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Star Wars fanvid quasi-recs
I finally caved and activated my tumblr account, since so much of what I do over here is picspamming + memes. But this is my fandom home. Anyway, the account is anghraine, of course.
So, fanvids. I've been meaning to do this for ages, and this isn't all of the ones I've liked, just some that caught my eye. I have a few for other fandoms, too (omg Romana I vids <3 <3 <3), but SW is so heavy on the imagery that it just seems naturally suited to vidding.
Quasi-Recs! (Because I can't keep from complaining about anything, including things I like)
"Star Wars Original Trilogy: The Tribute," Third Age films
This is, hands down, my favourite vid for the fandom and quite possibly my favourite vid, period. As it says, it's a tribute to the OT that seems to essentially be a fabulous spoilerrific trailer - this is really one where the style perfectly suits the material, and it seemed a nearly seamless blend of dialogue, music, and visuals (or lack of them).
While I love it when vids incorporate material from both, in this case (as a tribute to the OT alone) it seemed appropriate to stick to OT clips even when talking about the past, and I thought it was excellently done here, by using the clips from the SE celebrations.
The only things that didn't quite work for me was Luke's "I want to learn the ways of the Force," simply because he was obviously cut off mid sentence, and the criminal underuse of Leia. Otherwise, a genuinely epic vid.
"This Is War," various artists
I actually analyzed them here. To very quickly sum up, I liked the first and third listed here the best - I think the roles for #1 were more spot-on, but #3's were pretty good too (with lots of overlap: Owen and Beru for the Victim, Yoda for the Prophet, Leia for The Leader, Luke for the Victor, Anakin for the Messiah), and it was shinier. Also, no annoying text.
"Star Wars--Dare You To Move," by RHCinderella
This isn't the cleanest, but I just really like it - in fact, I particularly like the messy juxtapositions of PT and OT into the same space. I do think it worked best when the space wasn't cluttered to begin with; my favourite was probably the binary sunset clip + Anakin or "dare you to lift yourself up off the floor" with Anakin kneeling in submission. Ouch. But comment-y, relevant, and another one that manages to use dialogue reasonably well. I liked how understated Padmé's was.
"Three," by morrigan291 (multifandom)
I haven't really tried to hide my deep and eternal love for OT3s. Yeah, I like them best platonic, but I'll take a OT3 over a OTP any day. This vid is a really lovely paean to OT3s generally rather than any particular one, but it includes my personal favourite of Luke/Han/Leia. Speaking of which:
"Safe Harbour," by morrigan291 (Luke/Han/Leia)
A good part of the appeal (platonically or not) of this relationship is how intensely joyful it is, ultimately; that's really what she captures here. Well, that, and truly ridiculous amounts of subtext.
"Like My Father Before Me," by irydionlover93
Luke's entire arc, condensed into just over two and a half minutes. I particularly liked the treatment of the cave, but sometimes the blurring really didn't work, like when the Falcon appears to be flying into Luke's forehead. YMMV on this one.
"Star Wars Prequel Trilogy: Crusaders of the Light," by Third Age Films
The same vidder as the first, and the same basic idea. Unsurprisingly, I just liked the OT one better - though not simply because it was OT. I'm not sure what made it more effective for me. In any case, this one is also lovely, and really captures a lot of the beautiful imagery that made the prequels so stunning, whatever my other quibbles with them.
"Leia//I'm In Here," by LynnisaMystery
This is another one I liked without being exactly blown away. There are plenty of Leia vids that focus on the darkness of her life, but the wistful tone of this one seemed entirely unique, but very true to her often-overlooked quieter side.
"Coldplay - Fix You (Star Wars)," by livinginoblivion (OT)
One of the "summarizing" vids - I'm sure vidding fandom has a proper term for that. I don't usually care for them unless they're spectacular, like the tribute, but this just seemed cuddly. I think my favourite thing was probably how the vid reflected the pace of the song - not just in terms of the transition speed and such, but the switch to colour as the pace shifted into high gear. I think the early grey tones were effective, though, and I don't usually like blatant colour effects.
"[Star Wars] the force is strong in my family |Skywalkers|," by Zutarachick
I like Zutarachick's vids, but she often uses texts and it's pretty much always (1) unnecessary, and (2) annoying. This one also has some weird colouring with spots or something, which I don't like. That said, I think it did a good job of highlighting my favourite badass space demigods. Well, seriously, I love these three Skywalkers, and while there are lots of viods about Luke and Anakin or Anakin and Leia or Luke and Leia or the entire cast, there aren't a lot focusing specifically on Anakin, Luke, and Leia. And I did like that it paid attention to the mystical side of things. (Maybe that's what the spots were about...?)
"Obi-Wan Kenobi - Give Me A Sign," by 1jonde1
A chronological vid done really well. I don't watch a lot of Obi-Wan vids, particularly not tribute vids, which this very clearly is - I like Obi-Wan, but there's a slipperiness to him that makes his failings more disconcerting to me, in many ways, than the Skywalkers' straightforward darkness. This, however, encapsulates what does make his character appealing, feels rather like a punch in the gut (as anything covering Obi-Wan's life - and afterlife - should do), and has a really masterful use of colour. I dislike the random blues and greens and flickering black and white and whatever the hell else that a lot of vidders sparkle up their vids with, but I think it's used perfectly here.
Oh, and unlike a lot of PT-focused vids I've seen, it uses the OT while remaining a PT vid - OT vids often include PT material for that bit of extra pathos, but it doesn't seem to work as well for PT vids. In this case, though, I think the shift to and from the OT was completely effective. Really, this is just a sharper, cleaner, better vid than most of those I've found.
So, fanvids. I've been meaning to do this for ages, and this isn't all of the ones I've liked, just some that caught my eye. I have a few for other fandoms, too (omg Romana I vids <3 <3 <3), but SW is so heavy on the imagery that it just seems naturally suited to vidding.
Quasi-Recs! (Because I can't keep from complaining about anything, including things I like)
"Star Wars Original Trilogy: The Tribute," Third Age films
This is, hands down, my favourite vid for the fandom and quite possibly my favourite vid, period. As it says, it's a tribute to the OT that seems to essentially be a fabulous spoilerrific trailer - this is really one where the style perfectly suits the material, and it seemed a nearly seamless blend of dialogue, music, and visuals (or lack of them).
While I love it when vids incorporate material from both, in this case (as a tribute to the OT alone) it seemed appropriate to stick to OT clips even when talking about the past, and I thought it was excellently done here, by using the clips from the SE celebrations.
The only things that didn't quite work for me was Luke's "I want to learn the ways of the Force," simply because he was obviously cut off mid sentence, and the criminal underuse of Leia. Otherwise, a genuinely epic vid.
"This Is War," various artists
I actually analyzed them here. To very quickly sum up, I liked the first and third listed here the best - I think the roles for #1 were more spot-on, but #3's were pretty good too (with lots of overlap: Owen and Beru for the Victim, Yoda for the Prophet, Leia for The Leader, Luke for the Victor, Anakin for the Messiah), and it was shinier. Also, no annoying text.
"Star Wars--Dare You To Move," by RHCinderella
This isn't the cleanest, but I just really like it - in fact, I particularly like the messy juxtapositions of PT and OT into the same space. I do think it worked best when the space wasn't cluttered to begin with; my favourite was probably the binary sunset clip + Anakin or "dare you to lift yourself up off the floor" with Anakin kneeling in submission. Ouch. But comment-y, relevant, and another one that manages to use dialogue reasonably well. I liked how understated Padmé's was.
"Three," by morrigan291 (multifandom)
I haven't really tried to hide my deep and eternal love for OT3s. Yeah, I like them best platonic, but I'll take a OT3 over a OTP any day. This vid is a really lovely paean to OT3s generally rather than any particular one, but it includes my personal favourite of Luke/Han/Leia. Speaking of which:
"Safe Harbour," by morrigan291 (Luke/Han/Leia)
A good part of the appeal (platonically or not) of this relationship is how intensely joyful it is, ultimately; that's really what she captures here. Well, that, and truly ridiculous amounts of subtext.
"Like My Father Before Me," by irydionlover93
Luke's entire arc, condensed into just over two and a half minutes. I particularly liked the treatment of the cave, but sometimes the blurring really didn't work, like when the Falcon appears to be flying into Luke's forehead. YMMV on this one.
"Star Wars Prequel Trilogy: Crusaders of the Light," by Third Age Films
The same vidder as the first, and the same basic idea. Unsurprisingly, I just liked the OT one better - though not simply because it was OT. I'm not sure what made it more effective for me. In any case, this one is also lovely, and really captures a lot of the beautiful imagery that made the prequels so stunning, whatever my other quibbles with them.
"Leia//I'm In Here," by LynnisaMystery
This is another one I liked without being exactly blown away. There are plenty of Leia vids that focus on the darkness of her life, but the wistful tone of this one seemed entirely unique, but very true to her often-overlooked quieter side.
"Coldplay - Fix You (Star Wars)," by livinginoblivion (OT)
One of the "summarizing" vids - I'm sure vidding fandom has a proper term for that. I don't usually care for them unless they're spectacular, like the tribute, but this just seemed cuddly. I think my favourite thing was probably how the vid reflected the pace of the song - not just in terms of the transition speed and such, but the switch to colour as the pace shifted into high gear. I think the early grey tones were effective, though, and I don't usually like blatant colour effects.
"[Star Wars] the force is strong in my family |Skywalkers|," by Zutarachick
I like Zutarachick's vids, but she often uses texts and it's pretty much always (1) unnecessary, and (2) annoying. This one also has some weird colouring with spots or something, which I don't like. That said, I think it did a good job of highlighting my favourite badass space demigods. Well, seriously, I love these three Skywalkers, and while there are lots of viods about Luke and Anakin or Anakin and Leia or Luke and Leia or the entire cast, there aren't a lot focusing specifically on Anakin, Luke, and Leia. And I did like that it paid attention to the mystical side of things. (Maybe that's what the spots were about...?)
"Obi-Wan Kenobi - Give Me A Sign," by 1jonde1
A chronological vid done really well. I don't watch a lot of Obi-Wan vids, particularly not tribute vids, which this very clearly is - I like Obi-Wan, but there's a slipperiness to him that makes his failings more disconcerting to me, in many ways, than the Skywalkers' straightforward darkness. This, however, encapsulates what does make his character appealing, feels rather like a punch in the gut (as anything covering Obi-Wan's life - and afterlife - should do), and has a really masterful use of colour. I dislike the random blues and greens and flickering black and white and whatever the hell else that a lot of vidders sparkle up their vids with, but I think it's used perfectly here.
Oh, and unlike a lot of PT-focused vids I've seen, it uses the OT while remaining a PT vid - OT vids often include PT material for that bit of extra pathos, but it doesn't seem to work as well for PT vids. In this case, though, I think the shift to and from the OT was completely effective. Really, this is just a sharper, cleaner, better vid than most of those I've found.