If anyone here is into video making, here's where to bring it up! Personally I haven't picked up any project in a few years, but I'm looking forward to getting back into it as I get my motivation back. I used to make music videos with clips I found online. Video editing is a lot of fun for me and I should upload my stuff to youtube sometime. I used to make lego stop motion animations too, which took weeks for short clips but were a lot of fun. Is anyone here an amateur videographer? Any videos in particular that give you inspiration for your next project? Any songs you'd like to make a video to? My next MV will be Purity Ring's Belispeak. The lyrics give me a lot of good ideas for visuals. Just need to figure out where I'll get my clips this time, online or homemade... maybe a mix of both! One of my favorite MVs I hope to one day reach the skill level of:
Hi, Wish! I don't know if this counts, exactly, but I actually make fanvids; it's actually been surprisingly helpful in terms of getting my feelings out in general. (Ever since I learned that vent videos exist, I've kind of clung to that as a coping device) In terms of common themes in general, I've been making a lot of videos of the 4-6 Halloween movies, because Jamie Lloyd is a criminally underrated character. (I think even those who didn't care for 4-6 still very rarely have anything bad to say about Jamie) For today, I've been trying to make some Star Wars vids because, well, May the 4th and all that; I still like Star Wars, even if the fanbase (as well as, I'll be real, the rather disappointing results of TLJ and TROS) kind of burned me out. And I've actually kind of broken my usual shtick by making Reylo videos, though that's mostly because a friend of mine who likes the pairing is going through a bit of a bad time right now, plus I promised myself even pre-Star Wars day that I'd tag her on YouTube if I made anything Star Wars related. (Plus, I don't hate Reylo completely; I just think it had a lot of wasted potential, which the fanworks usually at least try to make into gold. I've actually even seen some fanvids where it's like, "Wait, did you take that particular plot point from TROS that I had issues with re: the two of them and actually make it emotional and touching? That's...kind of amazing." Irydionlover's one example, though honestly, I've followed her even before her Sequel Trilogy vidding days; she's made some of my favorite videos of all time, like a tribute to Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan with "Anthem of the Angels" by Breaking Benjamin, and a Padme tribute to "Blinding" by Florence and the Machine that really sums up Padme's tragic character arc just by following the lyrics and using some really effective transitions! And on a Sequels note, she did this video to Kylo Ren as well as Han and Leia that really presents some extremely effective flashbacks to younger, more innocent Ben that makes what was hinted at in TFA a lot more heartbreaking) (Ah, screw it; I'm going to link to her account; she's got a ton of great stuff: https://www.youtube.com/@irydionlover. Like, she's just so talented) I think it's one reason I love fanvids: they take something that has feels potential in canon and they really do a good job of just milking the emotions for all they're worth. It's like they definitely tell a story of their own with existing footage, even if they don't really change anything at all.
Yep, fanvids are the shit :D I spent many formative years watching homestuck fanvids, so I appreciate the concept! I've never heard of vent videos, but I think I have made those before if it's just getting out bad feelings. They can get pretty dark. I'd like to see your Halloween videos some time, if you're so inclined. I;ve only seen the first one but I did like it a lot. I'm more into the Friday the 13th series, but I've never considered making videos incorporating it until now! Thanks for the idea! I will check out Irydionlover's vids, I do love seeing good video work on any subject. Telling stories with existing footage is a perfect way of putting it
Well, thanks! And yeah, that is pretty much the definition of vent videos, just getting out really, really dark feelings. Usually they tend to be multifandom though, while mine end up being single fandom because I don’t have the finesse to make it Multifandom. Though maybe I could give it a go…? And you’re very welcome. I’m glad I could help; I really am. And yeah, I still think the first Halloween is the best, but the sequels still have some great things about them, and even 6 I see more as just needing a ginormous hug given all the behind the scenes fuckery that came with Dimension working on it. It’s like the KOTOR II of horror movie sequels, like it’s not bad, not really, but the executives really mistreated it. The sweet thing is that the fanbase mostly doesn’t hold it against the writer, Daniel Farrands (and it helps that his hatred of the final product and what Dimension did to it is as notorious as Stephen King’s hatred for the movie version of The Shining. Farrands definitely saved special levels of disgust for how the higher-ups mistreated the actresses on the set, like calling a seventeen year old girl to her face “a total piece of shit" whose character dies in the first act. Which, it’s one thing to debate whether or not Michael Myers was done justice, but mistreating real people is always worse hands down than mishandling fictional characters, period) for what happened and even made quite the effort to hunt down the Producer’s Cut even before it got officially released. You’ve also got the Rob Zombie films which…people are pretty torn about them; some think they’re brilliant deconstructionist takes on Halloween, others think they’re a slap in the face to the fanbase and/or pretentious. My take is that they’re a little of both, because Zombie is that good of a writer and director, but the problem is that the remakes have some pretty weak writing in places. Like, I am never going to argue that the opening breakfast scene in the remake is rewriting Hitchcock. That being said, I think that they still portray a very nuanced child sociopath in Michael and even him being allowed to be a bit chatty allows him to be a different kind of scary, because he is capable of being genuinely friendly towards his mother and even baby Laurie and Loomis (it’s definitely ironic too that Loomis, his greatest enemy in the original, is pretty much the first person outside Michael’s mother and Danny Trejo’s character Ismael Cruz to actually show Michael any compassion. Like, Michael’s backstory may be controversial, but the idea of Loomis starting off as genuinely kind and one of Michael’s biggest champions is still heartbreakingly ironic) but he’s also capable of genuinely terrifying swings from being calm, friendly and affable to genuine rage to tears all at once, and Mrs. Myers and Loomis stay by him because in Mrs. Myers’ case, to paraphrase Cersei Lannister, she has no choice but to keep loving her child, and Loomis…well, I always got the interpretation from therapists I saw that the good ones pretty much had it as a job requirement to keep having faith in their clients no matter how difficult things got, so part of it is Loomis having no choice but to keep caring about Michael and part of it viewing Michael as “like my best friend”, as he puts it. (There were apparently scenes that got cut that suggested Loomis himself was deeply lonely and covering it up, and given that Marion Chambers wasn’t around here, his own patient, difficult at best as he is, is the closest thing he knows of friendship, which is…yeah. The cobbler’s children have no shoes, indeed) I think in a way, Rob Zombie’s films really have some stupid fucking moments, but you also get moments that are genuinely powerful and even kind of a unique way of playing with archetypes, which I always love. (I’m a writer; why wouldn’t I?) And then you got the Blumhouse films, which — the 2018 one had some good moments, but it also had moments of “what were you thinking”, and as good as Jamie Lee is returning as Laurie, they also made some writing decisions where it was like “What were you thinking”. And Kills and Ends apparently had those moments too, which is one reason I’m preferring not to watch them. H20 and Resurrection I haven’t watched. But yeah, as much as I love elements of the sequels and remakes, the first one is still the best because of its minimalist nature, because I do like how ambitious the sequels and remakes could get, but I freely admit that ambition isn’t always a good thing because then you can have things collapse under their own ambition. And I actually feel that way about the one attempt at an anthology film, Halloween 3, because it really felt like it was trying to be ambitious and new and daring, but then it all just kind of collapsed under its own ambition because of just how implausible Conal Cochran is as a villain. Like, bad corporate executives? I can buy that. But robots? Cursed masks? Stonehenge? That’s where things start getting unintentionally stupid; I actually remember coming away from it going “That was some crazy shit they were smoking." At least with Michael as an antagonist, Michael was plausible, because the idea of a kid seemingly snapping out of nowhere and killing his sister is something plausible, as well as a masked creep who randomly starts stalking you because he can, with no motive outside of “I just feel like it". Michael I can at least see happening in real life to an extent. Even Doctor Wynn from 6 — I doubt I could ever see evil cults, at least not quite in that form, but I can plausibly see a doctor abusing his power over his patients with nobody any the wiser, and if you strip away the supernatural stuff, you do end up getting a story that makes you feel terrible for Loomis: like, you have this friend, someone who seems to be going out of his way to help you even if he doesn’t believe that a child you promised to look after (Jamie here) is still alive after being presumed dead, even though you would know her voice anywhere after six years. He’s there, comforting you, bringing a rare smile out of you, and giving you a second chance after you hit rock bottom with your mental health and physical health to the point you’re forced to retire, giving you a chance to redeem yourself. Even when you fail said kid (Jamie) and it hurts even more because you never got to apologize for genuinely hurting her in your own way, said friend still tries to calm you down and help you, and then you learn via another source who the town dismisses as just “some crazy kid who never got past meeting Myers in 1978" that not only is the original patient you failed basically indoctrinated and brainwashed into a cult (like, Thorn? Probably not plausible, but Jonestown existed, so getting brainwashed into a cult isn’t implausible) without your knowledge, but you realize that said friend you trusted is responsible for every bit of suffering you went through: your previous patient (Michael) got brainwashed and indoctrinated behind your back without your knowledge, by the same friend you trusted, and then said friend has no idea why you’re disgusted by his actions when he lays them out to you, before finding a way to ruin your life further even after your previous patient that got abused behind your back finally loses patience with him and kills him. Like, even the lesser sequels had some degree of stuff that’s terrifying because you probably have run into people like that: a John Strode, the sort of abusive guardian who manages to drain the joy out of a day you thought was going to be good (like, it’s telling that Kara and her family are having a very light-hearted breakfast, with Kara trying to study, Debra fussing over her, and Tim trying to bond with his nephew Danny with the stomach pounder…then John Strode walks into the room and starts verbally abusing everyone and even physically abusing Kara when she stands up for her son, and it’s like it spoils the beginning of your day), a Barry Simms who abuses his shock jock status (like, let’s be real here, even before influencers existed, we all knew a Barry Simms type), a Ronnie White even who tries to keep you from going to work to do your job while physically and verbally abusing you, and even among the heroes, you get something that could occur in real life in terms of horror, like Loomis being so obsessed with making Michael pay that he ends up mistreating even his own allies in 5, or Jamie’s brief attempted homicidal moment in 4 (she does get better). With Cochran? I can at least see the idea of him existing IRL as a corrupt executive type, the sort that seems friendly and affable while having no issue with his products harming or even killing his customers, but other than that, I’m not sure. (Though Dan O’Herlihy did a good job, and I think the sheer batshit insanity of the film while taking itself seriously as a critique of capitalism could be blamed on the executives meddling with the tone, because apparently it was more of a tongue in cheek mystery film aware of how ridiculous its concept was, so I don’t blame the screenwriter or director as much as the executives who thought that a mystery film with a comedic streak somehow wouldn’t sell. I would have loved to see that version of 3; like, come on, it was supposed to be an anthology film. It didn’t have to be as dark as the original Halloween was) And Friday the 13th is a good choice! On the subject of plausible horror, Pamela herself is such a good example of this, because you can really see something like that happening in real life, especially with how bullying can turn lethal (like in Jason’s case) and what it does to the parents who end up outliving the children who got bullied. I actually kind of headcanon that another reason she goes after the counselors is that she is angry at the kids for picking on Jason out of ableism (given that yeah, his bullying would fall under bullying the disabled, absolutely), but she pretty much has a promise not to harm children, given that she herself is a parent (I mean, if you take the reveal into account, it’s easy to imagine the opening kill as Pamela intentionally sparing the kids because it’s just a standard she has), and sees the counselors as much easier targets because to her, they’re not children and they’re fair game. And given that Jason pretty much is all standards, I can imagine some of it is the better side of Pamela’s pseudoinfluence (depending on if she’s actually there or Jason’s hallucinating), like telling him, “Jason, leave that dog alone; we like animals, don’t we” or “Jason, leave the kids alone; children are innocent, they are not your victims". And given the bit with Rennie (I think?) in the Jason Takes Manhattan installment, I can easily see Pamela pretty much being extremely okay with killing Rennie’s attempted assailants (especially since Pamela herself apparently was in an abusive marriage, because the poor woman didn’t go through enough hell, apparently), sort of like, “Oh, those pathetic excuses for human beings? Kill them; they’re fair game." Especially since Rennie escapes unharmed (ish). (Of course, that’s just my headcanon, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Pamela saw Rennie as a sad kind of kindred spirit, if briefly) (And then of course, Pamela going, “Oh, that boombox? You can kick it, Jason, honey; God, has nobody heard of headphones in their lives in New York?" Funny enough, I can almost relate to Jason kicking that boombox especially as my noise sensitivity’s gone up as I’ve gotten older, and since I had classmates in high school that played their choices in pop music so loudly that, on one car ride, I swear I could hear it through my headphones as well as causing vibrations in the car, so there are actually people IRL who don’t know what volume control is when playing their music. It’s kind of funny how there’s plausible horror but also plausible comedy, and hell, Jason’s method of dealing with the boombox was much classier than other suggestions would have been. Relatively) As for videos…well, I have a lot of Halloween videos, but I might start linking said videos if I make them so you can take a look. And I’m glad I got you interested in irydionlover! Seriously, she’s fantastic. And I’m glad my metaphor worked.
Hey there, @wish -- I finished up this little vid and thought of you! Hope this is the right place to post:
Sorry for snipping down your replies to this extent, I have trouble reading text walls and don;t have much to add other than, WOW you like your movies! It's good to see someone so in depth enjoying something like you do! I've only seen half of one of his films, it was pretty over the top for horror haha, yes one could say pretentious :) I just saw that one! Was pretty good but still can't top Jason X That part was hilarious This was a really cute video! I like what you did with the color effect, it fit the mood nicely, good job on this and thank you for sharing!
Well, thank you. On all fronts. Seriously. You really did make my day. I’m glad you liked my takes (I definitely do my best!) as well as the vid I linked. Really. I think the vid I made does sum up why I love 4-6, just the sheer amount of hope in there, and the character development. And sorry about the text walls! I do ramble; even Tez kind of gently pointed it out once. :) But I’m glad that, well, you like that I like my movies, for lack of a better word. I think that I do definitely get very attached to stuff I like, and given that I just recently got back into 4-6, well…I have a lot of feels. And thoughts. Out of curiosity, which Rob Zombie movie did you mean there, when you referenced it? (Sorry if my wording’s confusing, by the way; I just woke up) And yeah, I will freely admit that some of his stuff, like House of 1000 Corpses, can get…really weird. The second Halloween movie that he directed too. Like, not that they’re bad movies, not by a long shot, but you really get some stuff in there where it’s like, “That’s some crazy stuff they were smoking.” See also the white horse bits in Halloween II. (I’m maintaining it was just a hallucination of Michael and Laurie anyway because I don’t ever think Deborah Myers would ever posthumously betray her family like that) I definitely haven’t seen Jason X, though I’ve heard some good things about it. I guess it proves that yes, you can take a horror movie villain to space and still make it work. (Funny thing is, I did hear they were going to take Michael Myers to space; John Carpenter himself apparently suggested it, though I don’t know if he was joking or not. Still, Michael’s got the aesthetics; people have compared him more than once to Darth Vader so we might as well go with it) Yeah, the boombox part was pretty good. Definitely a good twist in a way too. :) And thank you, regarding the vid thing! I’m glad you liked it. :)
I'm pretty sure it was House of 1000 Corpses, not sure though, I feel like it kind of started off in a carnival type setting if that helps narrow it down? Or maybe it was a store... Either way things got gory quickly but not in a very entertaining manner, from what I recall. It was more of a comedy than horror, but definitely still in line with the other Friday the 13th films in terms of the resurrection -> ironic massacre -> defeat cycle. Yes it still works in space lol
Yeah, the carnival thing sounds kind of like House of 1000 corpses. Although given that 31 also starts off in a carnival type setting, it could be that too. (Also, Richard Brake, a.k.a. The Night King from Game of Thrones, is in there. Make of that what you will) As for the store...well, I do know that House of 1000 Corpses does start with the store and Captain Spaulding getting accosted by the most incompetent robbers in horror history. (Honestly, that scene reminds me of when I used to be into "stupid crooks" kind of crime stories, where what should have been pants-shitting horror turns into a farce/slapstick when the crooks don't think things through. It's one of those scenes in the movie where it's kind of impressive seeing how your usual robbery pretty much goes south even before Captain Spaulding decides to get dangerous. The sort that if not for the fact the robbers ended up very dead, that Nash and Tara would be covering on Radio Dead Air and Tara would be trying to give the robbers tips on "How to be better criminals". And hell, compared to the rest of the movie, it's outright kind of wholesome) And yeah, I won't deny that House of 1000 Corpses gets alternately extremely trippy and weird and "Okay, you can stop now, really, this is gross, this is wrong" (see also everything Otis does when he's onscreen. It's like, I think that yeah, Otis does get some really, really awesome lines, stuff like his rant towards his captives about being an artist in torment, and it helps that Bill Moseley does not half-ass his performance), but I kind of see the film as "It's not like you don't have a lot of good ideas but there's also scenes in there that are just nope-city." See also Otis, who should really come with his own content warning, IMHO. (I think even Bill Moseley apparently had scenes in there that he had kind of a squick reaction to?) I think the same goes for Devil's Rejects. It's like, don't get me wrong; Sheriff Wydell's descent into batshit insanity is actually tragic and makes him a three-dimensional character and the bit where he tries to talk to the Firefly family about his brother George and why they're being punished for it is still overwhelmingly heartbreaking (William Forsythe does a great job at making Wydell scary, pitiable, and even a little bit vaguely honorable in some places), but there's also a lot of stuff in there where it's like, "Okay, did I really have to see that much gore regarding somebody being run over?" (Then again, I think I've gotten a weak stomach for gore as I've gotten older to some extent) As for 31, I haven't seen it, but the clips I saw of Richard Brake's performance are like...goddamn, he is not half-assing it; guy is good. On a lighter note, regarding Jason X, that's awesome on many levels! And the idea of it being a comedy does sound like it can work; I do like when movies have a sense of self-awareness and don't take themselves too seriously. There's something pretty endearing about that quality.
