seasonal_spuffy / Vid: Grace In This

Title: Grace In This
Creator: thenewbuzwuzz
Rating: Like the BtVS box set, this is rated 15+ for canon-typical sex. The song is fairly sexual, though not explicit.
Notes: Happy Seasonal Spuffy, folks! Can I offer you a full-length fluffy fanvid in this trying time!

Watch on Vimeo

More notes, acknowledgments, credits:

Perfume Genius has a YouTube channel where you can check out the rest of his music. Admittedly, I have listened to this song LOTS and to his other works hardly at all, so I'm not great at following my own advice on this.

Thank you to:
womanaction for introducing me to this song in her Spuffy fanmix "you're the one" back in 2016;
Alessnox for recommending the free open-source video editor Kdenlive in the "vidding" community on Pillowfort;
Double Dutchess for taking eight months to hold my hand through a collaborative vidding project with training wheels back in 2016 (which was basically everything I knew about vidding for a while and gave me the confidence to learn more later), and for the gift of a couple of extra hours of free time last week, which I spent making sure that every intro clip has a fancy effect and the starry overlay at least mostly stays off Spike's and Buffy's faces, whatever else it does.

I guess the 2016 nostalgia is going to have to be my contribution to the "celebrating 25 years" theme. :D It's been about 25 years, right, more or less?

I used the HD episodes from hdbuffy.tumblr.com and some stock videos by Pixabay users DiaoChun, Engin Akyurt, Artyom Saqib, and juwelfahim48.

I also used some fabulous tutorials, notably the inkdrop effect tutorial by Arkengheist 2.0 and a couple of Photolearningism's Kdenlive tutorials. And I kind of followed marnanightingale's guide to cutting and syncing, until I got impatient. Also, for better or worse, I tried to apply this Photoshop pastel effect tutorial to video editing in Kdenlive.

Welp, basically I tried a bunch of new things for this, and some worked better than others! What are your thoughts? :)

accomplished

Flat / Top-Level Comments Only

- Posted by

teragramm

Great vid!! I love the opening special effects and you got ALL of the important spuffy moments, even a few I have forgotten. I looked through your vid and kept saying "why haven't I made a banner from that scene? It's such a great scene"

Nice vid!!

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

Thank you very much! :)) Yes, I really did use almost all the sweeter, lighter Spuffy clips that I could think of. :D Three minutes is kind of a lot of time to fill, even if I did cheat by slowing clips down and including long montages of the same scene. :)

- Posted by

double_dutchess

Wow, what a way to start Seasonal Spuffy with such a lovely and gorgeous vid! I didn't know the song, so thanks for introducing me to it -- it's just beautiful, so slow and sensual with deep feeling behind it. And you paired it with the perfect visuals of Buffy and Spike. Turning each other on, sure, but also supporting each other and believing in each other. Showing the grace in their relationship, indeed. I'm going to rewatch this one a lot!

Thank you for the acknowledgements. It's funny, because if there was any handholding in 2016 it was definitely mutual! (Okay, handholding is mutual by definition, but you know what I mean, right?) And me taking eight months just to do that is putting an exceedingly positive spin on things :-)

Those few hours last week were very well-spent if you ask me. I love love love the spreading ink effect you have at the start, it fits the tone of the vid so very well. I also really like the soft look you created that goes so well with the song. But, to be honest I'm not sure I see the starry overlay you mention. Unless it's more about the colouring than actual stars?

Thanks for the links to those tutorials, I'm going to check them out. (Except the cutting & syncing one -- not just because I already know it from your earlier rec, but mostly because I've given up on the idea of ever doing any proper syncing that's not just based on trial and error.)

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

Thank you so much!

"handholding is mutual by definition" - you got me there

"But, to be honest I'm not sure I see the starry overlay you mention. Unless it's more about the colouring than actual stars?"
It's hard to see in the embed, but there's a layer of this swirling galaxy clip over parts of the "Touched" cuddle near the end of the vid. It's more visible if you watch in Vimeo, which may or may not be an improvement.

Some of those tutorials were somewhat specific to the Kdenlive tool, but I think the ink drop effect should adapt well to a different video editor -- the features used seem like they could be universal. It's such a fun effect, I'm glad I ran into it while looking for how color even works. For the pastel thing, btw, I used "soft light" instead of "hue" blending, but only because I couldn't figure out how to make hue and transparency work at the same time. :D

Yeah, marnanightingale's tutorial goes HARD on syncing, & while that's something I tried to explore to see if it helps me, it's very fair that you've found your own approach and this isn't it! :) Clearly you don't need that one.

- Posted by

double_dutchess

Yes, I can see the galaxy in Vimeo! It's a bit too subtle for the embedded version, at least on my monitor, which is pretty dark. In any case, fullscreen on Vimeo the vid looks even more glorious. I had to sign in to Vimeo to watch it though, because of the mature rating.

I also think the ink drop effect should work in most video editors. I'm not going to steal the idea, but maybe I'll try experimenting with similar effects at some point. Btw, I hadn't yet mentioned another thing I love about the ink effect, and that's how you used it to highlight the important bits and movements of the underlying clips. The part with Spike's hand on the door from Dead Things is particularly excellent!

Thanks for your kind words about the syncing; I'm not convinced you're right though :-)

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

"I had to sign in to Vimeo to watch it though, because of the mature rating."
Aw, heck. The Vimeo rating system confuses me. Maybe I should have marked this as "all audiences", but that seems like a bold statement, and then there's nothing between that and "mature"...

"I'm not going to steal the idea, but maybe I'll try experimenting with similar effects at some point."
I think the tutorial author put the idea out there hoping that people would steal it, but if doing the same effect would be boring or awkward for you, that's fair. Looking forward to your future experiments! :) Actually, I had been curious about overlays ever since I saw your "Truth or Dare" vid, so this effect was slightly inspired by that curiosity (though also by me randomly running into the tutorial on YouTube and going, 'damn, that looks pretty').

"how you used it to highlight the important bits and movements of the underlying clips"
Yay, thank you! :) I had fun with that.

- Posted by

goodbyebird

Aww this was lovely <3

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

Thank you very much! <3

- Posted by

desdemonaspace

This is just lovely. You're a very talented video artist, my friend.

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

Thank you very much, my friend! <3 I have the benefit of wonderful communities and resources.

- Posted by

beloved4always

This is just beautiful - the Spuffy love is overwhelming! And the special effects at the beginning - perfect. Thanks so much for sharing your talent!

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

As the kids say: your honor, they're in love. <3 Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the special effects. :)

- Posted by

beloved4always

Well of course they're in love, but not everyone shows that as clearly as you have. Great clip choice!

- Posted by

gillo

I love the music fitted to the clips to emphasise the gentleness that ran through their relationship often at unexpected moments. And the pretty effects are pretty!

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

Thank you so much! What a good way to put it: "the gentleness that ran through their relationship often at unexpected moments". That is what I was going for.

- Posted by

flowspuffy

Wow, this was absolutely stunning! Thank you for sharing such a beautiful piece of art with us.

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

Thank you so much! <3 I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it.

- Posted by

thewiggins

What a lovely start to Seasonal Spuffy! (I had forgotten that you had the first slot this year, meaning that we're exactly a week apart in our posting dates.)

I loved the galaxy effect during the Touched scene and the inkdrop effect in the beginning.

There was a slow, dream-like yet very sensory quality to the vid overall which I appreciated. It particularly focused my attention on the sense of touch and the ways that touch functions in their relationship. There was an interesting contrast or interplay or whatever between the moments when they are in physical contact with each other and the moments when there is physical distance between them. I think the line "put your back into it" (or "n 2 it" I guess) also emphasized to me the important role of touch, of physical support and comfort, in their relationship.

Aaanyway, great work. Truly a beautiful vid and time well spent on your part. I know I'll be coming back to this one.

- Posted by

nmcilbuffy

Perfecto Mundo - Love everything about it. Agree with the "sensory quality to the vid..." The inking effects were used perfectly to give that sense of time and flowing that connects with the 25 Years.

Congratulations on a wonderful piece.

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

Thank you so much! Love your interpretation of the "sense of time and flowing" -- I didn't really give it much thought myself, certainly not in relation to the theme of the round, but it's a very cool reading! :)

- Posted by

thenewbuzwuzz

Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! <3

Wheeee, I'm very glad you liked the effects. I've always enjoyed the way the lighting works with the colors of Spike's and Buffy's clothing in the "Touched" cuddle scene so that they almost seem to be floating in an expanse of abstract darkness, as though the outside world has fallen away. The galaxy effect was my attempt to bring this out, though it turned out hard to make it look okay. So I'm glad you thought it did.

"interplay or whatever between the moments when they are in physical contact with each other and the moments when there is physical distance between them"
That's an interesting thought! With the clip of Spike at the crypt door in the intro, and then the "Fool for Love" clip that follows it (ah, and the clip of Buffy walking towards the crypt too, forgot about that one; it was almost a clip of Buffy on the other side of the door btw, but that didn't look pretty enough), I did think about distance and bridging distance for a second, so you're on to something! If you also found it in the rest of the video, you may be on to something that happened without my deliberate involvement. :)

"I think the line "put your back into it" (or "n 2 it" I guess) also emphasized to me the important role of touch, of physical support and comfort, in their relationship."
That's another thing that flitted through my head briefly, this time when I decided to include the clip of Buffy half-carrying Spike out of the cave in "Showtime". I agree that these things are important in their relationship! Though for the most part, to me, "put your back into it" was more about effort and commitment: trying harder at something Spike and Buffy have already been doing (their relationship). And together with the next line "there is still grace in this", it's also about not giving up on something (their relationship) but finding, well. Grace is such a lovely word with many tasty meanings, isn't it. Especially when the phrase "saving grace" is right there too.

Edited 2022-05-10 07:38 (UTC)