A nice fanvideo set to my favorite Tori Amos Christmas song. I have no idea what the movie is, though. Anyone know?
Fanwork Friday: The Starring Role #dero #awz
Another fantastic fanvid about Deniz and Roman from Alles was zählt (All That Matters). This one is a Roman character study from the early days of their relationship. I hated Deniz during this time period, but Roman wasn’t an easy person to deal with either. He wasn’t a delicate flower. Anyway, yeah, this was lovely to see.
*
Oh, Roman, you were such a brat and such a darling. I loved you.
Unquestionably talented figure skater Matty Marcus is willing to sacrifice everything for his Olympic dream, but his lack of discipline cost him the gold once before. Now the pressure’s on. He needs a coach who can keep him in line, but top coaches don’t come cheap, and Matty can’t afford to stay in the game no matter how badly he wants to win.
When a lucrative house-sitting gig brings him to rural Montana, Matty does his best to maintain his training regimen. Local residents turn out to be surprisingly tolerant of his flamboyant style, especially handsome young rancher Rob Lovely, who proves to be much more than a cowboy stereotype. Just as Matty requires a firm hand to perform his best on the ice, Rob shows him how strong he can be when he relinquishes control in the bedroom. With new-found self-assurance, he drives himself harder to go straight to the top.
But competition has a timetable, and to achieve his Olympic dream, Matty will have to join his new coach in New York City, leaving Rob behind. Now he must face the ultimate test. Has he truly learned how to win—on and off the ice—during his training season?
Fanwork Friday: Back to the Beginning – Deniz & Roman, Alles was zählt #awz #fandom #video
Wow. Why do the Germans make me cry with their gay soap couples? Okay, fine, why do all soaps make me cry about their gay couples, regardless of nationality? Oh, Roman. My heart.
This is such a good, good, good, good video.
Unquestionably talented figure skater Matty Marcus is willing to sacrifice everything for his Olympic dream, but his lack of discipline cost him the gold once before. Now the pressure’s on. He needs a coach who can keep him in line, but top coaches don’t come cheap, and Matty can’t afford to stay in the game no matter how badly he wants to win.
When a lucrative house-sitting gig brings him to rural Montana, Matty does his best to maintain his training regimen. Local residents turn out to be surprisingly tolerant of his flamboyant style, especially handsome young rancher Rob Lovely, who proves to be much more than a cowboy stereotype. Just as Matty requires a firm hand to perform his best on the ice, Rob shows him how strong he can be when he relinquishes control in the bedroom. With new-found self-assurance, he drives himself harder to go straight to the top.
But competition has a timetable, and to achieve his Olympic dream, Matty will have to join his new coach in New York City, leaving Rob behind. Now he must face the ultimate test. Has he truly learned how to win—on and off the ice—during his training season?
Fanwork Friday: We Didn’t Start the Fire: Fifty Years of Fandom #fandom #fanvid
Password: fandom! (<–with the exclamation point)
You know, the immensity of this one is pretty huge. There’s a lot of emotion for any fan in watching these images flash by. When one of “your” fandoms comes up, the swell of joy is so sweet, and then the wonder of seeing the little glimpses of how passionate fans are–like the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie protests. Oh, fandom, I love you!
I strongly recommend this vid for a shot of feels in the morning. Also, check out the vidders’ comments HERE.
Fanwork Friday: My Life Would Suck Without You #dero #awz
I was looking up some YouTube fanvids for Roman Wild from the German Soap, Alles was zählt and found this amazing ‘shipper vid for Roman and his main love interest, Deniz. I admit that the color fades at the end were a bit much, but it doesn’t negate the otherwise awesome presentation of the truly fucked up, hot, and tender love between Deniz and Roman. Jeez, I’d forgotten how hot their kisses were. American soaps? Take note. This is how hot man-on-man kisses should be, not that dreary, cardboard you give us!
Also, the perv in me would like to point out the perfect placement of the shower scene to the line “you’ve got a piece of me”. Nicely done, vidder. Nicely done.
One used to be able to view all of Deniz and Roman’s story translated by some wonderful fan volunteers. I’m not sure that’s still available. If a fan knows and reads this post, feel free to enlighten me and others as to where that can be found! 🙂
FWIW, their romance ends tragically, but it’s a German soap, so what were you expecting? Hell, it is a soap, so what were you expecting? 😉 Let’s not talk about trains, okay? I’m still not over it.
Any Other World: Training Season #johnnyweir #mm #romance
My upcoming novel, Training Season, is a romance featuring a male figure skater and a rancher. The story has existed in various stages and forms for a few years now, but it has only come into its own in my latest sweep of edits and additions. It is turning into something that I feel rather pleased with, if I do say so myself, and I look forward to sharing more information on it soon, including a lovely cover designed by the always wonderful Dar Albert. Expect that cover reveal soon.
In the meantime, I wanted to talk a bit about the initial moment of inspiration for this novel. The spark originated from watching the following video. It is a fanvideo, a montage of Johnny Weir’s performances over some of his earlier years, set to the absolute perfect song. It was the combination, and the impeccable editing, that really engaged my mind and made me start to ask some really important questions. Such as, what does it look like when you work hard at something with no guarantee that the outcome of years and years of work will pay off? (Hello, I am a writer, I think I understand this quite well, actually.) Or what does it look like when someone keeps screwing themselves over because they just don’t believe, deep down, that they deserve it? What happens when they meet someone from outside of their world who gets them, sees them, and loves them anyway?
Other questions came up, too, but those were the very first ones, and they were all due to this little fanvid right here. Oh, Johnny Weir, you are a divine mess at times, aren’t you? And, yes, he is, in part, along with some other skaters and some people I know in my day-to-day life, the inspiration for the character of Matty Marcus–God’s gift to figure skating, and victim of his own worst impulses.
Enjoy the video. The way it makes you feel is pretty much what this book is about. The emotional base of it stemmed from this video.
Fanworks Friday: The Adventure by Greensilver
Who doesn’t love Neville? Everyone loves Neville, right? A wonderful fanvid for the true hero of Harry Potter.
28 Days of Holiday Music: Day 5: A Winter’s Carol & Fanwork Friday
For the month of December, I’m going to combine Fanwork Friday and my Holiday Music fest. The first example is this wonderful video by Hikaru77 featuring the song “A Winter’s Carol” from Midwinter Graces combined with footage from the 2002 film Snow Queen to make this really gorgeous fanvid.
Day Five
As a bonus, PS 22 Chorus performed this back in 2009. Those kids are always inspiring! Check them out!
Fan Vid: Fabulous Beekman Boys: Spying On Hope
So, I made this fanvid. It took around 9 months to make because I couldn’t find the source I wanted (and I never found the source I wanted), but mostly because Windows Movie Maker is the most hellish video making software ever. Let me assure you that this would be a better fan video if I didn’t have to listen to the song from the beginning every time I made a change or tweak, because otherwise the music didn’t line up. Truthfully, there are still many things I’d change about the final product, but I can’t hear the song again. Not for awhile, anyway. One day I might move on from the wretched, evil WMM and buy some proper video making software, but I’m not sure when I’ll do such a thing, since spending money on video making products isn’t really in my budget, especially when I do it so rarely and can’t ever seem to find source.
Wow. Don’t you want to watch this now? Hah. Anyway, it’s a fanvid about The Fabulous Beekman Boys.
Spying On Hope
And, no, I have no idea why it runs on for 2 minutes longer than the music. Uh, I’m pretty sure this is why I’m not a vidder. I’d be unwilling to put a story or book out in this shape, but when it comes to vids I’m all, “GOOD ENOUGH.” And done. 😛
Leta Blake 