This was spectacular, as always! I have to say that I'm constantly amazed by charmax and it's always weird to think that she's also my friend. I think my favorite bit was "If you've ever thought that's three minutes of my life I'm never getting back... you'll live." LOL. I love you, girl!

bradcpu... you're amazing!

Once again, that was amazing and fascinating to listen to !
Thank you for making it !

Brad this was amazing as usual! I loved every second of it. charmax has been a viding hero of mine since my humble beginning.

Hee! I just don't know. But I'm glad we did. :D

Oh and thanks re: MH commentary. I can't believe it's finally done! Lord that was hard. But now I'm finally free to play in the comm so woohoo!

Another great profile of another vidder I admire. A pleasure to watch.

Awesome!

Brad!!! Cannot get enough of these, they're seriously my favourite thing on LJ. Love charmax's work, this is such a fantastic cross-section of her vids. I honestly hope the vidders of the future study this community and your profiles and how amazing is it that so many talented vidders are talking so eloquently about their work in one place.

I'm having so much fun! *splashes* ♥

Great profile Brad!

Oh man, "Midnight Lair". I'm so nostalgic now! Candleburn *still* makes me cry, I love that vid more than words can express!

"Learning new knowledge pushes old knowledge out of my brain" LOL, love it.

I really enjoyed this, great job to you both!

HEEEEH. Y HALO THAR ACCENT. :D

Great profile. I am all swoony over her in a whole new way, mostly because this gives me new and renewed appreciation and understanding regarding her vids. I think I nearly passed out from GLEE over the Protege Moi footage (guh!) and Unnatural Selection may be rather grim on some levels, but that vid always makes me want to dance.

Once again, charmax > everyone. I feel the need for a good squee coming on too. :P

That was a great one! There were some real insights here, particularly the bit about it seeming odd that love of strong female characters would need explanation until remembering some people's response to women in their shows (snap!). Even just snippets of all these vids, guh, so awesome.

Continual thanks for these profiles!

This is such a fantastic look at such a fantastic vidder. Awesome work bradcpu!

Brad, these keep getting better and better.

Charmax, thank you for an enlightening (and sometimes very funny) window into your process. You're delightful, and I can't wait to see what you do next.

Another great job on a great vidder, Brad.

*high fives*

I loved Char's line about "...if you complain thats 3 minutes of your life that you'll never get back...you'll live!" & then the guys head gets smacked on a coffin lid. Fucking LOL.

Keep these coming!

This is the first one of these I've managed to get around to watching (to my great shame) and I have to say it was fascinating. I really enjoyed it, because I love hearing why other vidders vid and about their processes.

i love these.

Eeeeeeee!!!!

I have been saving this up as a treat to myself after finishing a few big projects at work that have had me working 16 hour days. Ok, I have to also admit I then got The Fear about watching it because Charmax is so amazing and I am shy and thought I might be too overwhelmed to comment about it. But that is silly, because this series is so uplifting and encouraging even though its spotlighting people who I consider to be in some stratosphere high above me as a vidder. I always think it will completely paralyse me to me watch it but then actually it ends up stimulating and inspiring me. :) Thanks, Brad, for such an amazing idea! And honestly, the work on this profile is incredible... I don't think anyone could watch this and not be staggered by the breadth of Charmax's canon of work and her undeniable talent. It is a very beautifully constructed tribute.

Now I'm going to tl;dr in response to charmax's comments! Ignore at will. :)

You'll live
:D I love that! (And I love that Brad used a visual pun there--so you!)

vidding as therapy
I found it fascinating that you started vidding as a way out of depression. I definitely find it brings meaning to my life that nothing else really does. May I ask a terribly personal question (just don't reply if it's inappropriate): did you ever find that came at a price? I have found that while vidding has brought me joy and meaning, it has also unsettled my mental health more than anything else in the past five years. It means so much to me, my fears around it vanishing again and my sorrow when i'm blocked about it are hard to bear. I've been stable for 8 years now but nothing rocks me as close to my old depressive episodes as vidding, and it's a hard line to tread. Any advice? (Hey, a girl may as well ask, right?!)

song choice
I love what you have to say here! I so agree. It's completely intuitive and for me, the song IS the vid.

I also definitely feel the same way about 'happy accidents' on the timeline. As someone who doesn't storyboard, one of the things I often do is just throw clips randomly onto the timeline and see how they look with the track. It's amazing what can come out of that!

effects
I found this section fascinating and I'm in awe of your effects work on both vids. It's the sort of visual imagination that I don't have and which impresses me greatly in others.

simple cross-dissolve transitions
I am SO GLAD that you postscripted that comment with 'I say simple, but...' because my first reaction was 'are you frakking kidding me?!' :) So that was very reassuring. I find transitions very hard and would love to ask you about your tweaking.

female characters/femslassh
It's interesting to me that this seems to have come about completely naturally for you--even though I do think of you as someone who vids strong women very well, I think the fact it's not a conscious political agenda for the most part actually lends your work sincerity. I'd also say what I find about your 'touch' with women in your vids is that it isn't defensive, reactionary or aggressive, and for that reason it's way more effective and powerful and mould-breaking to me--it doesn't feel when I'm watching any of your vids, even 'I'm your man' (bizarrely?) that your characters are reacting to a patriarchy and therefore acknowledging the male gaze in anyway. They're just being themselves and celebrating themselves as people (which happens to be as women) and you're celebrating them as that. IMO, you can't fake that. So I'd say that's that makes you unusual compared even to other people who like, admire or fetishise strong women. (I have no idea if that makes any sense.)

LOL about femslash--so true! Two interesting female characters is the holy grail!

I will always heart your suckerdom for visual puns. (You already know how much I love your 'Six' pun in Unnatural Selection.)

I am trying REALLY hard NOT to tell you that in my eyes you've already definitely created vids that work perfectly on all levels. But since I am invested in you never taking up fishing... OMG KEEP TRYING! :p

Well, I for one am very glad you talked about all of this. "Glad" is a bit of an understatement. I'm thrilled you enjoyed the profile, and love reading your exchange with charmax here. It continues to be an education.

been following comments on this profile
I would think it pretty weird if you didn't!

the last weekend in every month a computer free zone
Oh, that sounds very sane-ifying! I'm glad it helps.

Now it’s all one frame this way, one frame that way, to ease or not to ease.
Wow, that's really cool. I just worked out how to use key frames to change motion--well, to zoom or pan. But I don't know how to do anything else with them. Is it too awful to ask what to 'ease' means? Do you change the opacity with keyframes maybe?

I know perfectionism can be a curse, but you do make beautifully polished vids and as a somewhat-sloppy non-perfectionist, I really admire that!

Thank you! That is very generous of you to share that information. I will have to do a bit of poking around in FCP to see where that is. There is so much I do not know.

It was the point where “you’re weird!” became “you’re home!”
That should be the official definition of fandom.

I should definitely adopt your last-weekend-away strategy. I think we all suffer from those types of tailspins, at least to some degree.

(i still vote for the gone fishing icon)

Bit late to the party here, but this made me so so happy to watch. :D Partially 'cause, srsly, never a bad time to watch Charmax's vids, but also because she is so wonderfully well-spoken about her work. And hilarious, hee. *g*

Good on you both! (Really really good! ;D)

Another awesome profile, Great content and cleverly edited Brad. charmax has long been an inspiration for me and I just loved hearing her thoughts.

Plus she killed me with the 'Homer Simpson' quote - don't go fishing Charmax, vidding needs you.

Glad you enjoyed it. :) As you might have guessed by now I'm having some 'me' time to catch up on these and a whole load of vids I haven't had time to watch.

Great way to spend a cold winters day...

OH, this was so fascinating. I've long been an admirer of charmax's vids, so I am greedy for her thoughts on vidding. Thank you, Brad! <3<3<3<3<3