VIDDERS' NOTES:

I've had this song kicking around, waiting to be vidded for a very long time. When I first moved in with the dude I am now married to, it was one of his contributions to a BritPop mix tape we collaborated on. Since this was also around the time when I had finally got my hands on tapes of Pros, I was immediately struck by how perfect this song was for Bodie. Bodie, who is constantly tormented by Ray being a sarky sod, but clearly loves him anyway.

Somehow, though, I never got around to actually making the vid. So, the song sat in the queue, languishing.

Skip ahead a few years, and I started corresponding with Justacat. And encouraging her to start vidding. Then LithiumDoll suggested that she do a collaboration for her first vid. Something inspired me to take a leap of faith, and I said, "well, why don't we collaborate?" And, by the way, I just happened to have this song I thought would be great for Bodie…

The rest is history.

p.s. For the record, Justacat is a joy to work with and together we managed to make a vid that is far better than any I could have made solo

--PR Zed
October 2005

---

Not much more than a year ago, the thought of making my very own vid had never crossed my mind. Those kinds of things – vids, stories – were things other folks did, creative folks, while the detail-freaks like me took care of the archiving and recording and distributing. But after Vividcon 2004, the thought of vidding took root somewhere deep in my brain. It remained vague and inchoate for months, but I couldn't get it out of my head. I began to toy with the idea of actually making a Pros vid (it went without saying that any vid I made, for now at least, would be Pros!).

Then this past summer I found myself, with aerye, the winner of the Vividcon 2005 auction bidding for LithiumDoll's vidding services. Working on this project (which became Friday I'm in Love) forced me to begin evaluating vids in a new and different way, thinking about their construction and what makes them work.

At about the same time, PR Zed was looking for someone to review her newest Pros vid, Forget Regret. Being immersed already in the vid "beta" process for Friday gave me the inspiration – and courage! - to volunteer my services. She and I began corresponding, discussing vidding and all manner of other things. She and LithiumDoll both encouraged me to give vidding a try, and it begin to seem more like a real possibility, something doable.

I brushed up on the technical aspects, acquired the necessary software … then found myself totally, completely paralyzed. I had the technology down, even had some song ideas, but the actual creation – well, that was a different story. I had no clue where to start, no sense of the underlying principles or techniques or concepts, nothing beyond vague ideas.

I posted about this in my livejournal, and LithiumDoll suggested that that I collaborate with an experienced vidder. The idea struck me as brilliant, and I'd barely had a chance to begin to worry about where I might find an experienced - and willing! - collaborator before PR Zed suggested that she might be such a person.

I could hardly believe my luck, and needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity (though, fearing she'd made the suggestion in a moment of delirium, I did give her every chance to back out!). She suggested a few songs, and this one appealed to me immediately from both musical and vidding perspectives. And then suddenly, before I knew it, we were off and running.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Vidding is a process of endless decision-making. Clip choice, timing, placement … the list goes on. I could discuss at length and in detail the decisions we made and why we made them, the reasons for the placement and timing of certain clips, our struggles with various lyrics, etc. etc.

But though I find that stuff fascinating, the more remarkable thing to me is the fact that the two of us were able to make those decisions so smoothly and cooperatively and painlessly. Sometimes things just work, through serendipity or chemistry or whatever, and this was in all respects a model collaboration; I love the vid we created together, and not least because the creation was such an unalloyed pleasure. PR Zed was the ideal collaborator and mentor for me, always open and receptive to the ideas of a total newbie, accepting the good ones generously and enthusiastically and steering me gently away from the bad or misguided.

It was a thrill, a joy, and an education to work with her – and most important, it was fun, in every way, from beginning to end. I can't begin to thank her enough.

--Justacat
October 2005

---