As this is a day late, I suppose I'm using one of the grace days.
I would really like to do a creative project for the end of the year. I'd like to take this opportunity to do something totally different as academic work, seeing as how we write papers pretty much constantly in college.
It's probably obvious by now that I am a huge fangirl (I blame Battlestar Galactica's season finale for this being late! ;) and I have been searching for a way to incorporate my passion for fan/audience studies into this course. Fans produce tons of creative work in all kinds of media, and I was thinking that I would undertake such a project myself and then supplement it by applying both the process and product to our readings in new media.
My plan would be to make at least one fanvid, which are made up of footage from a show, movie, etc. that is edited together and set to music, like a music video. The editing process alone can be very time-consuming and often challenging from a technical standpoint (for those of us without formal training). I would supplement this video that I create with a paper explaining how all aspects of the process relate to the field of new media and the readings we have done. This would include examining the motivation for vidding, the technical process, legal issues, fan publishing, and how different programs, technologies, and websites come into play (YouTube, imeem, LiveJournal, etc). Both my video(s) and the accompanying paper would be available online.
This seems like such a good chance for me to flex my creative muscles and explore something that I am very passionate about, as well as being able to give it the focus that an academic project requires.
kinda like this, a WoW example.
Yes, like that. :)
legal issues are always fun when you're talking about fanfiction. If your video becomes popular maybe you'll face some yourself?!
Does fanfic help promote the original works which are being mashed up? I've wondered this for a while. Even if they do, how can you define ownership of media? If i write a book, do I own the specific order of words on the page? and if so, for how long?
also, how much of fanfic seems to be original work? If you can't call it original can you call it postmodern, and does that make it legitimate art? Should video mashups be considered in the same category as hip hop tracks that utilize sampling?
i would highly recommend reading Henry Jenkins to get some ideas on tying things together . . . he is great. He has written a lot about the fandom of Star Trek, and recently about the growing Harry Potter wave of fans. There are a handful of books on him in the library -- check it out! Good luck.
I think your project sounds good because you're using your passion . . . which by the way, I think is the secret to success and happiness :)
Have fun!
Yay Henry Jenkins! I've read a bit of his stuff and have enjoyed it. Definitely will look into more for the project...
There has definitely been a crackdown on copyrighted material on YouTube lately...
"Does fanfic help promote the original works which are being mashed up?" I'd say most definitely. There are many creators who support their fans writing.
"Even if they do, how can you define ownership of media?" I guess one big difference is that fans do not make any money from their work, while creators obviously do. I wonder if that fact has something to do with it?
Thanks for the great questions!
I've only ever read fanfiction stories derived off tv shows, so I guess this is a step up from that. From what I can recall, you give the creator credit for characters, the story itself is the author's property.
This whole project sounds time-consuming but very rewarding. It sounds like you've given it quite a bit of thought, good luck!
I like this idea very much, and, as somebody mentioned above, I'm particularly glad that you're beginning with your own passion for the topic. What I'd ideally like to see you do, though, would be not just to make the fanvid, and thus to write about that in the accompanying paper, but to post it, and to write about the ways that it moves within the network once it's posted. What kinds of responses does it produce, both in terms of comments and in terms of more videos? What kinds of cultural production, in other words, are fans engaged in, even as they're consuming the objects of their fandom? I'll very much look forward to seeing what comes of this!
I'm really happy/relieved that you like my idea. Your suggestion for the paper sounds great to me, I think it will be very interesting and different from what I'd normally write about. Now I'd better get a jump on the vidding process! :)