Fan Vids In Supernatural
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Contents |
Overview
Fanvids (also known as songvids) are the combination of scenes or images from a show (or movie, interview, or other source) set to music. Artists (or “vidders”) remix video clips or sometimes screencaps in order to tell a story or explore some aspect of the show and its characters.
Vidders use a variety of software platforms in the vid creation process. For example, a vidder might use software that converts or “rips” episodes from DVD (for example, Smartripper for PC or MacTheRipper for the Mac), another program for creating clips--individual scenes-- from the ripped files (for example VirtualDub for PC or MPEGStreamclip for the Mac), and a third program for the creative editing process (for example, Adobe Premiere and Windows Movie Maker on PC or iMovie and Final Cut Pro for the Mac).
There are a wide variety of tutorials about getting started in vidding and also addressing more specific vidding techniques both in Livejournal communities such as vidding and mac_vidding_101 as well as various places around the internet, like vidding resources collected by limmade or foolish passion.
Artists make their vids available for downloading in a variety of formats (wmv, avi, mpeg, mov). They also often post them on streaming video sites such as youtube.com and imeem.com.
FanVids in Supernatural Fandom
Although not all vids can be pigeonholed into a category, here are some popular genres of Supernatural vids:
Action, for example, dragonfly_sg1's Carol of the Supernatural or ash48's Take Me To The Hospital.
Comedic, for example, deirdre_c's Things that make you go mmmm, hay1ock's Supernatural in the Park, lsketch42's Official Supernatural Drinking Game, muumyluvr's series Supernatural Charlie the Unicorn, ash48's Channel Hopping.
Character Study, for example, wolfpup's Dean-centric Bitch; ringwench's Sam-centric I Woke Up In A Car; charmax's John-centric Deus Ibi Est; the YED-POV Want by destina; or the Impala-POV Hey Pretty by astartexx.
Romance (including Wincest), for example, maichan808's Fumbling Toward Ecstasy.
AU/Constructed Reality, which take clips from the show but reinterpret them to create an alternative universe or reinvent the characters, for example, dayin03's vid of Dean's last year One Year Only, starrylizard's depiction of the Winchesters as notorious bank robbers in The Heist, antigonesgift's disturbing vision of a dark violent Dean in Impulse or littlemckay's chick-flick trailer following Dean's death and a ghostly/angelic return in Letting Go.
Episodic, which focus on clips or the story from a single episode, for example, stir_of_echoes' Evil!Sam vid from "Born Under A Bad Sign" Evil Brings the Sexy Back or the hysterical look at "Folsom Prison Blues" in When You're In Prison by sacrilicious.
Crossovers, which combine Supernatural clips with footage from other fandoms, for example, angstslashhope's SPN/Boondock Saints crossover set to the music of The Last of the Mohicans.
RPF/RPS, which create fictional stories about real actors or people, for example, andyfeltrad's Jensen/Jared vid Accidentally in Love or fabella's Jared/Chad vid Documentary.
Meta - commentary on fandom e.g. counteragent's Still Alive which celebrates fandoms, creativity, culture - and disagreements; really yugami's Supernatural's Downfall in which Hitler reads spoilers for Supernatural's fifth season. This video is based on the way fandom has been reacting at the news coming out of Comic Con 2009. In the ultimate postmodern moment, ash48 made a fanfvi or the fanvid Stupornatural.
Some vids make use of “manips”—manipulations or edited video. These are usually found in the context of Wincest themes and attempt to create the illusion of Sam and Dean kissing or having sex, as in michaela3105's Crash or sisabet's Falling For The First Time.
Vids are also used in Supernatural fandom to illustrate meta-commentary about the show, for example Women's Work by sisabet and luminosity.
Discussion and analysis of the visual style of Supernatural-- lighting, use of colors and filters, blocking, framing, etc.-- can be found in the livejournal community spnematography
Use of “vids” in the show itself
A number of the promos for Supernatural have won awards at the Promax/BDA Promotion and Marketing Awards including the promo for the second half of Season Two featuring Johnny Cash's God’s Gonna Cut You Down
Each Season the penultimate or finale has featured an opening montage to Kansas’ song Carry On Wayward Son.
The promo for Season 5 was video to the song O Death.
Also, the CW hosted it's own Supernatural vidding contest called Making the Cut
SPN vidding at Conventions
The WinchesterCon fan convention hosted vid shows showcasing a variety of Supernatural fanvids in 2006 and 2007 and 2008 and 2009.(links go to lists of vids and downloads). Also, SPN vidders have presented their work at general vidding conventions such as VividCon. Fanvids have also featured in presentation at Asylum and Creation Cons.
Where to find Supernatural Fanvids
On Livejournal:
- Supernatural vid comm
- Supernatural vidding resource comm
- spnvidrecs Supernatural video rec comm
- Supernatural Roundtable discussions with Supernatural vidders
- General fanvid rec and viewing comm
- General vidding discussion and support
- General video feedback comm
On Myspace: supernaturalvids
In Archives such as The Impala and Supernatural Video Station
Links
- Women's Art and "Women's Work" Wonderful essay on the gendered nature of vidding and in particular examining the vid Women's Work, a fan vid by Luminosity and Sisabet and how it examines the portrayal of women in Supernatural.
- Luminosity upgrades the fanvid Essay in New York Magazine on Luminosity's fan vid work.
