Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI/TWILIGHT
Music: "Twilight" trailer audio
Pairing: Hints of Tsuzuki/Hisoka and Muraki/Hisoka
Length: 1:11
Vidder on LJ: Unknown
Vidder's Website: http://www.youtube.com/user/MakoProduction

Why this vid kicks ass: I found this quite by accident whilst I was writing my first YnM fanfic, which was also a crossover with Twilight (sorry, no linky: self-promotion is verboten here). The very notion just had me laughing hysterically, but when I watched it, I was laughing myself silly. There's a million Twilight parodies out there (and for the record, I'm a contra-Twilight person: I detest the books, but I've gotten past the burn-it-with-fire stage of dislike), but this one is my all-time favorite. Tsuzuki as Edward? Mayyybe....

Watch: Yami no Twilight?

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO/SHERLOCK
Pairing: none
Music: Cracking the Code by PostHaste Music
Length: 1:39
Vidder's LJ: di_br
Vidder's Website: Di on YouTube, vid announcement on LJ

Why this vid kicks ass:
If you are a fan of Doctor Who OR Sherlock, you've probably already seen this. It has over 100k views for a reason. However, just in case you haven't... WATCH THIS NOW. It's a mashup of the shows as a (unfortunately) fake advertisement/trailer for a show that looks absolutely amazing. Man, I wish this were real. Need to find the Doctor? Call Sherlock Holmes!

A Study In Time

Vidder: SE
Musical artist: Amanda Ghost
Pairing: Various
Vidder on LJ: sol_se
Vidder's website: fannish.flux
Why this vid kicks ass: Today's vid is a gorgeous journey into a surreal dreamscape, in which sol_se's editing matches up echoing images from different source texts. The result will linger in your mind for a long time.

Filthy Mind

Vidder: OTW (directed by Francesca Coppa and edited by Laura Shapiro, sound editing by AbsoluteDestiny)
Musical artist: Various
Pairing: Various
Vidder on LJ: None
Vidder's website: Vidding History Projects
Why this vid kicks ass: I kicked off meta week with songvids about songvids, and so now it seems appropriate to rec a project that takes this idea of vidmeta to its logical conclusion -- documentaries about vidding, made by vidders.

Not long ago, the Organization for Transformative Works interviewed a whole heap of vidders about vidding, sampled their work, and created a series of snapshots that showcase their art and philosophy. What a neat idea! I love the voices of fans talking about their passion -- it's so rare to get a chance hear fans' real voices -- and I also love that this series has been made by vidders, using the skills they acquired through vidding, and that it's unashamedly pro-fanworks. I fell in love with vids all over again when I watched this.

Vidding

Vidder: counteragent
Musical artist: Thomas Dolby
Pairing: Various
Vidder on LJ: counteragent
Vidder's website: My vids
Why this vid kicks ass: counteragent has a real gift for remixing disparate sources and styles, and forging them into something seamless, with it's own narrative drive and logic. This songvid is a perfect example. It's gorgeously framed with the trappings of the cinema, beautifully matched to the music, and at the same time working as an elegant showcase for Charmax's vids. Such a clever piece of work.

She Blinded Me with Science (a Charmax tribute)


This recommendation is part of a set, which includes three of charmax's vids (links go to the recs):

Multi-fandom - I'm your Man
Lost and Delirious - Cry Me A River
Multi-fandom - Seven Nation Army

It's meta week in Songvid Oddity land! (And yes, how ironic is the timing, given this week's meta about meta? :)

There's been a trend in the last year or so of meta vids which reflect on what it is to be a vidder, and what vidders love about the art form. I'm going to try and give a sense of what that conversation looks like, and that means posting more than one rec at a time for a couple of days. Bear with me while I wrangle all the cross-links. Hopefully it will all be worth it!


Vidder: bradcpu
Musical artist: Various
Pairing: Various
Vidder on LJ: bradcpu
Vidder's website: Sticky post: My vids
Why this vid kicks ass: kiki_miserchic is one of the most unusual vidders out there. Her stuff is always gorgeous, and interesting, and often confronting. In this vidder profile, bradcpu captures what makes Kiki tick as an artist, combining an interview with excerpts of her vids. As well as being a brilliant introduction to Kiki's work, it's a stunning piece of work in its own right.

To make the experience richer, you might want to watch a sample of Kiki's vids (I've recced three below) before you watch this vidder profile.

August Vidder Profile: kiki_miserychic
Warning: The video excerpts included in this profile contain profanity, nudity, sexual images, and violence (including a torture/disembowelment scene from the movie "The Cell").


This recommendation is part of a set, which includes three of kiki_miserychic's vids (links go to the recs):

Multi-fandom - She's Awesome
The Cell - Bootystyle
The Fall - Once Upon a Time

Vidder: Barkley
Musical artist: Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra
Pairing: None
Vidder on LJ: barkley
Vidder's website: Barkley's Vids
Why this vid kicks ass: In fandom there's a grand tradition of people putting things together that just should not work, and yet, beyond all sense, somehow they not only work, they are glorious. For example, this songvid's premise is:

Stargate: Atlantis + Xanadu = rollerdancing space explorers.

Oh, yeah... *waves hands in awe* That's what I call absurd perfection!

Xanadu (scroll down)

Vidder: SandraInTheSun
Musical artist: David Holmes
Pairing: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Vidder on LJ: sandrainthesun
Vidder's website: Vid Tag
Why this vid kicks ass: I love crime capers; they are just made of awesome -- the snark, the cunning plans, the comedy arising out of things going wrong, the twist ending. What's not to love? This songvid has all of that... but wait! There's more! You see, this particular crime caper is an AU of Stargate Atlantis, and stars John Sheppard, Rodney McKay and Laura Cadman, transplanted to Vegas a la Ocean's Eleven. "Petty Theft" has sharp, clever editing, John and Rodney having sex, sleazy paisley shirts, the team being competent, and the most kick ass use of crime-caper music. *happy sigh* *goes to re-watch*

Permanent download link hosted by Kyrieane: here
sandrainthesun's splashpage for this vid: Petty Theft

Vidder: Ferd
Musical artist: Shakespeare's Sister
Pairing: Bruce Wayne/Lois Lane, Batman/Catwoman
Vidder on LJ: ferdalump
Vidder's website: Ferdalump on YouTube
Why this vid kicks ass: This songvid is technically the second of a matching pair, but I think it stands alone just fine (the other is available at the same splash page linked below, if you're interested). What I love about "Stay" is the way it melds the three different sources to create a love triangle between characters who share a universe (Batman/Superman) but never appear in the same show! This vid beautifully demonstrates just how much illusion there is in the art of editing. And also? That love triangles which include Catwoman are made of win.

Stay

Vidder: Dani C.
Musical artist: Enya
Pairing: House/Wilson
Vidder on LJ: mystictwilight
Vidder's website: MysticTwilight on YouTube
Why this vid kicks ass: This is such a clever piece of work, using the footage from Dead Poets Society to give a gorgeous, angsty twist to Wilson's backstory. To say more is to spoil this. Just... wow! What a great piece of alternate canon construction.

If We Shadows Have Offended

Vidder: Starrylizard
Musical artist: Monty Norman, John Barry, David Arnold, Nicholas Dodd
Pairing: Various
Vidder on LJ: starrylizard
Vidder's website: Starrylizard's fannish stuff
Why this vid kicks ass: My previous rec was all about looking at the James Bond canon in a new light, whereas this one is about creating an expectation of Bond canon without actually using any Bond footage. I love the clever play of generic expectation and intertextuality in this: the stupid gadgets; the kick-ass action; the womanising; the hokey bad guys; the explosions; the smirky, deadly James Bondness of JFlan, which is weirdly perfect; and the way Starrylizard has edited it all to the Bond theme. *happy sigh*

Apart from all of that, there's just the right whiff of naffness to 'Atlantis Royale,' and I don't know how Starrylizard managed it, but it makes this so perfectly, hilariously Bond.

Atlantis Royale

Vidder: Permetaform
Musical artist: Art of Noise, featuring John Hurt
Pairing: None
Vidder on LJ: permetaform
Vidder's website: PerMetaForm
Why this vid kicks ass: Technically, this isn't a multi-fandom songvid, in that all the source footage comes from the James Bond movies. But given the nature of James Bond movies, I find it boggling, and somewhat humbling, that anyone has managed to make a songvid this beautiful and insightful out of it. See, Permetaform takes what is an almost-impossible song to vid, and then uses all those impossible elements to highlight just how totally improbable and exciting and cinematic James Bond really is. God, I love this songvid. It's just so good.

Go, go, go: click on the link.

ETA: The link below now goes directly to the songvid's announcement page, which does seem to work. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Holy Egoism of Genius

Vidder: Eric Faden, et al.
Musical artist: S. Joplin
Pairing: None
Vidder on LJ: Unknown
Vidder's website: Stanford Fair Use Project
Why this vid kicks ass: For the last stop on our detour into YouTube land, I've decided to rec something a bit different. "A Fair(y) Use Tale" is not actually a fanvid, but rather a vid about fanvids that uses the techniques of fanvids. This was made as part of Stanford's Fair Use project, and it uses clips from Disney to talk about Copyright.

I hesitated for a long time before deciding to rec this on the Van, but the thing that swayed me in the end is that I find it really fascinating to see how people talk about fandom with their Real World hats on, and I figured that some of you might feel that way too. And yeah, this is political, but it's also surprisingly fannish: the echoes of fanvids are all the way through this, as you'll see even more clearly once I start reccing the multi-fandom vids that are going to finish up the rest of the drive.

YouTube: A Fair(y) Use Tale
Dowload @ Standford: A Fair(y) Use Tale

Vidder: Mike Dow & Ari Eisner (Smacky Productions)
Musical artist: Usher, Fat Boy Slim, Beyonce, The Romantics
Pairing: Various
Vidder on LJ: Unknown
Vidder's website: smacky_prod
Why this vid kicks ass: OMG, an hour and a half at the dentist. Even this gloriously cracky vid cannot currently penetrate the numb fog enough to inspire me to write more than a few sentences. Watch it. It's funny. It has Charlton Heston being emo.

10 Things I Hate About Commandments

Vidder: Tom (the email address on the vid isn't valid)
Musical artist: Unknown
Pairing: None
Vidder on LJ: Unknown
Vidder's website: Unknown
Why this vid kicks ass: So, zombies. I think many stories would be improved with the addition of zombies (also killer robots, but that's a whole other topic). I present this vid as evidence supporting my zombie thesis, as I think it makes a good case for zombies not only in West Side Story, but in Romeo and Juliet. *nods decisively* Zombies, people! Why are you still here?

West Side Story versión Zombie

Vidder: Chris Rule and Nick Eckert
Musical artist: Caine Davidson; Richard and Robert Sherman
Pairing: None
Vidder on LJ: Unknown
Vidder's website: moviemker
Why this vid kicks ass: I have a gleeful love for songvids that are alternate movie trailers -- it's amazing how much difference the style of editing and a change of music makes! "Scary Mary" is the first one of these remixes I saw, and it's still one of my favourites. Brrrr. Julie Andrews is so unbelievably creepy in this.

Scary Mary Poppins