The Friday night vid show:
The most-represented fandoms among the vids were Starsky and Hutch, Sentinel, Stargate SG-1, and Supernatural, with a good mix of serious and humorous vids. My favorite was a mixed-universe mixed-pairings vid with a wide range of couples, including Janeway/Chakotay, Fraser/Ray2, Mulder/Scully, Kirk/Spock, and more, with some very clever scenes repeating surprisingly similar actions from different universes, set to the tune of "A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action" (vid by Gianduja Kiss). I was also very struck by a vid set to Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name Of," also by Gianduja Kiss, depicting violent scenes from La Femme Nikita in a way that managed to combine both horror and beauty. I thought the Sentinel vid "Three Time Loser" by Jamie Ritchey was a particularly interesting Sentinel vid; even though it wound up being slash, the contents of the song enabled the vidder to use usually un-vidded clips of the guys with guest female characters as they reminisced about failed relationships. There were some fun Starsky & Hutch vids – I think Moon's "If I Had a Million Dollars" was my favorite, followed closely by Morgan Logan's "Lovecats." Some of the serious ones, while well done, didn't seem to say anything new or interesting and tended to draw on the same clips; I thought KimberlyFDR's Starsky & Hutch vid "Secret in your Eyes" was a nice introspective change of pace that avoided this problem. Although I could not follow the Supernatural vids, being unfamiliar with the show, I was enchanted by the music for Grif Ink's video "My Son John"; the song was a Celtic-style round entitled "Cannonball" that reminded me of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" or "Fighting for Strangers" in content. I thought the group that did the song, Clandestine, must be a very fine professional group I hadn't heard of; we were all astonished to learn that it's a local group and that there was a member at the convention! [ETA: I have since learned that it's BOTH a very fine professional group that has toured internationally AND a homegrown band from Houston. How cool is THAT!]
The Saturday afternoon Pimp-Your-Vids hour:
Next I went to the video room for my two-hour stint. Laurie showed me how to use the video setup, which worked quite logically and easily (much with the yay). For the first hour, I showed the pilot of Heroes, which I have to admit was very interesting and contained at least one surprising moment. Next scheduled was an hour of "Pimp your Favorite Vids." That was fun! Jan, who was leaving for the Supernatural panel, had left instructions to start with a new disk of Supernatural vids. We dutifully watched the first one even though all the Supernatural fans were at the panel, and then I popped it out and we watched what people brought, including some excellent vids by PR Zed, both serious and funny, such as "The Soldiering Life" (Sharpe) a nice romantic Pros vid whose name I have forgotten (something about "I love your this" and "I love your that," with really nice cut selection and timing), and "Bohemian Like Me" (multi). We also saw two vids based on things no one there had seen except Kat, which were therefore kinda hard to follow (the movie "Equilibrium" and the British TV show "Spooks"). Then we saw vids both by, and brought by, oneofarcadia. Hers included a very sweet SG-1 team vid to "Seasons of Love" and a Jack/Daniel vid to "Something to Talk About" (a song that I always identify with Kandy Fong's multi vid from the old days). She also showed some Buffy vids and Forever Knight vids by other folks. I forget who did the Buffy vids, but they were cute and funny. There was a romantic one for Xander to the tune of "Happy Together" showing him with a different girl for every verse, playing ironically against the line "the only one for me is you." The Forever Knight vids, including "Sunglasses at Night," were technically well done but I thought the gimmickiness got in the way of the story. Last, Jamie brought a non-fannish vid by Killa and Tzikeh to "Puttin' on the Ritz." Kandy Fong was there and as I left she was talking with oneofarcadia about options for posting vids online and about Vividcon – it was great to see the very first vidder encouraging a new talent.
The most-represented fandoms among the vids were Starsky and Hutch, Sentinel, Stargate SG-1, and Supernatural, with a good mix of serious and humorous vids. My favorite was a mixed-universe mixed-pairings vid with a wide range of couples, including Janeway/Chakotay, Fraser/Ray2, Mulder/Scully, Kirk/Spock, and more, with some very clever scenes repeating surprisingly similar actions from different universes, set to the tune of "A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action" (vid by Gianduja Kiss). I was also very struck by a vid set to Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name Of," also by Gianduja Kiss, depicting violent scenes from La Femme Nikita in a way that managed to combine both horror and beauty. I thought the Sentinel vid "Three Time Loser" by Jamie Ritchey was a particularly interesting Sentinel vid; even though it wound up being slash, the contents of the song enabled the vidder to use usually un-vidded clips of the guys with guest female characters as they reminisced about failed relationships. There were some fun Starsky & Hutch vids – I think Moon's "If I Had a Million Dollars" was my favorite, followed closely by Morgan Logan's "Lovecats." Some of the serious ones, while well done, didn't seem to say anything new or interesting and tended to draw on the same clips; I thought KimberlyFDR's Starsky & Hutch vid "Secret in your Eyes" was a nice introspective change of pace that avoided this problem. Although I could not follow the Supernatural vids, being unfamiliar with the show, I was enchanted by the music for Grif Ink's video "My Son John"; the song was a Celtic-style round entitled "Cannonball" that reminded me of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" or "Fighting for Strangers" in content. I thought the group that did the song, Clandestine, must be a very fine professional group I hadn't heard of; we were all astonished to learn that it's a local group and that there was a member at the convention! [ETA: I have since learned that it's BOTH a very fine professional group that has toured internationally AND a homegrown band from Houston. How cool is THAT!]
The Saturday afternoon Pimp-Your-Vids hour:
Next I went to the video room for my two-hour stint. Laurie showed me how to use the video setup, which worked quite logically and easily (much with the yay). For the first hour, I showed the pilot of Heroes, which I have to admit was very interesting and contained at least one surprising moment. Next scheduled was an hour of "Pimp your Favorite Vids." That was fun! Jan, who was leaving for the Supernatural panel, had left instructions to start with a new disk of Supernatural vids. We dutifully watched the first one even though all the Supernatural fans were at the panel, and then I popped it out and we watched what people brought, including some excellent vids by PR Zed, both serious and funny, such as "The Soldiering Life" (Sharpe) a nice romantic Pros vid whose name I have forgotten (something about "I love your this" and "I love your that," with really nice cut selection and timing), and "Bohemian Like Me" (multi). We also saw two vids based on things no one there had seen except Kat, which were therefore kinda hard to follow (the movie "Equilibrium" and the British TV show "Spooks"). Then we saw vids both by, and brought by, oneofarcadia. Hers included a very sweet SG-1 team vid to "Seasons of Love" and a Jack/Daniel vid to "Something to Talk About" (a song that I always identify with Kandy Fong's multi vid from the old days). She also showed some Buffy vids and Forever Knight vids by other folks. I forget who did the Buffy vids, but they were cute and funny. There was a romantic one for Xander to the tune of "Happy Together" showing him with a different girl for every verse, playing ironically against the line "the only one for me is you." The Forever Knight vids, including "Sunglasses at Night," were technically well done but I thought the gimmickiness got in the way of the story. Last, Jamie brought a non-fannish vid by Killa and Tzikeh to "Puttin' on the Ritz." Kandy Fong was there and as I left she was talking with oneofarcadia about options for posting vids online and about Vividcon – it was great to see the very first vidder encouraging a new talent.