It's a play on perspective
Jun. 28th, 2004 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynMan, this VJ thing at Vividcon is harder than I ever thought. Not that I thought people were just tossing together whatever vids they wanted to pimp before, but I wasn't prepared for the level of minute detail you have to consider and the anguish, of course, of choosing from dozens of great ideas and paring them down to 45 minutes of what you think best represents your theme.
Of course, mine is a little bit more complicated than just a single theme, too, which is adding to my agita. Literal vs. metaphor is a fairly complex concept, and one that inspires a lot of... um, discussion. Yeah, that's the word. There are a couple hurdles to jump on this, as well: 1) most of the submissions were for metaphorically-minded vids, with hardly any for literal-heavy vids that were not comedy, and 2) I'm a snob and while I could easily find some literal vids from memory, I think many are horrid and don't want to take up the valuable show time with what I consider to be really bad examples. So finding *good* literal-heavy vids is turning out to be more challenging; good metaphor-emphasized vids is easy peasy. I immediately thought of one really good dramatic literal vid, but more often than not, literal tends to work best with comedy, so those are the easiest haystacks in which to search for your proverbial needle (though by no means are comedy vids always literal; Detachable Penis was mentioned as a good example of an overarching metaphor of penis=gun, and that's a rare metaphorical comedy vid). In comedy, the positioning of a literal-minded clip on a line brings the funny instead of the groans of pain.
And I had no idea that VJing included so many extra layers of things to consider! First I realized that the excellent submissions from attendees were about 90% in one small group of fandoms (and the vast majority of that 90% was in Buffyverse), and only about 10% other -- and since we're trying for a wide variety of fandoms, that means a huge part of the submissions won't be selectable. Making it worse, most of the few really good literal-heavy vids I know of are... in Buffyverse. Then there's the thing I mentioned already, that most of them were metaphor-themed vids, and I wanted to try to achieve a balance with the literal and metaphorical in the show, especially because I have a feeling discussion in the panel will turn to the topic of literality. Then there's the fact that most of the suggestions were for vids that were either fairly recently shown at some cons (including last year's VVC), or in collections, and I was hoping to maybe step out of that mode of instant recognition and use some lesser-known or -remembered vids, just to kind of emphasize the theme a bit more.
And then, most of the suggestions are from vidders I know or know of quite well, and have seen the vids multiple times -- so that it runs the risk of looking like the "my buddies" show. Only two on the list were unfamiliar to me because of my limitations with being able to DL vids, and of course, they're both in Buffyverse, so... garrrrr! And adding even more worry is the fact that some of the 10% other suggestions that are good choices are vids I contributed to, so then I risk looking like an arrogant asshat making it the Me show -- particularly because one of the vids (not suggested by anyone) was one I made on my lonesome that I thought was an interesting upending of literal conventions. But I'm horrible at self-promotion (announcing my new stories or vids makes me cringe), and so I'm not sure I can throw that vid into the mix if I do in fact use the other ones where I was a contributor.
So much to think about! Then there's also the fact that this is a paired show/discussion panel, which is one of the reasons I wanted to emphasize some more unusual vids that might not get as much airtime. Of course if you're running a panel, you need to come prepared with your own material, but you also hope that there will be class discussion as well -- familiarity with well-known vids might help the discussion, or might hinder it because everyone's already talked about those vids; it's hard to tell. There are also some really good examples of how to make a bad literal vid, vids that illustrate just why so many people cringe at the overly literal interpretation -- the "If the lyric says my heart is on fire, then by god, I better see flames" issue that's at the heart of this whole literal vs. metaphor debate. But like I said, I just can't bear the thought of taking up valuable space with what I think are terrible vids, even though they might serve to illustrate well. Dilemmas!
Here I thought it would be a chance to just play pimp for an hour, and then follow up in the discussion panel with a Gwyneth explains it all for you, but of course it's way more complicated (the con com is probably laughing at me right now). I have to: balance suggestions and submissions with my own vid ideas; keep a balance among the literal and metaphorical vid themes (without having the literal be all bad vids or comic vids); strike a balance between strangers and my buddies so that the most voices can be heard; widen the variety of fandoms represented; and try to select vids that might spark conversation in the panel, even if they're less obvious choices. Yikes!
I think I'm getting closer to a beginning playlist, that I can then whittle down. I still have to check out the two vids I'm unfamiliar with. Then decide if the ones that are my choice are a better choice than any of the submitted suggestions. And then, check all those runtimes. And then, hopefully, come up with a final list. It's a damn good thing I finished my vid entries, is all I can say!
Of course, mine is a little bit more complicated than just a single theme, too, which is adding to my agita. Literal vs. metaphor is a fairly complex concept, and one that inspires a lot of... um, discussion. Yeah, that's the word. There are a couple hurdles to jump on this, as well: 1) most of the submissions were for metaphorically-minded vids, with hardly any for literal-heavy vids that were not comedy, and 2) I'm a snob and while I could easily find some literal vids from memory, I think many are horrid and don't want to take up the valuable show time with what I consider to be really bad examples. So finding *good* literal-heavy vids is turning out to be more challenging; good metaphor-emphasized vids is easy peasy. I immediately thought of one really good dramatic literal vid, but more often than not, literal tends to work best with comedy, so those are the easiest haystacks in which to search for your proverbial needle (though by no means are comedy vids always literal; Detachable Penis was mentioned as a good example of an overarching metaphor of penis=gun, and that's a rare metaphorical comedy vid). In comedy, the positioning of a literal-minded clip on a line brings the funny instead of the groans of pain.
And I had no idea that VJing included so many extra layers of things to consider! First I realized that the excellent submissions from attendees were about 90% in one small group of fandoms (and the vast majority of that 90% was in Buffyverse), and only about 10% other -- and since we're trying for a wide variety of fandoms, that means a huge part of the submissions won't be selectable. Making it worse, most of the few really good literal-heavy vids I know of are... in Buffyverse. Then there's the thing I mentioned already, that most of them were metaphor-themed vids, and I wanted to try to achieve a balance with the literal and metaphorical in the show, especially because I have a feeling discussion in the panel will turn to the topic of literality. Then there's the fact that most of the suggestions were for vids that were either fairly recently shown at some cons (including last year's VVC), or in collections, and I was hoping to maybe step out of that mode of instant recognition and use some lesser-known or -remembered vids, just to kind of emphasize the theme a bit more.
And then, most of the suggestions are from vidders I know or know of quite well, and have seen the vids multiple times -- so that it runs the risk of looking like the "my buddies" show. Only two on the list were unfamiliar to me because of my limitations with being able to DL vids, and of course, they're both in Buffyverse, so... garrrrr! And adding even more worry is the fact that some of the 10% other suggestions that are good choices are vids I contributed to, so then I risk looking like an arrogant asshat making it the Me show -- particularly because one of the vids (not suggested by anyone) was one I made on my lonesome that I thought was an interesting upending of literal conventions. But I'm horrible at self-promotion (announcing my new stories or vids makes me cringe), and so I'm not sure I can throw that vid into the mix if I do in fact use the other ones where I was a contributor.
So much to think about! Then there's also the fact that this is a paired show/discussion panel, which is one of the reasons I wanted to emphasize some more unusual vids that might not get as much airtime. Of course if you're running a panel, you need to come prepared with your own material, but you also hope that there will be class discussion as well -- familiarity with well-known vids might help the discussion, or might hinder it because everyone's already talked about those vids; it's hard to tell. There are also some really good examples of how to make a bad literal vid, vids that illustrate just why so many people cringe at the overly literal interpretation -- the "If the lyric says my heart is on fire, then by god, I better see flames" issue that's at the heart of this whole literal vs. metaphor debate. But like I said, I just can't bear the thought of taking up valuable space with what I think are terrible vids, even though they might serve to illustrate well. Dilemmas!
Here I thought it would be a chance to just play pimp for an hour, and then follow up in the discussion panel with a Gwyneth explains it all for you, but of course it's way more complicated (the con com is probably laughing at me right now). I have to: balance suggestions and submissions with my own vid ideas; keep a balance among the literal and metaphorical vid themes (without having the literal be all bad vids or comic vids); strike a balance between strangers and my buddies so that the most voices can be heard; widen the variety of fandoms represented; and try to select vids that might spark conversation in the panel, even if they're less obvious choices. Yikes!
I think I'm getting closer to a beginning playlist, that I can then whittle down. I still have to check out the two vids I'm unfamiliar with. Then decide if the ones that are my choice are a better choice than any of the submitted suggestions. And then, check all those runtimes. And then, hopefully, come up with a final list. It's a damn good thing I finished my vid entries, is all I can say!
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 10:51 am (UTC)I'm not sure if it would be possible to get this in a format that we could play. Hmmmm. Also, the download is big and her site is slow. Can I send this to you on a CD? And maybe I should ask her first if it can be converted. I love this vid though, even though it is really literal and not meant to be funny. I think it's partly that the song choice is so great, and that Ian himself is so emotionally stunted that somehow the literal choices resonate with the character for me. Not sure. I'm babbling. LOL Anyway, let me know if you've seen it and if I should ask her about it/send you a copy.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 11:27 am (UTC)BTW, I like your icon -- we're getting closer to catching up on Deadwood now, though it's dependent upon us being able to get together to watch the DLs that J gets. At first I had a lot of issues with the show, and really didn't feel for any of the characters except Bill and the doctor (and what does it say when Brad Dourif is the most sympathetic character?), but I've fallen quite in love with Seth and Saul. Saul's eyes when he said "thank you for saving my partner"!! I'm so used to liking what I think is an obvious pairing that everyone will like, only to find out all the slashers are into someone I'm not into, that I was surprised when J and C told me that most of the slash seems to be Seth/Saul oriented. Yummy!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 10:54 am (UTC)Then when I try to branch out into other fandoms, some of my best suggestions are coming from last year's Vividcon, and the Experimental show the year before, and I want to try to branch out and bring new vids into the con. And I haven't even come to terms with how I feel about putting one of my own vids in the show, but I've got an a capella and a punk cover which surely are audio rarities and haven't been to cons before, and I obviously like them, but I don't want to be a vid hog, and I might have already picked out the SG vid I want to use and it's not mine. *g*
And then there's the issue of making the list flow. Trust me on not going from "End of the World As We Know It" to "Dante's Prayer" without a little breather song in between that bridges the peppiness between the two songs. *g*
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 11:35 am (UTC)And if I was doing the all Buffy vid show, this would be easier as a lot of the suggestions did seem to run along that line.
This is really the hard part. If it was almost all Buffy and X-Files and HL, I'd be set. And as it is, the Buffy literal vid I love basically cancels out all the other good suggestions, unless one of them is just so stunning I can't not have it. I may have picked one of your SG vids, btw -- I was going to write to you separately (bet you know which one it is!).
I've pretty much given up on the whole "shown two cons ago" thing, because I just can't get away from it -- I see far too few vids that aren't from the con collections anymore, just because of my online limitations. Which I think also contributes to my "my buds" fear as well -- I know who the good vidders are, and tend to stick to what they produce, and only venture out on recs from people I really, really trust. Because, you know -- pickyass bithc, c'est moi. But I'm going to agonize over the me factor up to the dealine, I'm sure.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 02:16 pm (UTC)Well, I can figure out one that's metaphorical since since there are (to my knowledge) no trains in Stargate, but I don't know if you were looking metaphorically or literally. *g*
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 12:36 pm (UTC)Same here. And quite honestly, I think that's a good thing! ;)