Resisting Everything but Temptation

I want to make several posts about panels and such at Escapade, but first, a post about the Escapade Saturday night vidshow. For those who got the DVDs, feochadn is responsible for the festive and stylish graphics, and the photographs used for them. She also (with help from melina and mlyn and I'm not sure who else? But not me!) made the vidshow itself flow smoothly and look and sound very nearly as perfect as possible.

My part of the job was to compose the show and master the DVDs. Since a few people asked me, I'll clarify that this year's show was about 50/50 submitted vids and requested vids. There have been many comments over the years about shows that were light on favorite fandoms, or light on slash vids, so this year I took the bit and ran with it a little, and composed a show that I thought would please the majority of the attendees and show an interesting variety of tones, fandoms, characters, musical styles, etc. while keeping in mind that this is very much a slash con. It was really interesting to see how that played out, and how the attendees responded. Maybe I learned some stuff. Let's hope! I do know that I adored this show and all the vidders who contributed, whether on their own or at my pleading.

VIDSHOW PLAY ORDER

1 Walking on the Sun by giandujakiss (Lost Girl)
2 *Cooler Than Me by anoel (Glee)
3 **Blackbird by Clucking Belles (Imagine Me and You)
4 Under the Sheets by almostgaby (Inception)
5 **Bad Romance by smutcutter (Star Trek: DS9)
6 Hateful by mlyn (White Collar)
7 **Stronger Than Dirt by fahrbotdrusilla (Watchmen)
8 *Mama Said Knock You Out by talitha78 (NCIS: LA)
9 *Lost Cause by gwyn_r (Justified)
10 *Breathe You In by Holdt (Stargate SG-1)
11 Something's Gotta Give by lamardeuse (Hawaii 5-0)
12 This Town's Religion by destina (Top Gun)
13 The Humbling River by feochadn (Red Cliff)
14 *Remembrance by hsv_fangirl (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace)
15 Trust No One by Loki (Supernatural)

INTERMISSION

16 *Running Up That Hill by gwyn_r (Prison Break)
17 All the Way by greensilver (Invisible Man)
18 Heartbreaker by destina and barkley (Southland)
19 Critical Hit by jarrow (Big Bang Theory)
20 Little Plastic Castle by marina (Lost Girl)
21 Not Responsible by lamardeuse (Sherlock)
22 *Pocketful of Sunshine by talitha78 (Kings)
23 They Want More by bironic (Jurassic Park)
24 *Sex and Reruns by greensilver (Community)
25 *When I'm Up I Can't Get Down by deejay (Takin' Over The Asylum)
26 Square One by killabeez (Appaloosa)
27 Are We Real? by wistful_fever (Hawaii 5-0)
28 Last Friday Night by estalita_11 (Star Trek: TOS)

Three bonus vids on the DVD:
29 *Because I'm Awesome by anoel (Glee)
30 *Up Where We Belong by talitha78 (Community)
31 *Wicked Game by Holdt (Stargate SG-1)

I received several comments that people really enjoyed the combination submission-based/curated vidshow, because it included a lot of variety, plenty of slash (and nearly all of our current favorite fandoms), and a good pace/show length. These comments were so valuable-- thank you! ETA: Because I had a couple of people ask me, I've indicated:

* = Vid submitted to the show (as oppposed to requested by me)
** = Premiering vid submitted to the show

A general comment from me about something I noticed at the vid review: the vast majority of these vids were stronger as the vid went on. This became quite apparent to me as we watched about the first minute of each vid, then turned it off to talk about it. It makes sense, that we'd save all the best stuff for the end of the vid -- but it sort of made me wonder if we should concentrate a bit more on winning our audience over in that first minute, especially in a multifandom con setting. Vids that stood out to me as not sharing this unbalanced weaker-at-the-beginning feeling were "Running Up That Hill," "The Humbling River," "Something's Gotta Give," and "Mama Said Knock You Out" -- which, interestingly, received some of the most universally positive feedback and reaction from the audience. I don't think this is coincidence.

Smutcutter and M'lyn ran the vid review. They identified several vids that they wanted to talk about, and then we spent the last twenty minutes or so taking requests from the audience. I wrote down what people said, but not who said it, and tried to clarify the context a bit. So, what follows are the notes I took more or less as things were said, pretty close to unvarnished except where I tried to contextualize the sense of the conversation.

General comments about the vidshow
Everybody in the annex stayed and were entertained. (Show wasn't too long; people found it entertaining.)

Mama Said Knock You Out (NCIS: LA, vidder talitha78)
I've never loved Hetty more
LL Cool J - his song (perfect match)
Hetty identification for people new to the show - appreciated, good con vid
hey, the guy's a rapper, the guy's in a show, that works
super clear what her name is and that she's the boss
we get it almost immediately
voice was very clear (POV character)
last 9 clips or so are suddenly slashy (NCIS gay)
recruiter vid (and by the way, there's also slash)
this vid had low goals and met them admirably

Something's Gotta Give (Hawaii 5-0, vidder lamardeuse)
Too fun! (the word "fun" was repeated several times by several people)
Pre-slash (the courtship phase) - fun to see this
UST rather than outright slash (hasn't happened yet)
appropriate music because show is a remake of an older show, older style music
beautiful setting, pretty, allows that to shine through
straightforward vid, doesn't mess with visuals
internal movement excellent - the pop on the shoulder
felt internal movement was strongest in the first half of the vid
uncommon for newer vidders to have such precise timing and clear POV
gestures/reactions give you easy laugh points and Danny's big gestures go with the Frank Sinatra big tone of the song

Breathe You In (Stargate SG-1, vidder Holdt)
Hated it/Loved it - would love to see this vid influence other videos (referring to use of voiceover and layering)
Voiceover effective, interesting
THIS IS DRAMA GODDAMMIT (referring to the melodramatic tone)
An interesting failure is better than a boring success
Using many techniques and tools (should an artist use every tool in their box? probably not)
Epic (Dante's Cove - shameless!)
Go big or go home
Type on screen not effective and didn't give the audience enough credit for getting it -- several people felt they were being talked down to because lyrics were perfectly clear in the song

Humbling River (Red Cliff, vidder feochadn)
discussion of the source (vid made people hungry to see the movies)
music perfect choice, beautiful song
epic, momentous scope
carefully controlled storytelling
a few things you can focus on - a select number of characters, repeated elements symbols (birds, fire, the river being a metaphor)
introduction - the rhythm of the beats unexpected
image of horses falling/sword falling pulls you in
powerful pimping tool
"A movie this beautiful and a song this lyrical, I dare you to fuck it up."

Trust No One (Supernatural, vidder Loki)
Not a vid per se (some discussion of fannish trailers vs. fannish vids with different opinions on taxonomy)
Following a template (studio trailer), doing interesting things with it
Trailer rather than a vid
Fabulous trailer
(fannish taxonomy again)
overwrought/parodical? (appropriate to source)

my comment: This was interesting to me. I admit that I was curious how something in a different vidding tradition would play in the show, and how people would react. I confess, I think the editing on this is awesome and exciting, and it was disappointing to me that it wasn't better received (at least among the small group of people who came to the vid review). This vidder is (in my opinion) one of the most impressive fannish vidders currently out there. Perhaps, if I had it to do over again, I would have traded this vid for one of the other excellent vids she suggested to me, but I confess that this trailer made me excited about Supernatural again when I didn't think that was possible, so I reacted to that.

Running Up That Hill (Prison Break, vidder gwyneth)
Never had any interest in Prison Break before but found this unbelievable (in the good way)
One of the sexiest vids I've seen in a long time
Perfect song
intensely slashy (word "intense" was used several times)
some talk about plot of show, vid made people curious about the story
vid made you want to know more
seamless effects echo the heartbeat
Design your effects so they work with the show's visuals (yes!)

Critical Hit (Big Bang Theory, vidder jarrow)
Liked the vid but wanted to mess with the timeline to adjust timing of internal motion - clips starting just as the cute thing happened so we couldn't quite see it - start clip a hair earlier so we can get the joke
entry points don't match (character enters on left side of screen; next clip, there's a character coming in on the right)
eyes move back and forth too much to parse action
comment comparing this vid to the vidder's other (somewhat similar) vid for Will & Grace to "Paul McCartney" and how internal motion was handled perfectly in that vid
yattayattayatta watch our show! (a comment that the vid felt like a lot of adorable moments but not cohesive enough -- back to internal motion and composition) - led to the feeling of trying too hard to sell the show
song choice good for show, great song

my comment: This vid actually made me watch this show, so obviously I found it engaging. However, I did have some issues with the flow, and the comments in the review (particularly about the action happening too early within each clip) helped me see why.

Pocketful of Sunshine (Kings, vidder talitha78)
Pimping vid - everyone wanted to know about the show who didn't already
Perfect song for the show
Weak character - interesting - really clear character study (we seldom vid or write about weak characters)
A lot of information quickly
Liked the literalism and the symbolism
A beta might have helped to eliminate all the headshots in a row
Dissenting opinions - several people liked that aspect because it was so narrow and trapped feeling
Perhaps a few other clips in first part that weren't head shots could vary it without losing the trapped/closed-in feeling?
really cool how it goes from that claustrophobia to the big, open, freeing shots in the 2nd half of the vid (spinning, flying)
Made many people want to watch the show

my comment: I agree wholeheartedly that this is a pimping vid -- so much so that I sat down and watched the entire series within two days of seeing this vid for the first time.

They Want More (Jurassic Park, vidder bironic)
big burst of laughter at the first shot of "More!"
wanted more of a lead in - blood revealed too soon (don't give it all to me up front)
great con vid
Loved the song choice and especially the Elton John version

Are We Real? (Hawaii 5-0, vidder wistful fever)
Discussion of lyrics/appropriateness to show (got me up in the studio rappin') and whether it was distracting
Some said they didn't listen to lyrics too closely
gave an effective window into the character's inner voices without making them girly
effects necessary? (discussion of the mood that the effects created, how it helped reveal a side of the show, angsty tone creates a mood that might not be readily apparent when watching the show)
Fans of the show found it evocative

Last Friday Night (Star Trek: TOS, vidder estalita)
lots and lots of giggling
So brilliant
Sheer and utter genius
Perfection
Kirk's casual Friday shirt
Happy smiling coffee klatches on the bridge never seemed so smug to me!
Best effective use of stills ever - how many people found themselves anticipating the next "pictures on the internet" sequence?
Enterprise, the party ship
Killa sent me the link and I went and watched it 50 times
sparkly stars made of win
used some long clips but made it more fun by using effects (Scotty sliding down the wall)
didn't use the same technique, not just jump cuts, appropriate choices, but different techniques married well to each other
laughing with the characters, not at them, charming, not embarrassing
classic comedy that respects the source, not cheese
Kirk = Katy Perry
Thought the modern song might not work but it did

Little Plastic Castle (Lost Girl, vidder marina)
Good recruiter vid
Too many clips from the pilot in intro? (vid made while only a few eps available)
Unintentional laughter? (at this point I spent some time explaining why "surprise every time" is so funny)
made people curious about the show, second half of the vid charmed people (after long intro)

When I'm Up (Taking Over the Asylum, vidder deejay)
long talky face clips (and some actually slowed down) over extremely energetic music
One guy in every shot (viewer fatigue)
one person said they found themselves getting distracted-- "I have a shirt like that"
Recruiter vid - made someone curious about show
Yeah I get it, you've got this serious David Tennant fixation
not a lot of subtlety

Square One (Appaloosa, vidder Killa)
beautiful song for the western era
vid of the books rather than the movies

Hateful (White Collar, vidder M'lyn)
Song uncomfortable for a reason
Not intended to be happy; deliberate tone to reveal inherent power imbalance in the Neal/Peter relationship

That was a lot of coding, and I'm pretty wiped out, so please let me know if I made any mistakes in the links or anything. And please do feed the vidders, if you can!