Vividcon report, part two: panels and vids
Continued from here.
I neglected to say in the last post that, while overhearing fandom conversations and watching vids over the past many years has made me conversant in many shows/movies I haven't seen, it's still nice when something you like pops up at VVC. I smiled at a couple of clips of Sebastian Roche in a Supernatural vid during Premieres. (There were approximately 500,000 SPN vids this year.) I also had a good time talking with
kiki_miserychic about what turns out to be shared ambivalence over Westworld, with
franzeska about the delights of Longmire (sorry for hijacking your convo,
thirdblindmouse), and with
grammarwoman,
corbae &
sansets about Westworld & the equally frustrating-yet-sometimes-beautiful American Gods. See also: "fandom nostalgia" in the recs section.
Panels
As usual, for most of the day on Friday and Saturday there were two programming tracks running simultaneously: one of vid shows and one of panels. Also as usual, I opted for panels, figuring I could watch the vid shows later on VVC's streaming site for members. Here are some notes I took; they're not comprehensive, just comments that struck me.
Emotion with
heresluck
- You have to give sadness time to breathe
- Allowing time to feel an emotion as the vid plays vs. afterwards
- Clip length & pacing (fast=anxious)
- Go to 11… and go further - up, and up, and still up
- Brave choice when vidder wants to make viewer feel something negative, feel bad about liking something
- Meta-joy, basic human enjoyment of well choreographed clips with music
- Funniest version of literalism
- Music helps you get past analytical approach
- How to get in and out of emotions and intensities
- Examples to check out: Day in the Life (Dead Zone), Haunted (Odyssey 5/Earth explodes), The Adventure (HP/Neville), I Swear (Smallville), 2005 Premieres show sequence
More thorough notes from settiai
Best Advice Ever with
sdwolfpup &
ghost_lingering
- Have backups - including other people
- The world *does* need another X
- People are watching your vid slower than you are
- Less is more. No, more is more.
- Use 1 project to take a break from another
- YouTube might have karaoke version or clean radio version of your song
- Sometimes good to discover on the timeline instead of overthink/plan/give up
- Sometimes helps to do the fun parts first, to pull through the tedious parts
- Watch your vid at different times of day
- It's okay to like, or love, or not be 100% okay with, your vid
(Ian: Premiere has a feature that highlights clips you've used on the timeline)
(sisabet: you can also "pancake" your timelines so you can see your unused clips sequence right above your vid sequence)
More thorough notes from settiai
Tension with
kiki_miserychic & sort of
jetpack_monkey
- Conflict/dissonance, insecurity, yearning for resolution
- Can be positive: baking cakes, sexual tension
- Components: Emotion, story, rhythm, eye trace, axis, 3D space
- Shock: Show explosion. Tension: Show bomb for 5 minutes, then show explosion.
- Delay resolution - something falling, not hitting; use alternate hit/follow-through. Head chop --> window break. Head chop --> coin. Fulfilling expectation in unexpected way.
- Clip progression not as "and then," but "but," "therefore"
- Red tones raise blood pressure
- Close-ups and camera angles - power, weakness
- Make use of key changes in your song
- Covers of songs can induce tension
- The false release of tension
- When only the song, or only the clips, is/are creepy, rather than both
- Don't give away twists/tension/reveals with title or song name or notes (vidder didn't list DS9 as a fandom)
More thorough notes from kiki and settiai
Aesthetic Shifts with
destina
- You think you're just doing what's "normal" or neutral but you're vidding in a community, in an era
- Access & technology has led to impatience with things that aren't exactly to our tastes
- New vidders expecting viewers to hit pause to watch on frame level
- YouTube vids exist to be stylish about the thing they're interested in (less about narrative)
More thorough notes from settiai
Relationships with
trelkez &
killabeez
- Constructing OT3s: Show canon kiss between 2 chars, follow with similar clip of other 2 chars, people will see a kiss for the second pair
- Mix non-canon ships with canon ones, makes them seem more "real"
- M/F vocal = 2 POVs looking at 3rd character
More thorough notes from settiai
Motion with
jarrow,
rhoboat &
bradcpu
- Circles. Combine 1/4 turns for full circle
- Don't be afraid to flip clips so things move in same direction
- Adding motion: effects, jump cuts, zooms, transitions
- Playing video game to generate the motion you want
- Motion on or instead of cuts on beat
- Use motion to counter expectations - humor, surprise, discomfort
More thorough notes from settiai
Vids as Time Capsule with
killabeez
What was happening
- in the news
- in media
- in fandom
- in a specific fandom
- in vidding fandom
- in the vidder's life
More thorough notes from killa and settiai
Effects with
hollywoodgrrl & Kitty aka
winterevanesce
- "Indie" vids = cutting. "Studio" vids = some effects. "Blockbuster" vids = heavy effects; Lum, Lim, YouTube.
- Evolve your style! Don't be afraid!
- Add/adjust color - or remove them - or highlight a single one. Magic Bullet program.
- Layers & opacity. Blending mode, lighten.
- Transitions
- "Spell" (Carol vid) - lens flares & crystal footage & layers. Masking, "shock wave" from YouTube in After Effects
- "Is It Safe Now" (Eyewitness vid) - push-zoom effect from NewBlue FX
- Sometimes the song is asking for something
- Search Google & YouTube for your program + phrases like "coloring pack, texture overlay, transitions." Vector backgrounds. $ for Boris FX Sapphire, Twixtor, Red Giant/Mojo, Rampant Design, Motion Array. Premiere 2018 coloring tool, can save presets.
More thorough notes from settiai
Town Hall with
cesperanza
- Continuing conversations about where vidders are today (the youths, they're making edits on Instagram), where we're going (nowhere centralized), what landscape we're in (the good and bad of legislation, technology and global communities)
- Gov't laws become more permissive, but corporations aren't gov't
- Lim is learning Russian to talk to the vidders. :) ("We need a 'Russian for vidders' primer")
- 5.1 audio tracks can isolate vocals/music/SFX
- YouTube algorithms driving vid aesthetics. Also regularity of posting, not embedding on other sites
- (c) claimants might not be actual (c) holders. Business models/outsourcing (c) arguers. Half the (c) holders don't even know what "internet rights" meant when they signed license agreements X years ago
- Resilio media sharing (Napster for vidders)
- Debates over best online platforms to sustain the vidding community
- I know it's not exactly the same venue, but I thought it was funny-sad that people were mourning and/or freaking out over how this would be the last vidding Town Hall with nothing in place to continue such conversations when Fanworkscon is already scheduled for next year
Multisource with
fiercynn,
scribe &
bironic
Heh. Panel notes here.
Vividcon History with various con comm members past & present
- Vid critique language hadn't developed at first
- Club Vivid began because vidding felt to me like dance (astolat)
- Challenge partly helped with anonymous vid review - honesty - freeing for vidder too
- The Rogue One of VVC - "Amy, if I don't make it through immigration, this is the con in a box" (absolutedestiny)
Vid Discussion
Challenge: Full Circle: Notes from settiai
Vid Review: Notes from serrico & settiai
In-Depth:
House of Mercy by rhoboat (Rogue One/Serenity)
- Parallel or crossover?
- POV evil empire or rebels? Death Star?
- Characters not mapped 1:1
- Also Wash --> robot, I see what you did there
- Pairing the sources opened up Serenity, drew out the melancholy of Rogue One
Our Ghost by skygiants (Chicago Typewriter)
- Title refers to both typewriter and gun
- Reincarnation, writing and memory
- Self-destruction becomes self-creation, literally
- Characters writing fix-it fic for their past lives
- Show available on viki.com, dramafever.com - legal free streaming
- ETA: post from thuvia-ptarth
Black Sun by joyo (Hannibal)
- Reversals, pulling back from precipice
- Curiosity killed cat
- Motifs: food, liquids. He gets fractured like chocolate
- Sun: (1) him; (2) the show "around him," his egocentrism - lots of his face in a row; (3) Hannibal, all these characters revolving around him
- Physically, Chilton moves around people. And they never let him in
- All tension, little release
- Hannibal --> absence of Hannibal
Blow (Deconstructed) by kiki_miserychic (Supernatural)
- Callbacks to Kitty's "Sucker Punch" vid
- Thoughts about Ke$ha being thrown around too
Eternity by hollywoodgrrl (Star Wars)
- Pulled between X & Y. Tattooine and Ren, Ren and Rey, Luke and Leia, twin suns, lightsabers, creation and destruction
- Luke's alternate path
- Skywalker legacy. Shattering - Han, family, fleet, Luke
- Death wish? Peace?
- Family is his completion
I Did Something Bad by jarrow (Killing Eve)
- 2 women come closer together physically and temperamentally
- Eve puts on Villanelle when she puts on the dress
- Violence/chase as sex/seduction
- Cuts faster even though/because images are so still at the climax of the show
Dream by gwyneth (multi)
- People looking at joyful things together. Ends on Community
- Data's Dream. VHS era to now - future of vidding and fandoms, also call to love and care for our history.
- Callouts to shows and vids from fandom and VVC specifically
- WALL-E to Eve = showing someone your fandom, your vid
Notes from serrico & settiai
Vid Recs
I haven't seen all the many-hundred vids yet, and I need to watch some again because I was so tired when they screened. Nevertheless: those that made the biggest impressions for me:
Personal faves
Our Ghost by skygiants (Chicago Typewriter) - I was intrigued by this the first time. Then, when thuvia-ptarth explained the plot of the show at Vid Review, the rewatch made me choke up. (Three present-day characters-a writer, a fan and a ghost-use writing to recover memories of their past lives as resistance fighters in 1920s/30s Japanese-occupied Korea and even alter their story.) Fabulous editing.
The Sound of Silence by bradcpu (Blade Runner/Blade Runner 2049) - Highlights both visual and character similarities and divergences between the first film and the sequel, focusing on the replicants' stories. Kudos for nearly zero Jared Leto.
Photograph by milly (Coco) - I did not actually cry at the con, but this brought me the closest. On a technical level, I look forward to rewatching it to study how milly works with the song but lifts the cutting away from the beats so the music and the edits flow.
Bodies by Andraste and Loki’s Rose (X-Men movieverse) - Powerful use of the metaphors of mutantism in the movies. Starts dark and moves into power and hope.
Editing
Vids I know I'll be going back to to learn from.
Descent into madness/chaos:
Velouria by absolutedestiny (Mulholland Drive)
a horse with no name by kiki_miserychic (mother!) *many many content warnings
Clipping rhythms; mixing humor and drama:
I Did Something Bad by jarrow (Killing Eve) *all the spoilers
WTF, plus application of many effects:
Just Dance by hollywoodgrrl (Twin Peaks) *pretty much all the physical & content warnings
Action:
Can’t Stop Feeling by teyla (Kingsman)
Audio/Autotune:
Steamed Hams Inc. by NPCarlsson (The Simpsons) *flashy/stuttery visuals
Doing interesting things with split screens/multiple screens:
Digital Witness by sisabet (Twin Peaks: The Return)
This is Us by Diana Williams (Yuri on Ice)
Biggest group laughs of the con
I’m a Lady by Kitty aka winterevanesce (Betch!)
Now That’s What I Call Z Nation! by sdwolfpup (Z Nation)
Wrecking Ball by jetpack_monkey (X-Men)
Blue on Black by elipie (Batman/Superman DC movies)
Poignant, personal & communal, a mark of this moment in time
Ave Que Emigra by fiercynn (multi/sitcoms)
Fandom nostalgia
cracks appear by Destina (Less Than Zero)
Pompeii by astolat (TNG)
Riverside by Destina (Jesse Stone movies)
Vidders doing difficult things
Zero Sum by tbm (DS9) - Imagine editing a vid about beings who exist outside of linear time and trying to make sense of their plot and convey their POV!
Ein HaNamer by seekingferret (Jewish athletes) - So much research!
Also
Team by theletterelle (The Hunger Games) - As someone said at vid review, it would've been wonderful if this sort of teamwork and leadership had been so coherent and effective in canon.
Seven Years by cherryice (Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra) - I'm sure I'll pull way more out of this once I've… seen the shows… but it still packs an emotional punch.
Jerk It by absolutedestiny (80s bodybuilder/action movies. Also porn.) *suuuuper NSFW
And while we're talking about porn, Sex Pollen & Curtains by franzeska (first section of Slash, that controversial student film made by a guy about a bunch of guys) *NSFW
Full programming list at vividcon.info.
Originally posted at https://bironic.dreamwidth.org/373164.html, where there are
comments.
I neglected to say in the last post that, while overhearing fandom conversations and watching vids over the past many years has made me conversant in many shows/movies I haven't seen, it's still nice when something you like pops up at VVC. I smiled at a couple of clips of Sebastian Roche in a Supernatural vid during Premieres. (There were approximately 500,000 SPN vids this year.) I also had a good time talking with
kiki_miserychic about what turns out to be shared ambivalence over Westworld, with
franzeska about the delights of Longmire (sorry for hijacking your convo,
thirdblindmouse), and with
grammarwoman,
corbae &
sansets about Westworld & the equally frustrating-yet-sometimes-beautiful American Gods. See also: "fandom nostalgia" in the recs section.
Panels
As usual, for most of the day on Friday and Saturday there were two programming tracks running simultaneously: one of vid shows and one of panels. Also as usual, I opted for panels, figuring I could watch the vid shows later on VVC's streaming site for members. Here are some notes I took; they're not comprehensive, just comments that struck me.
Emotion with
heresluck
- You have to give sadness time to breathe
- Allowing time to feel an emotion as the vid plays vs. afterwards
- Clip length & pacing (fast=anxious)
- Go to 11… and go further - up, and up, and still up
- Brave choice when vidder wants to make viewer feel something negative, feel bad about liking something
- Meta-joy, basic human enjoyment of well choreographed clips with music
- Funniest version of literalism
- Music helps you get past analytical approach
- How to get in and out of emotions and intensities
- Examples to check out: Day in the Life (Dead Zone), Haunted (Odyssey 5/Earth explodes), The Adventure (HP/Neville), I Swear (Smallville), 2005 Premieres show sequence
More thorough notes from settiai
Best Advice Ever with
sdwolfpup &
ghost_lingering
- Have backups - including other people
- The world *does* need another X
- People are watching your vid slower than you are
- Less is more. No, more is more.
- Use 1 project to take a break from another
- YouTube might have karaoke version or clean radio version of your song
- Sometimes good to discover on the timeline instead of overthink/plan/give up
- Sometimes helps to do the fun parts first, to pull through the tedious parts
- Watch your vid at different times of day
- It's okay to like, or love, or not be 100% okay with, your vid
(Ian: Premiere has a feature that highlights clips you've used on the timeline)
(sisabet: you can also "pancake" your timelines so you can see your unused clips sequence right above your vid sequence)
More thorough notes from settiai
Tension with
kiki_miserychic & sort of
jetpack_monkey
- Conflict/dissonance, insecurity, yearning for resolution
- Can be positive: baking cakes, sexual tension
- Components: Emotion, story, rhythm, eye trace, axis, 3D space
- Shock: Show explosion. Tension: Show bomb for 5 minutes, then show explosion.
- Delay resolution - something falling, not hitting; use alternate hit/follow-through. Head chop --> window break. Head chop --> coin. Fulfilling expectation in unexpected way.
- Clip progression not as "and then," but "but," "therefore"
- Red tones raise blood pressure
- Close-ups and camera angles - power, weakness
- Make use of key changes in your song
- Covers of songs can induce tension
- The false release of tension
- When only the song, or only the clips, is/are creepy, rather than both
- Don't give away twists/tension/reveals with title or song name or notes (vidder didn't list DS9 as a fandom)
More thorough notes from kiki and settiai
Aesthetic Shifts with
destina
- You think you're just doing what's "normal" or neutral but you're vidding in a community, in an era
- Access & technology has led to impatience with things that aren't exactly to our tastes
- New vidders expecting viewers to hit pause to watch on frame level
- YouTube vids exist to be stylish about the thing they're interested in (less about narrative)
More thorough notes from settiai
Relationships with
trelkez &
killabeez
- Constructing OT3s: Show canon kiss between 2 chars, follow with similar clip of other 2 chars, people will see a kiss for the second pair
- Mix non-canon ships with canon ones, makes them seem more "real"
- M/F vocal = 2 POVs looking at 3rd character
More thorough notes from settiai
Motion with
jarrow,
rhoboat &
bradcpu
- Circles. Combine 1/4 turns for full circle
- Don't be afraid to flip clips so things move in same direction
- Adding motion: effects, jump cuts, zooms, transitions
- Playing video game to generate the motion you want
- Motion on or instead of cuts on beat
- Use motion to counter expectations - humor, surprise, discomfort
More thorough notes from settiai
Vids as Time Capsule with
killabeez
What was happening
- in the news
- in media
- in fandom
- in a specific fandom
- in vidding fandom
- in the vidder's life
More thorough notes from killa and settiai
Effects with
hollywoodgrrl & Kitty aka
winterevanesce
- "Indie" vids = cutting. "Studio" vids = some effects. "Blockbuster" vids = heavy effects; Lum, Lim, YouTube.
- Evolve your style! Don't be afraid!
- Add/adjust color - or remove them - or highlight a single one. Magic Bullet program.
- Layers & opacity. Blending mode, lighten.
- Transitions
- "Spell" (Carol vid) - lens flares & crystal footage & layers. Masking, "shock wave" from YouTube in After Effects
- "Is It Safe Now" (Eyewitness vid) - push-zoom effect from NewBlue FX
- Sometimes the song is asking for something
- Search Google & YouTube for your program + phrases like "coloring pack, texture overlay, transitions." Vector backgrounds. $ for Boris FX Sapphire, Twixtor, Red Giant/Mojo, Rampant Design, Motion Array. Premiere 2018 coloring tool, can save presets.
More thorough notes from settiai
Town Hall with
cesperanza
- Continuing conversations about where vidders are today (the youths, they're making edits on Instagram), where we're going (nowhere centralized), what landscape we're in (the good and bad of legislation, technology and global communities)
- Gov't laws become more permissive, but corporations aren't gov't
- Lim is learning Russian to talk to the vidders. :) ("We need a 'Russian for vidders' primer")
- 5.1 audio tracks can isolate vocals/music/SFX
- YouTube algorithms driving vid aesthetics. Also regularity of posting, not embedding on other sites
- (c) claimants might not be actual (c) holders. Business models/outsourcing (c) arguers. Half the (c) holders don't even know what "internet rights" meant when they signed license agreements X years ago
- Resilio media sharing (Napster for vidders)
- Debates over best online platforms to sustain the vidding community
- I know it's not exactly the same venue, but I thought it was funny-sad that people were mourning and/or freaking out over how this would be the last vidding Town Hall with nothing in place to continue such conversations when Fanworkscon is already scheduled for next year
Multisource with
fiercynn,
scribe &
bironic
Heh. Panel notes here.
Vividcon History with various con comm members past & present
- Vid critique language hadn't developed at first
- Club Vivid began because vidding felt to me like dance (astolat)
- Challenge partly helped with anonymous vid review - honesty - freeing for vidder too
- The Rogue One of VVC - "Amy, if I don't make it through immigration, this is the con in a box" (absolutedestiny)
Vid Discussion
Challenge: Full Circle: Notes from settiai
Vid Review: Notes from serrico & settiai
In-Depth:
House of Mercy by rhoboat (Rogue One/Serenity)
- Parallel or crossover?
- POV evil empire or rebels? Death Star?
- Characters not mapped 1:1
- Also Wash --> robot, I see what you did there
- Pairing the sources opened up Serenity, drew out the melancholy of Rogue One
Our Ghost by skygiants (Chicago Typewriter)
- Title refers to both typewriter and gun
- Reincarnation, writing and memory
- Self-destruction becomes self-creation, literally
- Characters writing fix-it fic for their past lives
- Show available on viki.com, dramafever.com - legal free streaming
- ETA: post from thuvia-ptarth
Black Sun by joyo (Hannibal)
- Reversals, pulling back from precipice
- Curiosity killed cat
- Motifs: food, liquids. He gets fractured like chocolate
- Sun: (1) him; (2) the show "around him," his egocentrism - lots of his face in a row; (3) Hannibal, all these characters revolving around him
- Physically, Chilton moves around people. And they never let him in
- All tension, little release
- Hannibal --> absence of Hannibal
Blow (Deconstructed) by kiki_miserychic (Supernatural)
- Callbacks to Kitty's "Sucker Punch" vid
- Thoughts about Ke$ha being thrown around too
Eternity by hollywoodgrrl (Star Wars)
- Pulled between X & Y. Tattooine and Ren, Ren and Rey, Luke and Leia, twin suns, lightsabers, creation and destruction
- Luke's alternate path
- Skywalker legacy. Shattering - Han, family, fleet, Luke
- Death wish? Peace?
- Family is his completion
I Did Something Bad by jarrow (Killing Eve)
- 2 women come closer together physically and temperamentally
- Eve puts on Villanelle when she puts on the dress
- Violence/chase as sex/seduction
- Cuts faster even though/because images are so still at the climax of the show
Dream by gwyneth (multi)
- People looking at joyful things together. Ends on Community
- Data's Dream. VHS era to now - future of vidding and fandoms, also call to love and care for our history.
- Callouts to shows and vids from fandom and VVC specifically
- WALL-E to Eve = showing someone your fandom, your vid
Notes from serrico & settiai
Vid Recs
I haven't seen all the many-hundred vids yet, and I need to watch some again because I was so tired when they screened. Nevertheless: those that made the biggest impressions for me:
Personal faves
Our Ghost by skygiants (Chicago Typewriter) - I was intrigued by this the first time. Then, when thuvia-ptarth explained the plot of the show at Vid Review, the rewatch made me choke up. (Three present-day characters-a writer, a fan and a ghost-use writing to recover memories of their past lives as resistance fighters in 1920s/30s Japanese-occupied Korea and even alter their story.) Fabulous editing.
The Sound of Silence by bradcpu (Blade Runner/Blade Runner 2049) - Highlights both visual and character similarities and divergences between the first film and the sequel, focusing on the replicants' stories. Kudos for nearly zero Jared Leto.
Photograph by milly (Coco) - I did not actually cry at the con, but this brought me the closest. On a technical level, I look forward to rewatching it to study how milly works with the song but lifts the cutting away from the beats so the music and the edits flow.
Bodies by Andraste and Loki’s Rose (X-Men movieverse) - Powerful use of the metaphors of mutantism in the movies. Starts dark and moves into power and hope.
Editing
Vids I know I'll be going back to to learn from.
Descent into madness/chaos:
Velouria by absolutedestiny (Mulholland Drive)
a horse with no name by kiki_miserychic (mother!) *many many content warnings
Clipping rhythms; mixing humor and drama:
I Did Something Bad by jarrow (Killing Eve) *all the spoilers
WTF, plus application of many effects:
Just Dance by hollywoodgrrl (Twin Peaks) *pretty much all the physical & content warnings
Action:
Can’t Stop Feeling by teyla (Kingsman)
Audio/Autotune:
Steamed Hams Inc. by NPCarlsson (The Simpsons) *flashy/stuttery visuals
Doing interesting things with split screens/multiple screens:
Digital Witness by sisabet (Twin Peaks: The Return)
This is Us by Diana Williams (Yuri on Ice)
Biggest group laughs of the con
I’m a Lady by Kitty aka winterevanesce (Betch!)
Now That’s What I Call Z Nation! by sdwolfpup (Z Nation)
Wrecking Ball by jetpack_monkey (X-Men)
Blue on Black by elipie (Batman/Superman DC movies)
Poignant, personal & communal, a mark of this moment in time
Ave Que Emigra by fiercynn (multi/sitcoms)
Fandom nostalgia
cracks appear by Destina (Less Than Zero)
Pompeii by astolat (TNG)
Riverside by Destina (Jesse Stone movies)
Vidders doing difficult things
Zero Sum by tbm (DS9) - Imagine editing a vid about beings who exist outside of linear time and trying to make sense of their plot and convey their POV!
Ein HaNamer by seekingferret (Jewish athletes) - So much research!
Also
Team by theletterelle (The Hunger Games) - As someone said at vid review, it would've been wonderful if this sort of teamwork and leadership had been so coherent and effective in canon.
Seven Years by cherryice (Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra) - I'm sure I'll pull way more out of this once I've… seen the shows… but it still packs an emotional punch.
Jerk It by absolutedestiny (80s bodybuilder/action movies. Also porn.) *suuuuper NSFW
And while we're talking about porn, Sex Pollen & Curtains by franzeska (first section of Slash, that controversial student film made by a guy about a bunch of guys) *NSFW
Full programming list at vividcon.info.
Originally posted at https://bironic.dreamwidth.org/373164.html, where there are
comments.