Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Brief WisCon report!

Friday
The gathering was quieter and lower key, due to lower attendance, and this suited me. I dropped off some stickers and pins, picked up some plants at the exchanges. Sat and worked on a puzzle; talked with Bessy G. (a greyhound owner and nerd friend) and some new folks. I bought two graphic novels from the dealers' room.

Had supper at Short Stack, outside on the patio, with Emily H, new person Anna something, then ThingWithWings and Eruthros. Possibly Bronwyn joined us?

I went to nearly the whole vid party, in-person. There is something about seeing vids on the big screen that is amazing and moving compared to my little laptop screen. Having other folks in the room cheer, laugh, and clap was also very cool. I got a headache and struggled with it, but stayed anyways up until my vid played, then went home. During an intermission I had a nice conversation with Beth P. and her wife Danielle.

Saturday I had a picnic lunch with some folks on the Capitol lawn; I believe it was ThingsWithWings, Eruthros; Kate Nepveu; Sam; Suzanne B; possibly Emily? Possibly Bronwyn?

Vid Deep dive panel had no AV, so Suzanne, ThingsWithWings, and I talked about vids generally. This was really fun and the audience seemed into it. Afterwards I thought about attending a panel but realized I was too anxious so I sat outside and talked with Gremlin for a bit. I wore my t-shirt "I'm here, I'm queer, my joint pain is moderate to severe" and the guy at the coffeeshop laughed quite hard at it.

I went home to feed the dog and take a nap; slept for about 4 hours.

For supper I grabbed some Ian's pizza. Emily H. and I went to the Argus bar for a drink, where we could sit outside. The bartender/owner Gwen was excited to see me; she must be one of those people who never forgets a face.

On Sunday I was very achy and I went back to bed for a while. I virtually attended the Not Another Race panel, then was on the virtual panel for Vid Party Discussion, which was fun although I felt I could have been better prepared.

I went into the con for supper; sat at Short Stack with Naomi Kritzer, Jackie M, Bronwyn, ThingsWithWings, and Eruthros. Naomi talked about how people really have a need to process the pandemic, to talk about it publicly, and maybe cons should make space for this.

I attended the Guest of Honor speeches, sitting with local friends Jackie L and Debbie C. Afterwards we hung out in the lobby and talked with Brackett and Liz Henry.

Today I am resting and recovering!

The panel I submitted for WisCon this year! this panel idea may or may not make it through the selection process, but if it does, hopefully you can get a head start on reading these fics. I selected the following fics based on your suggestions.

The First Time - Star Trek - by afrai - rated general audiences
https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/16193

Lunch and Other Obscenities - Star Trek - by rheanna - rated general audiences
https://archiveofourown.org/works/5205
Has 2 podfic versions available:
by sophinisba: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12365616
by annapods: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8463766

Hermione's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run - HP - by waspabi - rated teen and up
https://archiveofourown.org/works/7331278
Podfic by lazulus: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21274127
(this fic also has a couple of foreign-language translations)

Known Associates - MCU - by thingswithwings - rated Explicit
https://archiveofourown.org/works/6292210
(note: long)

A highlight of WisCon for me is the Vid Party.

Here are some gentle and soothing vids that were shown at this year's party.

Landsailor, The Legend of Korra, by skygiants

https://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/416273.html


Happy Little Clouds by Glitzer - the joy of painting



Clear Skies - Kiki's Delivery Service - by Wild AMV

1. What was the best compliment you ever received?

A friend on twitter recently said they associate me with "radical kindness".

2. What are your five best talents?

Writing; taking care of plants; taking photos; finding good stuff at the thrift store; being patient with animals and people.

3. What do you wish most people knew about you, and why?

I mostly want to be known as as a good person who tries to do the right thing. Taking this question a different way, I would like if people had a greater understanding of anxiety and pain, and how much I struggle.

4. What has been your biggest accomplishment so far, and why does it mean so much to you?

Working on Access at WisCon. I think that in a small way, the Access team helped to change the world. We showed that events can do a great job with accessibility even on a small budget. We influenced other conventions and events. I hope that we helped some people "come out" as disabled, and helped non-disabled people have a greater understanding. It was a team and convention-wide effort, but I was a big part of it, and I'm very proud of that. My mentor was jesse_the_k.

We also created wonderful documentation for all we did, and put those ideas out into the world for other folks to use. You can see some of that documentation at: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Accessibility

5. If you could achieve anything in your life, what would it be?

Overthrow capitalism, obviously.

Day 1: Talk about why you're participating in Snowflake and how the challenge has affected you.

I like writing prompts; I like participating in things; I like celebrating fandom.

Day 2: Share a fandom memory.

a. A fan party at fully_goldy's house. She made fancy foods and we watched some Teen Wolf.

b. The vid parties at WisCon. It's evolved from a small event to a huge one. It's amazing when the crowd sings along to vids: just this feeling of joy and being with my community and feeling the same things the group is feeling. The delight of the vidders present, getting to see people react to their work. My goal next year is to get enough sleep and rest that I don't get a headache, and so I can enjoy the whole of (or at least most of) the epic vid party.

Ways WisCon has changed from 31 to 41 (which are the years I've attended).

--Gained an Anti-Abuse Team
--Gained live captioning
--There's a vid party! wiscon_vidparty
--More safer spaces
--More media/fandom panels
--A gaming track
--Many more people of color in attendance
--More people of color as Guest of honor (I wrote about this in 2015
at my Wordpress blog and will update the spreadsheet shortly.
--Pronoun stickers!
--Social Interaction badges (these are explained at my wordpress blog
Part one and part two and with pictures.

Those are just a few of the more obvious changes. I look forward to where WisCon is going in the next ten years! :D

At opening ceremonies I attempted to give an "elevator talk" (2 to 3 minutes) describing the social model of disability.

The metaphor I used was eye glasses and contact lenses: many of us wear corrective lenses and do not consider them to be a marker of disability. While impairment exists in my vision, my eyesight is not disabling because society does not make it so. It is relatively easy to acquire corrective lenses in most cases, because both brick-and-mortar stores and online stores supply them, and because doctors and community members encourage you to use them. There is wide support for these pieces of assistive tech in the society I live in, and they are mostly non-stigmatized, with some exceptions such as very thick lenses.

I contrasted corrective lenses to wheelchairs, which are highly stigmatized. Doctors and community members will generally not encourage you to use them; they are expensive and difficult to acquire; difficult to fix when broken; and infrastructure in our society does not support them, unlike corrective lenses.

A WisCon member pointed out to me later that I missed an intersection having to do with race: Glasses are designed for white people. People with flatter features (for instance some Asian people) can have a lot of trouble getting glasses that fit correctly, as glasses tend to rest on a prominent nose.

I completely missed this intersection of oppression and I apologize for causing pain. I will be more mindful in the future.

Thuvia, Laura Shapiro, Nelle

Nelle has made 1 vid, goes to VVC, is a 14 yr vid fan
Laura has been watching and making vids since 2000. Mac vidder. made about 50 vids
Thuvia has been vid fan for 10 years, made some vids.

Hillary has made 1 still source vid. wondering about free programs. Windows: Cinelerra. Beccatoria has done tutorials.
iMovie is linear, free.

Thuvia: still vidding is harder b/c less visually interesting.

Aud: how easy to get legal source?
Thuvia: ripping from DVDs is easy. can do w/ freeware. DVDfab and vidcoder.
Mac the Ripper-- works before 10.7. newer don't have Rosetta Stone.
Google "remove DRM iTunes" etc. People in the community will help you: videohelp.com.
The tech keeps getting simpler.

5 things you wish you'd known?
Laura: That you can do it! Technical hurdles are surprassable. It's going to be as satisfying as you think it is.
You are going to really enjoy it. You don't have to follow the rules.
eruthros:
AMV ppl are into high quality source and high tech. that's not true. can use shitty quality, VHS, old computers.
Put an ice pack under her first vidding computer, taped the power cord.
Thuvia:
Instead of fade to black, dim to a specific color.
Play around with your program. If you hate a beta suggestion, try it, you can still throw it out later.

Nelle:
Your vid is OK! if it makes you happy, it is OK!

Laura: sometimes the hard way is the easy way, and vice versa. her ex. is drawing on paper and scanning something
in instead of rotoscoping it. ie old school animation took a day instead of 9 months of digital animation struggle.

TWW: creaky door sound example. Recorded their back door squeaking (analog) instead of digital source.
Key framing is changing something over time in the vid. Telling the program what rate to progress. Can do this with any effect, making colors change,
fonts bigger and smaller. "Your Disco Needs You" titles.
Image: building vertically. an image is 4D. build up layers.

After Effects is a compositing software; not needed for most vids.

motion is visual interest. Light changes are motion. face changes are motion.

Titles? Many programs have their own tools for titles. Laura: try to make them part of the vid, not stuck on. It's a text tool.
Text takes longer to read than you think it will. read it out loud! can also build title in any other program as a graphic file and import.
Can draw titles on paper, photograph and upload. can also outsource: Kuwdora makes titles for a few dollars. Some friends are just really good at
stuff and will do things for you.

best vids are done w/ careful consideration of clip choice, how they are juxtaposed and matched w/ the music. effects are not needed.

Thuvia thinks that premiere is easier than photoshop.

Storyboards?
Thuvia: makes an outline w/ lyrics, major time breaks, specific clips, mood. keep some notes. Now she is more comfortable and does
more direct to timeline vidding.

Thuvia: lots of different processes.
dualbunny said she just threw clips onto the timeline and it looked ok.
Laura started out doing a ton of planning. Months of work. With more practice, less planning needed.
Collaboration can necessitate more planning.
Start and end images, idea for bridge are often most important.

Aud q about exact timing. matching lyrics.
Thuvia: gets easier. you get better at it as you learn. Can look at wave form for the music. Techno and hip hop have strong beats, almost
rectangular wave forms.

Laura: be familiar and comfortable with your source.

TWW:
process. Makes small clips, about 2 sec clips of useful things in the movie. Clip library, watches this with the song on.
Grounds her in how song connects to source. Categorize the clips. Setting up folders, like "Fury face reaction shots".

Thuvia: can be easy to get caught up on individual words / lines. The argument is an entire chunk of the music, not one line.

Temptation to get too granular. Pay attn to how things build. She has an example from her vid "Hey Ho." 5 betas hated something so
she finally lost it. Laura: many vidders are lyric / world people. Avg viewer won't catch all lyrics (or even any), may watch vid once.
Vids can be matched to the music also, can be very powerful. Visceral level of music.

Me: sometimes we hear lyrics wrong - subtitles.

TWW: you can vid instrumentals!
song choice is super important.
Dessa and Vienna Teng get vidded a lot; they are complex lyrically and have big motion and changes
A capella version of pop songs; covers work well

TWW: cut songs down; take a verse out. thuvia did this for "Hey Ho" to make the climax happen elsewhere.

Cutting and adding to songs is common. Laura has made long vids. Just make sure you have enough ideas. Waveforms help with this.
If you are cutting too much song; maybe there is a better song. that's tough b/c you have to break up with the song / vid pairing.

L: The bridge is the key; say something new and different.
Tempo change or guitar solo.
in Beyonce's "Freedom", kendrick lamar raps on the bridge.

Thuvia: bridge doesn't have to be "change" in the story but should be visually different
break out into different characters, for ex. Poetic b/c can be free association of images, improvisation

TWW: vidding as an argument. song gives you the structure, can radically change your argument.

Mashups usually have a bridge.

Vid Discussion Panel with myself, metatext, brainwane, were_duck, and cyborganize. For a list of all vids, please see http://wiscon-vidparty.dreamwidth.org/12762.html

These notes are from memory; any mistakes are my own and please correct me! We mostly talked about the premier vids.

We discussed brainwane's premiere, Pipeline, quite a bit. Brainwane has written about her vid on her journal including sources. This was brainwane's first vid and she did a lot of research into how to use still footage and how to make a multivid; she was very pleased with people's response to the vid. Women used to make up a lot of the tech world but have been pushed out. Similarly, women are recruited into tech but then are pushed out due to hostile work environments. Someone in the audience said that in Mongolia, Ghengis Khan had his daughters inherit power in the capitol city and his sons took over the outlying territories. But when the daughters died, the sons came in and literally scratched the daughters' names off of the stone because it was shameful to them to have women in power.

I don't remember what we said about garrideb's Pretty Deadly vid, "Hope in the Air", except a lot of Ooooh, it is beatiful, and great song choice! Brainwane said that the still techniques were different than what she had researched for her vid.

For starlady's vid, "Just a Dream Away", people joked that hardcore ST fans will brag about seeing "everything" in the Star Trek universe but will not have seen the animated series. But what is great about the series is the camp, and the way it uses animation to do things that traditional film cannot (such as tentacles), and this vid celebrates that. I loved the humor in this vid, and the way it centers women.

For seekingferret's vid "Cassavetes", metatxt explained that Cassavetes was a controversial, prolific film maker who did not share credit easily. The band here, Le Tigre, is a feminist band, and the question they pose in the song is one we struggle with in fandom: how do we react to problematic characters? No person is all good or all bad; when we elevate them, what does that mean? A very WisCon-appropriate question.

Other vids that the panelists and audience mentioned as being particularly note-worthy:
Roxane Samer's Orphan Black vid, Gold Rush, which intercuts footage with intersectional feminist quotes
Silent Fandoms by Ghost-Lingering. were-duck liked the vidder's subtitles which were quite meta and contributed to a community, in-the-moment feeling
Repeated use of the song "Blank Space" in 3 vids (Pipeline; Purple_fringe and such_height's Dr. Who vid; and sleepygeeky's Power Rangers/Fair Use vid). Interesting to note how the meaning of the song seems to change in each vid.
Losing my Religion by rhoboat. Such intense feelings and the song really stood out for people, as it is a cover of a familiar song.
Pressure (Quantum Leap/vidding) by the California Crew. A spotlight on vidders, in the VHS/analog age. were-duck mentioned that when you see what they are actually vidding, you can see that it is in the service of smut, which is so great.

Enjoying WisCon a lot.

Trying not to overdo it, physically-- resting and getting to bed more or less on time.