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Veni, Vidi, Vids!

Fan video editors and the strategicremix of popular cultureKatharina Freund

University of Wollongong

Australia

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What are vids?

Fan-made remix videos

They appropriate pre-existing film and televisiontexts and edit them to music

Vids often convey meanings not intended in thesource material

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My research...

What vids and their (most female) communitiescan tell us about how audiences interpretthe media they are presented with

Hownew media forms are being utilized tocritique mainstream values in the media

An exploration of the gendered reading andcreative practices of the vidders to discern theimplications for current concepts of audiencesand online community

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Who are the vidders?

Over 90% female

Over 82% aged 18-35

Most probably white, English-speaking, andfrom the United States, United Kingdom, oranother Western/European country

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Struggle Over Meaning

Media-savvy female audience consuming mediaproducts mostly created by men

How the text does or does not provide pleasure /conform to audience desires

Ongoing struggle for discursive dominancebetween fans and producers over control and

desires for the text (Johnson 2007; also Jenkins1992)

Fans adapt the text to suit their uniqueinterpretations and interests

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Asserting Control Open-source text (Hellekson & Busse 2006) Taken up and reworked in a postmodern,

multivocal and intertextual fashion (Stasi 2006)Vidders use their tech savvy and extensive pop

culture literacy to: Highlight specific elements

Shift the focus of the text Invent subtext Restructure the narrative Engage in critical commentary

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How is this done?

The true art lies in the mix Manovich 2004

Extraction of paradigmatic / thematic elements

Re-arranged into a syntax / narrative

Following genre and television conventions

Music focuses the emotional impact and addsnarrative structure through suture theory(Gorbman 1987)

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Supernatural (2005 present)

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Highlighting Specific Elements

We Will Rock You

by Melissa

70s rock ballad used Congruent with CWs vision

of the show

Focus on machismo,

violence, fighting,investigating murders, savinglives

Manly camaraderie

http://www.imeem.com/people/mbbd_z/video/x-sigHfS/melissa-spnwe-will-rock-you-tv-video/http://www.imeem.com/people/mbbd_z/video/x-sigHfS/melissa-spnwe-will-rock-you-tv-video/

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Shifting the Focus

Forgiven and Forsaken

by loki

Slower, dramatic ballad Focused on relationship

between characters

Visuals muted/black & white

Action elements are removed Emphasis on facial

expressions to allow intimacy

http://www.4shared.com/account/file/47453251/5827c034/Forgiven_and_Forsaken_big.htmlhttp://www.4shared.com/account/file/47453251/5827c034/Forgiven_and_Forsaken_big.html

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Inventing SubtextHere in Your Car

by dayln03

Slash video Romantic pop song

Uses familiar televisionconventions to suggest

relationship Advanced videomanipulation

http://community.livejournal.com/everydamnthing/11240.htmlhttp://community.livejournal.com/everydamnthing/11240.html

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Restructuring the NarrativeImpulse

by NYCalls0909

Alternate Universe Creating a new story using

existing footage

Clips used out of context

Art is in the mix Pleasure for audience in

seeing how clips aremisinterpreted in thenarrative of the vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7b6vDo3iqIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7b6vDo3iqI

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Criticizing the TextWomens Work

by Sisabet & Luminosity

Frustrated response to text Critically examines

representations of women:victims, sexual objects,martyrs, monstrous

Hopeless feministicimpotence

I love the show, but Im notblind to its faults

http://www.slum.slashcity.com/lum/eyecandy/multi/womenswork-xvid.ziphttp://www.slum.slashcity.com/lum/eyecandy/multi/womenswork-xvid.zip

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Intertextual CommentaryChannel Hopping

by Ash

Draws parallels betweenSPN and TV as a medium

Vidders extremely medialiterate and genre-aware

Flow: TV flows fromseries to series rather thanbeing discrete, uniqueprograms

Engaging with the

mediascape

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzQPbleK-GMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzQPbleK-GM

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Thriving Interpretive Community

Vidders consume media, make thoughtfulcommentary on it, and share their insights witha specific audience

Specific interpretive community with uniquereading practices and aesthetics

Playful,well-informed, and creative /critical with industry standards and traditions

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Thank you very much!Are there any questions?

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References Appadurai, Arjun (1990). Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Economy.Public Culture 2(2): 1-24

Allen, Robert C. Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.

Ang, Ien. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. London: Routledge, 1982.

Bleich, David. Gender Interests in Reading and Language. in Flynn, Elizabeth A., and Patrocinio P. Schweickart,

eds. Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins UniversityPress, 1986.

Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. 7th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004.

Bury, Rhiannon. Cyberspaces of Their Own: Female Fandoms Online. Digital Formations. Ed. Steve Jones. NewYork: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005.

Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987.

Hellekson, Karen, and Kristina Busse, eds. Fan Fiction and Fan Communities on the Internet: New Essays.Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2006.

Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Johnson, Derek. Fan-tagonism: Factions, Institutions, and Constitutive Hegemonies of Fandom. in Gray,Jonathan, Cornel Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington. Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World.New York: New York University Press, 2007.

Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004.

Stasi, Mafalda. The Toy Solider from Leeds: The Slash Palimpsest. in Hellekson, Karen, and Kristina Busse, eds.Fan Fiction and Fan Communities on the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2006.

Williams, Raymond. Television, Technology, and Cultural Form. New York: Schocken Books, 1975.