Vividcon 2006 Con Report
Okay, here's my Vividcon report. Very long with personal stuff included. Apologies to anybody I forgot.
I left Thursday night to take the train and when I got to the station, realized I had forgotten my coat which I was very annoyed about as I knew everything would be airconditioned and too cold. The train was an hour delayed and I was early anyways so I mostly just sat and walked around listening to Scooby Road (and watching it in my head) and some more Beatles music. I mostly just listened to music the whole trip although I did get 3 hours of laptop time in which I watched some SGA and made a cd with my favorite vid songs on it which I promptly listened to for most of the trip. It’s fun watching vids in your mind along with imagining what the entire con would be like. I couldn’t fall asleep, mostly because of my sleeping schedule being go to bed at 8 am so I finally got out my Wicked book and read some of that with barely any light. I was happy when it became light outside and the thoughts of OMG VVC is almost here started hitting me and I listened to my vid song cd some more. It took forever to get to Chicago though, more delays kept happening and I was so bored with the landscape of cornfields and industry buildings and small towns. It was great to see the city landscape when it came and I lugged all my stuff off while feeling tired and quickly decided to take a cab since it was around 11 am and I was so sick of transportation. Actually my first cab ride but it went well while my head was bursting in anticipation of getting to the hotel and so I barely glanced around at the city.
When I first got to the hotel I noticed some people sitting and talking in the lobby who I thought might be from VVC but I first wanted to get settled in my room so I got my room key and put my stuff down and set up my laptop. Then I took a deep breath, gathered my confidence and went downstairs to the 2nd floor to register and meet people. I was so nervous by that time and just went through the motions getting my packet and stuff and followed the instructions to go to the con suite to get my dvd ticket stamped. I then went back to the main room and sat on the couch to try to get a hold of my thoughts and to calm down my nerves as I got used to my surroundings (I’m nervous just writing and thinking about this). This is when I am ever so grateful that f1renze, sweetestdrain and sdwolfpup came over and introduced themselves while I tried to match names to faces and contain myself from the meeting great vidders excitement. We talked a bit, about my trip and I don’t remember what else but at this point I was just thankful to have a group of great people to talk to. Then heresluck came over and I got even more excited about meeting her which again, leaves me clueless about what we talked about (besides saying your vids are amazing, of course). So then I followed everyone into the vidshow room for the Wayback Machine panel. This is when I first met sisabet where again I was overcome with amazing vidder squee but managed to introduce myself and say a few things. I was just so happy that everyone was so nice and welcoming to me and that the whole room was filled with vid love.
The Wayback Machine was great, I really enjoyed seeing Pressure and what it was like to vid on VCRs which I can't even imagine as it sounds so hard. The rest of the vids were awesome too, I just remember my Fraser love being high and being introduced to a couple of shows I've never seen but seem good. I stayed for the Color Explosion show as I cannot resist pretty colors and it was great to have dualbunny and sockkpuppett leading the show. I especially loved the Xena vid Boom Boom Bah by charmax and was impressed technically with Colorblind by whereistheluv. The panel was very informative with color wheels and art diagrams and examples of different color schemes in vids which helped me identify them a lot more. I stayed in the panel room for renenet's Music panel which helped increase my music knowledge and was entertained sitting next to sisabet with swedish cheerleader references and matching lyrics to Angel fun. After that I got to meet my great roommate yhlee who had arrived, along with permetaform with more vid love there. I next wanted to go to the Supernatural party but had stupidly forgotten to write down the room number so I went to various floors and asked around until I found it. There it was great to meet morgandawn, killabeez, destina, barkley, greensilver and others who I'm sorry for forgetting. Lots of great fun seeing some of my favorite Supernatural vids along with talking about the show and wincest.
Then it was time for Club Vivid and I put on my white scarf which was all about the Brian/Justin prom scene love and to help give me some Brian Kinney confidence, which I relied on throughout the night. Everyone looked amazing in all their outfits and there was a nice selection of food and glowsticks to have fun with along with getting to meet minnow1212 and others who I'm blanking on. I gathered up my courage and went out on the dance floor to attempt to do the Joxer dance and then joined in the dancing for most of the vids which was great to see on both sides of the floor. All the premiering vids as well as the older ones were awesome and it was good to have something to watch to distract me from my dancing fears. I danced in public more at Club Vivid than I have ever danced in my life because I was feeling pretty comfortable with everyone as people were all nice and accepting. By the end I was tired but I still managed to check my email and friendslist before I went to sleep, which thanks to my measly 10 minutes of sleep, I feel asleep almost instantly. Next morning I went down to breakfast at 9:30 (far be it for me to ever get up earlier than I have to) and talked to gwyn_r, heresluck and elke_tanzer and then headed up to the Symbol and Metaphor vidshow (hard choice to bypass the comedy panel here). I loved all the vids that showed though and really liked the X/1999 vid in it which reminded me how much I loved the visuals and story (hands!, black/white/red, licking blood, swords=perfect). Then I went to the Great Transitions panel which opened my eyes to some transitions and how they could be used to great effect.
Next I went to the con suite and met renenet and lapillus and talked to them awhile about vids, California/college and other things. I then headed down to the pizza lunch with renenet who told me all about how she first met heresluck and got into watching Buffy and fandom and vids which led to their first Vividcon. It was great fun, it was nice to have a good one on one chat and it was good to get to know renenet who is a very cool person (and vid beta). The chat was a bit long which led me to getting to the Proffesional Inspiration panel late but I went to sit next to sdwolfpup and really enjoyed it, melina123 did a great job showing off how the pros did things. Also reminded me of how great the motion and visuals are for BSG and the greatness of the Carry on My Wayward Son Supernatural teaser. Then gwyn_r did a panel on Vids as Collages where she thankfully showed a few clips of vids that used external source and there was a lot of great discussion about them and how to use that effectively (all of which I can't remember exactly). Next was the panel I was really looking forward to, Audio Editing with heresluck who showed us how she edited the music from Out Here along with going over a lot of good reasons on why we should edit music. Then we listened to a song and looked at what would be the best places to cut it down which was a great way to have an example of how we should approach the process. One of my favorite panels, I can see heresluck is an excellent teacher. Next was the Lord King Bad Vid show which I was really looking forward to so I could see renenet's first vid and the Bring Me to Life vid by sockkpuppett and sisabet which was the joke of last year that it would be a hypothetical vid premiering. The show was amazingly fun as people packed into the room and let out laughs, awws and squees over all the wonderfull vids. All I can remember is that Fraser was all kinds of love, Jolene was *perfect* as I had just seen the episode and cmon don't take Rodney's man away (hee), Neo was so great and zombies=best literal use ever.
For dinner, I went to the Smallville/SGA party and I got a chance to see some great vids that I had never seen before as I haven't seen many vids in either fandom. Also fun to see more fans from both shows. I wasn't hungry throughout most of the con, combination of nerves/excitement, different eating times (my late sleep schedule interfered) and vids > eating so I didn't eat my ravioli that I ordered and I saved that for later. I also got too involved in what was happening that I developed a bad habit of losing things, like my room key which I put in my wallet to keep it safe and then forgot about it, went to get a new one and then lost that and found my old key which didn't work anymore. I felt "slightly retarded" (new favorite expression) after that but managed to get in and out of my room with the help of my roommate but which led me to be even later to Premieres so I didn't have the best seat. It was still amazing to see all the vids in Premieres, it was great to be in a room full of vid lovers and I was impressed that all the vids were well made. Here's some of my brief first impressions of the vids:
Intro: Incredibly funny with the Snakes on a Plane theme. Started out the show on the right foot.
"Pants" by klia, keiko_kirin, thevetia (Multifandom): Eye candy galore filled with lots of men in (tight) pants. The song was funny and very well illustrated.
"God Says Nothing Back" by morgandawn (Supernatural): All the Supernatural vids made my heart full of love for the show and this one was very beautiful with great use of effects and imagery. I loved the music and it just made me hurt for both of my boys.
"Crazy" by klia (Life on Mars): I loved the song, loved the motion and this was step one of the process to force me to watch Life on Mars immediately. The disconnect and confusion really came through.
"There" by gwyn_r (Battlestar Galatica): I really liked this despite my limited knowledge of BSG. Very nice emotional look at Roslin, made me feel her pain.
"David" by yhlee (Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Loved the song and now I remember that I heard it on Grey's Anatomy. This was an awesome puppet!Angel vid with lots of good parallels to Angel(us) and Buffy and Nina. I mostly was all aglow in the puppet love.
"Be So Glad" by sisabet (Farscape): Very cool vid full of great motion, color and editing. Love the song and how well it matched the prison and hard times feel of the clips. I really need to see Farscape to understand this more.
"Summer Dress" by Tray (Hellboy): I liked the colors but its not on the dvd so I can't remember it much.
"Grapes of Wrath" by dualbunny, tzikeh, and absolut3destiny (Battlestar Galactica): Hilarious even with my limited BSG knowledge. Great lyrics interpretation and really summed up the storyline. Must finish show.
"Monochrome" by sweetestdrain (Carnivale): I loved the imagery and the music really matched the color and mood of the show. The editing was great and really matched the emotional peaks helped by the clip choices.
"One Day Late" by dualbunny and Gerry (Firefly): Oh, Firefly. Great use of motion, parallels and perfect use of music. This just summed up the show for me and broke my heart even when I knew the death was coming. I enjoyed the last clip even though I understand the mixed tone reaction. One of my favorites of the show.
"Like Sisyphus" by Drae (Stargate Atlantis): Fun SGA vid, I enjoyed it. Made me want to dance though so I agree that Club Vivid was a better place for it.
"Lullaby" by just_eunice (Dead Poets Society): Never seen the movie but now I have to as this vid sucked me into it and broke my heart at the end (along with everyone else apparently). Very beautiful and gentle with great emotional and symbolic shots.
"Statistics" by KK (Bones): Seeing Not!Angel distracted me but I enjoyed getting a chance to see Bones. The end was so sad and tugged at my heartstrings.
"William Goldman's The Princess Bride: Even More Abridged" by dualbunny (The Princess Bride): Loved the melodrama meter and it was cute despite never seeing the movie (my movie knowledge is sadly lacking).
"Ghost Song" by greensilver (Supernatural): Excellent use of song and effects and made me feel for poor Sammy.
"Walk the Line" by tv_elf (Penguins): Too cute with all the penguins as I will never not aww at animal clips. The walk the line parallel was cool to see. Penguins! *melt*
"Can You Feel" by killabeez and f1renze (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel): Oh Angel/Spike, they have my heart. I love the feel of the song, very sexy and dark, and how it matched the clips. Great editing and motion.
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" by sockkpuppett and tzikeh (X-Files): Never heard the song and only seen a few episodes so I missed a lot in this vid but it looked great. I especially loved the use of important words on the show. The end with the mosaic of clips was very cool.
"Life During Wartime" by cesperanza (Stargate Atlantis): Really enjoyed this, the song really fit the show with the violence and yet fun nature of it. Great cutting and lots of cool motion.
"Ragged Ass Road" by f1renze (Prison Break): Prison Break vid! I've been dying to see this show vidded and was so happy to see this vid. Amazing use of the shows cool visuals from the motion and symbols. It really captured the heart of the show in the Michael and Lincoln relationship. Perfect song choice and editing as well. I'm so glad that people are interested in seeing the show now. Obviously this is one of my favorites.
"I Remember When" by keewick (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Spike! Great overview of all of Spike's different sides with unique clip choices, helped a lot with the different tones of the music (LOVE the song). Favorite clip choices were Spike jumping over something in FFL, the car scenes, Restless in black/swinging clips and the last clip which matched perfectly with the music and was one of the best endings ever. It really got me into Spike's head. One of my favorite vids ever and left me with major Spike love.
"Ophelia" by andrastewhite (Babylon 5): Very beautiful. I'm unentirely unfamiliar with the show so I couldn't get much from it but I liked the portrayals of different women.
"Evening on the Ground" by lithium_doll (Supernatural): Love the song and how it gets used, perfect pacing and well edited. The line "We were born to fuck each other, one way or another") was too perfect and funny. This broke my Dean loving heart especially with the flashback scenes and the ending shot. Another one of my favorites.
"Be Like Water (Isolation Remix)" by butterfly (Stargate SG-1): This vid interested me and I liked the song and some of the lyric/clip associations.
"The Adventures of Robin Hood" by lithium_doll (Farscape): Hee so funny! Easy to get without show knowledge (okay, I've seen one episode but I was confused during it).
"Comin' Up from Behind" by bunniqula (Bound) Love the song, nice editing that builds tension.
"Hurt" by destina (Brokeback Mountain): This vid hurts me oh so much. Powerful song and images that matched so well to it along with a great use of framing the ending white house scene. "I will make you hurt" gets to me so much as its soo Ennis. This just made me feel all of Ennis's pain and get in his head and the ending shot breaks my heart everytime. Definitely a favorite for me.
"There Is Too Much Light in This Bar" by absolut3destiny (Life on Mars): The song was perfect and all the clip choices fit perfectly, made me laugh a lot. Brilliantly edited and used the motion in the source to excellent effect. Step 2 of the Life on Mars pimp fest.
"That Don't Impress Me Much" by Dianne T. DeSha (Doctor Who): After just seeing DW, I looved this as it was hilarious and poked great fun of the Doctor and Jack. Too cute, loved the clip choices for the lyrics.
"Big Gun" by keerawa (Farscape): Song (which I liked) seemed to fit well for Aeryn although I can understand the gun literalism complaints.
"Alice in Wonderland" by absolut3destiny (Labyrith): Very cool song with great clip choices that helped me understand the movie which I've never seen before.
"Fix You" by sdwolfpup (Battlestar Galactica): Wasn't into the song before but now I love it because this vid is so amazing. It makes me feel so much for the characters but the tone of the song keeps me disconnected in a perfect creepy way for the Cylons. So glad I saw the miniseries because it helped me understand this vid and even the end was soo perfect and freaked me out in a very good way. Another favorite here.
"Media Vita" by melina123 (Rome): Great song choice and powerful clips that matched it superbly.
"Seems Like a Long Time" by barkley (Supernatural): Oh, Dean! This one got to me so much with the long journey they go through. Very powerful use of the song and clips and the end was perfect.
"Bukowski" by astolat (House): This vid convinced me that I must watch House as soon as possible. So funny and oh so House from what I know of the show and what I saw. Great use of expressions, actions and reaction shots. House/Wilson seems so cute.
"Black Mask" by Belinda (Batman Begins): The driving, fast song was a great change and it was very well edited with fast clips and great movement. Nice use of past/present clips.
"I Put You There" by laurashapiro and lithium_doll (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Perfect, amazing meta vid on how fangirls love their objects of desire and use them in their fantasies/vids/fic/art. Plus awwww its cute Giles! *loves* The art and animation completely blew me away along with the song that fit oh so perfectly. I just loved that it was about ME and all fans everywhere. Definite favorite here.
So then I was filled with vid love and talked to various people about how much I loved their vids. Next it was time for Vid Karoke which I was very excited about and started off well with absolut3destiny singing in his silk shirt. My first karoke (lots of firsts here) which was very fun to listen to and watch the vids at the same time. I even said what the hell and went and joined f1renze, sweetestdrain, sdwolfpup, lierduoma and dualbunny to do "Killing in the Name of" which was lots of fun (how can it not be to yell "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" a lot? ;)). It was great to sing along with the crowd as well and even better to see sisabet do Without Me and then Two Words with renenet and heresluck. I had so much fun that I almost forgot to help put everything back but thankfully I remembered and so was not filled with guilt. I then talked to yhlee, coffeeandink and geekturnedvamp and we went up to their room to talk a bit about fandom and watch the Symbol and Metaphor vidshow again on tape. I could not get enough of vids by this point and one of the things I must remedy next year is to check out more tapes and watch them. If I wasn't so tired I would have but I once again fell asleep at 1 am.
Next day had a bit of breakfast even though I could barely find a seat and then headed up to Vid Review where I sat next to absolut3destiny and got a chance to tell him how much I love his vids. It was so great to hear people's comments on vids along with all their different perspectives. I had nothing planned and wasn't very hungry for lunch so I hung around the 2nd floor until heresluck invited me up to her room with elke_tanzer, cesperanza, astolat and renenet to eat lunch. There it was full of fun talk about vegatables, vids, VVC, academia, gender and other meta things and stuff I forget. It was just awesome to hear the fabulous discussion going on and really made me want to take classes from heresluck and cesperanza. Next up was In Depth Vid Review where it was great to be able to see some Premiere vids again and get some great discussion on them. I stayed for a panel on Special Effects with lithium_doll in which I learned a lot about how to use special effects with great examples. I then went to see the Challenge vids where I first talked to jackiekjono who made the only Cupid vid I've seen and love (and here I once again pimp Cupid out as an awesome show with great banter and cmon, Rob Thomas wrote it!). The Challenge vids were all wonderful all around with the Joxer/Fraser dance vid and Atlantis showtunes vid making me laugh, two great multifandom scifi vids with cool comparisons, a heartbreaking Two Words remix and a very fun Harry Potter remix of End of the World with great parallels. I then talked to katallison, my favorite fanfic writer with her HL and DS fics who was really nice in all my gushing. Also finally got a chance to meet sockkpuppett and tell her how much I love her vids and actually understand them now that I've been all of the Jossverse. Then the Auction vids blew me away with a cute Apollo/Starbuck vid, a touching Lee vid and an awesome vid showing off the cool girls of fandom which I especially loved the Veronica Mars clips and made me miss the show. There really weren't enough VM vids in the shows and I'm still hoping heresluck will make one (soon).
Then it was time for Calls from the Public where we talked about suggestions for next year which made me wish it was Vividcon 2007 already. After I got a chance to talk to sisabet again, where I got to share my overwhelming love of Two Words with her along with Cowboy and 66. I next went up to pack all my stuff which was one of the few times I was alone the entire con, which being an introvert, is kind of surprising. But there was just so much stuff I wanted to do and people to meet that I didn't mind. I then went down to the hotel lobby to put off leaving and see people again and spent some time with sdwolfpup, f1renze, sweetestdrain, sisabet, dualbunny, just_eunice, merryish, settiai and heresluck. We headed into Outback Steakhouse and waited while they prepared tables big enough for all of us and I got to gush a bit more about Superstar, New Frontier and Out Here to heresluck along with great thankfulness for all the vid meta. At that point it was getting late so I got the main desk to call a cab for me and I went back to the room with everyone to spend 10 more minutes of Vividcon goodness before I left. It was great to see everyone and I got to talk some more with heresluck about college and students and the courses she's teaching until the phone rang signaling my departure. I really didn't want to go but forced myself to get up and everyone was really nice and gave me hugs before I left. So that was the end of the Vividcon experience which was inspiring and amazing and full of the best kinds of love. I miss you all!
The trip back was alright, I talked to the woman I sat next to, mostly because I was in such a good mood because of VVC so it was nice to get to know someone. It was kind of funny because she was reading a book about a mountie (Fraser!) and lived in Canada. Once again I couldn't fall asleep except for about 20 minutes or so but I enjoyed watching vids on my laptop. But I finally made it even though it took forever but my good mood helped me tolerate it.
I'm home now and still so grateful for the chance to have this amazing experience. First con and first time meeting so many great people and it all went fabulously and way too fast. It was a very uplifting experience and I feel a lot better about myself and the people who I met, who all helped me have even more faith in humanity with all the crazy things going on in the world. The con made me so happy and enthusiastic and I was allowed to be me and it just felt that this is what living life is all about. I feel a lot more confident about going to California and going to college and I think I'll be okay there. At the very least, I have something to look forward to for next year. I also really hope to try to really work on vidding this year, try to get better and actually put out some vids and maybe show one at Premieres next year, if I can. At the moment, my mind is spinning with all the vidding/VVC love and trying to deal with that along with packing and getting ready to go to California. All I know is that Vividcon was amazing and I definitely consider this great adventure a success.
I left Thursday night to take the train and when I got to the station, realized I had forgotten my coat which I was very annoyed about as I knew everything would be airconditioned and too cold. The train was an hour delayed and I was early anyways so I mostly just sat and walked around listening to Scooby Road (and watching it in my head) and some more Beatles music. I mostly just listened to music the whole trip although I did get 3 hours of laptop time in which I watched some SGA and made a cd with my favorite vid songs on it which I promptly listened to for most of the trip. It’s fun watching vids in your mind along with imagining what the entire con would be like. I couldn’t fall asleep, mostly because of my sleeping schedule being go to bed at 8 am so I finally got out my Wicked book and read some of that with barely any light. I was happy when it became light outside and the thoughts of OMG VVC is almost here started hitting me and I listened to my vid song cd some more. It took forever to get to Chicago though, more delays kept happening and I was so bored with the landscape of cornfields and industry buildings and small towns. It was great to see the city landscape when it came and I lugged all my stuff off while feeling tired and quickly decided to take a cab since it was around 11 am and I was so sick of transportation. Actually my first cab ride but it went well while my head was bursting in anticipation of getting to the hotel and so I barely glanced around at the city.
When I first got to the hotel I noticed some people sitting and talking in the lobby who I thought might be from VVC but I first wanted to get settled in my room so I got my room key and put my stuff down and set up my laptop. Then I took a deep breath, gathered my confidence and went downstairs to the 2nd floor to register and meet people. I was so nervous by that time and just went through the motions getting my packet and stuff and followed the instructions to go to the con suite to get my dvd ticket stamped. I then went back to the main room and sat on the couch to try to get a hold of my thoughts and to calm down my nerves as I got used to my surroundings (I’m nervous just writing and thinking about this). This is when I am ever so grateful that f1renze, sweetestdrain and sdwolfpup came over and introduced themselves while I tried to match names to faces and contain myself from the meeting great vidders excitement. We talked a bit, about my trip and I don’t remember what else but at this point I was just thankful to have a group of great people to talk to. Then heresluck came over and I got even more excited about meeting her which again, leaves me clueless about what we talked about (besides saying your vids are amazing, of course). So then I followed everyone into the vidshow room for the Wayback Machine panel. This is when I first met sisabet where again I was overcome with amazing vidder squee but managed to introduce myself and say a few things. I was just so happy that everyone was so nice and welcoming to me and that the whole room was filled with vid love.
The Wayback Machine was great, I really enjoyed seeing Pressure and what it was like to vid on VCRs which I can't even imagine as it sounds so hard. The rest of the vids were awesome too, I just remember my Fraser love being high and being introduced to a couple of shows I've never seen but seem good. I stayed for the Color Explosion show as I cannot resist pretty colors and it was great to have dualbunny and sockkpuppett leading the show. I especially loved the Xena vid Boom Boom Bah by charmax and was impressed technically with Colorblind by whereistheluv. The panel was very informative with color wheels and art diagrams and examples of different color schemes in vids which helped me identify them a lot more. I stayed in the panel room for renenet's Music panel which helped increase my music knowledge and was entertained sitting next to sisabet with swedish cheerleader references and matching lyrics to Angel fun. After that I got to meet my great roommate yhlee who had arrived, along with permetaform with more vid love there. I next wanted to go to the Supernatural party but had stupidly forgotten to write down the room number so I went to various floors and asked around until I found it. There it was great to meet morgandawn, killabeez, destina, barkley, greensilver and others who I'm sorry for forgetting. Lots of great fun seeing some of my favorite Supernatural vids along with talking about the show and wincest.
Then it was time for Club Vivid and I put on my white scarf which was all about the Brian/Justin prom scene love and to help give me some Brian Kinney confidence, which I relied on throughout the night. Everyone looked amazing in all their outfits and there was a nice selection of food and glowsticks to have fun with along with getting to meet minnow1212 and others who I'm blanking on. I gathered up my courage and went out on the dance floor to attempt to do the Joxer dance and then joined in the dancing for most of the vids which was great to see on both sides of the floor. All the premiering vids as well as the older ones were awesome and it was good to have something to watch to distract me from my dancing fears. I danced in public more at Club Vivid than I have ever danced in my life because I was feeling pretty comfortable with everyone as people were all nice and accepting. By the end I was tired but I still managed to check my email and friendslist before I went to sleep, which thanks to my measly 10 minutes of sleep, I feel asleep almost instantly. Next morning I went down to breakfast at 9:30 (far be it for me to ever get up earlier than I have to) and talked to gwyn_r, heresluck and elke_tanzer and then headed up to the Symbol and Metaphor vidshow (hard choice to bypass the comedy panel here). I loved all the vids that showed though and really liked the X/1999 vid in it which reminded me how much I loved the visuals and story (hands!, black/white/red, licking blood, swords=perfect). Then I went to the Great Transitions panel which opened my eyes to some transitions and how they could be used to great effect.
Next I went to the con suite and met renenet and lapillus and talked to them awhile about vids, California/college and other things. I then headed down to the pizza lunch with renenet who told me all about how she first met heresluck and got into watching Buffy and fandom and vids which led to their first Vividcon. It was great fun, it was nice to have a good one on one chat and it was good to get to know renenet who is a very cool person (and vid beta). The chat was a bit long which led me to getting to the Proffesional Inspiration panel late but I went to sit next to sdwolfpup and really enjoyed it, melina123 did a great job showing off how the pros did things. Also reminded me of how great the motion and visuals are for BSG and the greatness of the Carry on My Wayward Son Supernatural teaser. Then gwyn_r did a panel on Vids as Collages where she thankfully showed a few clips of vids that used external source and there was a lot of great discussion about them and how to use that effectively (all of which I can't remember exactly). Next was the panel I was really looking forward to, Audio Editing with heresluck who showed us how she edited the music from Out Here along with going over a lot of good reasons on why we should edit music. Then we listened to a song and looked at what would be the best places to cut it down which was a great way to have an example of how we should approach the process. One of my favorite panels, I can see heresluck is an excellent teacher. Next was the Lord King Bad Vid show which I was really looking forward to so I could see renenet's first vid and the Bring Me to Life vid by sockkpuppett and sisabet which was the joke of last year that it would be a hypothetical vid premiering. The show was amazingly fun as people packed into the room and let out laughs, awws and squees over all the wonderfull vids. All I can remember is that Fraser was all kinds of love, Jolene was *perfect* as I had just seen the episode and cmon don't take Rodney's man away (hee), Neo was so great and zombies=best literal use ever.
For dinner, I went to the Smallville/SGA party and I got a chance to see some great vids that I had never seen before as I haven't seen many vids in either fandom. Also fun to see more fans from both shows. I wasn't hungry throughout most of the con, combination of nerves/excitement, different eating times (my late sleep schedule interfered) and vids > eating so I didn't eat my ravioli that I ordered and I saved that for later. I also got too involved in what was happening that I developed a bad habit of losing things, like my room key which I put in my wallet to keep it safe and then forgot about it, went to get a new one and then lost that and found my old key which didn't work anymore. I felt "slightly retarded" (new favorite expression) after that but managed to get in and out of my room with the help of my roommate but which led me to be even later to Premieres so I didn't have the best seat. It was still amazing to see all the vids in Premieres, it was great to be in a room full of vid lovers and I was impressed that all the vids were well made. Here's some of my brief first impressions of the vids:
Intro: Incredibly funny with the Snakes on a Plane theme. Started out the show on the right foot.
"Pants" by klia, keiko_kirin, thevetia (Multifandom): Eye candy galore filled with lots of men in (tight) pants. The song was funny and very well illustrated.
"God Says Nothing Back" by morgandawn (Supernatural): All the Supernatural vids made my heart full of love for the show and this one was very beautiful with great use of effects and imagery. I loved the music and it just made me hurt for both of my boys.
"Crazy" by klia (Life on Mars): I loved the song, loved the motion and this was step one of the process to force me to watch Life on Mars immediately. The disconnect and confusion really came through.
"There" by gwyn_r (Battlestar Galatica): I really liked this despite my limited knowledge of BSG. Very nice emotional look at Roslin, made me feel her pain.
"David" by yhlee (Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Loved the song and now I remember that I heard it on Grey's Anatomy. This was an awesome puppet!Angel vid with lots of good parallels to Angel(us) and Buffy and Nina. I mostly was all aglow in the puppet love.
"Be So Glad" by sisabet (Farscape): Very cool vid full of great motion, color and editing. Love the song and how well it matched the prison and hard times feel of the clips. I really need to see Farscape to understand this more.
"Summer Dress" by Tray (Hellboy): I liked the colors but its not on the dvd so I can't remember it much.
"Grapes of Wrath" by dualbunny, tzikeh, and absolut3destiny (Battlestar Galactica): Hilarious even with my limited BSG knowledge. Great lyrics interpretation and really summed up the storyline. Must finish show.
"Monochrome" by sweetestdrain (Carnivale): I loved the imagery and the music really matched the color and mood of the show. The editing was great and really matched the emotional peaks helped by the clip choices.
"One Day Late" by dualbunny and Gerry (Firefly): Oh, Firefly. Great use of motion, parallels and perfect use of music. This just summed up the show for me and broke my heart even when I knew the death was coming. I enjoyed the last clip even though I understand the mixed tone reaction. One of my favorites of the show.
"Like Sisyphus" by Drae (Stargate Atlantis): Fun SGA vid, I enjoyed it. Made me want to dance though so I agree that Club Vivid was a better place for it.
"Lullaby" by just_eunice (Dead Poets Society): Never seen the movie but now I have to as this vid sucked me into it and broke my heart at the end (along with everyone else apparently). Very beautiful and gentle with great emotional and symbolic shots.
"Statistics" by KK (Bones): Seeing Not!Angel distracted me but I enjoyed getting a chance to see Bones. The end was so sad and tugged at my heartstrings.
"William Goldman's The Princess Bride: Even More Abridged" by dualbunny (The Princess Bride): Loved the melodrama meter and it was cute despite never seeing the movie (my movie knowledge is sadly lacking).
"Ghost Song" by greensilver (Supernatural): Excellent use of song and effects and made me feel for poor Sammy.
"Walk the Line" by tv_elf (Penguins): Too cute with all the penguins as I will never not aww at animal clips. The walk the line parallel was cool to see. Penguins! *melt*
"Can You Feel" by killabeez and f1renze (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel): Oh Angel/Spike, they have my heart. I love the feel of the song, very sexy and dark, and how it matched the clips. Great editing and motion.
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" by sockkpuppett and tzikeh (X-Files): Never heard the song and only seen a few episodes so I missed a lot in this vid but it looked great. I especially loved the use of important words on the show. The end with the mosaic of clips was very cool.
"Life During Wartime" by cesperanza (Stargate Atlantis): Really enjoyed this, the song really fit the show with the violence and yet fun nature of it. Great cutting and lots of cool motion.
"Ragged Ass Road" by f1renze (Prison Break): Prison Break vid! I've been dying to see this show vidded and was so happy to see this vid. Amazing use of the shows cool visuals from the motion and symbols. It really captured the heart of the show in the Michael and Lincoln relationship. Perfect song choice and editing as well. I'm so glad that people are interested in seeing the show now. Obviously this is one of my favorites.
"I Remember When" by keewick (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Spike! Great overview of all of Spike's different sides with unique clip choices, helped a lot with the different tones of the music (LOVE the song). Favorite clip choices were Spike jumping over something in FFL, the car scenes, Restless in black/swinging clips and the last clip which matched perfectly with the music and was one of the best endings ever. It really got me into Spike's head. One of my favorite vids ever and left me with major Spike love.
"Ophelia" by andrastewhite (Babylon 5): Very beautiful. I'm unentirely unfamiliar with the show so I couldn't get much from it but I liked the portrayals of different women.
"Evening on the Ground" by lithium_doll (Supernatural): Love the song and how it gets used, perfect pacing and well edited. The line "We were born to fuck each other, one way or another") was too perfect and funny. This broke my Dean loving heart especially with the flashback scenes and the ending shot. Another one of my favorites.
"Be Like Water (Isolation Remix)" by butterfly (Stargate SG-1): This vid interested me and I liked the song and some of the lyric/clip associations.
"The Adventures of Robin Hood" by lithium_doll (Farscape): Hee so funny! Easy to get without show knowledge (okay, I've seen one episode but I was confused during it).
"Comin' Up from Behind" by bunniqula (Bound) Love the song, nice editing that builds tension.
"Hurt" by destina (Brokeback Mountain): This vid hurts me oh so much. Powerful song and images that matched so well to it along with a great use of framing the ending white house scene. "I will make you hurt" gets to me so much as its soo Ennis. This just made me feel all of Ennis's pain and get in his head and the ending shot breaks my heart everytime. Definitely a favorite for me.
"There Is Too Much Light in This Bar" by absolut3destiny (Life on Mars): The song was perfect and all the clip choices fit perfectly, made me laugh a lot. Brilliantly edited and used the motion in the source to excellent effect. Step 2 of the Life on Mars pimp fest.
"That Don't Impress Me Much" by Dianne T. DeSha (Doctor Who): After just seeing DW, I looved this as it was hilarious and poked great fun of the Doctor and Jack. Too cute, loved the clip choices for the lyrics.
"Big Gun" by keerawa (Farscape): Song (which I liked) seemed to fit well for Aeryn although I can understand the gun literalism complaints.
"Alice in Wonderland" by absolut3destiny (Labyrith): Very cool song with great clip choices that helped me understand the movie which I've never seen before.
"Fix You" by sdwolfpup (Battlestar Galactica): Wasn't into the song before but now I love it because this vid is so amazing. It makes me feel so much for the characters but the tone of the song keeps me disconnected in a perfect creepy way for the Cylons. So glad I saw the miniseries because it helped me understand this vid and even the end was soo perfect and freaked me out in a very good way. Another favorite here.
"Media Vita" by melina123 (Rome): Great song choice and powerful clips that matched it superbly.
"Seems Like a Long Time" by barkley (Supernatural): Oh, Dean! This one got to me so much with the long journey they go through. Very powerful use of the song and clips and the end was perfect.
"Bukowski" by astolat (House): This vid convinced me that I must watch House as soon as possible. So funny and oh so House from what I know of the show and what I saw. Great use of expressions, actions and reaction shots. House/Wilson seems so cute.
"Black Mask" by Belinda (Batman Begins): The driving, fast song was a great change and it was very well edited with fast clips and great movement. Nice use of past/present clips.
"I Put You There" by laurashapiro and lithium_doll (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Perfect, amazing meta vid on how fangirls love their objects of desire and use them in their fantasies/vids/fic/art. Plus awwww its cute Giles! *loves* The art and animation completely blew me away along with the song that fit oh so perfectly. I just loved that it was about ME and all fans everywhere. Definite favorite here.
So then I was filled with vid love and talked to various people about how much I loved their vids. Next it was time for Vid Karoke which I was very excited about and started off well with absolut3destiny singing in his silk shirt. My first karoke (lots of firsts here) which was very fun to listen to and watch the vids at the same time. I even said what the hell and went and joined f1renze, sweetestdrain, sdwolfpup, lierduoma and dualbunny to do "Killing in the Name of" which was lots of fun (how can it not be to yell "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" a lot? ;)). It was great to sing along with the crowd as well and even better to see sisabet do Without Me and then Two Words with renenet and heresluck. I had so much fun that I almost forgot to help put everything back but thankfully I remembered and so was not filled with guilt. I then talked to yhlee, coffeeandink and geekturnedvamp and we went up to their room to talk a bit about fandom and watch the Symbol and Metaphor vidshow again on tape. I could not get enough of vids by this point and one of the things I must remedy next year is to check out more tapes and watch them. If I wasn't so tired I would have but I once again fell asleep at 1 am.
Next day had a bit of breakfast even though I could barely find a seat and then headed up to Vid Review where I sat next to absolut3destiny and got a chance to tell him how much I love his vids. It was so great to hear people's comments on vids along with all their different perspectives. I had nothing planned and wasn't very hungry for lunch so I hung around the 2nd floor until heresluck invited me up to her room with elke_tanzer, cesperanza, astolat and renenet to eat lunch. There it was full of fun talk about vegatables, vids, VVC, academia, gender and other meta things and stuff I forget. It was just awesome to hear the fabulous discussion going on and really made me want to take classes from heresluck and cesperanza. Next up was In Depth Vid Review where it was great to be able to see some Premiere vids again and get some great discussion on them. I stayed for a panel on Special Effects with lithium_doll in which I learned a lot about how to use special effects with great examples. I then went to see the Challenge vids where I first talked to jackiekjono who made the only Cupid vid I've seen and love (and here I once again pimp Cupid out as an awesome show with great banter and cmon, Rob Thomas wrote it!). The Challenge vids were all wonderful all around with the Joxer/Fraser dance vid and Atlantis showtunes vid making me laugh, two great multifandom scifi vids with cool comparisons, a heartbreaking Two Words remix and a very fun Harry Potter remix of End of the World with great parallels. I then talked to katallison, my favorite fanfic writer with her HL and DS fics who was really nice in all my gushing. Also finally got a chance to meet sockkpuppett and tell her how much I love her vids and actually understand them now that I've been all of the Jossverse. Then the Auction vids blew me away with a cute Apollo/Starbuck vid, a touching Lee vid and an awesome vid showing off the cool girls of fandom which I especially loved the Veronica Mars clips and made me miss the show. There really weren't enough VM vids in the shows and I'm still hoping heresluck will make one (soon).
Then it was time for Calls from the Public where we talked about suggestions for next year which made me wish it was Vividcon 2007 already. After I got a chance to talk to sisabet again, where I got to share my overwhelming love of Two Words with her along with Cowboy and 66. I next went up to pack all my stuff which was one of the few times I was alone the entire con, which being an introvert, is kind of surprising. But there was just so much stuff I wanted to do and people to meet that I didn't mind. I then went down to the hotel lobby to put off leaving and see people again and spent some time with sdwolfpup, f1renze, sweetestdrain, sisabet, dualbunny, just_eunice, merryish, settiai and heresluck. We headed into Outback Steakhouse and waited while they prepared tables big enough for all of us and I got to gush a bit more about Superstar, New Frontier and Out Here to heresluck along with great thankfulness for all the vid meta. At that point it was getting late so I got the main desk to call a cab for me and I went back to the room with everyone to spend 10 more minutes of Vividcon goodness before I left. It was great to see everyone and I got to talk some more with heresluck about college and students and the courses she's teaching until the phone rang signaling my departure. I really didn't want to go but forced myself to get up and everyone was really nice and gave me hugs before I left. So that was the end of the Vividcon experience which was inspiring and amazing and full of the best kinds of love. I miss you all!
The trip back was alright, I talked to the woman I sat next to, mostly because I was in such a good mood because of VVC so it was nice to get to know someone. It was kind of funny because she was reading a book about a mountie (Fraser!) and lived in Canada. Once again I couldn't fall asleep except for about 20 minutes or so but I enjoyed watching vids on my laptop. But I finally made it even though it took forever but my good mood helped me tolerate it.
I'm home now and still so grateful for the chance to have this amazing experience. First con and first time meeting so many great people and it all went fabulously and way too fast. It was a very uplifting experience and I feel a lot better about myself and the people who I met, who all helped me have even more faith in humanity with all the crazy things going on in the world. The con made me so happy and enthusiastic and I was allowed to be me and it just felt that this is what living life is all about. I feel a lot more confident about going to California and going to college and I think I'll be okay there. At the very least, I have something to look forward to for next year. I also really hope to try to really work on vidding this year, try to get better and actually put out some vids and maybe show one at Premieres next year, if I can. At the moment, my mind is spinning with all the vidding/VVC love and trying to deal with that along with packing and getting ready to go to California. All I know is that Vividcon was amazing and I definitely consider this great adventure a success.