Vividcon: Personal Experience

[butterfly]

Okay, reposting this because the first time I posted it, it randomly made it post on the 29th of August instead of the 14th.

I do plan to get around to doing reviews of the Premieres vids, but wanted to mention a few quick things.

A) Oh, god, the stress that is showing vids to a large audience for the first time. The largest group that I'd showed my vids in before this was... about six people, I think (and one of those people is my mother, who does not count, as she thinks I am brilliant no matter what). I was, to be perfectly honest, simply terrified for the entire weekend. That things would go wrong (nothing did), that there would be awkward silence after my vids (there was not), and that there would be criticism that I could not handle (I dislike the idea of being thin-skinned when it comes to art and personally fight against it whenever possible -- my goal in art is always to tell my story/vid in a clear yet beautiful way, and I am constantly striving to improve my work and my approach).

B) I ended up having four vids shown this weekend. This surprised me. I was expecting three (actually, I was expecting two for certain, as I hadn't ever gotten back a definitive answer about my Nearly New vid). There were four. This means I spent four vidshows divided into three sections -- Before My Vid (where I was nervously waiting for it to show), During My Vid (where I was analyzing it for possibly audio/video flaws and trying not to stare at the people around me to gauge their reactions), and then After My Vid (where I spent at least a vid and a half with the internal shakes, dry mouth, and a horrible cold feeling that wasn't the fault of the vid room's air conditioning). Which is the same as point A, so you can see how this particular subject took up my head space (I was so incredibly distracted most of this weekend on account of this).

C) So, since I plan on not talking about my vid in my review of Premieres, I will just mention a couple of things about the four vids of mine that were shown:

The Thunder Rolls

My Brokeback Mountain vid was the first vid of mine that was shown. It appeared in the second vidshow on Friday and it was the vid that I had no clue was going to appear at Vividcon. First off, I loved seeing it on a bigger screen (which is true of all of my vids -- it was nice seeing them on something bigger than my computer screen, at a high quality). It seemed to get a good reaction and I had quite a few people come up to me over the weekend and tell me that they liked it and that they liked that I'd told a story about Alma, who isn't part of the big romantic pairing of the movie.

It also got talked about in the Color Explosion panel that it was paired with, and sockkpuppett (Luminosity) mentioned the importance of vidding with intent, in particular pointing out a bit where I'd used the color to match the music rather that going with where the emotion of the vid was heading and how it would have been stronger to go with the latter. It is, I think, a fair cop. I was mostly going on instinct with the color in the vid when I was making it and I wasn't doing as much thinking as I could have done. There was a decent amount of "ooo, look what I can do with these effects!" going on with that vid (most of which I stand by, some of which was probably not entirely necessary).

Pavlov's Bell (Snowfall)

If you were at the con and you'd previously downloaded this vid from my journal or website, you may have noticed that the version shown at Vividcon had some differences. It started when someone recced the vid and said, basically, that they liked it but felt that the ending could have been stronger. So, I looked at the ending and explored ways to possibly make it feel stronger. Then once I was in Premiere and playing around with the vid again, I couldn't resist, well, playing around with the vid again. Trying new scenes out to see how they felt, trying a different effect in a couple of places, etc.

I'm really happy with the changes that I've made and I fully plan to upload the new version of the vid as soon as I'm back in Portland (I'm not planning on taking the older version down). So, expect a new post on that on Tuesday or Friday/Saturday if I don't have time on Tuesday.

Beauty of the Rain (Doctor Who) was shown in the Symbol and Metaphor vidshow and that seemed to go well.

My premiere vid was a Stargate SG-1 vid to a song called Be Like Water (Isolation Mix) by Sarah Fimm and Beauty's Confusion. Something of a Jack/Daniel vid, but not at all cheerful and there's no happy ending. Not to everyone's taste, definitely (I had someone tell me that they really liked it and someone else say that the vid didn't hit them at all). I'll be uploading that on Tuesday, definitely, and I am, of course, always open to feedback and criticism because my goal is to get better, as always (in retrospect, part of me wishes that I'd posted this when I made it and used a later vid in the show (on the other hand, hindsight is twenty/twenty and other such cliches), in particular, I think of Prayer, because I wish that people could have seen just how pretty the Winchester boys are in normal, full color).

D) I love the people who are at Vividcon. I got to spend some time with morgandawn this time around (and she's offered to teach me how to put my vids on dvd, which sounds exciting), which was lots of fun, plus I got to meet raveninthewind and many (many) others, and also got to reconnect with some of the people that I met last year.

Even including the complete and utter terror I felt at showing my vids in a large group for the first time ever, I once again had so much fun at Vividcon and really hope that I'm able to come back next year.

So, to sum up: Yay, Vividcon!

Comments

[norah.livejournal.com]

Oooh, a Dr. Who vid! And a new ending to Pavlov's Bell! (I think that was me, I hope it didn't come off harsh...I just loved the vid so much I wanted a bigger wow at the end) I'm looking forward to both...

[norah.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I realized I had a link for the Who vid - oh, that made me CRY. So good. Thank you!

[qowf.livejournal.com]

kirbyfest was pimping you on her LJ. Now I want to see your vids. How does one do this?

[qowf.livejournal.com]

Ah! I have found your website. Excellent. Ignore the girl behind the curtain.

[tv-elf.livejournal.com]

::wave:: Your vids were great. I tend to fall in the Sam/Jack side of the Stargate fandom, and I loved Be Like Water. Thunder Rolls also got me hooked.

Did y'all ever get Advil yesterday?

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I think it was you, too! Seriously, though, don't worry about it. It didn't bother me, except that it meant I had to (oh, horrors!) rewatch my vid and do more work on it and think about it more. All of which are good things.

I want to get better and that definitely means taking feedback into account and being willing to change things and rethink things (what I probably really need is to seek out a beta so that I can do that part of vidding before the public exhibition part, but I've always done things a little out of order). So, yes, if you watch a vid of mine and have constructive criticism, I always want to know. My desire to be a better artist is bigger than my ego.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you. I adored Nine/Rose. I also adore Ten/Rose -- my 'ship is really Doctor/Rose, to be honest. I'd probably read her with any Doctor at all, if the story was well-written.

But, yes, Nine/Rose was a very well-done, nicely complete love story. Parting of the Ways can still make me a bit weepy.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Hee! No worries. And I'd love to know what you think about them, if you get the chance.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

*waves back*

Your vids were great. I tend to fall in the Sam/Jack side of the Stargate fandom, and I loved Be Like Water. Thunder Rolls also got me hooked.

Thank you. That's really great to hear -- I'm so glad that you liked them.

(You are Abby, yes? Penguins really do make for a good moment of stress relief -- your vid helped give my brain something adorable to focus on and relax a little during the vidshow, which was nice, because Premieres can really be intense.)

Did y'all ever get Advil yesterday?

jic managed to get some. My own headache went away naturally after a while -- I think that I just had some temporary overloading because of all the vids. It's sweet of you to ask.

[norah.livejournal.com]

*pokes you*

Can I see the new ending? Can I huh?

Or is it already up and I missed it?

You and I share only a few fandoms but I have loved your vids in all of them (Tanglewood Tree, Pavlov's Bell, Into the Fire) and I wanted to thank you for doing this. Your vids really touch the emotional heart of the canon, not to mention how they are CRAZY PRETTY LIEK WHOA.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Hee. It only just went up today -- you can find it here (http://butterfly.livejournal.com/1110854.html). I would really love to know what you think of the changes, good or bad.

I wanted to thank you for doing this. Your vids really touch the emotional heart of the canon, not to mention how they are CRAZY PRETTY LIEK WHOA.

Aw, thank so very much. That is absolutely lovely. And the canon is just so pretty and wonderful that I can't resist!