Dear Festividder 2021
Oct. 16th, 2021 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hartknyxHi Festividder! 💜 This is my second Festivids and I'm stoked. Hope you are too! I accidentally got kind of wordy with my feelings this year but rest assured that I'm easily pleased and excited to see ANYTHING you're excited to make even if this is tl;dr for you!
Some general thoughts: I love vids about characters and/or relationships between characters, romantic or otherwise. I love vids with humor. I love queer and feminist perspectives. I love creative or out-of-context reinterpretations of source material, if they're respectful. I love people being badass, especially ladies. I love complicated feelings that don't fit into boxes. I'm into crossovers, if the mood strikes you. I'm WEAK for a good lyric match (or honestly even a bad one 😂). I don't usually enjoy things that are emotionally serious or sappy.
Re: music, I love almost anything that has both a melody and a beat. If it's pop or sounds like pop I'm probably into it, and bonus points for being upbeat. I have a special fondness for just about anything from the 1960s, the mid-to-late-2000s emo-pop-punk vibe, K-pop from all over the last decade, and badass women (Dessa, Halestorm, and Paramore are my forever faves). I struggle with most instrumentals and folk music. However, this is all just for inspiration - I love discovering new music and it's way more important that YOU like the song (or other audio) enough to vid!
This year I have a dichotomy of requested fandoms! I went absolutely wild when I saw several of my recent favorite video games in the tagset. I'm honestly not sure how viddable any of them are*, but if you're up for a challenge I'd LOVE to see what you can do with one of them! On the other hand, I've also thrown in some of my all-time favorite movies and animated shows that would hopefully be really fun to work with! I'll plunk down some thoughts regarding my favorite parts about each of these fandoms:
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) [SAFETY]
I love Shakespeare, and I love irreverent modern AUs, so of course I love this movie! I truly don't think there's a wrong angle to take with a vid here. I love Kat and her unapologetic independence, but also her dynamic with Patrick; I love every single one of the nods to Shakespeare; I love the tropey plot and the idealized high school vibes and Allison Janney's secretary character and the fact that it's set in Seattle.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)
I LOVE the colorful cast of characters in this game! Every single one of the students (except Lorenz tbh) is my precious child and I adore them, though my favorites are the Blue Lions (however, Edelgard has the right idea, and she should say it, and Claude is absolutely the most fun house leader). I played F!Byleth but I'm not really picky. Here's the challenge: the most traditionally "viddable" parts of this game are the pretty animated story cutscenes, which also happen to be the parts of the game I cared the least about. Personally I wouldn't be very interested in anything that focuses too hard on the tragic drama war stories of any of the main storylines - though it might be really cool and interesting to do a vid that explores the contrast between each of the story routes with kind of a "what if?" or multiple-AUs angle. I would absolutely be interested in anything about the characters, especially any (or all!) of the students, and mostly I think it would be really fun to see a vid that celebrates the less-serious vibe of playing this game - wandering around the monastery picking up after everybody, and watching your precious students glow up and get crushes on each other, and getting reports from the gatekeeper, and the extreme perils of navigating teatime - either with or without contrasting it with the more-serious elements.
Hades (2018)
WHAT a game! I've never been much for roguelikes, but this game is so well designed that it makes even your failures feel satisfying, because you get to go home and pet your dog and talk to your friends and get stronger before trying to break free again, and again, and again. Zagreus is the charming, kind, bisexual disaster protagonist I never knew I needed until he showed up fully formed. I love everyone in this underworld (except Theseus, whom I love to grind into the dirt). I especially love Achilles' mentorship, and Than's pining, and Hypnos consistently being delightfully unhelpful, and Artemis' crits, and the fact that there's a canon bi OT3, and Best Boy Cerberus. I'm not really sure what a Hades vid would even look like, but I'm flexible and easily thrilled!
Magic School Bus (1994)
(this one's copy-pasted from last year; sorry not sorry!) I have a deeply held love for every one of these kids (and Ms. Frizzle, and Liz, and the bus) and their adventures. They're all my favorite episodes, but the sound museum and the dinosaurs are my most favorite episodes. There are so many different settings it would be fun to play with in a themed vid (space! animals! weather!), or even a parody (set the dinosaur episode to the Jurassic Park theme! set the asteroid episode where the bus turns into the Enterprise to a Star Trek song! set the episode where the bus breaks down and they take refuge in a spooky house to Rocky Horror!). Or just take footage wildly out of context for a song that encourages that! This is one of the rare cases where I'd also be into a more serious tribute to the characters or show (the class! The Frizzle family! Arnold and Ms Frizzle specifically! SCIENCE!). I didn't vibe with the rebooted Netflix series, but if you have an idea for it (or a crossover) you can't ignore, go wild!
Outer Wilds (2019)
(Highlight redacted text for spoilers!) This is my new favorite game that's both universally loved and totally obscure, so I'm going to pitch it before commenting on the vid potential:
Outer Wilds is a space exploration, puzzle, and mystery video game that's equal parts cute, creepy, and clever. You play as a cute lil four-eyed gender-neutral alien who's just been entrusted with a spaceship made of, more or less, lumber and duct tape that you've been assured PROBABLY won't blow anything up when it launches, and you're set free to explore the mysteries of your solar system - of which there are many, including the imminent explosion of the sun and the time loop you subsequently get caught in. It recently got a DLC expansion I haven't played yet but will have by the time Festivids happens.
This game is stuffed SO full of feelings about space and mysteries and existentialism and peace and hope and campfires! I ADORE every single one of the Hearthians and the scrappy small-town vibe their home has. The ending broke my actual heart. If there was one thing I would change about this game, it would be that I want the hatchling to be able to say a meaningful goodbye to their village and the people in it before breaking the loop. I'd love to see a vid that celebrates any angle of this game. My favorite parts are the feeling of stepping out of your small town into a larger world, the importance of taking home with you wherever you travel (marshmallows! and campfires! and instruments!), the feeling of reaching across history to connect with others that came before you, the vastness and loneliness of space, the creepiness of things happening that can't quite be explained or understood, being able to cause a paradox by meeting your previous-loop self, and of course the cycle of repeatedly learning from your failures and doing better next time. This is another rare case where I'd be into a vid that takes a more serious tone instead of a lighthearted one (though I'd love a lighthearted vid too!!), and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE one that leans into the spookiness!
Not gonna lie, this one would definitely be a vid challenge footage-wise - the gameplay is all first person and there aren't any cutscenes to speak of - but I think the strength of the themes and feelings would come through regardless 🌌♥
Sky High (2005) [SAFETY]
This is a cheesy live-action Disney movie about teenagers with superpowers ranging from "power to control all plant life" to "power to melt into a puddle". For a cheesy live-action Disney movie, the worldbuilding is surprisingly fun, the female characters are great, and there are several nice doses of stereotype subversion (especially in the side characters and plots). Warren, Layla, and the sidekick gang are my faves; I'm a little less invested in Will and Gwen (though I bet a Gwen-POV-focused vid would be really fun). The potential for a Will/Warren/Layla OT3 is literally off the charts and I would LOVE to see that vid. (BONUS: the actor who plays the sensitive bad boy character Warren later went on to play Holden in the Expanse, which I haven't seen but have been told is a fun contrast)
Taskmaster (UK)
SHENANIGANS. UTTER CHAOS. I LOVE the generally-harmless-fun off-the-wall crap everyone on this show comes up with. I LOVE creative solutions that nobody saw coming. I love what a good sport Alex is for putting up with absolutely everything. I love Greg's attitude as a more-or-less-benevolent dictator. I'm not attached to any particular set of contestants so much as the overall wild time, but if you are, feel free to choose a focus!
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (2019)
This WILDLY underrated, one-season-plus-3-OVAs anime is the best examination I've ever seen of what it means to be both fannish and a (young) adult. It stars a set of four friends who work in the same office as they balance their fan hobbies (reading manga/watching anime, gaming, making doujinshi, cosplaying...) with everyday adult life. Literally any celebration of this anime would make me happy but MOST OF ALL the OT4!! Each pair of the four main characters has a different, compelling dynamic together (childhood friends! rivals to lovers! forbidden attraction! celebrity crush! etc!) and I firmly believe that the four of them together work in a way that outclasses the individual canon pairings.
*Personally, I really enjoy video game vids that take a slightly meta angle or demand a little extra suspension of disbelief, and aren't shy about using gameplay footage instead of or in addition to (often cleaner and prettier) cutscene footage. Put another way, I think vids that evoke the experience of playing a game (as opposed to staying fully within the in-game universe) are really fun! Just in case it helps 😊
Some general thoughts: I love vids about characters and/or relationships between characters, romantic or otherwise. I love vids with humor. I love queer and feminist perspectives. I love creative or out-of-context reinterpretations of source material, if they're respectful. I love people being badass, especially ladies. I love complicated feelings that don't fit into boxes. I'm into crossovers, if the mood strikes you. I'm WEAK for a good lyric match (or honestly even a bad one 😂). I don't usually enjoy things that are emotionally serious or sappy.
Re: music, I love almost anything that has both a melody and a beat. If it's pop or sounds like pop I'm probably into it, and bonus points for being upbeat. I have a special fondness for just about anything from the 1960s, the mid-to-late-2000s emo-pop-punk vibe, K-pop from all over the last decade, and badass women (Dessa, Halestorm, and Paramore are my forever faves). I struggle with most instrumentals and folk music. However, this is all just for inspiration - I love discovering new music and it's way more important that YOU like the song (or other audio) enough to vid!
This year I have a dichotomy of requested fandoms! I went absolutely wild when I saw several of my recent favorite video games in the tagset. I'm honestly not sure how viddable any of them are*, but if you're up for a challenge I'd LOVE to see what you can do with one of them! On the other hand, I've also thrown in some of my all-time favorite movies and animated shows that would hopefully be really fun to work with! I'll plunk down some thoughts regarding my favorite parts about each of these fandoms:
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) [SAFETY]
I love Shakespeare, and I love irreverent modern AUs, so of course I love this movie! I truly don't think there's a wrong angle to take with a vid here. I love Kat and her unapologetic independence, but also her dynamic with Patrick; I love every single one of the nods to Shakespeare; I love the tropey plot and the idealized high school vibes and Allison Janney's secretary character and the fact that it's set in Seattle.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)
I LOVE the colorful cast of characters in this game! Every single one of the students (except Lorenz tbh) is my precious child and I adore them, though my favorites are the Blue Lions (however, Edelgard has the right idea, and she should say it, and Claude is absolutely the most fun house leader). I played F!Byleth but I'm not really picky. Here's the challenge: the most traditionally "viddable" parts of this game are the pretty animated story cutscenes, which also happen to be the parts of the game I cared the least about. Personally I wouldn't be very interested in anything that focuses too hard on the tragic drama war stories of any of the main storylines - though it might be really cool and interesting to do a vid that explores the contrast between each of the story routes with kind of a "what if?" or multiple-AUs angle. I would absolutely be interested in anything about the characters, especially any (or all!) of the students, and mostly I think it would be really fun to see a vid that celebrates the less-serious vibe of playing this game - wandering around the monastery picking up after everybody, and watching your precious students glow up and get crushes on each other, and getting reports from the gatekeeper, and the extreme perils of navigating teatime - either with or without contrasting it with the more-serious elements.
Hades (2018)
WHAT a game! I've never been much for roguelikes, but this game is so well designed that it makes even your failures feel satisfying, because you get to go home and pet your dog and talk to your friends and get stronger before trying to break free again, and again, and again. Zagreus is the charming, kind, bisexual disaster protagonist I never knew I needed until he showed up fully formed. I love everyone in this underworld (except Theseus, whom I love to grind into the dirt). I especially love Achilles' mentorship, and Than's pining, and Hypnos consistently being delightfully unhelpful, and Artemis' crits, and the fact that there's a canon bi OT3, and Best Boy Cerberus. I'm not really sure what a Hades vid would even look like, but I'm flexible and easily thrilled!
Magic School Bus (1994)
(this one's copy-pasted from last year; sorry not sorry!) I have a deeply held love for every one of these kids (and Ms. Frizzle, and Liz, and the bus) and their adventures. They're all my favorite episodes, but the sound museum and the dinosaurs are my most favorite episodes. There are so many different settings it would be fun to play with in a themed vid (space! animals! weather!), or even a parody (set the dinosaur episode to the Jurassic Park theme! set the asteroid episode where the bus turns into the Enterprise to a Star Trek song! set the episode where the bus breaks down and they take refuge in a spooky house to Rocky Horror!). Or just take footage wildly out of context for a song that encourages that! This is one of the rare cases where I'd also be into a more serious tribute to the characters or show (the class! The Frizzle family! Arnold and Ms Frizzle specifically! SCIENCE!). I didn't vibe with the rebooted Netflix series, but if you have an idea for it (or a crossover) you can't ignore, go wild!
Outer Wilds (2019)
(Highlight redacted text for spoilers!) This is my new favorite game that's both universally loved and totally obscure, so I'm going to pitch it before commenting on the vid potential:
Outer Wilds is a space exploration, puzzle, and mystery video game that's equal parts cute, creepy, and clever. You play as a cute lil four-eyed gender-neutral alien who's just been entrusted with a spaceship made of, more or less, lumber and duct tape that you've been assured PROBABLY won't blow anything up when it launches, and you're set free to explore the mysteries of your solar system - of which there are many, including the imminent explosion of the sun and the time loop you subsequently get caught in. It recently got a DLC expansion I haven't played yet but will have by the time Festivids happens.
This game is stuffed SO full of feelings about space and mysteries and existentialism and peace and hope and campfires! I ADORE every single one of the Hearthians and the scrappy small-town vibe their home has. The ending broke my actual heart. If there was one thing I would change about this game, it would be that I want the hatchling to be able to say a meaningful goodbye to their village and the people in it before breaking the loop. I'd love to see a vid that celebrates any angle of this game. My favorite parts are the feeling of stepping out of your small town into a larger world, the importance of taking home with you wherever you travel (marshmallows! and campfires! and instruments!), the feeling of reaching across history to connect with others that came before you, the vastness and loneliness of space, the creepiness of things happening that can't quite be explained or understood, being able to cause a paradox by meeting your previous-loop self, and of course the cycle of repeatedly learning from your failures and doing better next time. This is another rare case where I'd be into a vid that takes a more serious tone instead of a lighthearted one (though I'd love a lighthearted vid too!!), and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE one that leans into the spookiness!
Not gonna lie, this one would definitely be a vid challenge footage-wise - the gameplay is all first person and there aren't any cutscenes to speak of - but I think the strength of the themes and feelings would come through regardless 🌌♥
Sky High (2005) [SAFETY]
This is a cheesy live-action Disney movie about teenagers with superpowers ranging from "power to control all plant life" to "power to melt into a puddle". For a cheesy live-action Disney movie, the worldbuilding is surprisingly fun, the female characters are great, and there are several nice doses of stereotype subversion (especially in the side characters and plots). Warren, Layla, and the sidekick gang are my faves; I'm a little less invested in Will and Gwen (though I bet a Gwen-POV-focused vid would be really fun). The potential for a Will/Warren/Layla OT3 is literally off the charts and I would LOVE to see that vid. (BONUS: the actor who plays the sensitive bad boy character Warren later went on to play Holden in the Expanse, which I haven't seen but have been told is a fun contrast)
Taskmaster (UK)
SHENANIGANS. UTTER CHAOS. I LOVE the generally-harmless-fun off-the-wall crap everyone on this show comes up with. I LOVE creative solutions that nobody saw coming. I love what a good sport Alex is for putting up with absolutely everything. I love Greg's attitude as a more-or-less-benevolent dictator. I'm not attached to any particular set of contestants so much as the overall wild time, but if you are, feel free to choose a focus!
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (2019)
This WILDLY underrated, one-season-plus-3-OVAs anime is the best examination I've ever seen of what it means to be both fannish and a (young) adult. It stars a set of four friends who work in the same office as they balance their fan hobbies (reading manga/watching anime, gaming, making doujinshi, cosplaying...) with everyday adult life. Literally any celebration of this anime would make me happy but MOST OF ALL the OT4!! Each pair of the four main characters has a different, compelling dynamic together (childhood friends! rivals to lovers! forbidden attraction! celebrity crush! etc!) and I firmly believe that the four of them together work in a way that outclasses the individual canon pairings.
*Personally, I really enjoy video game vids that take a slightly meta angle or demand a little extra suspension of disbelief, and aren't shy about using gameplay footage instead of or in addition to (often cleaner and prettier) cutscene footage. Put another way, I think vids that evoke the experience of playing a game (as opposed to staying fully within the in-game universe) are really fun! Just in case it helps 😊
