Saturday, April 28, 2012

Evie's Fantasy

Evie's going to get her fantasy and make it reality!

(If you don't want to scroll through these individually, you can view the video by clicking here.  Just remember to view it in HD and full screen)

















So this cap started out like any other.  I wanted to make a cap for Evie, and read through her preferences.  Once I had a basic idea of what he liked, I went looking for images.  With Evie, I have one main thing in mind when looking for photos... Blonde.

I don't care how much I like a thumbnail.... if its not a blonde girl, I'm not even going to look at it.  But beyond that, I could go dirty, I could go clean, I could go classy.... I could go anywhere so long as it doesn't look like the girl is being humiliated (a toughie for me as I gravitate toward those photos, but I soldiered on).

To be honest, when I saw these files, I didn't really consider them for Evie.  For one, her hair IS technically blonde, but its colored.  And while I didn't see a particular ban on tattoos in Evie's preferences, I didn't know if she liked them.  And yea... this girl has some tattoos!

But I couldn't turn away.  I couldn't close the window.  I kept seeing her stare back at me.  And as I scrolled through the pictures, I kept feeling different emotions from her.  Excitement, sadness, worry... its was like watching a video with the music turned all the way down.  I didn't know exactly WHAT she was saying, but she was definitely saying something!

I finally left the window open, and continues searching in a new tab.  But after looking at several other photo sets, I was getting absolutely NO emotional context.  Sure, the images were sexy, but they just didn't hit me in the same way.  So... I went back, opened up the image in the first panel, and cropped it down a bit (mainly to get the logo out of the image).

I opened up MS Word, and wrote a couple paragraphs.  It was a fairly bad story about how the rain had trasnformed Adam into this sexy woman named Evie.  And she was talking to her girlfriend trying to convince her that this was a good thing.  That together they could play out her lesbian fantasy.

Well... it was crap.  So I started over.  I just looked at the photo and wrote "No, it wasn't a dream. It was Real"

And looking at the photo, I realized that it fit.  It didn't need more.  In fact adding more would take away from it.  So I took a path that I haven't since I started making captions.  I started writing out this story IN the images.  And like I did with "The Girl with the Pretty Tattoos!" I played with the text as a design element.  I didn't think I would play with each word, but I could still emphasize sentences, and parts of sentences.

Once I finished with the first panel (I added my watermark, but that was all the 'design' work I did), I copied a new photo from the gallery, added it in, and wrote up something for that photo.  I had no idea where the story was going to go.  I just made sure that the story meshed with what was written before it, and that it matched the tone of the photo.

When I got around the 7th panel, I actually tried to wrap it up.  But the story just wouldn't freakng end.  By the 10th panel, I had it in my head that the next one would be the last.  But it wasn't... so the next one would be the last.  But it wasn't....

I was shocked when I finished up at 18 panels.  My previous 'longest caption' was 7 panels.  But then again, those panels were packed with story, and it took me days to write it out.  This took a couple hours, and has just under 400 words.  But when I read it over.... I liked it.  I thought that it was a pretty good story, and that Evie would like it to.

I published it on the Haven, and realized that it was a lot of images to look through.  Especially if someone has to scan back and forth.  But when I went to make this post... well its a whole different thing here.  You see on the Haven all the iimages apear as thumbnails, but when you click on it, it enlarges the image in the message window.  So you can enlarge all the photos and just scroll down reading as you go.

But here... well that would work if I used the Lightbox display.  But I can't turn that on for a single post, and I HATE that display method for everything else.  So I thought about other methods.  I know that Rebecca Molay over at Rebecca's World uses a slide show.  That might work, but when I checked out slide share (the site she uses), I found that it takes power point slide shows, and when I upload them, they would be public (her's are private, but evidently you get that for $19 a month.... not gonna pay for that). so I started thinking video.

I won't bore you with the details. But as of right now I haven't gotten it to work out right.  The video looks good on my screen (its legible), but when I upload it via blogger, it must compress it.  So the smaller text just isn't readable.  I went ahead and included two versions I uploaded (they are just different quality settings.. I'd take one out, but I don't know HOW to remove it from the post).

If I figure out a way to use youtube I might add that (I know youtube lets you select what quality to use).  After all the time getting the music to line up, and making title and credit cards, I just want you to be able to see see it.





*EDIT*

Huzzah!  I got it uploaded to youtube, and it DOES display much better.   I also figured out how to get the previous videos out, so I removed one of them (the low quality one).  I left the other so that everyone can see and learn: don't upload a video through blogger... just upload it to youtube!

For now, since it does have some nudity, I unlisted the video.  It's still there, but you won't find it via search. You need the link.  I believe that this is stopping me from 'adding' the video directly to this post.  So for now here is the link to the youtube 'video' of this cap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXRwyw3AHpk

Remember, you can up the quality (it looks best in 720 or 1080), and you should be able to view it full screen.  At my personal resolution of 1920x1200 it looks good (even though it is displaying the images LARGER than the original!)


**EDIT**


It looks like the video was taken down by YouTube.  I can understand the removal as the video did contain nudity, copyrighted pictures and copyrighted music.  But to be honest, the part that hurts is the notice I received about the removal.  According to the notice the video was flagged by a member of the you tube community.  Somone that viewed the video flagged it as 'inapropriate'.  Here is the actual notice:


Regarding your account: CaitlynMasked

The YouTube Community has flagged one or more of your videos as inappropriate. Once a video is flagged, it is reviewed by the YouTube Team against our Community Guidelines. Upon review, we have determined that the following video(s) contain content in violation of these guidelines, and have been disabled:

Evie's Fantasy - (CaitlynMasked)
Your account has received one Community Guidelines warning strike, which will expire in six months. Additional violations may result in the temporary disabling of your ability to post content to YouTube and/or the permanent termination of your account.

For more information on YouTube's Community Guidelines and how they are enforced, please visit the help center.

Sincerely, 

The YouTube Team


I could care less about the strike, or even having the video removed.  But somoene that viewed it thought that it was inappropriate.  I linked to this video in exactly three places.  Rachel's Haven (TG caps), The D+X Institute (Forced Femme role playing), and my blog (TG, Forced Femme, caps, dirty dirty place).  I would normally assume that you tube looks through its videos and flags them individually, but I have (had) three videos up on youtube.  One is very similar to this (it is a slide show with some video clips and contains some nudity).  The other is porn.  I don't mean it deals with forced femme, or tg, or some other 'round the way' porn... I mean its a guy fucking a woman.  Both of those videos had copyrighted photos from other sites, and both had copyrighted music.  Being as they've both been up there for 16 months or so, I have to believe that youtube doesn't check them out, and believe their report that says someone flagged this video.

So... you know... thanks for that.

I may look at alternate ways to host the video, but until then I've done all that I can to remove from public view.  Including removing the links everywhere, and even taking down the video hosted here on my blog.

***Edit***

I think I have it uploaded successfully to Daily Motion.  We'll see how long it lasts here (Remember for best results view it in HD):

***Edit***

Daily motion took the video down as well.  As of now, there is no place to see the video.  If anybody has suggestions where I can upload it and have it available for free streaming (in high quality), I'm open to trying again. 



20 comments:

  1. Welcome to my world Caitlyn. I normally write the text in the image and I let the story flow wherever its wants... so this happen, you felt the sensation of an engrossing story inside of your head. That sensation you think Ouh this is absolutely ridiculous but it shows bit after bit.

    I don't know if it was your intention to put the story from any panel, but I read mixing panels and thanks to your "opened writing" It can differ the story in many, many directions. Just try and you'll know what I'm telling you ;)

    I must say that you need to let your impulses get over you from time to time and let Caitlyn come out and play. This is clearly as you stated a part of irrational thinking where your Calvin part want to stop but Caitlyn says: Ouh this is juicy, just let me pour a bit more, just a bit more and you end up with such a friggin' awesome story. Well done Caitlyn.

    Storytelling is not based on huge walls of text its based on emotions. And here there are true huge emotions coming out to play! Of course the sexy babe adds to the play, but my main focus and thrill is in your words accompanied by a marvelous match of each panel.

    And I'll stop the praising because by know you are clearly red :3

    Just a tiny slang: You say clean but ouh well, you left my mind thinking dirty things about Evie. It's my sis you know! *giggle*

    Hugs and Kisses Alectra

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    1. It wasn't my intention to write this so that it could be read in a random order. While I didn't exactly have a story arch to begin with, I did let it have a peak and an ending. I'm sure it differs the story though. I just don't know if I'm happy about that or upset. I don't know if that says its good writing or bad.

      As to my impulses, this wasn't a Calvin/Caitlyn issue. It was a writing issue. When I accepted that I would write this way, I had in mind a 'short' story. I know, I know, its short as is writing wise, but the whole cap is long (considering that I'm letting the pictures tell quite a bit of the story. I guess you could say that its more of an issue of not knowing the ending. I didn't even intend on using those last two images as they didn't 'fit' the rest of the images. And normally when I don't know where the story is going to end it meanders and wanders around in an unsatisfying way.

      Heh... the only thing I meant by putting the 'clean' label on was that I didn't really talk about sex in the cap. I only mentioned them making love once, and mentioned the girlfriend getting wet once. I would put a 'rating' on this of PG--13, or maybe a soft R (full nudity tends to get that).

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  2. Once again, you go to the next level with everything you do!

    The kinetic style of text makes this really pop visually. Instead of overloading the space with a ton of text, you made it as much apart of the image as the model. This is fantastic visual work. That alone would have been amazing. However you took to the next level and turned it into a video. I just don't see how I could keep up. Bravo.

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    1. Thank you Simone. Such praise coming from you means a lot. I often struggle with letting 'negative space' sit unused. I don't know if I would consider making it into a video as 'taking it to the next level'. Its really just a slideshow so that the reader can sit back and read it like a normal caption and not have to keep clicking.

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  3. I'm.. I'm speechless. The captions on there own are absolutely fantastic, and when they're added to music in the video. It's all so beautiful. The emotions you've captured so simply and perfectly, the love, the anger, Evie's playful naughtiness. I really don't think I can say anymore, because I don't have the words for it

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    1. Thank you Evie. I'm glad that the music helped frame the emotions. To be honest I was letting the process of making it into a video guide me, and after I published it I started to worry if the music was a bad idea. It matched the emotions I wanted the reader to feel, but I'm afraid that its dictating those feelings instead of letting the reader put their own tone into it. If someone read this as more playful, then the music wouldn't go along with that at all.

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    2. She's Kyra... you missed her name Caitlyn :3
      Evie's out, but I'm sure she'll come like a moth to the flame to comment this soon :D

      Hugs and Kisses Alectra

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    3. I couldn't agree more. That is a stunningly lovely piece of work. That is not a caption story it is a work of art.

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    4. Evie said on her blog a week ago she would be gone a "fortnight" So I believe she'll be back in half a fortnight - a halfnight - a forthalf? (I'm a silly Yank) :p

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    5. Mistake or not, I'm going to take being called Evie as a compliment ;)

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    6. Yea, sorry about that Kyra. Don't know what came over me!

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  4. The visual side, as in the integration of the text into the photo was so well done, it feels like a story pictorial in a fantasy magazine. The word collage in panel 11 was genius. Its one of your best series to date.

    I am not sure what mood you were going for though. To me, if you were going for a happy ending, it should've ended on panel 16 .. "you're getting turned on my me!" From there, it seems like it turned from a charming "see what you awoke in me" feel into an almost 'the change pushed Evie over the brink" mentality where love turns into obsession. By the last panel, I got the impression that Evie's girlfriend was fleeing in fear, and that Evie was about to become a stalker.

    The music in the video matched well until the ending, where all I was thinking was "Every Breath You Take" by The Police. Most people have fond thoughts of the song (and people have even used it as a wedding song!) but it has quite a few different meanings, and one is of a stalker. The beautiful music belies the underneath single-natured focus the singer has one his object of affection .. and I see the same thing in this caption series, an artistic tour-de-force with am intense, creepy vibe.

    Perhaps this is just the way my mind works, but its how I saw this stunning work play out as I was reading it. What was your original intent for this, to make it a happy ending, or have a darker feel that would unsettle the reader as it went along?

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    1. I wish I could say I was going after a mood. But since I was writing this just one panel at a time, I didn't have an arc and therefore wasn't trying to dictate a particular mood. You know me... I'm generally not going for a 'happy' ending. So it doesn't surprise me that you got this feeling of stalking from it. When I read it in full, I get a desperate mad love out of it. Adam has become Evie, and now just desperately wants his/her girlfriend to love her as much.

      The music I picked (and since it's no longer up the music was Rob Dougan's "Instrumental" from the Furious Angels album) played a bit on that. Sad, slow, building, trying to convince a sane person that you are in fact not mad, and that they MUST love you back.

      When I saw those last pictures I didn't originally intend to use them. But I felt that Evie was convincing the girlfriend to much, so it seemed to fit that the girlfriend would run away. Those pictures matched that. I'd say the 'real' ending comes about 4 panels later. Does the girl friend come back and accept Evie as she now is, or does Evie go fully mad and start stalking her. It's up to the reader.

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  5. The use of the various fonts did an amazing thing; it was like a 3D vibe to the story. Bravo, you just set the bar that much higher for the rest of us, Caitlyn. :)

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    1. I appreciate that Annabelle. Although that is all the same font. Its 'Effloresce' in italics and several sizes (and one point bold as well). I assume that's what you meant... the variety of sizes.

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  6. Wow, I don't really know what to say, it's so beautiful! The imagery is so evocative, the emotion and the depth of the series is amazing. I love the story and the development of it, the use of the font and the images chosen... amazing.

    I'm abashed that anyone would ever make me something so purely and sincerely beautiful, thank you I'm honoured and enraptured by this series in equal part. You are truly astounding Caitlyn...

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  7. WOW!!I absolutely loved it!!So powerful and beautiful,truly amazing.I am humbled by your story telling with these images.This story is truly unique in it's delivery and a joy to see.Thank you ever so much for sharing it.

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  8. Wow, that was fantastically sexy.

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  9. I cant find the video on daily motion

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    1. Sorry Lara, both youtube and dailymotion took the videos down. As of right now the only place to see this video is in my gallery at DX.

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