Horses are good company -- The Witcher

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.