Mrs Darcy's YouTuberances
When I decided that the serialisation of Mrs Darcy needed a promotional trailer, my original plan was to do yet another of those re-subtitled versions of the bunker scene from Downfall. If I remember correctly, the bit with the map at the beginning was going to be a discussion about the plans for the new Berlin Jane Austen theme park, although I'm not sure if the concept went any further than that. However, it was already a very tired meme, and I very soon realised that I was going to have to come up with something a bit more original.
So the next plan was to find a foreign-dubbed version of the BBC's Pride and Prejudice that I could add my own subtitles to. But YouTube wasn't very helpful here. Either such versions didn't exist or no one had got around to uploading any clips from them.
There was nothing for it. I'd have to provide my own foreign dubbing as well. It would have to be French, because that's the only living language apart from English that I have any knowledge of. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it opened up some new possibilities ...
By the way, I've since been told that I got the title completely wrong. It should be Orgueil et Préjugés. Oops. Still, the video did win the coveted third place slot in the March 2010 You Gotta Read Videos awards.
Of course, the success of this one only increased the demand for the next one. This time around, I decided to be a bit more ambitious and merge in a couple of classic sci-fi clips as well. That meant that I had to make the whole thing black and white, but I think that just added to the charm of it. I think the voices are slightly better blended this time, too ...
Of course, the problem now was that the bar was set so high that I couldn't really top that. (Pause to clear throat after unexpected coughing fit.) Instead, I recruited one of our cats. After all, YouTube is primarily a medium for cat videos and anything else is simply taking up valuable disk space. Here's Marvin anyway. I only hope it doesn't go to his head.