-Luke footage was a bit hard, since I was working against lightsaber color coding and also the OT fights were Of Their Time. Grabbing PT Anakin clips to match with the TFA fight in the snow, OTOH, was pretty easy ... apart from the bit where the PT's fights are faster-paced than the ST's. But I really like how the bit from 1:30 goes, with the intercuts to the Anakin-Dooku fight, as well as the 3:09 to 3:46 flashback section, especially the final "Reincarnation – My soul won't die" from 3:43 to 3:46.

Also, because I knew this was Fast Cuts: The Vid, I watched my final draft at half speed in VLC to make sure everything was timed and to really have time to consider every image I presented in the montage. I think this is a good process step and will repeat it for any future vids with lots of rapid cuts/a plethora of visuals.

Vexercises round-up post

The 2022 round of vexercises – an annual intro to vidding bash that also attracts a bunch of more experienced people looking to try out something new, either in source, software, or technique – just came to a close! I completed each of the 7 rounds, and figured out I might as well make a final post on the matter, explaining my stuff!

( tl;dr and many, many embedded videos )

Vids I put on AO3:
Open up the Gates | High and Low (SWTOR)
Leave This Place Alive (SWTOR)
Die Like a God (SWPT)
Common People (SWPT)

I have realized Padmé Amidala makes perfect sense: she gave a fascist absolute power and only married a dude once he revealed he'd massacred a village, both of which are 100% in keeping with the fact that she lives in a castle and is filthy rich. Like, "never wears the same clothes twice" rich. If you look at members of her socioeconomic class on Earth, her actions fit right in!

An enjoyable romp, though I still have zero idea how movies generate fandoms. Below, my first thoughts after seeing the film, unspoiled:

Good: apparently people of Asian descent exist in space!
Bad: apparently women don’t.

My personal thoughts on casting: Bodhi the pilot should’ve been a woman or at least looked significantly different from Cassian Andor, since I couldn’t tell them apart at all. Chiruit Îmwe was a character concept which was interesting, though I’d have liked for his companion-protector to be a woman, too. K-numbers was annoying, and very obviously Token Comic Relief.

( spoilers )

A nice waste of time, like the best movies are. The Imperial uniforms were nice to look at, especially Krennic's white cape uniform. Zero shippy feels.