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heyiya! I know you're in and out right now, but have a ( not safe for work birthday banner that is classy. )danegen's Slobo Babe (Lesbian Vampire Killers) - Has me LOLZ-ing forever. The movie is complete crack and it's well used in the vid with good timing.giandujakiss's A Charming Man (Supernatural) - Excellent song choice, interesting lyrical interpretation coupled with brillant musicality in the visuals.newkidfan's Human & Monster (Supernatural) - A beautifully subdued pair of companion vidlets that feel bittersweet and sad.serrico's Primogeniture is a Supernatural fic of Claire, Castiel's vessel's daughter, set post-Rapture that hurts in a good way.![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
vid_commentary, but never actually did it. I posted commentary for charmax's multifandom (Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: Sarah Connor, Terminator movies) vid, Unnatural Selection. Also, thuviaptarth posted commentary for my Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles vid, Ding! Dong!nursedarry, bop_radar, talitha78, and sol_se).@619: I personally HATE fanfic so I was wondering..... 1)How do YOU feel about fan fiction? 2)Does it irk you that so many people "borrow" your characters and use them in their own crappy stories? 3)Do you think of fanfic as a form of flattery? 4)Do the other writers and the actors feel the same way?
1.) I think fanfic is the sign of a healthy show. Here's what it boils down to: you're telling me that in today's crowded media space, our show made someone love it so much they take time out of their own life to talk about it? Holy. Crap.
To be fair, I have a somewhat different attitude toward media/fans than most people. I think what TV/corporate media had wrong for a long time was how they understood the idea of a "water cooler show." They saw it as making the audience talk about their show, on their terms. So any fan-created media is them losing control of their material. I see this more as the natural evolution of culture in a shared digital age. I will be blunt -- other than the satisfaction of our own creative urges (and all that entails: the quest for perfection, artistry, craft, etc), our job in media is to give you stuff to talk about in your conversations, to integrate into your social circle in whatever way you see fit. I doubt that's TNT's official stance, btw, but they are much cooler about this stuff than most companies.
2.) As far as "borrowing" our characters -- to paraphrase Alan Moore, they didn't go anywhere. There they are, sitting right up on the shelf. Waiting for us to let them loose again. Besides, how many people read a fanfic story? A couple hundred, tops? We have, on average 3.5 million viewers, well into the 4 million range when you get the DVR numbers in. I just don't see someone taking control of our Ideaspace through sheer force of Slashfic.
Sure, a lot of fanfic is crap. Of course it's crap. It's written by people who are not professional writers. If I paint, what I paint is crap. Does that mean I should give up painting and displaying stuff in my neighborhood art show?
3.) Is fanfic flattery? Again, depends on how you define flattery. If someone's writing fanfic with intention of currying favor for some ... er, frankly unguessable benefit, then they're really engaged in an exercise in futility. If you mean flattery as in: it's flattering to think someone is so entertained by our work that it inspires them to talk about it and create around it, then aces.
4.) Most writers and actors don't feel this way. Some, including writers I both like personally and greatly admire, hate the idea of fanfic.
Look, end of day, you should always be trying to create your own material. But fanfic, etc, is a different process than original creation -- which I think is the source of a lot of the controversy.
People who do original creations assume the fan is taking some sort of unearned ownership, somehow implying their act is the same/as difficult as the original act of creation. Which, of course, tees them off (doesn't tee me off, but I'm a very relaxed and often drunk guy).
And some fanfic humans are under the impression that creating fanfic is the same creative process as creating original material -- and are sometimes frustrated that they're not accorded the same respect as the original creators. That's also wrong. Fanfic to me is spiritually much closer to the fan-created music videos.
The basic rule I follow here is one I learned in stand-up comedy: Always punch UP. I am a relatively successful typing human whose words are physically produced using millions of dollars and is distributed nationally by a massive billion dollar corporation to millions of people. Exactly how is a free web page with a 1000 word story about Eliot and Hardison fighting a trans-dimensional incursion of Elves hurting my brand, exactly?
Tell you what -- if some fanfic writer is so good they manage to amass a million-person audience with their web-distributed free stories using my characters, I am going to consider that evolution in action and hire that bastard. Or, at the very least, urge them to go create their own show. But odds are it ain't gonna happen. And that's okay. We write for different reasons.
Wow, that response could be its own blog post. I may break it out later, and shine it a bit.
romanticbradcpu has started creating monthly vidder profiles featuring an audio interview with the vidder over excerpts from his or her vids. I'm the August Vidder Profile, so watch if it so pleases you. I discuss my frequent use of sexual or violent source material, my take on vidding as an art form, my concepts, my influences and more. After watching the profile I realized how much a giggle when I talk. Weird.
newkidfan's Blood Makes Noise (Lost) - A gorgeous layering and coloring that is lush and full with jumpcut editing and wavering images. The interesting framing choices feel like the zeroing in on a microscope that amps up the intensity and tension along with the effects. It doesn't hurt that I gave her the musical prompt because I've wanted to see this song vidded well to Lost for as long as the show has been on the air.danegen's Down by the Water (Southland) - I've never watched Southland, but that didn't matter because I was able to plug into the more emotional aspect of the vid. I know I'm missing the depth and understanding that would come with knowing the source, but the vid is still terrific in the use of imagery. It feels like a great study of objects and how people can become objects in that sense. I think my favorite aspect is how a woman's dead body is transformed into a landscape.
grumpybeerbad:
millylicious made for me. This is the longest I've ever had the same desktop. It's Summer Glau as Cameron from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It uses the lyrics to my Cameron vid idea, which adds to love and squee. I don't see myself changing it for a long, long, long time because it's mine, mine, mine.
chipper
