rivendellrose: (Grey)
rivendellrose ([personal profile] rivendellrose) wrote2011-03-15 09:11 pm

mental shift

Ever have that experience where you're working on writing a (non-original) character you've never written before, but you have a strong mental image of in your head... and about halfway through writing, you think "well, it's been a while, I'd better watch a few clips to make sure I'm getting their voice right and all." So you pop in the DVDs, watch a few bits... and are immediately taken by the shocking realization that although technically your mental image of them was correct, you had somehow completely neglected to remember about a zillion little details about them, and they actually look a hell of a lot different than how you'd been recalling them?

...Yeah. That's what I get for starting to write fic in a fandom I haven't touched in a while without getting the DVDs out first.

The irony is, I'm pretty sure my voice was right all along. I'm just kind of boggled by how wrong my mental image was, physically. Very strange.

Also, I cannot find my home headphones. I know precisely where the pair at work are (on my desk, where they always are), but the pair at home has vanished. So much for my plan of listening to faintly embarrassing YouTube videos and such while I write... of course, at the moment, my brain is still reconstructing what I'm writing and considering the possibility that I have a highly revisionist hind-brain. Seriously, what is it about B5 in particular (for that is the fandom in question) that causes literally everything in it to be remembered in my mind as about 50% more awesome and attractive and visually appealing than it really was? Is it some kind of magic? And, if it is, can I borrow it? I can see how magic like that could come in seriously handy...

And then, if you're me, you're left wandering around vaguely wondering if you've misremembered other things, and muttering things like "I could have sworn he was taller than that." Bit unnerving. ...And very confusing to one's fiance, when one tries to explain why one is wandering around in a vague state of confusion.

What I have decided: is to borrow a line from that beloved children's book, The Velveteen Rabbit, about how when you love something, it's real. When you love something, it's just that much more beautiful in your mind than it "really" is. The sets often appeared to be made of cardboard and the costumes were often couch fabric, especially early on, and the guest actors often chewed the scenery (hell, so did some of the main actors), but I love this damned show so much that in my head, it is absolutely untouchable. In my head, it is myth and legend and sheer beauty. ...Even if, occasionally when I go back and look carefully at the details, the ink is a bit runny and the pages are more than a little careworn. And possibly someone scribbled a bit in the margins. That's okay. It's good. It's been loved.

[identity profile] aris-tgd.livejournal.com 2011-03-16 08:55 am (UTC)(link)
To be honest, a lot of it DOES really look a lot worse than it used to, at least if you're watching it on DVD. Netflix somehow got ahold of the original broadcast versions, and they look a lot better.

... Though they do have the wrong side of London in the "Comes the Inquisitor" speech, without even the hilariously bad overdub. ;)

[identity profile] vjs2259.livejournal.com 2011-03-16 10:06 am (UTC)(link)
It's like when you remember a b&w movie in color, isn't it? Your mind fills in the blanks.

That point about Netflix is interesting. I'm re-watching for beyond the rim, streaming from NF, and it does seem way more shiny than my beat-up DVDs.

Velveteen Rabbit is so true. *hugs show*

[identity profile] aris-tgd.livejournal.com 2011-03-16 10:57 am (UTC)(link)
Well, the DVDs were done with the full 16:9 footage, but none of the digital effects were rendered in 16:9, so they blew up the 4:3 frames and cropped them. So all the EFX shots and all the CG exteriors on ALL the DVDs, except for the movies, are all mis-framed and blurry. Every. Single. One. It's actually kind of infuriating and makes my brain melt a little when I think about it.

But yeah. Some of the things which were corrected for the DVDs aren't switched in the NF versions, so it's like an easter egg hunt!