I actually saw someone on LJ who'd just started Farscape ask what John and Aeryn's pairing name was. And then I cried, because that battle? She is lost.

Katie, I'd seen your recs, which was what made me wonder if there was a central clearninghouse of recs. Although, askye is certainly right, that I'd do better taking the recs of people I know and like, because people I don't know have a bad habit of having no taste.

What fandoms are you interested in?

That is the thing -- I am in the fandom of quality a lot more than any specific source material. I will gladly watch vids of shows with which I am only marginally familiar, if they are vids done well and interestingly and with music that does not strike me deaf with its crappiness.

Shalott did a vid showcase at Worldcon a year ago, just a half-hour that she tailored to the fan who wots not of this enterprise, and it went over quite well, I thought. She tended to avoid vids that required really deep, specialized canon knowledge, and mostly eschewed the fulminating emotional effluvia I hate so much, in favor of visual cleverness, exceptionally good effects, and genial/comedic appeal.

(Not that she tailored her selections to me, but she did lay out her choices, as part of a private explanation why we would not be seeing the Star Trek version of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer".)

...which is SUCH a good vid, good Lord.

Here's a list of some recs, though it doesn't look like it's been updated recently.

Nutty, there's a regular vid rec on the last Friday of the month on Crack_Van, but I kinda distrust those because the quality depends so highly on the reccer.

I'd suggest hitting the Vividcon lists: vids from the Premieres show, in particular, tend to be excellent. I can't say enough good things about, for instance, Lierdumoa's Gia vid, or Laura Shapiro's West Wing vid "Circles". Shalott and memfault made a Dead Zone vid to "A Day in the Life", and it's jawdropping. Also, Luminosity's Farscape vid, Killa's Alias vid "This Girl is Taking Bets"... All of those premiered at Vividcon -- Killa's Alias vid was in the Club Vivid show. That's just off the top of my head, from fairly recent viewing, and without getting off the couch to go get my dvds.

The dvd sets from Vividcon tend to be a great source for quality vids, and if you know someone with a dvd burner they may be talked or bribed into making you a copy...

And you can pretty much bet on vids by:

• shalott
• Seah and Margie
• Laura
• Killa
• Melina
• Luminosity
• sisabet

Shalott and memfault

Francesca.

There is the Video Elite Resource site [link]

It's a collection of links to vid sites divided by fandom. It's rather large and you have to kind of slog through it to get to the good stuff. There are some really good vid sites on there (head tilt is on there) but also some really bad stuff.

It's funny that this should come up-- I was just watching some of my tiny collection of saved vids yesterday, and wondering where I should look for recs for some more. I'm not a great vid-viewer, but I enjoy the way good ones can make me fall in love with a canon all over again.

Or make you want to watch a new canon. Killa's new Alias vid makes me want to watch Alias season 1-2.

What's the deal with incredibly detailed "challenges" which are actually, "I had this great idea for a story, with this totally witty exchange and these characters who do this, now somebody else do the work of actually writing it." It always seems to me the height of arrogance -- I mean, you can ask if someone will write a story for you, but giving that level of detail and calling it a "challenge" as though people would be all "Ooh, me! Me!" bugs me.

Just felt the need to rant.

What Emily said.

A challenge should open a door rather than herd you down a chute.