Ask anyone who knows me, and they'll tell you that I am a pop culture junkie. I appreciate quirky things, and will recite entire scenes from old television shows, cartoons, or anything else that is rotting my brain. Some people might think its a waste of a perfectly good intellect. Nah, its who I am and I totally embrace it.
When Pea offered this picture as one she'd like captioned, I'm not sure that THIS was what she had in mind, but it practically wrote itself. All of Petra's dialog is directly from the movie (I've done this a few times over the years with different movies) and I just had to re-imagine it to fit into a TG caption mode.
Luckily, Pea loved it (well she SAID she did anyway, and that is good enough for me! I had that feeling that she would dig what I tried to do, even if it ended up an overall failure. It is another reason that you should have post in your trading area containing pictures you'd like to have captioned for you in trades. You never know how it can jog someone to make a wonderful (or offbeat) caption for you.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: If this picture was in a different person's folder, I might NOT have even attempted to caption it. Have you encountered pictures that made you say, "Dammit! If it wasn't posted in Miss Prissy Panties folder, I'd have had a much more fun time with it!" or thought about filing it away and using it for another person a few months later? We'll follow up with another pop culture caption or two in the next few weeks. Speaking of, I just gained my 42nd follower aka "the answer to life, the universe, and EVERYTHING!" Truly a DEEP THOUGHT.
PS. If there *IS* a Miss Prissy Panties out there ... I didn't mean to single you out. Drop me a note and don't be shy!
I'll admit that if you started this discussion a few months ago I would have answered NO. Before a few weeks ago I didn't really look into peoples folders at the images they put up asking for caps. My thinking was that they saw that image and it inspired a situation/cap that they liked, but never put it that idea to paper (er... pixels). And I didn't want to write up a cap that didn't live up to their original idea. Its the reason that I don't put up images in my own folder.
ReplyDeleteBut a few weeks ago I was perusing Petra's folder and found an image that SCREAMED a story at me. I not only liked the image, but I loved the story that it told me. Luckily Petra's preferences and my preferences match up fairly well, and the story I thought of would work for her as well. So I wrote it up and posted it for her, and she loved it (well she SAID she did anyway, and that is good enough for me too!).
Now I will be looking through peoples folders to see if I can get some inspiration! As to finding an image that tells a story that wouldn't work for that person. Hmm... it hasn't happened yet. I think I would just leave the image alone.
Again I imagine the person has chosen that image for a reason, and wouldn't really like to see it used in a way that doesn't match their preferences. While I don't think it would be 'stealing' the image (we've all seen the same images used in multiple caps by multiple people), I still don't think it would be right.
I like that this was brought up, as with my current deal I'm running on the haven is dealing with the same subject matter. I have all these photos I collected to cap, and then just never got around to them, so I picked a bunch of my favorites and invited others to caption them. But the big twist was that I would also have to use the SAME PICTURE they used from my folder for them as one of their return captions, forcing me to try and be even more creative with that picture.
ReplyDelete*Kaitlyn's Shameless Plug*
Sometimes, when I owe a cap, and I just don't know what to do for someone--and especially if I don't necessarily like their preferences, their provided photos are a good match for me. There's usually something tame enough that I can use fully knowing they'll like it because they chose the picture.
@ Kaitlyn
ReplyDeleteIn my case, the folders are very different in that "what pictures I WANT to caption for others" is completely different from "pictures I'd like to see capped FOR ME". I am not sure why that is.
Perhaps it falls into that "I don't usually picture myself as the star of these captions" which would make me a horrible captioner if I wasn't writing for others. I need some guidelines or I'd be all over the place.
My picture folder contains shots of people I could imagine myself being, and pick those shots that give someone a good foundation for a caption that would fall within my preferences. I am not sure I'd be able to write captions for the pictures I've posted. I enjoy them, but they don't tell me a story, which is why I think that someone else should be able to make it come to life.
Dee I do love this cap. I mean it's dialog from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, one of my favorite movies, how could I NOT love it. Oh and the image, Bianca is one of my favorites, I aspire to look like her. So in summary, YES I love this cap.
ReplyDeleteOh and @Caitlyn, I love the cap that you made for me as well, I just now got done gushing about it on your blog.
Now on to the topic at hand. I usually tend to avoid using images that people provide. I think part of the joy of capping for me is the story that pops into my head when I see a picture. The images that other people choose rarely if ever "speak" to me in the same way as ones that I find on my own. The thrill of the hunt is so much fun that I don't want to give it up. I guess that makes me a bit selfish, I should get over that.
That being said, the few times that I have used images that people provide, I feel like I've cheated. It's like half the work is done for me already and I just need to fill out the details.
I'm thinking though that after reading this discussion and knowing how I felt after receiving this cap and the others that people have done based on pics I choose, I need to adjust my way of thinking. People post pics they want capped because they are favorites, they want to read a story with material they like in it. It can be doing the recipient a very good turn to use their images, so I think I may have to change my policy.
@ Dee
ReplyDeleteI totally get that. Normally, I like being surprised with what people find for me. And although my current deal on the haven is using pics I found for others to cap me, it's also working on two levels: One, it challenges me to use the photos I saved during my searches. I always seem to save a lot of pics, and then when it comes time to caption someone, I never gave them a second glance and instead searched for new pics. Secondly, Since I'm capping people back with the same photo, I'm essentially letting people choose which photo they'd like to be captioned with.
Whenever I save photos in a search, I never really have anyone in particular in mind. And of course, I would never save something that I wouldn't like if it were given to me. I think that's why this little deal I'm running doesn't bother me.
At one point, I tried providing links to some sets that I liked. I have no reason why I stopped... Maybe it just wasn't doing it for me. I like the idea of providing photos, even if only to show what sort of mental imagery I have. However, more recently I find myself enjoying the surprise of randomness with a race or tasteful age change, or becoming really short. And perhaps it's that need for randomness that led me to provide any and all of my picture finds to cap me with. I think I just made a discovery while typing this... Thanks Dee!
@ Petra
ReplyDeleteIt makes me feel good whenever I can get someone to think about things in a different way than they usually do. My main goal here is to get people to appreciate captions for things much more than just spank material, though that *IS* an element.
I hope I'm not insulting anyone in particular, but if you go to the haven and look at the contest entries for 2007 and the latest contests, there is a HUGE upswing in the quality. I'm hoping that with these discussions, we can push the envelope even further!
@ Kaitlyn
I can appreciate the randomness of captioning, and how it can stimulate creativity. We've had a few ideas that ended up on the back burner at the haven, due to the coliseum among other things. We might have some sort of exercise coming up if a few of the admins can pull it together.