(no subject)

Wheee! I have some of the loveliest friends -- I made this LFN vid over the holiday months that I was uncharacteristically proud of, and I mentioned it to both barkley and morgandawn, and they both offered me space on their vid web sites to host it for a bit, so that I could share it with friends and get feedback. Morgan's ended up putting it at her site in the group of LFN vids she's made with GF, and so now I have my first ever online vid up.

It's kind of strange because a) I can't actually watch vids online, and b) I don't much mind not being able to watch them online because I find them so unappealing at postage stamp size with terrible sound. They give me headaches, actually. And I really hate watching a vid with stuttering feeds, or where the transitions stall and the song goes on, etc. Online is a most unappealing way to watch a piece of art, but it's where most of the efforts are going these days. A very kind person made me a collection of all her favorite online vids she's downloaded over the past few years, because she knows I can't watch them due to my terrible and slow dialup connection, and it's been both great catching up on what's out there, but also headache-inducing. I learned quickly I have to space them out, but there's some very cool vids in there that I'm hoping will come out in a full-screen way, like some of them were once they ended up on the Vividcon and Escapade discs.

I wish more vidders would make high quality full screen copies of their vids for future use, and make them available on discs, so that people could grab collections and have a more appealing way to watch them. In the olden days (taps cane on floor and turns up hearing aids) that was pretty much the only way you had of sharing vids (tape to tape, and mailed or bought at cons), and many of us still provide collections for watching on a TV at home, as opposed to squinting at a postage stamp on a computer screen. But I *do* get the immediacy, and the joy of being able to share something with people in other countries, or who might not have the ability to pick up a disc easily, or even play it. That's the promise of the net, really -- making things available to the widest possible audience, sharing with even larger groups. And it's a good way, if you have the space and the speed, to get feedback from fellow vidders, if you have a group that's inclined to do that. I think the sad part of the online thing, though, is that vids used to be this sort of treasured, rarified fan art form -- few people could afford the editing decks to make them, and had the inclination to do the hard work, so there was a more valued quality to them. Now they've become more like fanfic -- there are thousands of vidders out there, churning out a lot of crap vids in a matter of hours, and it seems like the sheer disposability of having them online where you can watch them once and move on, has changed the value of fan vids as an art form. Sorry, I'm waxing philosophical while I wait for a proof to check so I can get out of work and have something vaguely resembling a weekend.

So this online sharing thing is very cool for me right now, and I'm giddy at having something up to see what happens firsthand. I'm hoping that before I leave work tonight I might be able to sneak a peek at this, though mostly I want out of here, so I may not. And since it's LFN, I don't expect many people will want to watch it, but if you're inclined, it's at Morgan's site here -- and if you have already visited her vid site and have the password, use that; if you don't, e-mail me privately at gwyn_r@livejournal.com and I can give you the info, as long as you agree to Morgan's terms. It's QuickTime, about 20 MB, and a little over four min. long.

She's also offered to put up the Miracles vid to Darkness, Darkness that feochadn and I showed at Vividcon. So whee! Even with no money and no high speed access and no skill whatsoever, I have an online vid for a little while because of the kindness of friends. This LFN vid has no story, btw, if you're looking for that. Unlike most of my vids, this one is just for fun, nothing more than a dance vid, about a hot chick with guns and things that go boom.

And corngirl_jo, I haven't forgotten about you or the LFN tapes. I'm just having time hell now, and taping 70+ hours of tv hasn't been an option, but I do still plan to talk to you!