eruthros

thingswithwings and I were talking about sockkpuppett's list of the top five vids of 2008 for NY Magazine. And we thought, wouldn't it be great to turn this into a meme and have a whole bunch of people share their top five? And share the joy of these vids all over again?

Turns out top five is really, really hard. Especially when I mostly want to gush and tell y'all to go watch them.

In no particular order:
( Best vids of 2008, plus, uh, maybe a couple honorable mentions )

So! That's my top five ... plus. I hope some of you guys pick up the idea and make your own lists, because I want to see the awesomeness that I've missed!

ETA: thingswithwings's list is here.

Clearly the whole "once a week" thing was more of an estimate than anything else. I'm home sick again today, so I'm in the mood for bouncy-upbeat music and giggling. Hence action vids rather than, say, unrequited love vids. I'm really not as shallow sex-and-violencey as my previous post and this one would imply. Honest.

Some people believe that action vids are automatically "recruiter" vids -- vids you can show to people to interest them in a show -- but I don't agree. For one, action is probably the least likely thing to interest me in a show, and the vids I've found to be best for recruiting are actually ThatFangirl's "China" (B5) and Laura Shapiro's "Rook" (XF), both of which are slow and atmospheric and character-driven. Plus, just because a vid is mostly about action and fighting and jumping around and has fast cuts doesn't mean that it doesn't have an internal narrative, or that the clips don't make more sense in context. Some action vids are so fast-paced, in fact, that they make very little sense to someone who isn't very familiar with the source, familiar enough to place clips in half a second. (These vids should all be fun even if you don't know the source, but they might make more sense if you do.)

( Wicked Amp's Buffy vid 'Fight' to 'Fur Elise - Techno Remix,' song by Vanessa Mae )

( Rob1's Smallville vid 'Freak No. 1' to 'Le Freak,' song by Chic )

( Imation's Angel vid 'Black Suits Comin',' song by Will Smith )

( Nancy's Firefly vid 'Die Another Day,' song by Madonna )

More to come.

Remember: just because a vidder's site is password protected is no reason to give up on ever seeing that vid. Vidders don't password-protect to keep you out; they password-protect to control bandwith, to keep TPTB out, and to make sure that everyone who downloads their vids knows that distributing them without the vidder's permission is not cool. It really is okay to ask a vidder for the password; they don't hate you, they don't care whether or not you're a BNF, and whatever you say will be fine.

So those of you who talk to me fairly often probably already know that I collect songvids. (And index them. Because I have obsessive organization problems.) I have 8+ hours of songvids. Really.

I just added some stuff to my comedy-favorites playlist. Good comedy vids are harder to make (or so I understand) than good drama, and a lot of the thing on this playlist are dramatic too -- constructed reality vids, for example, or vids where the song choice is underlying snark at characters or the concept of the show. So subtle funny, which is the best kind. A comic song does not a funny vid make, but sometimes it really works.

Anyway, I thought I'd post the contents of said playlist here in case anyone is interested. This playlist starts with broader humor and heads subtle as it goes -- 22 vids for a total of about an hour and ten minutes. The lj cuts are there for people who might only be interested in a few fandoms; if all them lj-cuts irritate you, you can just click through and read all the way down.

I start off nice and meta with Jackie K.'s "If You Were In My Movie," song by Suzanne Vega. ( Read more... )

And the I go through a whole bunch of vignette-type vids, which can use one-shot jokes because they only last for fifteen seconds. One Sick Fuck Production's "Cheap Shots" and "Highlander - Cheap Shots" are a bunch of songs cut together, so a bunch of artists. ( Read more... )

The other vignette vid I particularly like is Waldo's "Polka Party," song by Weird Al. ( Read more... )

Alasen's "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" is a single-vignette vid, about forty seconds long. ( Read more... )

Karoli's Smallville vid to "I Can Change" from the South Park Movie is one of the ultimate comedy vids. ( Read more... )

The vidder here probably didn't mean this vid to be funny. It's supposed to be a heartfelt mix of song and clips and emotions. But it is so hilarious. Because Phoenix vidded Mulder/Krycek. To Britney Spears. "... Baby One More Time." ( Read more... )

Then a vid where the song choice really makes the vid funny, although this one is intentional. Vyra did a Buffy season six vid to... "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." ( Read more... )

Songs without lyrics are often difficult to vid to, but Fangirl pulls it off with a Firefly vid to "Go Go Cactusman," the Cowboy Bebop theme. ( Read more... )

Wendy came up with a perfect, perfect song choice for a vid about the Mayor: "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile." ( Read more... )

Lithium Doll did a vid about the Firefly crew pulling their stunts to "Good Ol' Boys," the Dukes of Hazard theme. ( Read more... )

Then a multi-fandom vid by Diana Williams to "RESPECT" by Pink. This is also probably not supposed to be a comedy vid. ( Read more... )

Sisabet's "Cowboy," to the Kid Rock song, is both a serious character study and a good comic vid at the same time. ( Read more... )

Crazygrrl did an excellent Angel/Buffy vid to Prozzak's "Strange Disease." ( Read more... )

Then I do two constructed reality vids. Constructed realities aren't always funny -- Killa and T. Jonesy's "Closer" is the best constructed reality vid I've ever seen and isn't funny at all. Wrenching and horrible and really wonderfully done. /tangent.

The first is Soappocrates' "If I Were a Drinker," song by Travis Tritt. ( Read more... )

Killa and Carol S. did a Highlander constructed reality to "Opportunities," song by the Pet Shop Boys. ( Read more... )

Then another Killa vid, this time with T. Jonesy and Hafital: a Captain Kirk character study to "Razzle Dazzle," performed by Richard Gere. ( Read more... )

Then a Highlander vid by Luminosity to "Not a Virgin Anymore," song by Poe. ( Read more... )

Pamela J. Smith did a wonderful SG-1 vid to "Dead" by TMBG. ( Read more... )

And look, it's another Killa vid, this time with Melina. Amanda-themed to Rockapella's "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" ( Read more... )

Well, you can beat it with sineala's wonderful, wonderful "Sorry," an X-Files vid to the Nerf Herder song. ( Read more... )

And that's it, finally. Those of you who were wondering if I was ever going to post about fandom again are probably very sorry now. *g*