vid tricks

[deird_lj]

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate vids that trick you?


I was watching a Spuffy vid recently, and stopped halfway through in digust, because, mid-vid, Buffy told Spike she loved him.

Except this wasn't last-minute fiery-hands I-love-you - this was sitting at a table and looking up seriously to say I love you.
Because they'd stolen the Buffy-and-Angel "I love you" and pretended that Buffy was saying it to Spike instead!

I just can't stand it. Even if you can't, right then, see what the character's looking at, they were looking at something particular in the original clip, and changing it is just wrong.


So, is it just me?

Comments

[elisi]

Well it depends... if it was a vid that deliberately told the Spike/Buffy story differently (like an AU) then it'd be fine. (The vid might still be bad, but that's another story! *g*)

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

It's just you. :-)

I mean, I've created a Buffy/Faith sex scene in a vid myself purely by intercutting clips of Buffy and Faith having sex with other people so it looks like they're with each other instead. And I stole that idea from someone else's vid where it was Buffy/Willow, but the same concept. I think it's rather clever.

I don't think it would work if it were a really iconic scene for a character, though, thet everybody watching would instantly recognise. You couldn't do the burning-hands scene from Chosen and make believe it was Buffy and Angel. But some random clip? No problem.

For that matter, I've used a clip of Eliza from 'Tru Calling' in a Faith vid before now...

[swsa.livejournal.com]

It's not just you. I get annoyed when I even see Spuffy manips that I know are using B/A photos, or vice versa. I think it's because I'm so much more of a canon person than much of fandom. If I can't find enough to support my ship in canon, then I wouldn't ship them in the first place, you know? I can sort of see doing this if you're doing a total AU with a couple who frankly don't have much of anything in canon to use? But I always feel like swapping B/S, B/R, B/A scenes around is CHEATING. Hee. C'mon, all three have plenty of their own material to use.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_sabik_/]

To be fair, what are the odds that in the original clip the actor was looking at a stand-in, or empty space, or the back side of another set? What are the odds that the original words were spoken alone in a booth with headphones on the ears?

η, "historical documents"

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

"Historical documents!" *snerk*

[cereta.livejournal.com]

It really depends. There have been vids where knowing the context of a clip too well kept me from going where the vidder wanted to lead me, and other vids where it's worked just fine. Such is the tricky element of transformative works ;).

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

I just watched a Spangel video that used a ton of reaction shots of them with other people (lots of other people) and it was a hoot! So, no, it doesn't bother me, per se. But if it's making the story more boring than original version, I can see why you'd be bothered.

[next_to_normal]

Huh. I never really thought about it before. I agree that the example you gave would probably piss me off, but that's more about the ship aspect (unless, like elisi said, it was an AU Spuffy vid. But if they were trying to portray the canon relationship, then I think it's very disingenuous to steal an "I love you").

I could see where in other circumstances it wouldn't bother me - I probably wouldn't even notice unless it was something blatant or a memorable scene.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

I find that Au vids don't work for me because I can so clearly remember who Buffy's actually talking to. Suspension of disbelief doesn't work. So yeah, they're being tricksy, but they fail with me every time.

That's a roundabout way of saying I agree!

[neutralalienist.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't bother me if they explicitly said it was an AU sort of vid - I saw a good Angel/Kate one like that - but then it's not really a trick.