Vidding is a
fan labor
Fan labor, also called fan works, are the creative activities engaged in by fans, primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works (fiction, fan fiction and review literature), ...
practice in
media fandom of creating
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
s from the footage of one or more visual media sources, thereby exploring the source itself in a new way. The creator may choose video clips in order to focus on a single character, support a particular romantic pairing between characters, criticize or celebrate the original text, or point out an aspect of the TV show or film that they find under-appreciated. The resulting video may then be shared via one or more
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
outlets and
online video platforms such as
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. The creators refer to themselves as "vidders", their product as "vids", "fanvids", "fanvideos", "songvids" or the more recently adopted name "edits" and the act itself as vidding.
Vidding can occur within a
fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
; however, it is also often considered its own fandom, as vidding fans will often watch vids simply because they are vids. (This is distinct from
fan fiction readers and other
fans
Fan commonly refers to:
* Fan (machine), a machine for producing airflow, often used for cooling
** Hand fan, an implement held and waved by hand to move air for cooling
* Fan (person), short for fanatic; an enthusiast or supporter, especially wit ...
, for instance, who tend to choose what to engage based on source text more than form.) Accordingly, vidding has its own dedicated
fan conventions, including
Vividcon and
VidUKon.
Fan videos within the world of
anime fandom
Anime and manga fandom (otherwise known as fan community) is a worldwide community of fans of anime and manga. Anime includes animated series, films and videos, while manga includes manga, graphic novels, drawings and related artworks. The anime an ...
are distinct from the videos created by vidders. A fan-made music video using anime footage fans is called an
anime music video
An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, howev ...
or AMV, not a fanvid. While a large number of anime video makers are men,
the bulk of vidders in media fandom are women.
[
][
][
]
History
Vidding began in 1975,
when
Kandy Fong Kandy Fong created the first fan videos in 1975, a slideshow of ''Star Trek'' images set to music. She is credited with creating the concept of "mash-ups", editing a TV show or a film by disconnecting the images from the original soundtrack and re- ...
synced ''
Star Trek'' stills on a
slide projector
A slide projector is an opto-mechanical device for showing photographic slides.
35 mm slide projectors, direct descendants of the larger-format magic lantern, first came into widespread use during the 1950s as a form of occasional hom ...
with music from a cassette player.
[
] Fong's slideshow was first presented publicly at
Bjo Trimble
Betty JoAnne Trimble (née Conway; born August 15, 1933), known as Bjo (, ), is an American science fiction fan and writer, initially entering fandom in the early 1950s.
Introduction to fandom
Trimble's introduction to science fiction fandom ...
's Equicon/Filmcon convention in 1975, where it was celebrated as the first source of "new" ''Star Trek'' stills since the conclusion of the original show.
She performed her vids with live cutting at
fan conventions
Fan convention (also known as con or fan meeting), a term that predates 1942, is an event in which fans of a particular topic gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and each other. Some ...
, which continue to be one of the main venues for vid-watching.
When home
videocassette
Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...
tape recorders became available in the mid-1970s, vidders began producing live-action vids that were recorded onto media that could be shown at fan conventions and further distributed to fans.
Substantial technical and artistic skill were required to cut vids together, often requiring footage from multiple VCRs to be placed on the same tape, with the added challenge of exact timing. Typical vids could take 6–8 hours to produce, and more elaborate ones could take substantially longer.
[
] Vidders, predominately women, passed this knowledge on to each other.
Vidders during the 1980s and 1990s formed collectives, such as California Crew, GloRo Productions, Bunnies from Hell, the Chicago Loop, and the Media Cannibals.
The collectives shared equipment allowing for more technically complicated vid production. Sterling Eidolan and the California Crew subgroup, Odd Woman Out, made a notable metavid, "Pressure", in 1990.
"Pressure" recorded the actual process of making a vid, depicting the female vidders, and the skill necessary in order to produce the work during the VCR age.
With the rise of digital media, greater bandwidth, and the widespread availability of free, albeit basic,
video editing software
Video editing software, or a video editor is software used performing the post-production video editing of digital video sequences on a non-linear editing system. It has replaced traditional flatbed celluloid film editing tools and analog video ...
such as
iMovie and
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker (known as Windows Live Movie Maker for the 2009 and 2011 releases) is a discontinued video editing software program by Microsoft. It was first included in Windows Me on September 14, 2000 and in Windows XP on October 25, 2001 ...
or more professional and in use ones such as
Sony Vegas
Vegas Pro (stylized as VEGAS Pro, colloquially called ''Sony Vegas'') is a video editing software package for non-linear editing (NLE). The first release of Vegas Beta was on June 11, 1999. The software runs on Windows operating systems.
Origin ...
, the skill level required for vidding has been reduced and the number of distribution outlets has increased. As a result, both the number of vidders and the number of accessible vids has skyrocketed.
Vidding has become more individualized in the digital era and collectives have largely ceased to exist. However, in the form of "collabs", also known as collaborations between two or more vidders, complex joint products persist. Ask.fm accounts allow for modern continuation of knowledge sharing amongst vidders, especially women.
Owing to concerns that the outside community would not understand the vids and the context of vidding, as well as some copyright and intellectual property concerns,
many of the most experienced vidders do not make their vids readily-accessible on public venues such as YouTube,
although this is changing.
The
Museum of the Moving Image
The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Amer ...
in New York ran an exhibition from 29 June – 14 October 2013 called ''Cut Up'' which included highlights of style from the original by Kandy Fong to "Vogue (300)" by Luminosity.
On display were:
* "Both Sides Now" by Kandy Fong (1980)
* "Tempers of Revenge" by MVD and Caren Parnes (1984)
* "Data's Dream" by Shadow Songs (1994)
* "A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness (Hot Hot Hot)" by Sandy and Rache (2005)
* "I Put You There" by Laura Shapiro and Lithiumdoll (2006)
* "Vogue (300)" by Luminosity (2007)
Schools
There are three main schools of vidding:
* MediaWest vidders congregated around the
MediaWest*Con
MediaWest*Con is one of the largest and longest running media-based (TV shows/film) fan-run conventions in the United States. It is held annually over Memorial Day weekend in Lansing, Michigan. The convention emerged in the late 1970s, beginning ...
fan convention, which began in the 1970s and provided a vid room. Vids were shown repeatedly, and people wandered in and out all day. MediaWest-type vids are meant to be understood by people who don't bring a lot of context to them (including even knowledge of the fandom source text), so are often spectacular, splashy, or funny.
* Living room vidders, the followers of Mary Van Deusen, are designed to be watched by fans multiple times in a quiet environment. These vids call for viewers to have intimate familiarity with the source and to study the vid's visual choices through multiple watchings, so that the vidder's arguments can be understood. Fully understanding a living room vid is most akin to
poetry analysis
Poetry analysis is the process of investigating a poem's form, content, structural semiotics and history in an informed way, with the aim of heightening one's own and others' understanding and appreciation of the work.
The words ''poem'' and ''po ...
; it usually calls for understanding the source text, learning the song lyrics, watching for visual metaphors and alterations to the original scenes, as well as being involved in the community.
* San Francisco vidders tell stories similarly to Mary Van Deusen and her followers, but with an art school sensibility. This school of vidding emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and is defined by more concern for the visual and different use of color and motion than classic vidding.
In the age of YouTube and other video sharing sites on the internet, there is increasing cross-pollination between these schools, as well as between vids,
anime music videos
An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, howeve ...
,
machinima, and political remix music videos.
Terminology
Vidding uses all the terminology common to media fandom, as well as terminology developed for vidding-specific needs. For instance, "MM" may stand for multimedia, meaning a vid made from more than one source show. A "garbage can vid" is a multimedia vid with source from tens or even hundreds of shows and movies. A frequently used vidding term is "
slash
Slash may refer to:
* Slash (punctuation), the "/" character
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Slash (Marvel Comics)
* Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'')
Music
* Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band
* Nash ...
" in which footage of two characters (typically heterosexual) are combined to create a homosexual bond in the alternate universe. When slash applies to two women, it is referred to as
femslash
Femslash (also known as "f/f slash", "f/f", "femmeslash", "altfic" and "sapphic") is a subgenre of slash fan fiction which focuses on romantic and/or sexual relationships between female fictional characters.
Characteristics
Typically, chara ...
.
Content
Fanvids are created based on material from TV shows, movies, and occasionally official music videos to make an argument through juxtaposing the original video with song lyrics. In vids, the music is an analytic device rather than a soundtrack.
Fanvids may function as a cross between narrative story-telling and visual poetry, a form of visual essay that uses the source material itself to put forward one aspect of how the author sees the source; potentially reframing the original material in a novel manner.
[Turk, Tisha (2010). "Your Own Imagination: Vidding and Vidwatching as Collaborative Interpretation."] Alternatively, vids may be little more than a string of shots strung together, akin to a thesis statement without significant backup.
Many fanvids are concerned with
shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...
, the love stories that a fan sees within their favorite films or TV shows. Existing romantic scenes may be further romanticized through video transformations or song choice. The author may also argue for a romantic pairing that does not occur in the source text through juxtaposing relevant scenes or even splicing in additional material. Supporters or "shippers" of on-screen couples may also manipulate clips to retroactively change scenes to fit a within-vid reality that incorporates their pairing.
This led to the inevitable creation of a whole new vocabulary currently in use amongst vidders which includes terms such as shipwars and OTPs.
YouTube vidding is a vast community with hundreds of thousands of users now taking part.
Copyright and fair use
As television and online media increasingly intermingle in the age of
new media
New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...
and digitization, a
prosumer can create their own work out of copyrighted material.
[Croteau, D. & Hoynes, W. (2003) Media Society: Industries, Images and Audiences (third edition) Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks]
US
Copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
law attributes the clips and the music in fanvids as the property of those who originally produced them for radio and television/film. As a result, some fans and lawyers worry and argue that fanvids constitute a breach of copyright law. Other fans and lawyers, such as those in the
Organization for Transformative Works
The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit, fan activist organization. Its mission is to serve fans by preserving and encouraging transformative fan activity, known as " fanwork", and by making fanwork widely accessible.
OT ...
, argue that fanvids fall under the
fair use
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
exception to copyright laws, as only small snippets of video images are used creatively and no profit is made.
Websites such as YouTube caution against the uploading of copyrighted material, even though thousands of fanvids have been uploaded there. Fans with material on that website will sometimes find their vids removed with a copyright infringement message.
More recently, though,
James H. Billington
James Hadley Billington (June 1, 1929 – November 20, 2018) was an American academic and author who taught history at Harvard and Princeton before serving for 42 years as CEO of four federal cultural institutions. He served as the 13th Librarian ...
(
librarian of the United States Congress), in his statement relating to section 1201 rulemaking, noted that circumvention of security protocols for motion pictures on DVDs will not be subject to the
DMCA
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...
statute against circumvention. Billington specifically allows for the creation of "non-commercial videos" which would include vids.
See also
*
Anime music video
An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, howev ...
*
Machinima
*
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
*
Fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
*
Fan fiction
*
Found footage
*
YouTube Poop
*
VJing
VJing (pronounced: ''VEE-JAY-ing'') is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization ...
*
Culture jamming
Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It att ...
*
Remix culture
Remix culture, sometimes read-write culture, is a term describing a society that allows and encourages derivative works by combining or editing existing materials to produce a new creative work or product. A remix culture would be, by default, pe ...
*
Video scratching
Video scratching is a video editing technique used within the music industry. It is a variation of the audio editing technique scratching.
It is typically used in either music videos or live performances, with one or more individuals manipulatin ...
References
Further reading
Vidding history
Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding"
Francesca Coppa
Francesca Coppa (born March 26, 1970) is an American scholar whose research has encompassed British drama, performance studies and fan studies. In English literature, she is known for her work on the British writer Joe Orton; she edited several ...
(2008), ''
Transformative Works and Cultures
''Transformative Works and Cultures'' is a peer-reviewed open access academic journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works. The journal collects essays, articles, book reviews, and shorter pieces that concern fandom, fanworks, ...
''.
*
The Vidder: Luminosity upgrades fan video" Logan Hill (2007), ''
New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...
''.
*
Vidding (2008)"
Organization for Transformative Works
The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit, fan activist organization. Its mission is to serve fans by preserving and encouraging transformative fan activity, known as " fanwork", and by making fanwork widely accessible.
OT ...
(2008), New Media Literacies at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
.
Copyright
Visions and Revisions: Fanvids and Fair Use" Sarah Trombley (2007).
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video" Center for Social Media (2009).
*
A 'Test Suite' of Fair Use Examples for Service Providers and Content Owners"
Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Women
*
*Coppa, F. (2011)
An Editing Room of One's Own: Vidding as Women's Work.''Camera Obscura'', ''26''(2 77), 123–130.
*
Coppa, F., &
Tushnet, R. (2011)
How to suppress women's remix.''Camera Obscura'', ''26''(2 77), 131–138.
External links
Vidders.net*
ttp://transformativeworks.org/ Organization for Transformative Worksbr>
The Archive of Our Own
{{Intellectual property activism
Fan labor