Lost Video Island

[LVI Council]

This month's Featured CM is... the talented and lovely Jemma! (Jemmz)!



Jemma has been a member of LVI since 2006, and has been a hard working member of the LVI Council since 2009. In addition to her Council work, Jemma has contributed eighty-five videos to the site, ranging from trailers to crossovers, to original character vids. No matter what she chooses to vid, Jemma always manages to wow us with her creative ideas and fantastic editing.

1) What got you interested in vidding?

I remember when I was about 13 I became very obsessed with Lost, and it was around that time that I was discovering the internet more and I stumbled across Youtube. I found some great fanvideos on there for the show (mostly Charlie/Claire of course…) and I remember being amazed and really excited at the idea of celebrating something you love through fanvideos. Of course back then I had no clips so I resorted to using images I found off google and because I was such a newbie I uploaded them to Youtube without rendering first, and I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working, so I think I may have given up for a bit until I realised the proper way of doing it. But ultimately it was seeing other people’s fanvids that got me interested. Eventually while searching for my own Lost clips, I came across this amazingly helpful site a looooong time ago and I haven’t left since.

2) Do you have a tip, trick, or technique to share?

Consistency and patience is really important with me. Fanvids can quickly get sloppy if they aren’t consistent in beat use or colouring etc and especially if they’re rushed. Don’t upload vids in too much of a hurry. There’s been so many occasions where I looked back on a vid and am disappointed about how I didn’t take the time to improve it and make it what I wanted. It doesn’t have to be 100% perfect, but just take the time to make it something you can be proud of, something you can rewatch later and not wish you would have changed something about it. It also irks me when people cut off their vids right in the middle and call that the end. It just disrupts the entire flow of the video. You’ve made a nice video and ending right will just be the icing on the cake. Also, I’m not sure if this is a trick, but I always put my colouring on first, that way whilst you’re making it you can see if the colouring looks okay with all the clips you’re adding to the timeline. That’s another thing I’d like to add, colouring and textures that are too intrusive and also too many effects can ruin a video. Sometimes less is more.

3) What are your favorite current fandoms?

Well, at the moment I’m big on Terra Nova, Falling Skies, Supernatural, The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, The Avengers and The Vampire Diares but there’s about 6 billion more I’m very fond of including Lost which will probably always be my main fandom

4) What was your first vid and what is your favorite vid you've done?

The first vid I submitted here was a sad Charlie/Claire video about Charlie’s death because that really hurt and it still does, plus Charlie and Claire will always be the mother of all my OTPs. I was quite happy with it at the time because I was big on lyric use back then, and still am, but I thought I did my best to match the clips to the lyrics and make quite a heartfelt and emotive vid of my favourite couple, and that to me was quite exciting. My favourite vid…I honestly don’t think I have a favourite but the ones I enjoy most have to be my crossovers and AUs, although I am quite fond of Read My Mind || The Listener Ensemble because I rarely do ensembles and it was for a show that I love and I had a lot of fun with it, especially as it seemed to get other people interested in the show!

5) Do you have any goals as far as skill improvement or dream projects?

Oh lots I’m sure. I would like to improve on masking for my AUs, and colouring and just the general overall look of my videos. I’m still learning how to use textures and overlays as I’m not so comfortable with them and tend to just do plain videos with colouring, so I would love to master that. I have had millions of dream projects over the years that have been in the back of my mind for a long time. One of them is a crazy crossover of my favourite shows about the characters trying to save the world, and I actually started on it and even started on a trailer but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time. Otherwise, it’s just the usual stuff on my list. Some time I would like to get round to vidding for shows and OTPs I haven’t vidded for yet, and a couple crazy crossovers that are probably a little less ambitious than the one I already mentioned!

6) Have your studies in Creative Writing influenced the way that you vid or the way that you approach new vid ideas?

This is a really interesting question. I have been interested in English Lit for a long time and have been studying that and creative writing at Uni for almost a year and a half now. Some of you might remember my Jack Othello vid which was hugely inspired by my study of the play at GCSE. It was a really ambitious idea that I just had to do and I was pretty proud of how it came out. Recently though, I think it may have certainly inspired how I plan my AUs. I remember with I Won’t Let You Go, I sat down and planned it like I would a story and the entire plot just came to me. I think this is also the case with my OCs, since some of them are based off fanfiction and stories that I’m planning.

7) You have done some really great OC, AU, and crossover vids. What elements do you think are most important in these types of vids?

Thank you Ahh these kind of vids are tricky because there’s so many different ways you can approach them. I know a lot of people do AUs and Crossovers without audio and sell the story solely on clips, which is great, but in most cases I tend to track down audio I can use to help make my vid just that extra bit realistic. I remember with my Hawaii 5-0/Lost crossover, I did lots of research and as I was watching the second series of Hawaii 5-0 I wrote down a lot of the dialogue to match it up with anything I could use from Lost. That way, I found some really awesome manips and I think the result worked out pretty well! With visual manips I think colouring is very important because it breaks the realism if you have two clips with vastly different colouring when they’re supposed to be the same ‘scene’. This is what I find most challenging, just trying to match up these clips as if they’re from the same source. It can be a nightmare and if you put on too much it can look like a mess. I think the most important element however is simply to care about what you’re vidding and to put as much effort in as you can, that way other people will see and appreciate that and care about the story you’re trying to tell too

Featured Videos:

Worlds Collide || Trailer - an epic, clever, and professional looking movie-style trailer for the TV show "Terra Nova".
Jack Othello - a brilliant, dramatic, well-executed take on Shakespeare's Othello with a Lost spin.
The Call - a beautiful, lyrical Lost ensemble video centered around the finale and flash-sideways.

Thank you so much, Jemma, for all the wonderful work you do at LVI! <3

[Uruviel]

Congrats Jemma! Great interview! You are an awesome CM!

[eloramoon]

Congratulations, Jemma! <3 <3 <3

[Im1oftheOceanic6]

Congrats, Jemma!

I always enjoy your vids. I really liked your Terra Nova vid, Worlds Collide.
Terra Nova was such an underappreciated show, so it was great to see a vid dedicated to it.

Macaila

[Wildcat]

Congratulations, Jemma! I loved reading what you had to say and all of your videos are always so awesome!

[Jemmz]

Thank you so much guys :D

[Charlies_Innocence]

Congrats, Jemma! Loved reading your answers, you have some great thoughts!