Vividcon 2007 Con Report

[anoel]

Yes, you read the year right. 2007. I FINALLY typed up all of these notes which I've been stopping and starting at random intervals. But better late than never, right? I have some notes in here but they're kind of scattered and hard to decipher. Apologies in advance if I forget people or things, it's been awhile.



So I arrived in Chicago from Amtrak in early afternoon on Thursday and took the hotel shuttle to the hotel. The shuttle ride was when I was the most nervous as I had no idea what it'd be like to see everyone after it had been a year and I had never come on Thursday. So I entered the lobby and put my stuff away into a room until check in. Then I went over to the main lobby and talked awhile with tv_elf, diannelamerc and lizbeth. Then people started coming in and arriving and I helped elynross, sockkppuppett, killabeez and way2busymom with unpacking some things. I know I went out for lunch with sdwolfpup, fan_eunice, vagabondage and absolutedestiny at the pizza/deli place near the hotel and we talked a bit about vids (isn't that a given?). I'm totally going to forget everyone I met then but I know at one point everyone went up to the second floor to help stuff envelopes and such. Around then I met deejay who is awesome, talked with sdwolfpup and just enjoyed all the wonderful vidtalk. I remember I met wolfling and ringwrench here as well.

Then I went down for dinner at Outback Steakhouse (House O'Meat!) and had a wonderful dinner with katallison, nestra, shrift and geekturnedvamp. I also got to finally meet sherrold and tell her and wickedwords how much I love Stress. It was great to have extra time to meet and talk with more people from vidding to fandoms to music. At some point, I went with jackiekjono to pick up elke_tanzer at the airport. Here began our airport adventure as we didn't have the flight number and had to go walking around the terminal to try to find her. It was fun though to hang out with jackkiekjono again and although our mission was not a success, ultimately elke_tanzer got here okay. I had met robinnoir on the way there and when I got back, I called her and found my room. I think I went to bed then, if I did something else, I forget.

On Friday I woke up for breakfast and remember talking with elke_tanzer. Next I went upstairs and met jarrow and saw dualbunny again. Met some more arriving people then including kitkatbyte and then it was time to head to the Wayback Machine. It was a great presentation and really informative as I watched some older vids I had never seen before and learned more about the vidding history timeline. First I went to Why Vid? which was the perfect starter panel as it allowed all my vidlove to come rushing back full force and I got to hear and express all the reasons I love vidding. Then I went to Hip Hop vidding with the wonderful annavtree as moderator. Here are my notes:

Hip-Hop Vidding

Very scattered notes and I mostly wrote down recs:

Miss Dynamite, Unity by Queen Latifah, Nathan R's recs from The Onion AV, allhiphop.com, Gasoline Dreams, Can't Stop, Don't Stop (book), Dave Chapelle bloc, Gnarls Barkley.

We also watched the Jesus Walks vid and compared it to Kanye's singing it on the Dave Chappelle's bloc party video.I remember we talked a little about why hip-hop isn't used as much in vidding and I mentioned that the lyrics in rap vids are heaven to me because there's so many lyrics (lyric fan here) and so many interesting ways to make associations for them.

Then there was the Tech Panel Part 1 with absolutedestiny who was super knowledgeable about everything. I wrote down what I found the most helpful:

Tech Pan Pt. 1
Best Avisynth way to deinterlace video: TDEINT() < So helpful!!!
DVD source: 720x480, to make 4:3 use 640x486, to make 16:9, use 640x360
720x480 – crop off edges (704) -not sure about this but something to do with calculations being wrong

I hated to leave but I really wanted to see obsessive24's new vid in Nearly New not to mention my own and the few other vids premiering. Nicky's vid was AMAZING and completely blew me away and convinced me to watch Carnivale instantly (um...still working on that). Then my vid was up...and it didn't play. Argh, of course my first vid premiering would have tech trouble. So I have to sit there waiting while I freak out. After about 10 minutes or so, they finally get the vid to work. It was so cool to see my vid on the big screen with everyone watching it...but then there were black spots at the end where the clips were supposed to be. I forgot to check my export and apparently the memory was too high which caused it. It was very frustrating but ah well. The rest of the vidshow was great and I loved seeing all the vids. Sugar in particular was one of my favorites and after I had a great time discussing with robinnoir since we both watch Smallville. Dinner was next, can't remember who I ate with here though or if I ate at all.

Then was Club Vivid which was super exciting. We had glowsticks again and it was so fun to do the Joxer dance again. So many great vids premiering and I had a huge blast dancing and yet trying to watch the vids. Always a fun challenge. I was really happy to see some of my favorites being played including Magic Carpet Ride and Move Your Feet. I took brief water and rest breaks during some of the songs I didn't find too danceable (and one spoilery Farscape one) but it was still a LOT of dancing. Talked to a bunch of people during it which I don't remember too well. And some of the costumes were absolutely fabulous.

After that I went up to someone's room with with sisabet, sdwolfpup, pipsqueaky, greensilver and some other people and we had a lot of fun talking. I know at one point we started talking about Arrested Development and sisabet's great shirt with a quote from it. And then I found out she watched The Office! So we talked a bit about that. I know at one point the conversation switched to nostalgic 80s shows and chocolate vodka. It was great fun and worth getting to bed late. On Saturday it was mostly panel day and I first went to External Aesthetics. One of my absolute favorites and incredibly informative as killabeez and absolutedestiny did a great job.





Then it was time for Vid Structure which I was looking forward to the most since I LOVE thinking about how vids are structured. dualbunny did a great job moderating and there was lots of interesting things. Here are my notes:

Vid Structure
I think this bit of notes is part of it: credits show frame of mind, introduce quickly
Acceleration: build, increase narrative, more dramatic, etc
Symmetry, parallel: storyline, past/present, mood
At end of line: shows reaction shots, bad to good
I think at this point we watched Circles by sweetestdrain. Comments:
Shows why it's diferent (change in George) = contrast
Macro – world spin begin/end shows life going on, a day in the life (curtain)
world shot – life/death, introduce characters, shows repeated clips >>gives pieces and then expands later the relationship >> spirals, inevitability
Repetition >>shift each time>>different ways to love each other (still talking about the vid)
Can flip stucture
Time vid (AMV)
Starts long, still>>pace of cutting picks up>>everything stops (I then wrote down motion structure)
Street Cafe – (song structure) uses intercutting >>wa t to stay but wanting to stay moving
Skeleton>>lay groundwork, fill in, look at later, critical plot movements, static=short ???

Wasn't sure if I wanted to do the experimental vidshow or Newbie Vidding but I went with the latter thinking I could always leave halfway and see some of the vids. That didn't happen. Even though I wasn't really a newbie vidder, I still sometimes felt/feel like one so it was good to hear people talk about it and I liked the round table setup jarrow had going.





Then there was another panel I was REALLY looking forward to as renenet was talking about vids and it was very metay. My notes:

Associative Analysis
Vids operate by associative analysis
Separate material into its consit (??) elements as a method of determining its essential features
Usually analysis is in same medium as work>>essays w/books vs. vids w/TV
Associative= process of bringing things together
Associative sounds to clips ex. Drums to vid (pattern) ie do the drums always show one particular thing
Visual=shapes, colors, patterns
Visual/sound >>provoke emotional reaction then I remember context in show
Associations to source material w/o show, brain associates ?? (nothing else here)
Associate part of vid w/other part of vid
Analysis=point of assembly, tell us about source
Effects (adds raw material of association)=cheating b/c canon=text to prove
Space (?) perception- immediate color, shapes
Medium= clip, image, whole show (fans), cultural (things to associate from)
-fannish context, sympathetic audience
focus thematically, draw out elements
Modernist: complex, nortan critical edition
Vidders=bloomsbury (real world/Vancouver)
Bring cultural images in, help understand
Preexisting Aesthetics vs. feral, not in box
Standard: argument? Distinguished comm, history book feels like narrative
Storytelling=mode
-look at characters, relationships (slash), ensemble, universe (recruiter), 2 shows + compare
-revenge (absolutedestiny's vid): not characters but genre analysis -kill bill relates to exploitation (like vid Tarentino did in Kill Bill)
-Essay on Revenge/exploitation, shows here how its like these films (nun exploitation
-discard notion of analysis so its more experimental, effective -take visual to put together or manip to make not original footage
-free verse poetry vs metered poetry

I do remember there not being time look more at the experimental vids. Never enough time sadly at Vividcon. Such an interesting panel and I really do see how I do associate things while trying to parse a vid.





Next I went to the movie panel because there is a movie vid I'd like to do. I didn't write down a lot but I wrote down some of the basic ways we can not just retell a movie.

Movies
Reinterpret source
-story is in movie (Heart of Funkness)
Choose aesthetic ex. Motion, color
-Spoof, parody, reference other cultural
-Metaphor/Symbols
-Parallels
-Minor characters

Focus on relationships
Emotional
Idea (New Frontier)
Song Choice
Historical -harder to find songs for historical movies, popular songs don't always work





Last I went to Death and Dying as I needed a break from all the panels. It wasn't as depressing as I thought thankfully and there were a lot of vids I really loved. Then I went to dinner with robinnoir, settai and kitkatbyte before Premieres at the House O'Meat. It was awesome to get to talk to them. It took a little while as they were really busy with fellow con goers but I managed to get back in time for the line to not be that long. While we (sdwolfpup, laurashapiro, absolutedestiny, sweetestdrain, jarrow, others?) all waited, we talked and I started freaking out about The Trouble With Poets showing, my first Premieres vid. It was scary but mostly I just hoped that it would play alright and people would like it. Finally it was time and I got a seat in I think the third row which was very helpful in seeing the vids pretty well. All the excitement built up until finally the show began. Watching Premieres is always amazing with it being so dark, the quiet and the grand nature of it all. Moons of Jupiter was theperfect starting vid as it captured the love and happiness and JOY of the entire show. I also remember the exhilaration of watching Rodeohead on big screen, never knowing it was going to end and never wanting it to. It was some ride. And it's always fun to give vidders immediate feedback during intermission.

I wasn't too nervous as I was mostly just enjoying the vids but once intermission hit, I started freaking out a lot more. It does suck to have your vid near the end because you have to wait so long to see your vid and can't just get it over with. Finally the show began again and I tried to relax and enjoy the show which was again wonderful.The vid that totally blew me away though was Another Sunday which was just on another level and made me laugh so much not to mention fill me with happiness. It was the best vid watching experience I've ever encountered as the whole room was filled with such energy and release. The ending applause was just huge because it was so damn good. I will never forget that experience. Okay a few vids later, it was the vid before my vid which luckily was Doctor Who and to avoid being spoiled, I closed my eyes and tried to take some deep breaths and steady myself as my vid came up. Omgsoscary. But then it was like a roller coaster ride and once you were on it, you were on it and I watched my vid play on big screen. Thankfully there was no screwups besides the little things I already knew were there since I didn't have the time to check it properly. All in all, the audience seemed to respond positively and once I got used to it, it was just fun watching my vid play.

So then it was the end of the show and then the fun part came of listening to people's feedback about my vid and talking to other people about their vids or the ones that had played. It was a whirlwind of happiness and I was so happy to hear that peopled had liked it and that in the other room people had really enjoyed it too. After awhile everyone headed into Vid Karaoke where I started getting a bit nervous for my karaoke with kitkatbyte singing 66 but thankfully we were second and could get it over with quickly. Plus the post Premieres excitement had me on a huge high so I was feeling fairly confident. It was a lot of fun, come ons not withstanding and it was great to sing one of my favorite vids ever. There were lots of standouts at Karaoke including You Can Call Me which made me cry once again especially to be singing with everyone, Too Much Light in this Bar (absolutedestiny humping the microphone was PRICELESS) and Volcano Girls with dualbunny and heresluck was awesome.

Next up was the video mashup party which was packed pretty full and was SO much fun! I have a hard time remembering all the funny mashups being played but there was a perfect one to greensilver's Ghost Song to I'm Not Crying that fit perfectly and Father Figure to New Frontier made me reconsider my dislike of Mal/River to make me find the idea funny. I stayed a long time there and at the end jarrow showed some funny mashups to his vids.

Sunday I went to Vid Review where we were able to cover all the vids. I was a bit nervous for talk of my own but everyone said really great things about it and kind of made me cry a bit. It was very happymaking to hear people I admire a lot and/or have been around for a long time say such good things about it. People loved the nose painting clip and were all nostalgic for it which made me happy since I just had to include that. During lunch, I quickly got a tape of some Media Cannibals vids so I could see some old school Highlander ones I had never seen before. Next I went to In Depth Vid Review where we talked about West of Her Spine, Want and Women's Work. There was some debate about warnings for the Dexter vid and then some more about whether Women's Work accurately covered the source. Then after that was Vividsection which was awesome. killalla showed her vid and then we all talked about ways to improve it. It was really interesting to consider all the ways to make a vid good as we really had to get down to the basics but also cover more advanced things like movement and color. I really hope we do it again in a future year.

Then it was time for Challenge and Auction vids. I was totally blown away by Only which was awesome in the motion and concept. The “whoa” responses afterword were hilarious too. I LOVED the Veronica Mars vid, Martina which was haunting with its spoken word audio. I *knew* it was keewick's vid as it felt like her style (plus I knew she knew VM) and was vindicated to learn I was right later. I had to quickly return my videotape later and upon returning was frustrated to find the Auction vids had started and I missed People Get Ready :( At least I got to see the cuteness of Falling for the First Time (kiss!) and the total hilarity of Tragedy which was so much fun to see in a room full of people. After that I gleefully got my heresluck vid DVD and before Calls From the Public got to read all her vid notes which were interesting and hilarious. I loved during Calls hearing about the Fuck You, Fox and later, Fuck You challenge.

So then I hung around talking with people for awhile and elynross told me some really nice things about my vid. renenet invited me to dinner and I joined her and sweetestdrain, absolutedestiny, dualbuny, Gerry, jarrow, heresluck, and probably a few people I'm forgetting. Lots of great vid talk among other things and later sockkpuppett came and joined us. We left late and went up to someones room to watch lots of vids which was so much fun. We listened to sdwolfpup's excellent Wire vidsong which I'm dying to see and talked a bit about hip hop. I know killabeez and hafital came in and joined us and I remember talking about Mal/Inara. I left at some point and went out to find svmadelyn, seperis, amireal and nightchik (?) reading badfic. And when I say badfic, I mean BAD. Keep in mind I barely read any since I mostly only read recs so I was falling off my chair laughing. There was come that tasted like grass over in SPN and horrible assbaby Clex fic and it was all so terrible. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Next I joined sdwolfpup, renenet,absolutedestiny , pipsqueaky, dualbunny and sweetestdrain in playing Apples and Apples for the first time which was so much fun. I just remember getting the elitist card and choosing friends because where else are you going to bring elitist bitch vidders into an Apples and Apples game?

I stayed up til like 5 am and stumbled into bed. Got a few hours of sleep before I woke around 9 and went to breakfast at the place down the road. We split into groups and I ate with laurashapiro, absolutedestiny and sweetestdrain and I remember talking a little about what we wanted to vid in the future at one point. Next was sitting on the couches at the hotel and sad hugs to people we had to say goodbye to. Then went to pipsqueaky's apartment with a bunch of people, watched some vids and after a hugfilled goodbye, took the train back to catch my bus to go back home.



And that was Vividcon 2007. I had an amazing time, my first Premieres vid went well and I got to reconnect with people from last year and meet new ones. My goal for the year was to say things in panels and once I did it, it got easier and easier so that now I feel (pretty) comfortable with it. Overall I felt a lot more sure of myself and not so overwhelmed with all the people I was around. Yay Vividcon!