Boppy's Journal

I'd like to thank everyone who has participated / is participating in the discussion in my post about inclusion and exclusion in vidding fandom. I would like to acknowledge that it's not an easy topic to discuss, and I think overall it's been a very positive (if emotionally draining!) conversation.

I also apologise for conflating approximately 100 different issues into one post--that was not ideal, although it was kind of awesome to see people identify with lots of separate parts! I still feel a bit overwhelmed by the responses but I'm making this post in the spirit of moving forward, especially since I personally find myself in a very different emotional place after the post than before. And you'll see that a great deal of this post is framed personally, because... well it always was a deeply personal post/subject, though definitely one I hoped would be constructive for others in the community and the community as a whole.

Personal notes
( this is what I personally take away from the discussion )

Personal resolutions
( again, just things I'm personally vowing )

Gender
( my last words on this personally )

Initiatives!
( Aus/NZ vidding con, reccing, social community )

Thanks all! :)

PS. If I'm slow to respond it's because I still have Work Crisis, not because I hate you or am a snob. :)

ETA: Adding 'investigate possibility of vidukon recurring to 'do do' list'.

I've been composing this post in my head for a long, long time. Months. But it's come to a head for several reasons. I've held back from making it because I thought it was just 'my' issue and because I have a great deal of love and respect for the Livejournal/VVC-centred vidding commmunity/fandom, both as a whole and the individuals who make it up.

The specific trigger for this post is laurashapiro's post on race, gender and accessibility--my thanks to her for making it, even if I don't agree with all that is said. While my post is not specifically about race or gender, it touches on both issues. It is. however, deeply personal, and I'm aware of that. This is my own personal view and I don't expect anyone to agree with me.

I've become increasingly uncomfortable about the politics of inclusion and exclusion within the community, and specifically at Vividcon. You might say I have no right to speak about Vividcon because I have never attended. That is true. I am told it is wonderful, and I believe that. I am told everyone is lovely. I believe that. That doesn't stop the institution being problematic.

These are my five things I wish that LJ/VVC-based fandom would remember. I use 'we' in this post, throughout, because for better or worse and whether other people accept me or not I consider myself part of this community and I am as much of the problem as anyone else.

1. We're not the only vidding tradition. ( Read more... )

2. Vidding is by its nature a privileged act. ( Read more... )

3. We're not all women. ( Read more... )

4. We're not all in the US. ( Read more... )

5.Stop pretending to a diversity we don't have. ( Read more... )

On popularity, criticism and the fannish middle ground
( some further observations on vidding fandom )

I think that's quite enough from me, don't you? ;)

ETA: It may be too late to ETA with this, but since this post is about inclusion/exclusion and issues of silencing in fandom: if you don't feel able to speak publicly about this issue but wish to talk to someone about the issues, you are welcome to PM me or email me at bopradar at Gmail dot com.

After many months of absence, vid chats return! This one's at the request of chaila43 and daybreak777, and is on the topic of commenting on vids. We're particularly interested in the process of commenting on vids when you're not used to it.

( a little introduction )

Questions
So to spark discussion, here are some questions about commenting for people to reflect on. They're by no means 'compulsory'--feel free to respond to them or more generally on the topic, as you wish.
( Read more... )

Links
This topic has been extensively discussed elsewhere, and vidding's memories section contains some great links. Among them:
sdwolfpup's Vid Feedback 101
gwyn_r's thoughts on the hesitance of non-vidders to comment
thefourthvine's On reccing vids (reccing is a whole other topic, really, but it's a great post)

As a counterbalance to this obsession with comments: thefourthvine's genius Why aren't people commenting? post--which I recommend all vidders keep bookmarked. ;)

Aside
Hijacking this post to pimp a couple of recent vid-related posts:
- For the lolz: vidding anthem
- There's much discussion of streaming platforms at the moment. Personally I'm trying out BAM vid vault. Helpful links: here and here.

The tl;dr description.

Goals
( what I set out to do )

Cameron
( Read more... )

John
( Read more... )

Riley, Charlie and Andy
( Read more... )

Problems, structure and narrative
( Read more... )

Source discoveries
( the more readable bit: about SCC )

Effects
( ETA'd in: can't believe I forgot it! )

To con or not to con
( Read more... )

(Ha! Mood icon of appropriateness!)

I found this episode abysmally boring. ( Where's Lois? )

Confession: I have a ridiculous number of WIPs. I'm beginning to think I may never actually finish a vid ever again. ( some introspective blather about the state of my vidding )

So, short story: I've signed up for an 'Insane February Vidding Project', with daybreak777, chaila43 and taragel. We've each set our own goals, depending on what we want to work on, but the idea is that we create a series of vidlets quickly, to push our comfort zone into new areas.

I chose to focus on effects, to see whether it made any difference to my vidding long-term. So my goal is to learn 10 new things (and demonstrate them as proof!) in two weeks. EEP!

Excitingly, I've got off to a good start by learning about keyframes. FINALLY! They're so easy! I'm so embarrassed now. ;) So I got to playing around with 'scale' and 'centre' in Motion, and I put in a fade to white transition for kicks... Here's all 4 secs of it!


Effects vidlet 1 - Boppy

Aka, my second year of vidding. I'm kind of sliding two posts into one here, as
This was my post for 2007, and my post about my first year of vidding.

( cut for self-reflection )

Recently I've been having a lot of lengthy and very rewarding conversations about vids and vidding with various LJ friends (some vidders, some vid-watchers). Mostly these conversations have been one-on-one by email or IM, and since I've been discovering that there are other people out there who want to have similar discussions and who have a lot of interesting insights, I started thinking about providing an informal forum for this on LJ.

( further explanation beneath cut )

daybreak777, my partner-in-crime in this idea, has made a preliminary poll for all vid-watchers and vidders, to find out if you are interested in participating but also to find out if you're not, then why not: Are you too shy? Too busy? Not interested?

I'll bear the results in mind in picking early topics, but for this week, I simply ask: what do you think? Are you interested? Do you have any reservations? What would make it work (or not work) for you?

Any/all thoughts welcome. :) Help us find the words!

I am hopelessly sniffly at the moment, thanks to a pesky cold that descended on me on the last day of a long weekend. It's been hard to take time off work (I've got some really high maintenance authors at the moment) but today I couldn't string long enough between sneezing fits to actually drive to work, so I've been at home watching 30 Rock, which, may I say, is perfect sick-person TV.

In my efforts to catch up on Vividcon vids I've been kind of OD-ing on great vids to add to the backlog of recs I already had to make. But a few standout favourites I must rec straight up are:

- mranderson71's This Is Matrix Life, a total must-see. It has comedy, slick moves (from vidder as well as in source!) and the perfect marriage of source + song.

- laurashapiro's Shut Up and Drive--the best Martha (of Doctor Who) vid I've seen, and that girl definitely deserves kickass vidding!

- keewick's Sorry is a sequel to last year's 'Sugar', the Lana vid that I loved so much. And I'm delighted she revisited Lana here to explore the later season material. (There's also a snazzy Gossip Girl vid and some SGA goodies I haven't checked out in that post.)

- Not strictly a Vividcon vid, I think, but if you missed it in July's International Day of Femslash, charmax's I'm Your Man showcases an exceptional number of sources, in a documentary of femslash set to music (it really reminded me of 'Celluloid Closet').

All the great vids mean I've got vidding on the brain at the moment (what brain is left behind the cold) so I have a couple of questions for other vidders ( of the 'is this just me or a common phenomenon?' kind )

Guess who I saw play my favourite venue this week, snarkist?! Sufjan! It was absolutely brilliant. ( report on the important stuff--like hula hoops )

Right now I'm watching Roger Federer play Tipsarevic, and I'm fretting coz it's gone into a fourth set. Federer's my favourite player on the men's circuit, and I desperately want him to win this year's Open--I know it means a lot to him, since he's so adorably respectful of the Australian tennis tradition. Come on, Roger! Don't fret! (He looks fretty! :() Phew, he broke serve. *wipes brow*

counteragent is running a new-to-me vid-watching challenge this coming week. The challenge is to watch a new vid (preferably from a vidder you don't know) every day for a week from 21-28 Jan. I've signed up. Anyone wanna join me? :D

Also, if you haven't yet seen counteragent's tribute to vidding, Destiny Calling, then you're missing a meta-y treat. And it features some of my favourite vids! :D

ETA: WOW, what a match! And aww, he's such a gent.