This is the journal of teyla. I'm in and out of Dreamwidth, but always end up coming back. I keep most of my personal stuff locked; fannish stuff or posts without private info stay unlocked. I add back easily, so add away and we'll see if we click.

Other places you can find me:

Twitter | AO3

Fannish Activities:

Writing | Vidding | Icons | Art on Tumblr (mostly digital) | Art on DW (traditional) | Gifs

Fandoms:

Current: C-Drama (Guardian, Lost Tomb, Nirvana in Fire)
Former: a whole bunch! Check out my AO3 and/or tags for insight.

Vid at AO3: Put It On Me, Under the Skin Vid

I watched Under the Skin quite a while ago, and had vague plans to vid it ever since because it's a beautiful show with interesting themes. The thing that interested me most to put into a vid was Shen Yi's difficult relationship to art -- his desire to control it, to make it a useful tool that he can employ safely for a targeted purpose, and art's continued refusal to comply with his attempts to gain control. The way the show pulls out those themes and emotions of what creativity can feel like, is very compelling to me, and so are the visuals of the show, which are put together with a lot of care and attention to detail.

( Read more... )

Vid at AO3: Aaj, RRR vid

I think I had decided that I wanted to make an RRR vid before I'd even seen the movie -- just the trailer, and the visuals in it, made me want to get my grubby hands in there and work with these spectacular images. I have found that especially with movies, I tend to end up making "recap" vids -- pick a song that gets at the core of the movie, and try to pull all especially memorable moments into a short timeline to distill the essence of the film, if you will, into a three or four minute recap. The essence of RRR seemed to be "beautiful people starring in amazingly choreographed action and dance scenes while defeating British colonialist powers", which was relevant to my interests.

( Read more... )

Yay Festivids! Thank you for vidding for me! <3

( Read more... )

Ahaha I said I'd do this and then immediately forgot about it. OOPS. Anyway.

For Dec 11, makamu asked: Say somebody is trying to understand what makes you as a fan tick. What 5 canons or fanworks should they consume to get an understanding of teyla the fan?

( Answer under the cut. )

That's it! That's a lot of media to consume xD. If you wanted to analyze for themes and stuff... I suppose I like oddball over-the-top melodrama with wild tone shifts and a lot of plot, though the plot making sense is optional. And I will always be happy about depictions of relationships that are so close they transcend friendship, but that are not traditionally romantic.

Is it too late to join the December Posting Meme? I am going to try anyway xD Though I have reduced the days to weekends since I am going to get overwhelmed if I have to write a post every day. The Dec 24/25 may be a few days late. Snagged from various people on the reading list!

I'm soliciting questions for this year's December posting meme - your chance to ask me an interesting (or boring - I don't judge), impertinent, unusual or usual question! Can be about a fannish opinion or headcanon, about me, a top 5, or my thoughts on anything that strikes your fancy. Please pick a day and give me a topic!


Dec 04 -
Dec 10 -
Dec 11 - Say somebody is trying to understand what makes you as a fan tick. What 5 canons or fanworks should they consume to get an understanding of teyla the fan? from makamu
Dec 17 - What tags (beyond relationship ones) will inevitably make you click on a fic? from solo
Dec 18 - Which video game or video game series have you never vidded but would like to, and what would you want to vid about it? brokenmnemonic
Dec 24 -
Dec 25 -
Dec 31 -

I would like to send holiday cards! If you'd like to exchange holiday cards with me, please leave your address in a comment -- they are screened (for people who are here from elsewhere, that means only you and I will be able to read them and they are hidden from everyone else). Please also let me know which holiday you celebrate, if any.

If you don't celebrate any, you will still get a card, it just won't be a Christmas one. If you celebrate a holiday that is not frequently celebrated where I live, you may not get a card that's specific to your holiday, but I'll try to find one that is not a Christmas one.

If you'd like to reciprocate, drop me a note in the comment so I can give you my address. Reciprocation not required!

Hi everyone, I just added a bunch of you to my circle, and if you're seeing this, you may have added me back! Anyway, it's late here so I'll keep this short: I am VERY BAD about using this platform; however, I have vague plans to maybe use it more as a personal-real-life-stuff place? Since I don't feel comfortable putting that stuff anywhere I can't lock at all. Sigh, Twitter Circles, you didn't last long ;;

So if you've added me, expect either no posts or mostly personal real life stuff! For fandom stuff, follow me on tumblr at t-eyla.

Yay Festivids! Thank you for making a vid for me <3

I'll outline some prompts and ideas in the following, but my genuine preamble to the whole prompting bit is that I'll always rather watch something you enjoyed making that doesn't fit my prompts than something that does but that you made without feeling it. If you have an idea, go for it! If you don't (yet) have one, keep reading and (hopefully!) get inspired.

( Read more... )

Good luck with your vid! <3

Here's the recs for the second half (part one is here)! Again, if you have the time, go watch them all, but if you need a place to start:

Kill a Vampire (Save Your Hood) [Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020)]
This vid is very well edited and the song choice is god-tier genius.

You are the Blood [La Reine Margot | Queen Margot (1994)]
This vid goes VERY HARD which is what fascinated me about it, but warning for gore.

New Rules [Baba is You (Video Game)]
I don't know this game, but it was satisfying to watch this and figure out how it worked as I was watching.

Summer in the City [Bombay Rose (2019)]
Love a vid to a classic song, and this source is beautiful.

Another One Bites the Dust [Atomic Blonde (2017)]
The editing in this is on point, great use of tracking shots in action scenes.

Satisfied [The Good Place (TV)]
If you have Tahani feelings, this is for you.

Like It's Dynamite [阴阳师 | Yīn Yáng Shī | The Yin-yang Master (Movies - Guo Jingming)]
This vid uses the movie's aesthetics very pleasingly, also there is SNAKE.

How Fucking Romantic [Much Ado About Nothing (2011)]
Not that I didn't like all the '93 Much Ado vids this year, but this is the production of my heart, and this song choice + editing is great.

try your best [Taskmaster (UK TV) RPF]
Look, I know, it's more Taskmaster, but this one is SAD. Also funny. Also just, you know, Taskmaster.

A Little Bit of Sunshine [Big Trouble in Little China (1986)]
This is delightful and has great action vidding.

Last Laugh [The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)]
Was happy to see three (!) vids for this source this year, it was very hard to pick a favorite but this one worked best for me.

Can't Get Enough [Taskmaster (New Zealand TV)]
More Taskmaster, but this time in New Zealand!

This Fantasy World [Mythic Quest (TV)]
Cute DND lesbians!

Queen [Lil Nas X (Music Video)]
Lil Nas X being shiny!

Gloria [Bandits (1997)]
THIS ONE WAS FOR MEEE it's so good, I loved this movie so much as a kid (teenager), and this captured the vibe so well.

Rich Friends [기생충 | Parasite (2019)]
More Parasite! Showcasing the parts of the movie where the Kim family gets to have fun! (Also showcasing the murder.)

Octopus! [My Octopus Teacher (2020)]
It's an octopus! There's a second one for this source that's also very cute, it's a little sadder than this one, though. This first one is just happy.

Lung [The Company of Wolves]
This vid is WEIRD AF in all the best ways, warning for some creepy shit.

It's Gonna Be Me, Turn the Lights Off, Hell And You [What We Do in the Shadows (TV)]
There were three WWDITS vids and they're all great in different ways!

Amina Hussein and the no good, very bad Muslim punk band [We Are Lady Parts (TV)]
What it says on the tin! This is a song compilation giving insight into the different characters and now I want to watch the show even more.

Too Darn Hot [In The Heights (2021)]
This does a lot with very little footage.

Go High, Go Low [Lil Nas X (Music Video)]
Lil Nas X being snarky on Twitter.

Aerials [Babylon 5]
This vid is very metal and epic. Don't think I've really seen System of a Down vidded before!

Edge of Midnight [Stevie Nicks (Musician) RPF]
Very impressive RPF clip sourcing and editing in this.

Thank you to the vidders, their betas, their cheerleaders, the mods, and everyone who worked on tech on the challenge as well as the watchalong. Festivids! \o/

Festivids reveal happened! We watched the first 70 (!) vids in the watchalong server yesterday, so here's my first load of recs. No shade on the other vids, which were also all amazing, but since there are 149 vids in the collection, this might help with having somewhere to start.

Losing Gravity [Threesome (1994)]
Cute 90s threesome poly rel!

I Knew You Were Trouble [Miss Sherlock (TV)]
Excellent messed up delightful Miss Sherlock vid, poor Wato, poor Sherlock.

Short Skirt Long Jacket [What's Up Doc? (1972)]
Zany 70s slapstick fun vidded to one of my favorite songs ever.

Made of Stone [Rūrangi (2020)]
Sad queers being sad; I'm told that the movie has a happy ending, the vid also ends on an uplifting note.

Money (Makes the World Go Around) [Muppet Treasure Island (1996)]
Muppets, I dunno, I loved it but it's muppets so ymmv.

Me and Bernstein down by the schoolyard [All the President's Men (1976)]
THIS WAS A GIFT FOR MEEEEE AND IT'S SO GOOD, I love these journalist bros.

At Last [Salt Fat Acid Heat (TV)]
Food porn.

How Death Comes [The Green Knight (2021)]
Very trippy and atmospheric Green Knight vid, watch Dev Patel behead a tree.

All Star [Taskmaster (UK TV) RPF]
Obligatory Taskmaster vid #1

Grace Kelly [Catch Me If You Can (2002)]
Leo scamming Tom Hanks by being many people and just wanting someone to tell him he's doing a good job! Also amazing animated intro.

I'm An Animal [Various Vet Reality Shows]
Many! Cute! Animals!

Sugar Town [Diner (2019)]
Very weird vid but nice aesthetics, movie is apparently also highly weird.

Don't Worry Be Randall [Infinity Train (Cartoon)]
This one (as with many of these) I don't know the source, but THE VIDDER MADE THE WATER BLOB LIP SYNC THE LYRICS

Song Spirit [Kisima Ingitchuna | Never Alone]
No idea what the source is (apart from "it's a video game and the people who make it") but it's SO BEAUTIFUL, please watch this.

The Climb [Moana (2016)]
Obligatory Moana feels

Birdhouse in Your Soul [The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)]
THIS ONE IS ALSO FOR MEEEE and it's great, it made me relive all my movie feelings.

Work Song [기생충 | Parasite (2019)]
Very effective use of this song.

A Shot in the Dark [Only Murders in the Building (TV)]
This is apparently an apartment building of New Yorkers solving crime together? Or something? I want to watch it, the vid is great, they seem like chaos gremlins.

Chandelier [Phantom of the Opera (Synetic Theater 2020)]
Lesbian Phantom of the Opera with a lady phantom!

People Like Us [We Are Lady Parts (TV)]
Amazing anthem vid for this show that I haven't watched yet but really need to watch.

Don't Stop Me Now [Taskmaster (UK TV)]
Obligatory Taskmaster vid #2

No Place Like Home [Multifandom]
Rural queers! Gays on a farm!

Milkshake [Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)]
Karen Gillan and Michelle Yeoh (and others) kicking ass in a highly stylized way.

Also there are THREE LOST TOMB REUNION vids that you should all go and watch! Tomb gremlins!!

Are we doing vidding year in review? I'm doing vidding year in review!

Vid Round-up 2021

February
Ain't My Fault [Knives Out] (Festivids)
Chasing Cars [Lost Tomb Reunion] (Sundial Exchange)

March
Vexercises: The Lonely Shepherd/Bury a Friend [Sand Sea]

June
Snakes on a Plane [DMBJ] (VidUKon)

September
Choke [The Rebel] (Guardian Wishlist)

October
Bang! [DMBJ] (Fanworks)
9 to 5 [DMBJ] (Fanworks)

Total: Seven! One more than last, and highest-per-year since I started vidding. Being able to participate in the vidding community more by attending stuff virtually has definitely helped make me vid more.

( Q&A under the cut )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

It's that time of the year! Thank you for participating and for writing for me, I'm very much looking forward to reading whatever you come up with. <3

Please don't stress about meeting my requirements to the T. Everything here and everything in my optional details is meant to give you an idea and/or inspiration, it's not meant to cramp your style or quash the ideas you may already have. If you've got something you want to write, run with it! I'd rather read something that doesn't fit my request but that you enjoyed writing, than something you had to force out under duress.

Here are some ideas for you to bounce off of:

( Cut for length )

Best of luck! I'm very much looking forward to whatever you come up with. Thank you again for writing for me. <3

-- teyla

Dear Festividder,

Festivids! It's my first time, so I'm nervous -- about making a vid for a challenge, but also about writing prompts for vids! I've never done it before; all the prompting I've done in the past was for fic. I've done my best, but if the stuff under the cut makes no sense to you and doesn't give you any ideas, please ignore it and just make whatever you feel like making. I would much rather watch something that you enjoyed making than something you forced yourself to put together without feeling it. <3

( General likes & dislikes )

( Fandom-specific prompts )

Good luck with your vid, and thank you for vidding for me! I look forward to watching it. :D

-- teyla

I watched Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

( Critical opinions under the cut. Also spoilers. )

There's a meme going around on Twitter where you post a list of your WIPs (exact title of your document, no fibbing) and people ask about the ones they're curious about.

I have a lot of WIPs, and no titling discipline, so this one was amusing to collate, and also far too long for Twitter. I am adding the fandom to be slightly less cryptic. This goes back at least to 2016; I dug up some stuff I'd completely forgotten about.

Pick any you're interested in, and I'll tell you about them, and post a snippet!

( Entirely too-long WIP list )

(Sorry for just dropping a meme in here without interacting on anyone's posts or, well, anything. At some point in 2021 I will remember how interacting on the internet works. Until then, all I got is memes.)

Help, I've fallen into Tomb Canon and can't get up.

I am absolutely baffled by how much canon this franchise has managed to create since 2015. As far as I can tell, these are all Tomb Shows (listed in chronological canon order):

• The Mystic Nine (2016, 52 eps) - prequel about the 9 tomb raiding families in the 1930s
• Lost Tomb 1 (2015, 10 eps) - baby Wu Xie's first time in a tomb
• Lost Tomb 2 (2018, 40 eps) - slighty older but still baby Wu Xie's adventures with Pangzi & Xiaoge
• Ultimate Note (2020, 36 eps) - more Iron Triangle shenanigans (I think?)
• Sand Sea (2018, 52 eps) - outsider POV on Wu Xie & friends--WX kidnaps a high schooler and takes him tomb raiding
• Lost Tomb Reunion (2020, 62 eps) - Iron Triangle retirement stories (or something)

These are just the main shows. There's a bunch of specials and single spin-offs (Sand Sea has, like, three? All of them about Huo Daofu, I think?), and another handful of spin-off shows, two of them about Liu Sang. All of this since 2015. Take a bow, MCU.

I've decided to watch all the shows I've listed. I started with LT1 and am currently making my way through LT2. I should probably have started with Mystic 9 (I have it on good authority that it's a decent show), but I wanted my faves, so I am saving Mystic 9 for later.

I'm growing fond of the approach of separating the character from the actor. At first I was, of course, suspicious of a Wu Xie who is not Z1L (and a Pangzi who is not Chen Ming Hao! I love Chen Ming Hao Pangzi), but at this point, all the different stories and characters have kind of started to feel like fanfic. In fic, every writer will write the characters a little differently, will put emphasis on different things, will come up with their own ideas and plots and themes that bring out different aspects of the characters and the canon. Watching the Tomb Shows, I'm getting that same vibe. They're all the Iron Triangle, just slightly different interpretations. It's really neat!

That said, of course now I need to rank the ones I've seen so far:

( Very serious rankings, no spoilers beyond character description. )

Anyway, come yell with me about Tomb Boys!

It's 2021! I don't know if it's going to be better or worse than 2020 (or the same), but it's a good opportunity to take a breath and gather some resolve.

Good things that happened in 2020:

* I moved into a house with findmeinthealps and neery, and it's working out really well.
* I'm quite satisfied with my fanworks output this year: six vids, two longfics, and three shorter fics. Total wordcount posted is 108k.
* I am so happy to have discovered c-drama. For the first time in years (pretty much since fandom moved to Tumblr), I feel like I'm actually participating in fandom, rather than circling it like a satellite failing to make connections.
* I watched Nirvana in Fire. That show is so incredible.
* I made a bunch of new friends in the c-drama and vidding community.
* Virtual cons have made it through the proof of concept phase with flying colors! Perhaps there will be more opportunities to attend cons in the future without having to pay for transatlantic flights.

Things I want to do differently in 2021:

* I'm really hoping to be able to get some more exercise. I used to bike to work, but with HO, that's not happening anymore. I have no innate drive to move around, it doesn't bring me any joy or satisfaction, but I'm noticing that the not moving much at all isn't good for me.
* Get my hair cut short. I've been wanting to do it for years, and there's a weird blockage in my brain about it, and it may be tangled up with some sort of gender thing, and I'm tired of dithering around, so as soon as hair dressers are open again, I'll be putting that on my near-future agenda.
* Travel. I miss it so much. They're going to take forever with the vaccine, so I'm not holding out too much hope, but ... I can't help holding out a little bit of hope. I was daydreaming about fucking airports the other day, as in "aw, remember Singapore airport, what a nice and relaxing place". /o\

Year in Fandom Meme, nabbed from tinny

( Cut for length )

Hey hey, I hope everyone who celebrates end-of-year holidays had a good one!

Mine was quiet but decent. First year I got to have my own Christmas tree! We finally have space. :3 We didn't get around to buying lights before the lockdown, so we borrowed one string of lights from GF's grandmother and used another not-specifically-Christmas-one that we had lying around. The first has warm orange light, and the second a colder, blue light, which means we get an exciting two-level-effect on our tree. I don't actually hate it, though!

For next year, we need to get some filler ornaments. We have baubles, and a lot of big star-shaped ornaments that you can't hang too densely, but nothing to fill the gaps in between. This is no hardship; I'm quite looking forward to poking through Etsy (and maybe, if they manage to get the vaccine out till then, the 2021 Christmas markets).

I've been using my free time to work on my Sundial Exchange assignment. It'll be good if I manage to finish, but there's still a big chunk of work left to do, so we'll see. My recipient has a bunch of pretty good prompts, though, so even if I don't finish, I'm sure I can come up with something they'll like.

Everyone is doing their end-of-year fic round-up, but I still have two unrevealed Yuletides on the Archive, so I don't want to yet. I can do vidding, though! I'm not going to be posting any more vids in 2020. This also counts as my starterpack side quest. I'm participating to try and get a little more active on here. I am also considering the Snowflake Challenge, though I'll have to see if two challenges at the same time work out for me.

Vid Round-up 2020

January
Fleabag - Personal Jesus (collab with findmeinthealps)

April
Spider-Man: Far From Home - Roaring 20s

June
MCU Peter & Tony - You're Gonna Go Far, Kid
Good Omens - Bad Romance

October
Guardian - Tik Tok (collab with findmeinthealps and neery)

November
The Lost Tomb Reunion - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

Total: Six! There's one more that's finished, but it won't be published until January, so that's counting for 2021.

That is so many vids! I tend to average one vid per year, except for 2008, when I made five. Six is more than five! New personal record. I'm sure the cons I've been attending played a part, and also my ability to actually attend Fanworks, since it ran online.

( Meme Questions & Answers )

Dear Creator!

I am so sorry this is late, the pre-holiday times kept getting between me and writing this letter. :(

You've already received my requests, and the info that I put in the form. I hope it was somewhat inspiring! But if you're looking for more details, read below.

( This got really long. )

This got so extremely long, I hope I didn't scare you off. Most of all, have fun making whatever you decide to make! <3