ext_42090 ([identity profile] chaila43.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] bop_radar 2008-10-12 05:41 pm (UTC)

We can't control how others will view our vids.

Which is often kind of cool, like you said above, it's pretty awesome to make something that can kind of take on a life of its own, that others can map their own interpretations and thoughts onto. The biggest compliment in my eyes about my first vid was someone telling me it was disturbing and someone else telling me it was hopeful. Totally opposing interpretations! Sweet! But, also, I can't categorize that vid at all; interpretation is wide open, and even I could see conflicting interpretations of my own vid throughout the process of making it.

But the opposite situation, when I can categorize a vid, can feel very restrictive and makes me not want to put it into a category (even when it clearly belongs there!). Because I've really been thinking lately about how to combat certain expectations that I know will greet a vid I have in mind. I've had a specific Adama/Roslin vid bunny in my head for months, so I'm pretty sure I've got to make it. But even calling it that, "an Adama/Roslin vid," brings up all sorts of preconceptions and associations that I violently do not want. This goes to genre as well (topic!); do I have to call it a shipper vid? To me, that brings all sorts of baggage with it, so calling it that makes me cringe for my poor little (imaginary) vid. But yet, that's sort of what it is, insofar as it's obviously about their partnership/relationship. Putting it into that category doesn't feel restrictive to me, because I know what I mean when I say it's A/R shippy, but that is SO different from what I know others mean when they say the same thing. I'm going to make the resolutely non-romantic vid that's in my head either way, but I feel like defining it one way or the other restricts my ability to get that vision across to other people, who are inevitably going to start with a notion of what a shipper vid, and in particular an A/R shipper vid, is "saying" (if that doesn't turn them off from watching it at all). So I almost feel like I have to overcome that first, somehow, before I can even tell my own story. And of course, as a viewer, I'm guilty of doing this too. I can't say how many times I've not watched a vid that's labeled "A/R shipper vid," or "Baltar character study," or whatever, because I have preconceptions of what that vid will be about. Obviously this problem exists with defining and categorizing everything, but definitions and categories are necessary, so there's really nothing to do but ramble about it.

Um yeah, you want to be careful of encouraging faintly on topic rambles from me. Just saying. :)

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