The end of #Droughtlander Take Two is nowhere in sight. All we get from Starz is vague answers like “spring 2016” with perhaps a March or April thrown in as a bone. Combine this with winter coming to those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere and well, it’s not pretty.
And so this is an ode to the fans who make those luscious videos. You know the ones I’m talking about — the wonderful song about love and friendship and standing by your man etc. combined with a montage of moments we all love to remember. They are a momentary oasis in the #Droughtlander desert.
I first discovered these videos on Tumblr, a treasure trove of all things Outlander. I don’t officially write on Tumblr, but I’m not gonna lie: I’m a Tumblr Outlander voyeur, following folks who are clearly more technically savvy than I am and who have way more time to follow their Outlander obsession.
And of course YouTube is another Outlander hotspot. Type in “Outlander” and you get nearly one million options. “Outlander Fan Videos” narrows the search to 5,130, while typing in
“Outlander Fan Song Videos” yields about 6,620. It’s enough to make a Sassenach’s heart sing.
Given the number and everyone’s different aesthetics and criteria for measuring what makes a “good” video, this post is not meant to suggest the person I’m featuring has created the ultimate videos. They’re just ones I particularly like. I’d love to have you all post some others below so we can share the love and wealth.
Regardless of ultimate quality, this much is true about all the fan videos: They take time. A LOT of time.
One of my favorite fan videographers is a young woman called Jessica who hails from Ireland. She writes a popular blog on Tumblr called jamesandclairefraser (she just hit the 2 million mark.) When she’s not shipping Cait and Sam, she covers Outlander generally and has impressed me with her ability to stay out of the hubbub that Outlander‘s fandom can sometimes inspire. I’m also impressed because her mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s when she was 18 and now, at 23, she is her mother’s main caregiver.
Anyway, when we chatted by email, she said it takes her about 18 hours to make a video. She’s been making fan videos off and on for about seven years, but got back into it seriously when she discovered Outlander in August 2014. “I quickly fell in love withJamie and Claire and their love for each other, so I decided to start making videos again. I feel that I’ve improved my skills greatly in the last year mainly due to being so inspired by the positive feedback I’ve received.” All told Jess has made nine videos of Jamie and Claire and one of Sam and Cait (which happens to be my total fave).
And for the shippers out there….this one is awesome….
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