Vidshow Discussion Post: Vidder's Choice

[cosmic_llin]

Welcome to the discussion post for the Vidder's Choice vidshow, curated by BrokenMnemonic, using vids submitted by attending and supporting members of the con.

(This is a new thing we’re trying - we love talking about the vidshows at the con itself, but we think there’s scope for further discussion here on Dreamwidth, where folks who weren’t able to attend the con can get involved too. Anyone who’s interested is welcome to watch the show and join in! We’ll be running these posts roughly once a month, initially featuring shows from VidUKon 2019.)

Most of this show is available to stream on our site - scroll down this page and click on the show title to see the vids alongside their descriptions.

Comments

[cosmic_llin]

I always love the breadth of style, mood and subject matter in this show, and I enjoy trying to get a sense of the rationales behind people's choices - something less well known, an old favourite? I always come away from the show with several things I want to watch, and this year was no different! It's also truly impressive how BrokenMnemonic wrangles such disparate elements into something that feels cohesive and with a definite emotional arc!

[soupytwist]

Agreed! It could feel really chaotic, since everyone is presumably putting things in for different reasons and they're such varied vids in terms of source and artistic statement. But it works!! Mega points to BrokenMnemonic for that!

I am really proud my first vid showing was in such an amazing list of brilliant vids. So cool. (And your Victoria Wood one seriously makes me cry every single time.)

[cosmic_llin]

Awww, thank you and sorry! <3 And I'm so glad you put your vid in! I think of Vidder's Choice as quite a friendly place to show a vid and I hope that was your experience!

[frayadjacent]

Yes, this is a very impressive act of curation. Or, I guess not curation, since BrokenMneumonic doesn't get to choose the vids, but the decisions about how they are ordered is a great example of the creativity that can occur when an artist's options are constrained!

I'm so excited this is happening -- I've been away from DW so I wasn't aware that these vidshow discussions were a thing. How wonderful -- it's VidUKon year round!! :D

I'm curious what guides people's decisions about what to submit to vidder's choice. My default option is just a recent vid that I want to show off, but my productivity is sometimes too low for that! Alternatively, I can go with a vid that I would like more people to see. But I think I feel like I really succeeded at Vidder's Choice when I submit a vid that will feel special and exciting to watch in a room full of VidUKoners. I should keep that in mind for next year.

I also feel somewhat constrained by wanting a relatively watchable vid, i.e. one that doesn't depend too much on source knowledge, one that doesn't take a position on a fannish controversy, one that isn't too long, and one that hasn't been shown recently at VidUKon. I'm feeling a bit more relaxed about all of those things now compared to a couple of years ago, but I do still consider them.

[cosmic_llin]

Yes, I'm always interested to know what motivates people! Working backwards through the past few years of my own selections, it pretty much goes: recent vid I'm proud of and that was a personal vidding milestone; reasonably accessible vid for a current obsession; blatant (and successful!) attempt to drag more people into a ship with me; vid I thought was probably my best recent one, for a fairly crowd-pleasing fandom; fandom I wanted to showcase and also a vid I really enjoyed the experience of making.

I do generally try to pick something fairly recent and, as you say, at least vaguely accessible to the group as a whole, but then I'm often intrigued by other people's vids for fandoms I don't know much about, or ones that do unusual things!

(By the way it's definitely not too late to respond to the previous discussions if you feel moved to!)

[frayadjacent]

Well done dragging people into your ship! That is a most excellent use of Vidders Choice. :D

[cosmic_llin]

I mean, I now somewhat regret dragging people into the pit that is Berena, but still! ;D

[seekingferret]

My motivation is always to submit the trolliest vid I can force people to watch.

[frayadjacent]

Well I certainly enjoy your submissions, so I'm not sure if you're succeeding or failing! :D

[brokenmnemonic]

I'm completely biased in my love for this show, and I count myself incredibly lucky to be able to wrangle it each year. I loved the idea of the show from the moment it was suggested, because it began with the impulse to give everyone who attends or supports the con the chance to show a vid that they love, that might never get shown anywhere else, to a room full of people excited to see them... and without needing to be a premiering vid. That seemed like such a great thing! New vids, old vids, vids for tiny fandoms, vids for big fandoms that no-one noticed, happy vids, sad vids, weird vids... it's such an amazing thing to be able to have a show where I know that everyone there is going to be seeing all those vids that are personal to someone, in the room or streaming the show, and to know that the audience will be receptive and supportive. It's like a group hug with vids and happy flailing, and it's deliberately as low-key as possible with the requirements. If I never do anything good for the con again, I've had the priviledge of being able to wrangle so many little moments of joy in vid form, and heard so many people get excited about things they've never seen before, or new shows and films and ideas that they'd never encountered, and that feels amazing to me. Vidder's Choice for the win! :)

Of course, I also clutch my head a lot when trying the wrangle the show into a running order that makes some kind of sense :P I've developed a rhythm of watching all the vids in the show multiple times, and scribbling notes down on each - usually just half a dozen words at most - along with noting things like the vid length. It was pretty obvious from the outset that the show would need an intermission, and that even if it didn't, trying to run everything as a single playlist would be fairly exhausting for those watching. The vids cover such a wide range of ideas and emotions! I read once that one of the reasons that horror movies work well for dates is that a good horror movie amps up the emotions of those watching, heightening emotional responses for a while afterwards, and I always have that in the back of my head - it feels like the show works well when the more emotionally heavy vids are in the first act, and the lighter vids are in the second, where things like a sense of humour or delight get amped up because of the first act. It's not as simple as make someone scared, then make them laugh, but it really feels like having the show run through an emotional arc in a reasonably consistent way gives a hook into the show that works better than any attempt I could make to organize the vids into another kind of theme. I could be talking rubbish, but I hope that Vidder's Choice is a show that works through people's feelings :)

And there are so many interesting vids that've been shown! I always come away with a list of things to track down and watch, and I never comment on as many of the vids as I want to because there are always so many people I want to enthuse at about their vids. I love this show so much every year :)

[cosmic_llin]

You always do such an incredible job with it! And that's so fascinating about the emotional arc, I think it works really well that way and that makes sense of why.