Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
such_heights) wrote2009-02-01 06:27 pm
such_heights) wrote2009-02-01 06:27 pm
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Vid Notes for Glorious
Now I've got them more sorted out, notes on the vid I posted earlier, both the vid itself and the themes behind it.
Vidding Notes
This is a song that's been used before, there are visuals that have been used in other videos on similar themes, and there are ideas here that come from a lot of other people and things that I've read. So, perhaps I'm horribly unoriginal, but I do like to think of this as part of a larger conversation that we've had so often. In short, if something here reminds you of something else in a particular fandom, it's probably meant to! I wanted to move from the specific to the general, and I used a fair few references points in the process even when they didn't all make it to the final cut.
Fun facts - there are 24 fandoms here, and approximately 50 different heroines make an appearance.
Not-really-that-meta but something that personally entertains me - the shot at 0:40 where the ghost walks through Teyla and then it cuts to Sue Storm is a nod to this exchange from SGA's 'First Strike':
As SGA fans will tell you, Rachel Luttrell's delivery of that line is so ironic and hilarious. So, visual shout-out. I spent ages deliberating who should get the final shot, but once I'd thought of Teyla I couldn't picture anyone else.
Oh, and also? This has inspired need in me for so many crossovers, you have no idea. Someone should get on that!
Now, onto more general thoughts that will hopefully be of interest even if you're not a vid watcher.
These Women And Their Stories
It's a story you've heard before. There's a woman, or a young girl, and she goes on a journey. She finds something amazing about the world, about herself, she learns so much and sees such wondrous new things. So often, too often, this doesn't end well. She can't handle it, you see, it's too much and she's not equipped. That, or her story is a tragedy, a lesson about the dangers of the big wide world, and she dies as an object lesson so that men might weep. She sacrifices herself for the good of the true heroes of the tale, and sometimes, she just fades away, never to be seen again.
It's a story that too much of our media seems compelled to tell, and it leaves Rose Tyler weeping on a beach and Donna Noble breaking apart because her male-given power is just too much for her. It leaves the women loved by the Winchesters sacrificed and killed and destroyed, burning up on the ceiling, and it makes sure Morgana's visions are bundled away so that no one has to listen to her. It makes Claire Bennet invincible just so that they can mutilate and kill the pretty blonde cheerleader again and again and again. Women are threatened and turned into victims and imprisoned and violated with such regularity, as though there can be no other story for these characters, and I'm tired of it.
This is part of why I'm so saddened by all the female character bashing that goes on in fandom, the way we react to problematic presentations in canon and makes them even worse. We can take Jennifer Keller or whoever is the fandom villainess of the week, and we can remake them in our own image, we don't have to take the crap the writers hand us lying down.
We can rewrite all of these stories, we can reclaim Susan Pevensie and Donna Noble and Monica Dawson for our own. Dead women can even walk again, fandom's neat that way. Here, by picking up a pen or opening up software, I can show my heroes the way I love them best, instead of the way I'm told these stories always end. In this vid, Claire can break free and put herself back together, permanently, and Morgana can take charge of her own destiny, and they can all be proud in their victories.
My heroes are scientists, engineers, leaders, explorers, pilots, magicians and warriors. They're women, and they're glorious. Making this vid was partly a protest, mostly a celebration, and also a desire to give these characters that I love the agency, the recognition and the joyful endings they deserve.
Vidding Notes
This is a song that's been used before, there are visuals that have been used in other videos on similar themes, and there are ideas here that come from a lot of other people and things that I've read. So, perhaps I'm horribly unoriginal, but I do like to think of this as part of a larger conversation that we've had so often. In short, if something here reminds you of something else in a particular fandom, it's probably meant to! I wanted to move from the specific to the general, and I used a fair few references points in the process even when they didn't all make it to the final cut.
Fun facts - there are 24 fandoms here, and approximately 50 different heroines make an appearance.
Not-really-that-meta but something that personally entertains me - the shot at 0:40 where the ghost walks through Teyla and then it cuts to Sue Storm is a nod to this exchange from SGA's 'First Strike':
John: Well, that's why we're a team, like the Fantastic Four. It's a comic book where superheroes fight crime and stuff. See, I'd be Mr Fantastic, Ronon would be The Thing, McKay would be the Human Torch... You'd be the Invisible Woman.
Teyla: I am not invisible.
As SGA fans will tell you, Rachel Luttrell's delivery of that line is so ironic and hilarious. So, visual shout-out. I spent ages deliberating who should get the final shot, but once I'd thought of Teyla I couldn't picture anyone else.
Oh, and also? This has inspired need in me for so many crossovers, you have no idea. Someone should get on that!
Now, onto more general thoughts that will hopefully be of interest even if you're not a vid watcher.
These Women And Their Stories
It's a story you've heard before. There's a woman, or a young girl, and she goes on a journey. She finds something amazing about the world, about herself, she learns so much and sees such wondrous new things. So often, too often, this doesn't end well. She can't handle it, you see, it's too much and she's not equipped. That, or her story is a tragedy, a lesson about the dangers of the big wide world, and she dies as an object lesson so that men might weep. She sacrifices herself for the good of the true heroes of the tale, and sometimes, she just fades away, never to be seen again.
It's a story that too much of our media seems compelled to tell, and it leaves Rose Tyler weeping on a beach and Donna Noble breaking apart because her male-given power is just too much for her. It leaves the women loved by the Winchesters sacrificed and killed and destroyed, burning up on the ceiling, and it makes sure Morgana's visions are bundled away so that no one has to listen to her. It makes Claire Bennet invincible just so that they can mutilate and kill the pretty blonde cheerleader again and again and again. Women are threatened and turned into victims and imprisoned and violated with such regularity, as though there can be no other story for these characters, and I'm tired of it.
This is part of why I'm so saddened by all the female character bashing that goes on in fandom, the way we react to problematic presentations in canon and makes them even worse. We can take Jennifer Keller or whoever is the fandom villainess of the week, and we can remake them in our own image, we don't have to take the crap the writers hand us lying down.
We can rewrite all of these stories, we can reclaim Susan Pevensie and Donna Noble and Monica Dawson for our own. Dead women can even walk again, fandom's neat that way. Here, by picking up a pen or opening up software, I can show my heroes the way I love them best, instead of the way I'm told these stories always end. In this vid, Claire can break free and put herself back together, permanently, and Morgana can take charge of her own destiny, and they can all be proud in their victories.
My heroes are scientists, engineers, leaders, explorers, pilots, magicians and warriors. They're women, and they're glorious. Making this vid was partly a protest, mostly a celebration, and also a desire to give these characters that I love the agency, the recognition and the joyful endings they deserve.
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