Dear Festividder,
Hi! I'm ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
SweetPollyOliver on AO3. Thank you so much for offering one of the fandoms I've requested! I can't wait to see what you make :D
General vid and music related likes
- Humourous lyrics or ironic pairings of clips with lyrics for a humorous effect
- Character study vids
- Ensemble vids
- Uptempo vids with lots of quick cuts on the beat and a sense of movement
- But also: slower, contemplative vids with long clips
- Vids with a strong narrative/emotional arc
- Music specific likes:
- Vocal jazz, especially Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Chet Baker (my token white man in this category, lol). I mostly listen to stuff from the 1930s-1960s, but I'd be thrilled to get something set to more contemporary jazz too
- Great American Songbook singers, i.e. anyone known for singing things composed by Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc. but especially Judy Garland
- Motown, e.g. Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5 and Smokey Robinson
- Disco, e.g. The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Boney M., Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan and the Village People
- Rock and pop from the 1960s-1980s, e.g. The Mamas & the Papas, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Cher, The Turtles, The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, ABBA and Queen
- Contemporary pop, e.g. Carly Rae Jepsen, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Mitski, Hayley Kiyoko, Marina (& the Diamonds), Florence + the Machine
- Contemporary hip hop and R&B, e.g. Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Shea Couleé and Janelle Monáe
- Pop folk, e.g. Simon & Garfunkel, Sufjan Stevens, Belle and Sebastian, Mumford & Sons and Joni Mitchell
- Musical theatre e.g. Patti Lupone, Audra McDonald, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel
- Country, e.g. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Trixie Mattel, Skeeter Davis, Loretta Lyn, Woody Guthrie, Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, Norah Jones, Lil Nas X, Sheryl Crow and Miley Cyrus
Other notes regarding vid preferences
There aren't any genres of music that I actively dislike and if you get the vibe that I would like something based on the things I have listed above, and it's not a DNW, then you're probably right. I don't listen to a huge amount of instrumental music, but I do enjoy it! Also feel free to vid something to a non-music audio source, such as poetry. I don't have strong opinions about talky face, so unless it's something you personally prefer to avoid then don't worry about it on my account. I also don't mind dialogue in vids, but I prefer that it's over instrumental sections of the music with no lyrics, that there is no audible music from the source's score, and that the volume of the song the vid is set to is adjusted so that the dialogue isn't fighting with it.
DNWs
- Vids set to music by Michael Bublé or Taylor Swift
- On-screen suicide
- Footage of rats
- Strobing or sudden bright lights
Requested fandoms
Porridge (TV 1974)
I rewatched Porridge a little while ago for the first time in years and was suddenly and violently reminded of how much I shipped Fletch and Godber when I saw the show as a teenager, a thing which a dear friend, who shall remain nameless, said that it made "total sense" as a ship for me, presumably given my long documented weakness for pudgy middle aged con-men, and for pairing them with wide eyed younger and more innocent sidekicks who adore them. You do not have to come with me on the magical journey of shipping Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale if that's not something that makes sense for you though, and I would be more than delighted with a gen vid.Some specific ideas if that would be helpful
I think that the obvious route to go is to do something funny, possibly related to Fletch's many schemes, or his antagonistic relationship with Mr MacKay, or something about his relationship with Godber through either a canon-aligned gen lens or a shippy lens, or maybe a bigger ensemble vid about the inmates in Slade Prison managing to not let the bastards grind them down through various means. If you wanted to do something less lighthearted than the show itself usually was about incarceration that would also be cool to see.
When Harry Met Sally (1989) [SAFETY]
I have been completely obsessed with this movie since I was about twelve. I do not in any way co-sign the semi-implicit theme that men and women can never be friends, because the sex always gets in the way, but that's never spoiled the movie for me. I can totally buy that this man and woman can't just be friends. I just love Sally's fussy perfectionism and optimism and Harry's nihilistic cynicism and I don't see them as "you know what women/men are like!" archetypes at all, because they feel so much like real and individual people to me.That said! (specific ideas and prompts)
You do not have to feature the romance centrally, or at all, if you'd prefer to focus on other elements of the movie, like a character study of one of them, or something about Sally's relationship with her friend Marie (played by the late great Carrie Fisher and who is amazing in this movie), possibly combining it with Harry's friendship with Jess, or Marie and Jess's romantic relationship, or Harry and Sally's friendship, or all of the above in a kind of metacommentary on the film's thesis that romantic and/or sexual attraction surpasses platonic love. I think that there are also so many beautiful visuals of New York in the movie that you could make use of if you wanted to do something about the city as a character in the movie.
Gattaca (1997) [SAFETY]
I'm always kind of surprised when people say that Gattaca has aged poorly in its takes about disability, because I kind of think it's spot on? It's a very powerful commentary on eugenics and ableism in my opinion, and things like Jerome/Eugene's internalised ableism regarding his paralysis and his anger with himself for not living up the expected potential of his genome is not co-signed by the movie itself as far as I can tell.At any rate (ideas and prompts)
I think that you could pull on some interesting threads about ableism and meritocracy if you vidded this. I think it would probably be a more serious and somber vid, because while I do like humour the only way I could really see a way of incorporating it here if I were to do something myself is by picking something with bitterly ironic lyrics about not being good enough? I do also ship the hell out of Vincent/Jerome and Jerome/Eugene, so you're more than welcome to play with that dynamic if it interests you. I think that there's some fun identity fuckery things to tease out there and it would be very interesting to see that in a vid as opposed to a fic. I don't not ship the canon f/m ship though, so please don't feel like Irene is not welcome in the vid! Again, I think that while obviously the movie is about specific indivuals and how the eugenicist society they live in has affected them, it does also affect the whole of society, so an ensemble vid with multiple characters (possibly including the guy at the end who didn't blow Vincent/Jerome's cover because his own child would probably face workplace descrimination based on their genetics as he wasn't "all that they promised, but then who knows what he could do?")—maybe something that featured lines of dialogue from the movie? Although I think with the right song choice there are certainly the visuals to convey that kind of message. Something about Vincent's relationship with his brother, and family, would also be interesting, possibly as part of a character study. Just a note: please do not feature footage of the canonical suicide scene.
Willow (TV 2022)
The Willow movie from the 1980s is incredibly dear to me and I was really looking forward to this show for a long time (it kept getting pushed back, which made waiting feel agonizing and now... well. Anyway.) but it turned out to be everything I could ever have wanted from a sequel/reboot. Visually, it's so in keeping with the aesthetic of the movie, with the higher production values not implying a disrespect or reinvention of what came before. Also! The new characters are so, so amazing! The returning characters are also amazing and there isn't this kid-gloves treatment where they're afraid to present beloved characters as complex and flawed.Prompts/ideas
I think that you could span the whole spectrum from a very straight epic fantasy vibe to something more irreverant and silly. The show handles both tones very well and either (or a combination of both) would be very in keeping with that. I think a contemporary choice of music would work well—maybe a cover of something from the 80s if you wanted to get meta with it? I love all the characters and an ensemble vid, or a character study of any of them, or a shippy vid with any of the canon relationships, or perhaps something about Elora and Kit's contentious relationship, which I am basically sitting there chewing through a chair leg about every time I see them on screen together. Some character specific angles I can think of is maybe a Kit vid about her relationship to her family and to the privileges and responsibilities of nobility, something about Jade's relationship to Galladorn, both before and after [SPOILERS REDACTED], a vid about Boorman being annoyed by the younger cast/Kit in particular and trying not to let on that he's warming up on them, something about Willow's arc from the movie to the show and the tragedy he's lived through and the weight of responsibility on him, or something about Graydon's relationship to magic and the guilt he lives with. There is a lot of scope in this fandom and I really don't thinkt here's a wrong move here, so if you have a different idea then by all means go for it!
Cagney & Lacey (TV 1981)
Full disclosure: I started watching this show primarily, some might say exclusively, for reasons of being thirsty for Martin Kove (and then very rapidly started being thirsty for Tyne Daly). However! It's so much more than that. It is, of course, a cop show, with all that that entails, but I think that, in many ways, it does a better job of portraying nuance and honesty about the failings of the police than a lot of more contemporary police procedurals? Your mileage may vary, of course. I certainly think that it holds up very well compared to its contemporaries in the genres at any rate though.Prompts/ideas
I think that there's a lot of ways you could go on this! You could do something about gendered expectations of the 1980s (in the police force and more generally), you could do something about friendship, you could do something that was explicitly critical of the show's more overtly copaganda moments. Music-wise, I think something from the time period would work well, but that's not to say that something more modern, or something from an earlier time period, like something deeply sexist that came out when that sentiment was less controversial in the mainstream, along the lines of Wives and Lovers. In terms of the titular character themselves, I am deeply compelled by the contradictions and self interest of Cagney's politics, where sexism (against her) is very bad, but she's otherwise markedly conservative and status quo (and I think Republican? Oof, Christine...). I personally read her as I see her as a closeted (even to herself) lesbian and/or aromantic who has been very messed up by being raised by her socially conservative father. Something about her struggles with alcoholism would be very interesting, as would something about her stated feminism juxtaposed with her willingness to pull the ladder up behind herself and judge women who make choices she disapproves of, or come from backgrounds she is prejudiced against, or her partnership with Lacey, or her issues with maintaining romantic relationships, etc. For Lacey, I love her relationship with her husband and how unconventional it is for TV marriages of the time period, where he stayed at home with the boys for the first few seasons and does most of the cooking, etc. I also love how they are both such raging pinkos, because I think it would have been very easy for the show to be like "She is the married one who has kids, so therefore the conservative, as opposed to the sexually liberated single one with no dependents." Something about how she's in the era of "you can have it all!" and how demanding it actually is to try to have it all would be really great, as would something about her partnership with Cagney, or something about her politics (either juxtaposed against the background sexism of her workplace, against Cagney's politics, or against her own choice to join the police force). I am also, and I say this merely as a passaway thought that you do not have to pay much mind to, not at all opposed to shirtless footage of Martin Kove in the mix somewhere...
Steele Justice (1987) [SAFETY]
So uh... yeah. About how I'm violently in lust with Martin Kove? That was the one and only reason I watched this movie the first time and I wasn't expecting it to have any appeal other than beefcake, but... oh my god. I could not have been more wrong. This is an extremely bizarre, but amazing, action movie where Kove plays an ex-cop and Vietnam verteran John Steele whose former partner gets killed by an organised criminal gang (full disclosure: the former partner and the criminal organisation are both Vietnamese) and who he... okay, so the plot is kind of so hard to follow that I experience it every time as if for the first in some ways, but basically he gets frustrated with the bureaucracy and ineptitute of The Proper Authorities and wages a one-man vigilante war against the gang. Which... he seems to face absolutely no consequences for at the end of the movie, where he also steals a police car and drives off from his ex-boss who is trying to beg him to come back to the police force. It is The movie of all time and not just because Martin Kove is at his most beautiful and objectifiable. With some caveats*, I highly recommend that you watch it and experience it in all it's baffling majesty!Prompts/ideas
So, look, I would admire you a lot if you managed to full of a serious vid for this movie, but I think that going broad and silly is a very viable option that would be much easier. You can also go ham on the beefcake, because I'm absolutely here for it. Steele also has this incredibly homoerotic vibe with his ex-partner (who is essentially his fridged wife?) whose wive seemed absolutely fine with it and whose daughter he is implied to adopt, so if you could get enough footage for something that frames that relationship as explicitly romantic and you wanted to go for that, please feel more than welcome to!
The Tick (TV 2017)
I am madly in love with this show. It is so silly and while it is occasionally winking at the camera, it is deeply and earnestly sincere and is never embarrassed about being a superhero show in the way a lot of modern superhero comic adaptations seem to be.Prompts and ideas
I like all of the characters and something about any of them and any of their relationships would be welcome (with the exception of Arthur/Danger Boat where Arthur reciprocates DB's feelings, because I am not always super comfortable with the way DB harasses Arthur being played for laughs, even if he is a boat with a sentient AI). I really love Arthur and Dot's sibling relationship where they sometimes almost resent each other and can try to restrict each other's agency in the name of protecting them, but they love each other so deeply. I also am always here for Dot and Overkill's relationship, either played as romantic or platonic, and I love how Dot's arc from season one to two and the part that Overkill played in it. I also love, love, love The Tick and his big blue heart. Gotta love a superhero with amnesia who is not really torn up about it, because he's just happy to be here. I do ship him and Arthur, but as with all the shippy things I've mentioned in this letter, that's definitely an optional extra. In terms of tone, I think that it's one where you can have high highs and low lows and you can go silly or serious or anywhere in between (or both!).
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) [SAFETY]
I said in my Yuletide letter that I could watch this movie every day for a month and not get sick of it and I knew that because I'd done it and... yeah. Still very much that.Prompts/Ideas
This is another one where I think an ensemble vid would work great, but any indvidiual you wanted to zoom in on or a particular interpersonal relationship would also be amazing. My one caveat here is that I do not buy that Doric reciprocates Simon's feelings for her... or that him not being confident enough was the issue in the first place, if you catch my drift. My drift being that I think she's a lesbian and I have no idea why that wasn't explicitly canon. Honestly my one criticism of the movie was that it could have been gayer, given that D&D is the queer nerd game. If you wanted to do a vid along those lines then that would be amazing! I, along with half the internet and their dog, am also deeply compelled by Edgin/Xenk and their whole thing where Edgin finds him insufferable and Xenk seems to find it very funny how annoyed he can make Edgin by being polite, straightforward, morally upright and implying that Edgin is at heart and honourable and good person. Ugh, what a jerk, right? 🤣 Something about Edgin's family (him and Zia and/or Kira; him and Holga; him, Kira and Holga; him and the party; any combination of the above) would be very lovely as well and I think it's one you could play pretty straight if you weren't in the mood for jokey jokes, or one where you could have humour, sentimentality, and pathos alongside each other. I also am here for Simon's arc of getting better at magic through gaining self confidence (Tub Thumping anyone?), or something about Forge being a smarmy bastard (I love him). I am here for any kind of vid for this fandom, honestly, so feel very free to follow your muse.
Marilyn Monroe Movies [UMBRELLA]
I once came out of HMV with about six Marilyn Monroe DVDs and put them in a bag from the bookshop where I'd bought a book about her and my sister said, "But you can kind of take or leave Marilyn, can't you?" because what are siblings for if not to make sport of you. I think Marilyn was such a subtle and talented actor and it's such a shame that even now she's primarily remembered as a sex symbol and almost... a part of American iconography, whose personal tragedies only make her more consumable, as opposed to a real person who was highly skilled at her craft and dedicated to it and who had a difficult life that was not a predestined tragedy or a cautionary tale. My favourite movies of hers are Some Like it Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, Niagra, and Don't Bother to Knock. She doesn't have a huge role in it, but I also quite like her in There's No Business Like Show Business. I haven't seen all of her films, but feel free to pull from any of her work. I don't have any specific ideas, but I think there's a lot that you could play around with intertexually.
Only Murders in the Building (TV)
They called it the intergenerational friendship murder mystery show of dreams... and it was. It really was. Well, is, it's been renewed for season 4. But. Yeah.Ideas/prompts
I just love how to the forefront anxieties about ageing and failure to reach expected markers of acheivement (either professionally, romanticaly, familially, or otherwise) is in this, in many ways, very silly comedy show. The highs are so high, the lows are so low, the silliness is so silly. I think that you could go very comedic or very dramatic with this and mix the two as much or as little as you wanted. I am always here for stuff about the central trio's relationship with each other, but I also highkey ship Theo Dimas with Mabel and would not be at all averse to seeing something along those lines. I also think that the rest of the cast are very interesting: Bunny and Uma's friendship, Howard's arc from lonely shut in whose only friend is his cat to someone who plays an active role in the plot as a recurring character, Cinda Canning and her... spectacular terribleness. I do support women's wrongs and Cinda is amazing. I am open to something shippy about Charles and Oliver, but I say that just on the off-chance that you wanted to do something like that anyway and weren't sure if I'd like it, so no pressure.
If you are someone browsing letters to scout out potential treats: hello! Thank you for the kind thought and if you are inspired by anything in my letter I am definitely open to being treated and have gifts enabled on AO3.
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