Lost Video Island

[SuperKC]

For those of you that don't know her, my first subject (victim) has been vidding for about two years. She's also been a member of the council at LVI since March of 2006. She works in the fandom LOST and is the mastermind behind such videos as Vertigo and Ethan's Wonderful World as well as countless Saywer-shaped cookies. If you haven't guessed by now, her name is Aislynn & you can find her videos here.


KC: Hello, Aislynn and welcome to The Third Degree. I want to start off by thanking you for agreeing to be my first "guest."

Aislynn: Thanks so much for having me!




KC: Your first video was?

Aislynn: Technically my very first vid ever was a Lord of the Rings slideshow vid but I try not to think about that one too much, lol! My first Lost video was "Vertigo."




KC: Can you tell us about it? How did you come up with the idea? How long did it take you to complete?

Aislynn: I worked for nearly 3 months on "Vertigo." Mainly what took me so long was figuring out how to do the still pic animations for each of the polar bear sequences. That was my first "serious" try at animation and it took me FOREVER to figure it out through trial-and-error! The basic idea came out of desperation: I wanted to make a Lost vid but I had very few clips (in fact, I pretty much used every one that I had at the time!), so I knew I'd have to have something to fill in some of the timeline and also to hopefully tie everything together. I'm not sure why I exactly picked the song -- it was on a compilation CD I had -- but it kept giving me the idea of the polar bear dancing to it and so I just did the best I could to run with that idea.




KC: Did you have any idea it would get the kind of response it did?

Aislynn: Not at all! I wasn't even sure it was going to be allowed on the site! In those days, LVI had to host each vid with its own bandwidth so they were very selective in which vids they accepted. It was SO weird and different from the other vids on site at that time, that I honestly thought I might get an e-mail back kindly asking me to please not send in anymore of my freaky vids!




KC: Tell us a little bit about how you first discovered vidding and what inspired you to try it out for yourself.

Aislynn: My VCR cut off the entire last half of "Confidence Man" so I started scouring the Internet for news of what had happened at the end. I came across a Lost site, started poking around, and discovered Lostcalier's vid, "This Land Is Mine" which had The Kiss in it. I had seen a slideshow style Lord of the Rings vid a little bit before that but I had NO idea that you could make vids out of Real, Live TV Footage. I watched "This Land Is Mine" probably 20 times that first day! I was just stunned at the idea of being able to manipulate video footage to music. I knew I HAD to try it for myself so I started looking for clip sites and gathering what little I could right away but it still took a few months before I had enough to even start "Vertigo." (There were practically NO sites with clips available back in early 2005, so it was a lot more difficult to find clips than it is now.)




KC: Right from the start, your videos were very different from that of your peers in form and function. I want to commend you on that and ask, do you ever run out of original ideas? Because it doesn't seem that way!

Aislynn: Aw, thanks! I actually end up discarding a LOT of my ideas because they feel too "normal." I have a gimmick for every one of my vids (such as the polar bear animations in "Vertigo" or presenting the entire vid as a Dharma Orientation film like "Station Bawitdaba"). I never proceed with a vid without having the gimmick set in my mind. I love to find "discover" something in my vids, whether it's a new take on a character, an AU ship, or just some way of looking at Lost that I haven't seen before. I usually will hear a song and start "seeing" parts of a vid to it in my head. So I'll listen to it over and over, seeing if I can find the gimmick and if there are enough clips to support the story and the gimmick. If the idea can pass all of those tests, then I'll put it in my mental line-up of vids and eventually start the "real" work on it. I hope that as long as I don't run out of songs that inspire me and gimmicks to go along with it, then I'll never run out of ideas!




KC: Do you ever get vidders block? What do you do in those instances?

Aislynn: Oh, I definitely do! I find that usually I have a lot of ideas but just can't seem to actually DO any of them. I can end up terribly frustrated because I want to be vidding but for whatever reason, I just don't seem to be making any head-way. I have a couple of different things I try to get past that. Sometimes all it takes is me thinking, "Forget it, I'm never going to vid again!" and the next thing I know, I can't wait to get in there and work on a vid! I think the main thing is to give yourself time. Unless you're working on a deadline for a contest, then sometimes you just have to give yourself permission to walk away from vidding for a day or two. Let your batteries recharge, so to speak. Then come at it again when you're feeling more "fresh." That usually works for me.

Other times, I'll make a deal with myself that I'm just going to put ONE more clip on the timeline. Just one. Then I can quit vidding for the day and forget about it. But I have to do at least one clip, even if I end up going back and changing it later. There are times when you just have push the vid forward, even if you know that it's not exactly what you want it to be. You can always fix it later, but you've got to have SOMETHING there to fix in the first place! Depending on the situation, usually one or the other of those gets me past vidders block. And of course, I rely heavily on my fellow vidders and friends. They patiently listen to me moan and groan about vidding and offer a friendly shoulder to cry on and give me great advice. I couldn't make it without them!




KC: If I remember correctly, when you began vidding, you used to work from dial-up and had a very primitive editing program. What was that like?

Aislynn: That's right. My first 5 vids were all made with Windows Movie Maker version 1, which could only do basic fades. To do something "exotic" like a fade out to black or white, you had to make up a black or white still pic and fade it into the clip! Everything had to be done by hand. In the end, though, it forced me to approach vidding in a much more creative way. I was always trying to work around WMM's limitations and short-comings yet still produce interesting vids. Using still pic animations was one way I tried to accomplish that. I figured that I couldn't possibly compete with the bigger vidding programs out there on a technical level so I had to try and compete by being creative. I knew I couldn't produce a vid that looked like it had been made with Vegas or Adobe Premiere Pro (which was THE vidding program when I first started vidding), so I had to try and make something unique instead. Then I'd cross my fingers and hope that people wouldn't think I was completely crazy!




KC: What advice would you give to vidders just starting out?

Aislynn: Don't be in a hurry. Don't be afraid to take some time and really work on your vids. Don't settle for mediocre just so you can crank out a vid quickly. Don't hesitate to question yourself, are you taking the easy way out? If a song is "obvious" for a character, then you've got to come up with an interesting angle on it or it's going to blend into the pack. There have been SO many Lost vids done now that you can't settle for doing the obvious (Kate runs! Charlie's a junkie! Jack's got daddy issues!) without giving it a new twist or something "special" beyond JUST that fact.

Don't settle for a generic song that could go with any ship or any character. Find what makes a song special for a certain character or ship. Don't trade quantity for quality: you'll learn more by taking the time and perfecting one vid than you could possibly learn by cranking out 10 vids in that same time frame. Watch a LOT of vids and pay attention to what seems to work and what doesn't. Use that "research" to find your own vidding voice and make vids that are distinctly yours.




KC: What would you say is the hardest part about vidding?

Aislynn: Doing all of those things that I just advised new vidders to do, lol! Vidding, to me, is really all about expressing yourself through music and images. But there are times when it's just hard to figure out what you're trying to say! Especially when you're trying to say it on the beat, lol!




KC: The best?

Aislynn: The absolute best to me is when it WORKS; when I know I've worked hard on a vid and I get feedback that tells me that I managed to say exactly what I wanted to say with it. That part just rocks!




KC: What was your reaction when you were asked to join the council?

Aislynn: I was very surprised! The Council Members set the benchmark for what I was aspiring to do as a vidder myself. I always wanted to become a vidder who would be good enough to be a CM, I just never thought I'd actually get there! And honestly I'm still striving to reach the mark that all the great vidders on this site, CMs and members alike, continue to set with every new vid. I don't think I'll ever actually "get there" in my own mind! But trying is what forces me to come up with new ideas, techniques and skills.




KC: A lot of your videos are AU (Alternate Reality). Is that your favorite kind of vid?

Aislynn: I love great canon vids, of course, but AU is definitely my favorite style to vid in. It lets me really cut loose and get creative with the material! I suppose it's the closest I'll ever get to filming my own movie!




KC: Speaking of AU vids, "Saving Sun" is one of my favorite videos that you've done. Tell us about it.

Aislynn: Why, thank you! "Saving Sun" ended up being the last vid I did with WMM and the first to incorporate some of the customized effects I'd just stumbled across (such as the diamond split-screen where you see Sun in the ocean). It's nowhere near as smooth as the splits that the bigger programs can do but I remember just being SO thrilled to finally be able to do ANY sort of split screen! It was also the first vid I'd done where I wasn't very familiar with the main characters footage ahead of time. That's a little intimidating to vid outside of your "usual" characters but I can now HIGHLY recommend trying to all vidders, especially if they've made several vids with the same set of characters. Vidding somebody new is a challenge but it's a great one!




KC: Which of your videos is your most favorite and why?

Aislynn: I hate to pick a favorite and make the rest of them cry but..."Tonight I Wanna Cry" is probably my all-time favorite. It was my second vid done with Sony Vegas Movie Studio but it was the first time that I really "felt" the potential that the program has. It was a difficult vid to do and I nearly gave up in frustration on it about half a dozen times! But in the end, all of the struggling helped make it a better vid. I hope, anyway!




KC: And the least favorite?

Aislynn: Probably "Cells" if just for the incredible amount of problems I had making it! It was done for a contest and I literally was struggling to get it to render the night of the deadline because of all of the WMM and computer problems I'd had with it. I finally had to break it in pieces, render them separately then combine the pieces back together. I was using WMM 1 (whose rendering levels are noticeably worse than even WMM 2's) so the final rendered-and-rerendered vid had the worst quality of any of my vids. (I hate to admit that I actually cried when I saw it the first time because of how poor the quality came out!) I only turned it in because, after all of that work, I wasn't going to NOT submit it! Then I still had to struggle with uploading it on dial-up after that! So I can never watch it now without remember all of that and it just colors my feelings on it, I suppose!




KC: Your latest video, Fantasy - code name, Red Hot - was pretty steamy! It was a little bit of departure from some of your other videos. Can you tell us about the concept and what inspired you to make it?

The basic concept came from listening to some of my PB&J friends talk in despair about their ship's lack of screen time on the show. I don't personally ship Charlie and Claire (I'm more of a Claire Cult Shipper) but it got me to thinking about Charlie/Claire vids and how I've seen many cute, fluffy, romantic C/C vids and many dark, angsty C/C vids, but I'd never actually seen a passionate sort of C/C vid. So that got my AU-loving side to wondering if I could make one! I had mentally set the song aside as a potential Skate vid but as soon as I decided to try this concept, I "donated" the song to this vid. I knew that this one would be significantly different in theme than anything I've done so far, but I was hoping that it would be well-received (and that the PB&Jers would like it!).




KC: Are there any songs you've always wanted to vid, but haven't yet?

Aislynn: I was always disappointed that I never could do Stabilo's "Flawed Design" as a Sawyer vid. I worked on it for quite a while but never could "solve" the problem lyrics of the first verse and the really insane staccato rhythm at the start. I even tried cutting out that entire verse but then that made the rest of the song not make much sense. I had a very complicated gimmick for that one, one that was really too ambitious for my ability that I had with Sony Vegas Movie Studio at the time. So it was a frustrating vid in more ways than one! But I still plan on going back and trying it again one day!



KC: What songs do you feel are overdone?

Aislynn: I don't so much get tired of hearing the same songs done over again (after all, there are only so many songs out there and we all have to "share" to some degree!). When a vidder puts their own personal stamp on a vid (and I don't mean a watermark, lol!), then they can take a song and make it their own, whether or not there have been several vids already done to that same song before. What I get tired of, if that's the right word, is seeing vidders not live up to their potential. They settle for a fast, quick, "easy" vid that doesn't challenge their skills when they could've taken it and made it something amazing.




KC: Do you have any favorite vids, other than your own?

Aislynn: Oh I have a TON of vids that I consider my "comfort vids." I keep them in a folder on my hard drive and watch them when I want to laugh, cry or just be impressed by a vidder's amazing skill. There are far too many for me to ever try to name (unless you don't mind me rambling on for a couple of pages and I'd still probably end up leaving a couple of my favorites out then kicking myself for it!).




KC: Are there any vidders you admire, any that inspire you?

Aislynn: Again, there are far too many to name because there are some extremely talented vidders here! However, I think pumpkin_heart deserves a special shout-out, just for the way she has mastered WMM. She can work that program like it's one of the big video editors and make it look effortless. She combines creative ideas with interesting techniques and sheer determination. She doesn't settle for mediocre, she's always pushing for something newer, better and different. That wins my respect every time. She's learned what that program can do and she constantly takes it to the edge and does it with style.




KC: Are there any of your vids you'd do over again differently? How?

Aislynn: I would definitely cut down the song on "Wanted Dead or Alive." In the time since I did that one, I've learned that you're better off to not "stretch" a vid to fill a song if you can help it. If you only have 3 minutes worth of story and a 4 and a half minute long song, that's an AWFUL lot of filler you're going to put in there! The tighter and more compact a vid is, the more powerful your clip choices will seem, rather than if you have to periodically break to fill in some time. I'm not sure if "Wanted" comes across as hideously "filled" (I hope not!) but I would never again feel like I "had" to leave a song at its full length, just because I was afraid of cutting it down.





KC: Can you tell us about what you're working on now? Anything in the planning stages?

Aislynn: I'm venturing into non-Lost vids for the first time (not counting that LotR slideshow vid, of course). I have a Battlestar Galactica vid in progress and I'm considering a short Grey's Anatomy Denny and Izzie shipper vid after that. As for Lost, I have several ideas "simmering," including a Sawyer/Sin City crossover that I've wanted to do for a long while, as well as a Locke character vid I started a few months ago but didn't quite have the technical skills to finish that I'm eager to get back to. And there's always the better-than-average chance that inspiration will strike out of the blue! That's where most of my vids have come from, as a matter of fact.




KC: And with that, I'll conclude this interview. Thank you very much, Aislynn. It's been a pleasure. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have in store for us in the future. Do you have any parting words for us?

Aislynn: Thanks so much for inviting me to your first interview ! I'm very honored! As for parting words, well, I've already had the chance to say quite a bit so all I think I'll conclude with is this: the bottom line about vidding is that it's supposed to be FUN. If you make the vid that you wanted to make, that's fun for you to watch, that you know you did your best on, then you've made a vid to be proud of and nothing else really matters. Happy vidding!




NEXT TIME on The Third Degree: Fan4Lost

[Fan4Lost]

Commented at CE but this was so awesome had to swing over here and comment as well.

First off, you couldnt have picked a more qualified vidder to start this off with. I mean, it's Aislynn! She's the queen bee!

Second, the questions were so very well thought out and blended together perfectly.

Third, Aislynn's responses are beautiful. Listen up everyone, becasue Aislynn has great advice on vidding. I have turned to her many a time for help and she has always been patient and understanding. She has a good eye and a good ear for vidding and in my book one the best vidders around. And i'm not kissing hiney either, I barely even come here anymore, no reason to kiss hiney.


Really great idea KC! I love yur brain!

[cylune]

That was fascinating. Thank you KC for that amazing interview and thanks to Aislynn for giving us so much insight into her craft. She sure knows her stuff. I love the point she made about taking your time to make a video in order to achieve your full potential. Take your time and make it the best you can!
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[Di]

Wow! That's such a great interview! The questions were really clever and interesting and I just couldn't help but read the whole thing! And Aislynn's answers made me love her even more! She's got some great advices and thoughts on vidding, and not just for newbies!

Wow, KC! Can't wait to read the next interview... and any other that you make. (There will be more, right? RIGHT???)

[marcus]

This is so awesome, KC. Aislynn gave some great tips on vidding and all the questions were really well thought out and interesting. Looking forward to counting the typos in-- err, I mean...reading...Steph's interview.
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It's official - Aislynn is 36. Add a 0 to the end of that and you've got a full circle.

[IamSoLostRightNow]

Wow. This was sooo fantastic. Thank you both for doing this. It was a great learning experiance.

Great concept!

I can not wait for the nexty one!
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[SuperKC]

Wow I'm so happy you guys liked it. It was just a brainchild of mine that needed to happen. Already got the next interview scheduled! No worries there!

Hope you enjoy the series!


Poor Aislynn's got the flu right now but I'm sure she'll be excited to see all of your nice comments when she feels better!

[IntoTheVoid]

LMAO an internet chat show! This was so good. And I smiled at all of Aislynn's answers

LOL you should do a PodCast
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"Jack is the guy she should be with.
She does genuinely love him.
And she knows that he would take excellent care of her." - Damon Lindelof

[Borislava]

Hey....that was great interview
Yep...I support Elle's idea for the podcast...it'll be awesome!
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It’s been a long year
Since we last spoke
How’s your halo?
Just between you and I
..................
For blue, blue skies
I’ll forgive you

[SuperKC]

Haha, thanks guys. I wouldn't even know where to begin to do a podcast. LOL.

[IntoTheVoid]

LOL well neither would I.. its a good idea! We'll just never do it. Heh.
_________________

"Jack is the guy she should be with.
She does genuinely love him.
And she knows that he would take excellent care of her." - Damon Lindelof

[Borislava]

Yes...i don't know how to make one too...but we should really think of making one
_________________
It’s been a long year
Since we last spoke
How’s your halo?
Just between you and I
..................
For blue, blue skies
I’ll forgive you

[SuperKC]

I'm going to look into seeing how you make one. I might need some co-hosts. Look out.

[LOSTOnAnIsland]

Great job with this KC!
Podcast would be a great idea!

BTW how camp does Naveen Andrews look on tht pic!

[rbexter93]

I love it! I'd be a co-host! lol
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