That means you can sign up for an account, post fic, and bookmark and rec your favorite fic on the site! I'm so excited, I just got my account, RDphantom, and the site looks awesome. It works well, is easy to browse and find works, and it's easy to make bookmarks and recs. I really like the bookmark/rec feature. It's a great way to find good fic within a fandom. I don't have any fic to post, but I think I'll enjoy keeping track of what I've read through my bookmarks. I'm SO excited, it feels like we've been waiting forever for this!!
The OTW is having their second annual Donations Drive this week, it ends the 19th of October. Now is a great time to support them with the money they need to build and maintain the beautiful Archive of our Own, which goes into open Beta next month! They are also looking for volunteers for all types of jobs within the OTW.
( Motion Roller Coaster )
( Premieres From Themed Shows )
( Premieres )
( Also Premiering )
I'll be posting more as I finish the other two discs, hopefully soon.
So this was my first Vividcon and I was so excited about it; apparently my excitement showed! Someone said I had the look of a con first-timer and I totally did. I’m sure I was grinning at everyone. It was awesome to meet all of you, people whose names I’ve been seeing for a few years now and people whose vids I’ve adored. It was really a one of a kind experience, and I hope to go again. Here are some of the highlights for me, now that I‘m starting to have time to get them together.
1. Club Vivid rocks! Someone said that it’s surprisingly easy to dance to awesome vids in a dark room with glow sticks and other enthusiastic fans and they were totally right. I'm glad that I decided to go in costume, too. I mean, where else am I going to rock the Starfleet uniform? I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and I didn’t think I would really dance, but I did. I pretty much danced all night, and it was so much fun. I think this was one of my favorite parts of the con.
2. Premieres and Nearly New were awesome; the movie atmosphere with the huge screen was neat. My husband Neo and I saw Nearly New in the big room, and premieres in the overflow room. The overflow room was neat because it was more casual, and I got to talk with (ie: fangirl at)
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luminosity about Ecstatic Drum Trip and Farscape. Lots of really awesome vids, it was cool to see them back to back, like a best of the best for the year. Vid review the next day was neat. I didn’t actually realize what it was going to consist of, but after seeing so many vids they all ran together and I wasn’t able to always remember each vid entirely, or what I thought about them. I think I’ll be able to give better reviews on second re-watches. Yay for the Con DVD! I think I’ll get into it this weekend. Is there any way to get DVD's or booklets for past cons? 3. Meeting people was awesome. Luminosity,
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elynross , and kassrachel were all wonderfully welcoming to me right off the bat, and I really appreciated that. millylicious was also very nice, and I appreciated the time she spent with me talking about Photoshop. I had a fantastic time talking with Vlad during the buffet, and dancing with norabombay , frostfire_17 , Millylicious and shinetheway at Club Vivid. And it was so cool to meet heresluck , bradcpu , absolutedestiny , hollywoodgrrl , jarrow and bananainpyjamas . I really admire their vidding skills, so it was neat just to be around them. I know that’s not everyone I met and talked with (Neo and I talked with someone quite a bit during the buffet before Club Vivid, but I can't remember her name), I know I’ve forgotten some people’s names now, so let me just say that everyone there made my experience really fun. Everywhere I went people were discussing vids or fic and saying totally fannish stuff that made me smile. 4. There were some really cool panels. Milly’s Photoshop and
jescaflowne 's AE and Premiere gave me a good idea of what more I can do with my vids, and how to use the software programs together to maximize time and effectiveness. I still have a lot to learn, but at least I feel like I know where to start. Here’s Luck is an awesome vidder and gave me lots to think about when timing my vids. The challenge is not cutting on every single beat, but using the beats and various instrumental aspects of music to emphasize movement and visual significance of clips. I think I’ll have to study her vids further to learn that lesson better ;) Motion Roller Coaster by anoel was really cool too, lots of amazing vids that I totally want to review again. In-Depth vid review with Milly and Absolutedestiny was awesome. The vids reviewed were incredible, and it was so cool to hear other people's thoughts about them. 5. The Star Trek party was a blast. There is nothing like watching vids and parts of Trek with a bunch of loud, enthusiastic fans. It was really fun.
6. The Town Hall on Vidding and Visibility was really cool. It was so awesome to meet
astolat , Francesca Coppa, Rebecca Tushnet and everyone else who is so involved with the OTW. I really believe in the OTW’s mission and how they are making it happen, and it was really cool to get a progress review in person. Kassrachel has an in depth con report here that has a very detailed section of the Town Hall. I only wish I had more days before and after the con to meet people and see the city. Neo and I were going to see downtown on Sunday afternoon after the challenge show but it was pouring rain. Since we weren’t likely to see much or want to get out of the car we decided to hang out for a while longer at the con. I think the con was really well run. Everything was very organized and it was really cool to have the whole second floor to ourselves. The buffet before Club Vivid was amazing, too. I'd love to go again. Maybe not next year, but when I have the time and money again. Thanks everyone for an amazing first time!
I'm going to VIVIDCON this year!! I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. It was such a last minute thing - Last week they announced that they have extra tickets and I've wanted to go since I learned about it three years ago, so my husband and I decided to do it. I don't have any vids premiering, sadly. It would be so cool to watch a vid premiere there, but I have the opportunity so I have to take it anyway. I'm so excited to meet other vidders and immerse myself in the vidding world the Con provides. It's going to be such a fantastic experience. This morning while eating breakfast I had the realization that in 9 days I'll be at a place where saying things like "What fandoms do you vid", "What software do you use", "I love the way that vidder used motion", "What do you think about the visibility of vidding and vidders these days", "The history of vidding" will be understood. My husband (who is coming with me) enjoys vids and puts up with me talking about them as much as I have, but no one I know really gets the squee like I do. I'm hoping I won't be too shy to get to know some people because I think it's gonna rock.
Trip Like I Do by un4scene: So far as I can tell, this is a vid about how awesome the crew of the Enterprise is. Really tight editing to a pretty hard core song. Great vid.
A Million Miles From Here by nel-ani: All he wants to be is a million miles from here. Kirk finds home on the Enterprise. She really captures Jim's restlessness and his experience on the Enterprise.
I'm On A Boat by kiki-miserychic: Kirk's got his nautical themed pashmina afghan. DON'T YOU EVER FORGET. Major Crack vid, so much fun.
On the Dance Floor by sloanesomething: Too many men, not enough ladies in Star Trek! Another crack vid, but also very true. Very funny.
I also recently saw several Stargate Atlantis vids that were just wonderful.
Liquid Bird by hollywoodgrrl: A final farewell to the Team and the City that changed them all forever. Gorgeous editing, really made me want to see even more of the series.
Language by newkidfan: A gorgeous look at all the things John doesn't or can't say. Very emotional and moving, beautiful and simple effects to accentuate the lyrics.
synecdochic</user> says Here, Here and Here, there is no money in putting advertising on user-generated-content, and imeem discovered that. So they are entirely changing their business model.And that just sucks. What a crappy thing for iMeem to do, especially since vidders used their site often and relied on them. I mean, I guess I understand the logic from a business sense, but it still utterly sucks for vidders because I have so many links to imeem, and now how am I going to watch them? And what about the recs I've posted to my journal that have imeem links only? I guess I'll be doing a lot of googling and searching LiveJournal to find them. I guess I'll have to look into Bam and Blip.tv and sort out where I want to put my vids. Not that I have a lot; my sympathy for the prolific vidders, that will be a real pain in the rear to re-upload everything.
My money is still on the OTW's future vid archive so we can own the goddamned servers. This just further cements my belief in the need for the OTW. I can't wait for them to put something out there for us to use, I wish it was here now.
Links to more discussion, including Bam video vault, Blip.TV and streaming your vids from your own site are here at Veni_vidi_vids.
ETA 6-27: If you can help fandom out by recording the individual vids included in playlists on imeem, go here: http://community.livejournal.com/veni_vi
More discussion here: http://community.livejournal.com/vidding/1
Star Trek XI is my latest craze, it's fun and exciting and you should all go watch it before it leaves the theaters.
I really did enjoy it, and I think it may be my favorite movie of 2009, already. It’s a great action movie. It has a quick pace that moves along quickly through the story, but the individual scenes are cut really quickly also, giving the whole movie a really aggressive feel that I liked. I enjoyed the dialogue between the characters, the fun snappy banter that made me laugh out loud. They did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life, in my opinion, especially Spock. Zachary Quinto looked and acted just like him, and I really felt for his losses. And I loved the relationship between Spock and Uhura. I’m a sucker for a good romance, and theirs was well done. The whole thing gave me a kind of nostalgic squee that I haven’t gotten over.
Probably the best thing about this movie though is the way it’s brought Star Trek to a new generation. While standing around outside talking with my family after the movie a group of children ran past and stopped to look at the Trek poster on the wall. One said “Look, Star Trek! Let’s see Star Trek!” and all his friends agreed. I think you have to love that. Although I consider myself a Star Trek fan, I’ve seen very little of TOS because it doesn’t get played on TV much. I’ve seen a lot more of TNG, Voyager, and some Enterprise. But this movie has gotten me really excited about TOS, so I’ve been renting the movies from Blockbuster and DVR’ing the episodes when they air. I’m enjoying them, even though the older stuff does feel a little different.
So bring on the vids! There are a huge number of vids already, but I guess that shouldn’t surprise me since fandom loves this movie so much. I should probably warn that pretty much all of these vids contain spoilers for the movie. As I said earlier I really liked Spock and Uhura’s relationship, so I think I’ll start there.
( The fic )
This month marks four years in fandom for me. I've been thinking a lot about fandom lately and so I thought I'd write about what it means to me.
So yesterday I posted a rant in my Last.fm journal about Today by The Smashing Pumpkins being used in a Visa commercial, and how I was disturbed by that. I think my thoughts on that actually apply to fandom "coming out" to the public.
I finally truly understand the whole Fanlib.com fiasco and why that really bothered fans. It wasn't just an intellectual response to the problems Fanlib posed, it was an emotional backlash to someone commercializing something that has deep meaning to you. It's a betrayal of your feelings toward fanfiction and the movies and TV we love, and from that comes a deep mistrust that they will not handle your content responsibly. How could they, when they misunderstand on such a fundamental level that our thoughts and feelings should not be for sale? It's not just copyright issues; Fanlib wants to exploit the fact that the fans have strong emotional responses to fanfiction, like Visa wants to exploit my emotional response to Today. They want to make money, with no care at all for the fact that I actually have an opinion on the matter.
(For those that don't know what the whole FanLib fiasco is, read here, here, and here. I'm sure there's way more discussion out there, but I can't seem to find it right now.)
And now vidding is starting to be written up in the press; the signal is going out, as Laura Shapiro says. Can we control the spin the media might put on fandom and vidding, and prevent vids from becoming commercial entities to be used by The Man? Can we prevent them from being hijacked and used in a way that has no meaning for our fannish communities? According to this article at In Media Res it’s already being tried. I’ve previously been very excited at the prospect of vids gaining widespread acclaim because I want everyone to love them like I love them. But I’m starting to understand that even if we aren’t sued out of existence we could be manipulated and censored into something that doesn’t resemble us anymore. If vidding is no longer a rebellious act of irreverence and love and thought and emotion is it still worth watching and doing?
So I’m starting to appreciate more the OTW’s mission to prevent the commercialism of fannish works. If we the fans band together and actively create the kind of community we want and seek to protect it, there is a much higher chance that viding and other fan works will come through this series of changes with little to no destruction to our ideas and abilities. There are those who think the OTW will damage fandom by dragging us out into the spotlight, or by seeking to “speak for” and thus control the fans. (see Ethrosdemon’s post here) But we are already in the spotlight, and I sincerely don’t think the OTW can or will try to control fandom. To me they have demonstrated a willingness to work with everyone by accepting opinions and criticism and adjusting. And it can’t hurt to have someone on our side.
But vidding and commercialism already coexist to some degree. Many of the movies and TV shows we vid are highly publicized and are created to be commercially viable. The advertisers use any and all means to capture our interest and wallets, including using popular songs in their commercials and in their content, creating fan spaces on their websites, and going so far as to have “mash up” contests for the fans. And yet we the fans continue to have deep emotional responses to these shows and movies. The commercialism does not negate our feelings in these cases, so why shouldn’t the same be true for music?
Perhaps because we go into movies or TV shows with upfront knowledge of the commercial aspect and make the conscious choice to ignore it, but when I bought Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness it was new and raw and meaningful. It’s only later that the meaning of the music changed with this commercial, a change that I had no choice in making. And maybe that’s the difference: choice. If I choose to take a movie that’s mainstream and commercial, like 300, and dig deeper meaning out of it by vidding, then I end up with something that I’m happy with. If I show it to you but you don’t like it, well that’s fine. That’s your choice, but it doesn’t negate my enjoyment of the vid. In an environment of choice I don’t have to like everything, and that fact doesn’t bother me.
So maybe that’s the lesson to apply to music. Billy Corgan can do whatever he wants to with his song. It is his song, after all. My feelings and thoughts on the song are not negated by his commercial choices. Does that mean I’m selling out my personal meaning of the song by accepting his commercialism? I don’t know, but I still love the song.
It's the beginning of the end tonight! I've been watching BSG vids in my excitement and wanted to rec a few, plus a fic.
We didn't start the fire by chaila43
All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. As foretold by Billy Joel. Overview of the series, in a weird way, yet all of the references fit surprisingly well. Very tight editing, and a neat vid to an unusual song choice.
Southside by bop_radar
Lee, Kara, Helo and Sharon and the cool ride their friendship takes through the series. The cool flying and fighting, and the fun and dramatic turns their relationships take.
Karma Police by SuperKC
A powerful look at four of the final five and how the knowledge of what they are shakes them to the core. How the humans will treat them harshly for being cylons, as they themselves have done to others. What kind of future do they have now?
This World by Buffyann
The editing really flowed with this one, especially the moment at 1:15 when the vidder transitions from the model viper used for planning to the pilot actually leaving for combat. Really beautifully done, plus the footage is crisp and beautiful.
Addicted by Hazyshade
I'm a sucker for this song and I really think it illustrates well the fatal attraction between Lee and Kara.
Thank You by Canadiangirl_86
A really sweet, light vid for Kara and Lee that shows all the very best things about their relationship.
Keeps Getting Better by Taragel
Kick-ass Starbuck! This really shows the duality of her personality: fun and bitchy. Perfect song choice, perfect clip choices and great editing and flow.
Before the Dawn by Cylune
A moving montage of Kara and Lee, and how they try to support each other through the worst.
See more of my Battlestar Galactica vid recs here.
I have one fic to rec: Benevolent Sibling by mercurial_wit
The Cylons spy on the humans using D'Anna's film footage of the crew. Silly and great fun, though kind of long.
I've also been watching the special clips over at Scifi.com. I especially liked the What The Frak Is Going On? clip that condenses the whole show down to eight minutes whith a commentator. It's pretty funny.
The trailer for the new Caprica series about the beginning of the Cylons and the rise of the Adama family looks really interesting. I can't wait to watch it.
Plot threads that I want to see resolved before the end:
Who is the final cylon?
What is Kara's destiny?
What happened to Earth?
Will the cylon war resolve itself in a way that helps the humans?
Can the humans and cylons wind up living peacefully together?
Will Kara and her husband resolve their differences and make their marriage work?
Clint Eastwood by Bob-radar: The circus that is Baltar, Music by The Gorillaz. Shows all the ways that Baltar is crazy and full of himself and insecure all at once. Supurb and funny editing.
So What by Taragel: Starbuck and Sam. Pink rocks and fits so well with Starbuck. Everything that's wrong with the end of their relationship. Funny, sad, very well done.
You've Got A Friend by Taragel: A fun, fast paced vid for Starbuck and Helo's friendship.
RD
( The music )</div></div>
My wonderful husband got me an iPhone for our anniversary last month and I totally love it. Everything about it rocks. While browsing the app store I discovered the Last.FM app for listening to www.Last.fm internet radio on your iPhone. I'm so glad I did because it's totally cool. The app does sometimes buffer between songs or in the middle of a song, but it doesn't last to long usually and I prefer some downtime over commercials. It lets me listen to my favorite artists anywhere. I especially love listening in the car because there are no ads, just music. You can listen to radio stations based on a particular artist to discover new music. I love the Snow Patrol radio. You can also listen to tags. I like the Pop tag because it lets me hear a lot of the new stuff on the radio I might not otherwise hear.
One cool thing about the website is the Charts feature for each user. I think it's so cool to be able to see the artists, albums and tracks I've been listening to, and when. You can also link your account with your music player on your computer (iTunes, Windows Media Player) so it will track that info and display it on your user page. Last.fm will also recommend new artists to you based on the artists in your library, and do a good job. I usually like what they recommend.
You can't listen to every song by every single artist because the artists and record lables control what gets put up and they don't always put everything up. But they have a ton of music from practically every musical genre and it's totally worth checking out.
RD
The absolute best thing about the series is that it has a wonderful and very complex story arch. It's kept up an intense pace full of change, with new characters every so often to keep things fresh. I'm almost through the 3rd season and it's been so exciting to see the way so many tiny details have come together to create this very rich storyline and universe of characters. Each plot twist and development builds on the previous season, explaining mysteries that were set up a year or two before and setting up new ones. It's almost as if every detail about each and every character and activity is used at a later date, building a vibrant and changing story. And the story has changed over the last three seasons, it has evolved tremendously. The very purpose of the station and the goals of the characters have changed, though I won't say anymore for risk of spoiling something. But most of all I appreciate the way the story is progressing logically. Battlestar Galactica has disappointed me because it's plot developments often make no sense and don't really further the story . However I continue to be really delighted by Babylon 5's plot.
The writing for the show is excellent, very much like an exciting novel has been revealed onscreen. The show covers a wide range of topics, like social control, economics, war, governmental corruption, social psychology, personal choice and spirituality. It is full of philosophy about life, existence, war, and hope in the face of darkness. Each major alien race is fully evolved, with it's own religion, social structure, government, appearance and personality. It's been very interesting to see them interact together, for better and for worse. And the future Earth has evolved too, for better or worse. The dialog is strong, funny, poignant and believable overall.
B5 is full of wonderful and unique characters of all kinds, from amusing to serious. The acting is top-notch and each character is brought to life in a way that is convincing. All of them do a really wonderful job. I love Delenn for her wisdom, integrity, compassion and strength. I like Susan Ivanova as a strong female presence in the command staff, plus she makes me laugh. I'm growing to love Vir Cotto for his budding independence and character. I have loved watching Jeffrey Sinclair's destiny be revealed, that was a superb bit of writing.
I have to admit that the computer graphics for the show aren't as good as today's viewer is used to, and that put me off for a little bit. After getting used to the beautiful world of Battlestar Galactica, B5 looked very basic. But B5 was made in the early 90's, and was actually on the cutting edge for it's time. The wonderful plot and characters more than make up for the visual appearance of the show, so don't let it prevent you from watching.
The only fan fic I have seen for the show is a House/Babylon 5 crossover called Hand More Instrumental by aris_tgd. It's well written, she puts House and his team into the B5 medlab quite successfully. The only fan vid I have seen is Not Ready To Make Nice by jedi_of_urth, abut Susan Ivanova. The song is a good one for her and the editing is ok, worth watching. It's puzzling that there are so few fan works for B5. A show of this caliber should have a strong following, but I haven't seen it. Perhaps some will pop up on the Archive of Our Own.
RD
The Archive of Our Own is now open! It's still in beta testing so you won't find all of the features available yet and the general public can't make accounts. But you can search and read the fiction! The site looks great and is really easy to navigate. When searching by Fandom or Works you can filter the searches by ratings, character/pairing, tags and warnings. And the tag feature is really cool. They are accepting feedback so they can fix bugs and make it better. It's awesome already, and even better that they are working to refine the search functions and will be adding vids eventually! I'm so excited about it, it rocks!
The academic fan journal Transformative Works and Culture has released it's first issue. I really enjoyed Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding by Francesca Coppa. It has an excellent history of early vidders, why they began vidding, and the technical aspects of the process. I enjoyed her thoughts on Star Trek and it's treatment of women, she made some excellent points about Number One and Spock. And her coverage of the VCR vidders was so interesting to read, it must have been such a difficult way to vid. The article also covers the variety of topics vidders express in their vids, some I had no idea existed. But one of the things I like about vidding is that the average person has the control to express their thoughts on and shape the source, so I'm glad that others find a similar freedom.
The last new OTW project is FanLore, the fan wiki. Anyone can edit and add to the wiki if they set up an account. They have sections for people, fan activities and communities and perspectives on fans. I found the glossary of terms to be enlightening.
It's been a busy couple of months for the OTW with lots of stuff for me to do now!
Title: Rodeohead
Vidder: AbsoluteDestiny
Music by: Hard n Phirm
Footage from: Firefly, Serenity
http://absolutedestiny.livejournal.com/1
This vid by AbsoluteDestiny for the show Firefly is pure vid mastery. The editing is excellent, using every little bit of the song perfectly. It made me laugh, but was also quite dramatic. The song choice was surprising and might not seem like your cup o' tea at first, but give it a chance. You won't be dissapointed.
It's Why I Joined/Support OTW Week over at otw_news. Although I am not on the board or any committee, I have donated so I feel I can say that I do support the OTW. If you are new to the Organization for Transformative Works, it's a Non-Profit group of fans that have organized to provide "services" to fans like an Archive for fanfiction, vids and art, a Fan History wiki and an academic journal. Please check out their website and their LiveJournal community for tons of info. The archive will only allow fic when it first opens, with vids and art added in the future. I read and enjoy fanfiction, but I really love vids, so I can't wait for vids to be added to the archive along with the fic!
RD
ETA 10-4-08: The archive is in Open Beta! Anyone can get an account and post their fiction now! http://archiveofourown.org/ You can find the fan wiki here: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Main_Page Anyone can edit the wiki after making an account. The academic journal can be found here: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/i
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