we're all stories in the end

First of all, this is absurdly late, I am very sorry! In no way should this affect your existing vidding plans in any way, I can't wait to see what you've made. But in case it's helpful, and for anyone who might want to make a treat, here's my Festivids signup. You can see previous signups here as well (a lot of the below is copy and paste anyway).

Some kinds of vids that I like include: vids that explore the world of the source, swishy dancey action vids, emotional character-driven vids, vids about awesome women whether focused on one individual or a group of them, vids about people who love each other, vids exploring big thematic ideas and imagery, vids about comedy hijinx.

Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series) RPF, Dropout TV [UMBRELLA], Dimension 20 (Web Series) RPF, Make Some Noise (Web Series), EPIC - Jorge Rivera-Herrans (Albums), The Great Pottery Throw Down (TV), Spy (2015) [SAFETY], Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Concert Film) [SAFETY], Stardew Valley (Video Game), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Movies)


Critical Role (Web Series) RPF
I love these nerdy-ass voice actors, and I love how much they love each other. I'd be delighted with anything here, including guests and the wider CR/LA ttrpg scene (if you felt like a crossover with Dimension 20 I'd be thrilled!). I love Matt, Brennan and Aabria as a trio of DMs with their own takes on Exandria, the ways in which the show and the cast has grown and changed over time, and how it still feels like they're just getting started.

I'd appreciate you not using footage from any of Brian Foster's shows on the network.

Dimension 20 (Web Series) RPF
Oh I adore this show. I love every season, but particular faves include Unsleeping City, Escape from the Bloodkeep, The Seven, Starstruck Odyssey, A Court of Fey and Flowers, the Ravening War and Mentopolis. Anything focused on a particular season/world or celebrating the anthology nature of it all or anything else you heart desires would be just wonderful.

Dropout TV [UMBRELLA]
I adore these weirdos so much. Dimension 20 has been my point of entry but I also deeply enjoy the rest of their output and I'm very fond of the whole core cast - Brennan and the Intrepid Heroes, Erika, Sam, Grant, Lily, Trapp, Rekha, Ross, Izzy, the whole gang. I'd love anything about this, whether something about absurdly funny they all are or an ode to the little streaming service that could.

EPIC - Jorge Rivera-Herrans (Albums)
EPIC is a concept album based on The Odyssey, that's being released in a series of 'sagas' of a few songs each. It's all out now apart from the final saga, due soon. I love the music and also the cast and community around it, there are so many amazing animatics etc. I'd love to see whatever you did with this, including incorporating other adaptations of The Odyssey or anything else!

The Great Pottery Throw Down (TV)
I love cozy making things competition shows, and I think this one is one of the best. Keith's frequent tears alone make it incredibly touching, but I love the contestants on every series and how much they grow as artists, plus all of the friendship and camaraderie.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Movies)
These films are far more charming than I was expecting! The video game jokes alone really tickled me, and while I went in expecting to love The Rock and Karen Gillan's characters, Jack Black as a teenage girl was also surprisingly touching? I'd love an ensemble vid or a vid about Martha and/or Bethany.

Make Some Noise (Web Series)
Another Dropout offering, this is probably my favourite of their shows after Dimension 20. I love all the shenanigans very much!

Spy (2015) [SAFETY]
This is pretty much my favourite film of all time. It makes me laugh so much, and also seeing Melissa McCarthy not just be a brilliant comic actor but also getting to be an action star as a fat woman makes me so so happy. I love Susan, I love Susan and Nancy, and it truly is Jason Statham's greatest film role, I'd love a Rick Ford vid too.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Concert Film) [SAFETY]
I don't have a very specific vision of what a vid of a concert film could look like but I'd be excited to find out!

Stardew Valley (Video Game)
I have spent an ungodly number of hours playing this game over the years, it's just so soothing and delightful.

Hello, festividder! Optional details are optional, but if some more info would be helpful then here it is. Recycled from previous years but still relevant!

Some kinds of vids that I like include: vids that explore the world of the source, swishy dancey action vids, emotional character-driven vids, vids about awesome women whether focused on one individual or a group of them, vids about people who love each other, vids exploring big thematic ideas and imagery, vids about comedy hijinx.

Seeing one of these sources come to life in your vid is going to be awesome, I'm so excited. Musically, I haven't met a genre you can't make an awesome vid out of.

Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series) RPF, Dimension 20 (Web Series), Dropout TV RPF [UMBRELLA], Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Movies), The Great Pottery Throw Down (TV), Spy (2015) [SAFETY], Barbie (2023) [SAFETY], Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare Performances & Adaptations [UMBRELLA], Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) [SAFETY], Shakespeare in Love (1998) [SAFETY]

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Black Tie
by such_heights
fandom: A League of Their Own
characters: Max, Carson, ensemble
content notes: none
music: Grace Petrie
summary: You will find the clothes that fit.
download: download as 462MB zipped .mp4 and subtitle file.
notes: Many thanks to happydork for beta. Made for kaydeefalls for festivids!

Also at the AO3 and tumblr.

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We Got The World
by such_heights
fandom: Dimension 20 RPF
content notes: none
music: Icona Pop
summary: They say, "You're a freak," when we're having fun, Say, "You must be high," when we're spreading love. Say hi, intrepid heroes!
download: download as 413MB zipped .mp4 with subtitle file.
notes: For growlery in Festivids 2021. Clips from Fantasy High, The Unsleeping City, Mice and Murder, Misfits and Magic, The Seven, Shriek Week, and the trailer of A Starstruck Odyssey. Most Dimension 20 content is on their paid service Dropout, but they also have a lot of free stuff up on dimension20show if you're curious! It's a very good time.
Also on AO3 and on tumblr.

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recessional
by such_heights
fandom: The Half of It
content notes: none
music: Vienna Teng
summary: And the words, they're everything and nothing.
download: download as 167MB zipped .mp4 | download as 90MB zipped .mp4 Subtitles in the zip files and available on youtube.
notes: Made for livrelibre for Festivids. Also on AO3.

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Just realised that I backdated this vid to get the link and it won't have shown up on reading lists. I made a vid for Fanworks Con last month! For a relationship that has very little video footage together bc I make things hard for myself apparently.

Love You Like That
fandom: Crooked Media RPF
ship: Ronan Farrow/Jon Lovett
content notes: none
music: Dagny
summary: One look in my eyes and you should know the truth.
Links etc here.

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My Dear Festividder letter is also up - fandoms this year are Bomb Girls, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (movies), Paddington (movies), The Baby-Sitters' Club, The Good Place, The Old Guard, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

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I've been on some podcasts!

Worst Bestsellers is a podcast by fannish pals Kait and Renata that I enjoy very much, it's very funny and is only ever truly harsh to books that really deserve it. The one I foolishly suggested was certainly that! We read Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, which you may remember caused a kerfuffle when it came out last year and he gave an interview suggesting that unlikely all of those frivolous sci-fi authors, he was going to write a book about robots that actually thought about ethics and the human condition. Which... famously... literally no SFF has ever done before... apparently.

It is also, bizarrely, a book set in an alternate 80s UK where we lost the Falklands War? Which would have been interesting if the book focused on anything in the world apart from its protagonist who is a deeply mediocre and obnoxious cishet white dude and I hated being in his head. I do not recommend this book, but if you want to listen to us recap and make fun of it for a bit then you can do that! We were very funny tbh.

Worst Bestsellers Episode 145: Machines Like Me. (also available via all the usual podcast sources)

I was also invited onto the podcast Strong Female Leads to talk about vidding! Available here: Fan of Fan Vids. I was on for the whole episode but the vids section starts at ~21:45. I will also say that earlier in the episode one of the hosts makes some inappropriate throwaway comments about Amber Heard's abuse allegations against Johnny Depp that I did not challenge at the time but wish I had, so warning for victim blaming earlier in the episode.

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Good to remember I have done some fun things during this hell year. I'm doing okay - grateful to be in a bubble with my mum, missing seeing my friends desperately, back on furlough from my job with no real assurance there will be a job for me to come back to but I'll figure something out. Delighted and relieved by the US election results - seeing a shift away from the worst possible outcome somewhere, even if it's not at home, makes it a little easier to keep going.

I'm having trouble watching things that are very emotional so have not started this season of ST: Disco yet though I'm excited to at some point. happydork and I have started watching The Untamed but I've run into a similar problem (we got halfway through episode 16 and I had to nope out) but hopefully now I have some selected viewing advice we can keep going - it's delightful! Wei Wuxian is a horrible goose who will cause problems on purpose and I love him!

Otherwise I'm rewatching a lot of Critical Role and playing Hades. If Animal Crossing was the perfect early-pandemic game, Hades seems like the perfect late(ish? hopefully?)-pandemic game, where you fight your way through trials and die and try again over and over, just hoping to catch a glimpse of something better at the end.

Much love to you all. <3

Children's Work
by such_heights
fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
characters: Michael & Spock
content notes: none
music: Dessa
summary: My little brother's nearly twice my age / he taught me how to meditate / I taught him how to read
download: 35MB .m4v / 313MB .mp4
notes: Made for audreyv for festivids! Many thanks to raven and happydork for betaing.

Also on AO3 and tumblr.

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Tubthumping
by such_heights
fandom: Nailed It!
content notes: none
music: Chumbawumba
summary: They (or their cakes) get knocked down, but they get up again.
download: 196MB zipped .mp4 | 85MB .mp4

notes: made for seekingferret for Festivids 2018 Also at AO3. For those now interested in checking out the show, it is a half hour comedy baking competition on Netflix, where amateur bakers are given challenges way above their skill level, and shenanigans ensue. It's very good natured and I love it a lot. seekingferret requested something about the joy of failure, so really there was only one possible song choice.

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+ I've been permanently exhausted for a while now - my life feels more or less like work, sleep, work, sleep sleep sleep, maybe some video games. But we may have found a culprit - hello, folate-deficiency anaemia, welcome to the chronic illness party that my body continues to throw for herself. It's easily treatable and I should start feeling better soon, but oof. January's already enough of a slog!

+ A month late, this is the podfic I did for ITPE:

Exceeds Expectations [Podfic] (4 words) by such_heights
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lup & Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Characters: Lup (The Adventure Zone), Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Additional Tags: Podfic, Podfic Length: 30-45 Minutes, Pre-Canon, Siblings, brief lup/omc and taako/omc, IPRE, University
Summary:

"Wizards? Don’t get tossed out on the side of the road. We become wizards and we’re set for life!”

+ I got four wonderful Festivids gifts! <333

Relativism (Arrival)
Human of the Year (Arrival)
Speak Your Heart (Moonlight)
Beautiful Hopeful (Star Trek: Discovery)

All utterly gorgeous and moving and I love them. Thank you, kind vidders.

+ New job is going really well - I get to spend almost all my time doing stuff I'm good at, for a good cause, which is a great feeling. And so far, touch wood, my curse of jerk bosses seems to be at an end, everyone here is lovely.

+ I am deeply enjoying both The Good Place and Star Trek: Discovery, and I can't believe how excited I am about the upcoming finale of a half hour sitcom. I can believe how excited I am for the last two episodes of Disco, because Star Trek. Aside from ( brief spoiler cut )

Stayin' Alive
by such_heights
fandom: Galavant
music: The Bee Gees
content notes: none
summary: King Richard is, implausibly, staying alive.
download: 24MB zipped .avi
notes: For valoise for this year's Festivids! This was super fun to make. :D Original festivids post. On tumblr.

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