(no subject)

[skygiants]

Dear Festividder,

Thank you so much for making a vid for me! I will absolutely be delighted by whatever you make, and I'm really looking forward to watching it! Bits of this letter are copied from previous years, bits are all-new, disregard absolutely anything that doesn't speak to you and make the vid of your heart.

Safety fandoms: Notre-Dame de Paris (1999), Into the Woods (1991), Jumanji (1995)
TV shows: 7 Seeds, 미스터 션샤인 | Mr. Sunshine (TV), 힐러 | Healer, 시카고 타자기 | Chicago Typewriter (TV), 호텔 델루나 | Hotel Del Luna (TV)


Notre-Dame de Paris (1999)

Notre-Dame de Paris is a French musical adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel from 1998, which keeps all the key features of the book -- beautiful dancer, creepy priest, devoted disabled bellringer, horrible soldier, horrible soldier's fourteen-year-old girlfriend, beautiful dancer's random fake husband narrator, epic tragedy, Hugovian digressions, and Gothic architectural symbolism literally crushing everything in its path! When I imagine a vid for Notre-Dame de Paris, my brain inevitably flies to angsty punk rock, but there are also many other fascinating possibilities so please feel free to explore! (Gregorian chants? Actual bell-ringing? Songs from the Disney musical?) Also, if you want to use other footage from different adaptations or I guess actual Paris to expand the bounds of Notre-Dame beyond the limitations of the Parisian stage, be my guest.

Into the Woods (1991)

Into the Woods is a musical about various fairy-tale characters whose paths cross over the course of three nights in the woods. Various problems arise, but mostly everything's fine! Then a year later all the consequences of the things they did come resounding down on their heads and everything's significantly less fine, in fact.

The Witch and the Baker's Wife are probably my favorites -- I mean I am pretty sure they're everyone's favorites -- but there's tons of interesting stuff to say about all of them, and about the whole setup. It's also an incredibly meta musical, which could also potentially be really interesting to play with if the mood strikes you; I would be totally happy for any outside sources (Disney movies? Fairy tale illustrations? even the 2014 film if the mood strikes, though I admit I'm a bit of a purist and the 1991 stage version will always have my heart) to be incorporated here.

Jumanji (1995)

I remembered how much I love this film about children trapped in a terrifying board game just too late for Festivids last year and have regretted it ever since. I love ostensible child protagonists, but to be honest, it's the existential terror of the Alan and Sarah storyline that haunts me in the best possible way: imagine getting trapped in your worst moment for 26 years! But with bonus venomous insects and horrible monkeys! INCREDIBLE. I'd honestly love a vid that delved into just how genuinely creepy the film is, but please do also feel free to focus more on the hijinks element if that's what speaks to you.

I requested the 1995 film because of the special place it has held in my heart for the past 25 years, but I also do truly love the new Jumanji films and if you wanted to make a vid that somehow pulled in themes from all three for an homage to the Jumanji Extended Universe, that would be a great gift for me personally although obviously not in any way required!

7 Seeds

I've optimistically requested 7 Seeds in the past when it was a 34-volume post-apocalyptic manga that really didn't have a hope in hell of getting vidded ... but now! it is also an anime! Against all my expectations I received an absolutely gorgeous vid for this last year which filled my heart with joy and I would not have requested it again ... except that there is now a new season of the anime and thus new footage of new arcs to vid, including my absolute favorite arc, Team Failboat Somehow Manages Not To Fail On A Boat! And so here we are. For the record, if you are also a manga fan and interested in doing still image stuff, please feel free to use either the show or the manga as you see fit.

미스터 션샤인 | Mr. Sunshine

A couple things about Mr. Sunshine, my favorite revolutionary kdrama of last year:

- it has some of the most gorgeously over-the-top camera work I've ever seen in a kdrama
- I love every major character, and also almost every minor character
- I ship everyone in it pretty much indiscriminately

I realize this is unhelpful in narrowing down the scope of a vid! I have some more thoughts on things I liked about the show in this post, but here are some ideas I can toss out:

- Everyone Loves Go Ae-Sin And Go Ae-Sin Loves The Revolution, A Ballad
- language and translation: It's Thematically Significant
- "revolution inspires even minor characters towards heroic acts! I love you, random citizen!"
- the tragic love song of Dong-mae and his anguished second-in-command
- the tragic love song of Dong-mae and his own eternal ability to shoot himself in the foot
- the tragic love song of Gunner Jang and the king of Korea, the show's truest romance of all
- Ms Haman tribute vid
- Kudo Hina outfit tribute vid

힐러 | Healer

There are so many interesting characters in this show, and so many cool loose ends -- while I'd love a vid about any of the main characters and plotlines (plucky reporters vid! hilarious Clark Kenting vid! Young Shin and her mom vid! Young Shin and her dads vid! Scathing vid about political corruption! Min Ja-centric vid, SIGN ME UP), I am also super open to a vid that pulled in other sources for extensions on what we see in the show itself. What about making this imaginary sequel a little closer to reality? How about the tinhat shipper vid for Young Shin's two dads? Or a vid about the pirate radio group in their heyday, before everything went to hell in a handbasket? (If you happen to have seen Sandglass, a crossover vid would be SUPER FASCINATING.)

시카고 타자기 | Chicago Typewriter

This show has SO MUCH. The possessed portrait of Eugene O'Neill! The haunted dog! Ghost roommate hijinks! My only request is that a vid not focus on the relationship that focuses on the romance between two of the protagonists to the exclusion of the third -- if you want to make a character study about one of the leads or side-characters, that's totally OK and I'm very much into it, but when it comes to the main interpersonal dynamics I am very invested in the equilateral revolutionary triangle.

ALSO, as a sidenote, if BY CHANCE you happen to have seen my other favorite revolutionary kdrama by this author, Capital Scandal, and if BY CHANCE you felt like vid-crossovering, that is a thing about which I would not complain at all.

호텔 델루나 | Hotel Del Luna

This might be my favorite show of the year -- it's simultaneously a charming reverse Beauty and the Beast romance, a delightful workplace comedy about the logistics of running a hotel for ghosts, and a gorgeous and bittersweet examination of death and loss and grief and betrayal, and somehow manages to do all of these things well. And I would love a vid that focused on any of these aspects! Once again, I'm unhelpfully here for just about anything, so here's another brief list of ideas:

- Death Sucks And Then You Live, an examination of Jang Man Wol's posthumous character development
- really anything about the way the show handles themes of grief/stasis/acceptance will probably make me at least a little weepy, don't worry, I'm braced for it
- songs about ghosts? any songs about ghosts?? please feel free to take the cheapest of shots, I'm NOT picky
- the teenage dream of being a ghost who possesses her murderer's body
- what if you just stole the soundtrack to Disney's Beauty and the Beast, I bet that would be really good actually
- Jang Man Wol outfit tribute vid