Vividcon 2011 Report

[jetpack_monkey]

Guys. You guys. So amazing, you guys.

When I went two years ago, I came back, well... I had fun, but there was this certain feeling that I was poking at the outsides of a community I didn't actually belong to or have a right to call my own (which may account for my low vidding output in the year following).

This year, I felt like I was part of a warm, joyful (and occasionally tearful) hug that lasted for days. I don't know if it's because I felt more confident as a vidder or because the atmosphere was just more inclusive, but my overall experience was night and day from 2009. So that was good.

I can't even begin to go chronologically. So I'll sort of pick at random wisps of weekend:

• I had three vids in (one of which was a Challenge and I had a hell of a time keeping that secret). Each one seemed to get the response I was looking for, which is delightful. I got kudos from vidders who continually flabbergast me with their work. If you gave me praise and I just stammered a "thank you" or made a lame excuse, you're probably in the "flabbergasting" camp. I was doing my level best to not melt into a jibbering puddle at the time.
  
  
• On a related note, there was a hilarious (in retrospect) moment where I was randomly chatting with someone and then she introduced herself as heresluck. My jaw dropped onto the floor and I couldn't get it back up for what felt like a minute. Some folks get starstruck around actors. I get starstruck around vidders.
  
  
• The vids that made me cry or near-cry... So many of them. The Marley and Me vid by fan_eunice totally destroyed me. The Up vid by absolutedestiny , the classic Dante's Prayer Star Trek vid by , the How to Train Your Dragon vid by fan_eunice , the Punky Brewster vid by fan_eunice (I'm sensing a pattern), the frickin' Magnum PI vid by barkley (apparently I'm naturally a weepy person -- so it goes). Also, the Smallville vid of ultimate badfic awesomeness which made me cry tears of laughter, mixed with tears of love (thanks dualbunny, greensilver, and sweetestdrain).
  
  
• Spending several hours discussing vidding and fandom and all that jazz with six of the smartest people I know: diannelamerc, lizbetann, wiliqueen, butterflykiki, echan, and (when she could make it) celli.
  
  
• Danced my ass off at Club Vivid, slowly peeling off layers of shirt as I went. It was hot in there. Loved seeing the overwhelming response to diannelamerc's Tik Tok meta vid, which I helped make.
  
  
• The Batman and Tron cosplay at Club Vivid ruled my world. RULED IT. If I were to ever cosplay, I would cosplay at Club Vivid. Such a safe environment to be completely, awesomely dorky.
  
  
• I may have promised cherryice that I would add to the all-too-small canon of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World vids.
  
  
• The X-Men First Class party was badass and it gave me the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of cool folks like, kuwdora , cee_m, hellpenguin, mresundance , and more I cannot name because I was very drunk at the time. Special thanks to deejay for enabling me with her boozy concoctions based on Mystique and [spoilers for XMFC].
  
  
• Premieres was very good. I was continually rapt, even during the vids that were made for a specific fandom of which I was not a part. There were several completely amazing vids and I will do a recs post later and I've had a chance to go through my DVD sets fully.
  
  
• When did My Little Pony get awesome? Seriously, this is information I need.
  
  
• Weirdest thing about the time immediately post-Premieres was running from the public space to the vidshow room to double-check the program so I could praise the right people for the right vids. Too often I would make note of either noting a vid was awesome without checking the vidder or remembering to praise a vidder without associating them to a specific vid. Memory problems, I have them.
  
  
• The two panels that really helped me learn the most in terms of vidding craft were the Big Emotion panel and the Settings panel. Also, the Settings panel made me want to do a Western vid. Something John Ford-y.
  
  
• I'm the kind of person who always wants to do the work that others are doing, without taking into account my specific strengths, weaknesses, or interests. I would particularly like to make very bouncy, effects-laden vids, but I don't think I have the particular how-do-you-say... attention span to learn the techniques. (In particular, the joyful use of zooms and panning in mresundance's Byron vid made me envious).
  
  
• Room concert of wow by jspencer1986 . Completely awesome, great vocals, some super song writing. Also I was laughing helplessly when someone suggested a particular metaphor for what was otherwise a very heartfelt song about a man and his guitar (I think the new metaphor was jarrow's fault but I'm not entirely sure).
  
  
• The badfic on the last night... Sweet mother of pearl. The Charles/Erik forced marriage dubcon mpreg fic was bad enough, but then the Supernatural Wincest werewolf dubcon mpreg fic came along and obliterated it. Yipe. That sucker haunts my nightmares.
  
  
• SO much more, but I can't remember all of it now. It will come to me and I may yet post it.

There will be a recs post later, as noted above, but not until I've had a chance to sit down with the DVDs and relive the con.

Comments

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Omg, it was soooo fun!!! And we cried sooo hard!

I still am so glad you made a Gremlins vid and it was just the perfect way to start Premieres - awesome. I never got a chance to tell you how much I loved your Cary Grant/Kate Hepburn vid. It made me so very happy. I blame Catbaby for frying all of my brain cells and preventing me from telling you in person.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I don't blame anyone for anything they did or didn't do for several hours after Catbaby. I'm pretty sure no jury would either. It would have been one thing to experience that vid in a room with other people, but it was something else entirely to see it with a room of friends. That just elevated the crazy to 11.

Also, my first note, re: jibbering. I'm such a fan of your work, so it completely fries my brain that you liked something (or somethings) I did. Thank you!

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

ICON LOVE.

And it was so, so awesome to get to see you again and hang out properly. Seriously considering staying at the hotel next year, as stupid as it seems when I live all of 40 minutes away. There's just SO MUCH GOING ON. (I suspect this will also necessitate taking Monday off.)

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yes. Come play stay with us.

And yes, taking Monday off is a good idea. I wish I'd thought of it.

[mresundance.livejournal.com]

That Supernatural badfic was awful. I had almost managed to repress it in my memory about it and then someone mentioned it and I nearly exploded.

Weirdest thing about the time immediately post-Premieres was running from the public space to the vidshow room to double-check the program so I could praise the right people for the right vids.

You were smart then, because I had problems remembering who did what vid. It might have helped to pay more attention to the program!

I'm the kind of person who always wants to do the work that others are doing, without taking into account my specific strengths, weaknesses, or interests. I would particularly like to make very bouncy, effects-laden vids, but I don't think I have the particular how-do-you-say... attention span to learn the techniques.

In all earnestness, I think this takes time and making vids and learning what interests you and what doesn't on a creative level. Also, do what interests you. I think experimenting with effects can be helpful, simply because it can help you learn what works for you and what doesn't. The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't work and you learn that for future vids.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I have often wondered if quantity of work would not help. I have a pact with some of my roommates to make a vid a month this year (a vidding year being tracked from Vividcon to Vividcon). I'm already over halfway through August without anything to show for it, so I should probably get cracking.

[mresundance.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, that probably depends on each vidder. Some are horribly prolific and suffer no lack of quality (eyeballs kuwdora). Other vidders are definitely of the quality is better than quantity variety and don't suffer for it either.

If you've struggled with completing anything, it might be best to just jump right in and not think about quality for awhile and just vid like a mofo. Yaknow, until you know your own groove better. I know vidders who don't post their work sometimes; you might consider that. Vidding sans posting might free you if you don't have the pressure of exposing it to the world. You could just make it for your own wonderful selfish pleasure. And because your room-mates said so. :)

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I have a battlefield of incomplete projects because I felt they were too ambitious for my current skill set.

I did used to vid a lot more when I didn't think as many people were watching -- especially when I didn't think as many proper vidders were watching. I think you may be right. Time to vid for me.

[mresundance.livejournal.com]

It doesn't do any good to do projects which make you feel defeated before you start. I think it's good to push yourself, but not to undermine yourself with what you feel you can't do by giving yourself something . . . you can't do. I had a friend who waited three years to make a vid before she felt competent enough to do the idea justice (http://ladymajavader.livejournal.com/2744.html) and it paid off in the long run. Patience can be a very valuable creative ally. Especially patience with yourself and learning about your own creative process.

Personally I am happy to make a vid every six months or so, lol. It's a pleasant surprise at the end of each year if I've made more than two vids. (See? You could also set the bar ridiculously low and then feel accomplished when you do finish something . . . )

Go away and vid, converse-lover.

[echan (from livejournal.com)]

I'm starting to think there's two big types of successful vids:
- the ones where you have the idea for ages, let it percolate, poke at the timeline sometimes, come back to it as you learn new techniques, and generally spend a lengthy amount of time perfecting it like an opus
- the ones that you pull out of your ass in five minutes because it's such a great idea and you just have to have it done yesterday and you only have time to use the methods&techniques that you know by heart

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I think that's fair. I've only really made the second type successfully. I'm not sure I have the attention span to pick at a vid for a long time to shape and form a vid into something grand (the Gene Kelly vid might count, but I don't think it does).

Most everything I make has been somewhere in the middle and it's been mostly moderately successful (although I'm mostly pleased with it).

[franzeska]

*wanders by*

When I was pounding my head on my keyboard over my VVC vids, I did a couple of things where I just sat down and did a whole vid in one afternoon. It's like those writing exercises where you speed write for twenty minutes or whatever.

If you find that promising you'll do a real vid month isn't working out, you could always do something more like that. Look at them as exercises, not something that has to be good. It helped me get unstuck on some harder projects.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I do have one incredibly, incredibly stupid vid that I want to do that's super-full of effects simply because it makes the vid that much dumber.

*ponders* I think that may be exactly what I need.

Thanks. Oh and I really dug both of your vids this year. The Crying Freeman one especially in (a) view (to a kill) of my own Bond vid.

[franzeska]

Thanks! Your Bond one was at Club Vivid, right? I danced the entire time, so the sum total of my impression is that there were some serious colors going on in that room. :D (Damn you, work, for having evening functions as soon as I got home! *shakes fist* I still have days of con DVD watching to do and con reports to write.)

You could always fill up the timeline on that one quickly and then let it sit around for a few months before going back and trying to figure out effects-y stuff in a second draft.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yup, it was Club Vivid. There haven't been many eyeballs on it and it lasted all of two minutes, so I'm really not surprised you haven't seen it.

I'm looking forward to reading your con reports!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed your vids so much! Perfect con vids: accessible, upbeat, witty, and charming. I showed the Gremlins one to my partner and he was nodding and grinning the whole time. :D

Plus, you are very nice and stuff.

Edited to note that you had three vids, but I think I only saw two of them. Must fix this! ::goes for con DVDs::

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to say more than "Hey" to you. You seemed very busy this year and I know I was running around like a crazy, flaily person.

You probably missed my James Bond vid, which is the one I am most proud of, but it played at Club Vivid when not everyone has their eyeballs on the visuals. I do hope you like it.

I loved both of your vids and I really need to rewatch them now that the new-and-improved versions are online. I really need to get into K-Drama. I'm already fascinated by K-Horror.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was flailing around too hard on the dance floor to really take in your Club Vivid vid -- or, indeed, most of them. There will be quality time with the DVD in my near future.

I was busy this year. I am always busy at Vividcon. Too many people, not enough time; we clearly need a con every month.

Thank you for your kind words about my vids! And Damo, I have to say, is fukken epic. I really wanted to do a whole other vid about how Chae Ohk rocks the house (would've been perfect for the Riot Grrls show), but I also really wanted to have a personal life, so I made a choice. (: Seriously, though, four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

A Joe Bob Briggs reference! You win at awesome today.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling you'd get that one. (: