Vid Commentary Challenge

Commentary Challenge:
There is a little over a week left to sign-up for the new VIEWER's Commentary Challenge. We haven't seen a lot of participation so far (just 4 volunteers as of this morning), but I'm hoping that is because many of our members missed the last post. This community only works if everyone participates in some way; whether it is by writing commentary, commenting to posts, or volunteering in some other capacity.

I keep seeing the following reason given for people not signing up to write commentary: "I don't feel qualified to write about vids". Let me remind everyone that this is not a test, and there are no wrong answers; commentaries are a way for you to talk about what you see in a vid, and how you interpret it. That is all! If you watch vids, and I assume since you are here that you do, then you are fully qualified to write/record commentary for this community. We want everyone to have a voice and be involved, so if you are thinking about signing up, I strongly encourage you to join us for this challenge. :)

Information on this challenge round can be found in the Information Post.

Vidder Permission:
To all the vidders who have given blanket permissions in the past, and are listed in the Vidder Permission Post, please check that your information is up to date; and provide us with any new streaming links that you might have now that BAM is gone.

Interview Series
Finally, tomorrow, May 23rd is the last day to suggest a vidder for the Interview Series. If there is a vidder whom you would like to see interviewed, or ask questions of, then please e-mail me (deathisyourart at livejournal dot com) with their names and "Interview Series" in the e-mail subject heading. Thank you!

Commentary Challenge 3

The next vid_commentary challenge is coming up! Unfortunately, only 10 people answered our poll for the timing of the next challenge (I get it, you don’t like polls), so I just have to hope that the timing works for a majority of you.

We are going with a VIEWER COMMENTARY challenge for the summer, and we will try to follow that up with a combined challenge or a vidder-only challenge in a few months. We’ve had some requests for additional content in the community, and we are making some changes to our format for the Fall (Northern Hemisphere). See below for information on that, but first, let’s get to our challenge dates.

Next Challenge: Viewer Commentary

Dates:
Sign-up: May 16th – 31st
Posting Dates: July 5th – July 30th

These dates will give everyone, no matter when they signed up, more than a month to write or record their commentary, take their screencaps, and upload everything for posting. The rules will be reposted right before the sign-up period begins, but if you would like a refresher now, they can be found: HERE

Note 1: If you posted an incomplete commentary for the last challenge, please complete it prior to the start of the next posting period.

Note 2: A reminder that all commentaries posted to the Dreamwidth community have been added to the memory section; however, all future challenges will only be held at the Livejournal community with links to the LJ memory section or masterlists posted here at the end of each challenge. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the participation at the DW community was far too low compared to the hassle of reposting for those who are not on Dreamwidth. This rule will be revisited in the future if the situation changes.

LJ vid commentary memory section

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At the suggestion of some of our members, and to fill in the time between vidder profiles (starting again in August), we will be trying out both an interview and a meta series. If they go well, we will try our best to continue them in the future.

Interview Series

It has been tried in a few fandoms, but let’s try takin out the singular fandom focus and question a vidder about their entire body of work. This interview series will be made up of vidders suggested by YOU, and questions submitted by YOU. If there are vidders whose brain you want to pick, this will be where you can do that.

Dates:
Vidder suggestions: Now to May 23rd
Question suggestions for early interviews: June
Posting: August to January

How vidders will be chosen: All vidders interviewed will be at the request of the community members; however, this will not be a popularity contest and there will be no voting. All suggestions for vidders you would like to see interviewed can be e-mailed to me at deathisyourart at livejournal dot com, with “Interview Series” in the subject title of the e-mail. Vidders will be drawn at random and contacted after the suggestion deadline. If a vidder agrees to an interview then we will start to request questions for them.

How questions will be chosen: All questions submitted will be asked of the vidder; however, we cannot guarantee that they will have an answer for all of them. A vidder may chose not to answer a question, and we will not insist that they do so. If two or more questions ask essentially the same thing, they will be combined into one; and any follow-up questions can be submitted in comments to the interview.

If there is a vidder you would like to see interviewed, then feel free to e-mail me immediately with their name.

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Meta Series

This community needs some straight-up vidding meta, don’t you think? I’ve contacted a few people who I know write about vids when they can, but I don’t know everyone, or what strengths most of our members have when writing about vids. So, I am looking for volunteers to round out our meta writing staff.

We are not looking for an academic paper. The aim is to produce a piece structured like an informal essay, or a magazine article. Authors pick their own topics (though we will try to avoid repeating the same one), co-authors if you would like one, and word count. In the piece you can get quotes from other vidders, link to vid examples, or provide screencaps; whatever you need to make your point. This is a stress-free project that will hopefully be fun for authors and readers alike.

If you were wondering what kind of topics we are thinking of, let me give you a few suggestions:
- Title Design
- The use of Black and White footage
- Religious themes in vids
- Vid distribution choices

If you would like to volunteer to write vid meta for us, then please e-mail me at deathisyourart at livejournal dot com, with “vid meta series” in the subject title of the e-mail.

Hello everyone!

To make things easier on two very busy moderators, all future challenges and vid profiles will only be posted at the Livejournal vid_commentary community. Mod posts with links and master lists will continue to be posted here to allow anyone who does not have an LJ account to find all community content. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

A poll for what and when the next challenge should be has been posted here: LJ poll link

All commentaries that have been posted to this community can be found via tags or the memory section, and a link to the Livejournal community can be found at the bottom of the page.

- Challenge One Update
- Vidder Profile: Kiki_miserychic
- Up-coming Community Content
- Creator Commentary Master List & Links

Hello everyone! Are you enjoying the vid commentaries and vidder profile posted thus far? Are you happy with the creative direction that the community is taking? If you have an opinion then we are always willing to hear it; we want this community to be both a fun and useful place for all of those who are watching it.

Most of the commentaries for Challenge One have been posted; we have a few authors that were granted extensions, but their commentaries will be available within the next few days, and tags and memories have been brought up to date for easy searching. If you have posted a commentary, or will be doing so, please remember to mirror your post in our Livejournal community, or to let me know that you are unable to do so.

Also, I want to encourage all community members (and HOLY CRAP we have over a 100 people watching us now) to comment after reading the commentaries posted here; they take both time and a great deal of thought, and letting the authors know that their efforts are appreciated is good for your karma. *nods*

Vidder Profiles:
My co-mod bradcpu has begun posting a monthly series profiling a vidder and their body of work. The audio visual interview can be viewed or downloaded our Livejournal mirror community: vidder profile Kiki_miserychic

Up-coming:

After Vividcon a poll will go up in the LJ mirror community to see when community members would like to hold the second round of the commentary challenge. I know that there will be many new vids being posted after VVC that members may wish to talk about and dissect, and if the enthusiasm is there to hold the next round sooner rather than later then we would like to accommodate that.

The second Vidder Profile by bradcpu will be posted the 5th of September.

Creator Commentary Master List:
I would like to compile a master list of audio commentaries made by vidders, series/movie title design creators, and music video directors/editors to act as a resource and a source of inspiration for both vidders and viewers alike. If you have have links to favorites in these categories, then please comment with them so that we can share them with the community.

Just to give you an idea about the kind of things we are looking for outside of the vidder community, my wonderful co-mod bradcpu found the following commentary by Digital kitchen, the title sequence designers for HBO's True Blood:

The Making of the True Blood Title Sequence

THe title sequence as it airs can be found here at the Digital Kitchen website. The Digital Kitchen team has been responsible for the main title sequence for Six Feet Under, House, Nip/Tuck, Dexter, Rescue Me, as well as True Blood, and Shark Week promotional spots the Discovery Channel is currently airing.

I mean, making art is about objectifying your experience of the world, transforming the flow of moments into something visual, or textual, or musical, whatever. Art creates a kind of commentary.
Barbara Kruger


Welcome! It is now July 1st for those observing Eastern Standard Time in North America, so I'm going to declare this community open for commentary posting. I'll be kicking us off in a few hours -- unless anyone wants to try and beat me to it -- but please feel free to post at any time throughout July, or volunteer to write commentary until the 17th.

Please remember to use the posting template in the Introduction and Information post, and to review the rules before you post; specifically, the section on conduct within the community (rule 10); I want this community to be a fun place for all and I would prefer to not disable anonymous commenting. Thank you!

As of yesterday imeem no longer hosts user-generated video content, so if you are a vidder that provided us with an imeem streaming link, then it has been removed from the Master List and will be replaced if and when you comment to the community with a link to a different service. Since imeem removed the embedding feature some time ago, I trust that no one was planning on using their service for any of the audio commentaries.

Vidders that have made their vids available for commentary still out number the writers 4 to 1, so all attempts to get the word out and encourage everyone to join in the challenge will be greatly appreciated! If you haven't already, I do hope that you will all decide to share your vision of your favourite vids with the community; what you see is invaluable!

Enjoy, and Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! \o/

Welcome new members of the community! Thank you all for your interest, as well as your willingness to volunteer both your commentary skills and your vids; I truly appreciate it. So far six members have signed up to write commentary, but we are in need of more. Would you all be so kind as to pimp the community to your friends-list? As core members of your audience they are people who potentially love your vids enough to write commentary on them, so we need these awesome individuals!

Pimping banners can be found at the bottom of the Introductory and Information post if you would like to use them.

Thank you for your assistance!

The Multifandom VID Commentary Challenge!

The objective of this challenge is for you to write or record your own commentary for a vid (or many vids) that is/are not of your making. This is not a review, a critique, or a recommendation, and we don't want a rehash of what the vidder says they did, we want to know what you believe the vid is doing; how and why it works.

Since this challenge requires you to work with vids that are not your own we require that you have vidder permission before beginning; you can obtain that permission either by e-mailing the vidder directly (if you know what vid you would like to work with), or you can check the Vidder Permission Post (linked below) to see who has volunteered their vids for use.

You, as commentator, can choose to either produce a written commentary with screencaps, or an audio/video commentary with a transcript. For examples of the different types of vid commentaries that we are looking for, check out the following links:

Written Commentary:
12_12_12's commentary for Desert Rose by bcgphoenix.

12_12_12's commentary for People All Get Ready by heresluck.

deathisyourart's commentary for Red by obsessive24.

Audio/Video Commentary
Andrew Dignan, Kevin B. Lee, and Matt Zoller Seitz of movingimagesource.us look at the title sequences for The Wire
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5


The Dates:

Sign-up: Now until the 17th of July.
Pimping: June 10th until June 30th.
Posting: July 1st until July 31st.


The Rules:

1.) Vids of all fandoms, characters, and/or pairings are permitted for commentary.

2.) More than one person can write or record a vid commentary on the same vid.

3.) You must have vidder permission before signing up for this challenge. I will be confirming this agreement between you and the vidder independently through private messages and e-mail, so please do not sign up before you are sure that the vidder is comfortable with you using his/her vid.

4.) Any vidder who wishes to give blanket permission or specific vid permissions can do so in the Vidder Permission Master List (linked below). Be warned that if you give permission to one person then you are giving permission to all.

5.) There is no maximum number of commentaries that you can sign-up for, but please be practical about what you can actually finish in the time allotted.

6.) I do not want to restrict anyone by saying that they cannot write a commentary on a vid that they beta-ed; however, this is about your views on what the vid is doing and how and why it works, not the vidders. I am trusting you to decide if your opinions on the vid have been overly influenced by the beta process and what the vidder's own intentions were, and to avoid picking a vid where this is the case.

7.) Please post all vid commentaries straight to the community, with a cut tag after the standard header. If you want to also post it to your own LJ then I ask that you wait a week after posting here.

8.) Hosting: All screencaps must be hosted on your own webspace/photobucket/scrapbook account. No hotlinking! All audio commentaries must be hosted on your own website or streaming site account and embeded within your post, not just linked.

9.) In the event that you are unable to finish the commentary you signed up for, please send me a private message immediately and I will remove you from the list.

10.) I encourage discussion in the comment section of the commentaries, but I do not tolerate trolls, flames, or any kind of rude behaviour. One infraction will get you a warning, multiple will get you banned and your named passed to every moderator of every community I know.

11.) The Dreamwidth amendment: If you possess both a Livejournal and Dreamwidth account, then please crosspost to both versions of this community and leave comments open on both sides. If you only have one journal or the other, then please indicate at the bottom of your post Posted to ***** journal only and I will mirror the post on the other journal service.


Signing Up

COMMENTATOR SIGN-UP - this is for commentators who wish to volunteer and claim a vid as their very own. Please leave your name, the vid title, the vidder, the fandom of the vid, and a link to the streaming/download page/LJ entry where it can be found. Note: We prefer LJ announcement entries over direct links to vid pages so that members of this community can leave feedback for the vidder if they wish.

VIDDER PERMISSION SIGN-UP - For vidders who wish to volunteer their work (either all or just specific vids) for commentary. Please leave your vidder name and a link to your webpage/vid tag page/vid announcement post(s).

MASTER LIST OF CLAIMED VIDS AND VOLUNTEERS

MASTER LIST OF VIDDER PERMISSION


Posting:

All commentaries, should be posted to the community with screencaps and streaming audio hosted on your own accounts. No hotlinking! After the standard header please use an LJcut, and if the commentary takes more than one entry please remember to link them to one another, thank you!

For the subject line of the post:

Title by {vidder name here}, commentary by {your name here}.

Please use the standard header in the body:

Title:
Vidder:
Fandom:
Link:

Commentary By:

Ratings, warnings, and summaries are optional. Exception: All NSFW content must have a warning. Also, remember to place everything other than the standard header behind a cut tag.


( Community Promotional Banners )


If you have any questions please ask them here in this post.

VID Commentary Challenge 2009 - Vidder Sign-Up

If you are a vidder that would like to give permission for your vid(s) to be used for the commentary challenge then please comment here with your name and either a link to all your vids, or the specific ones that you would like to give permission for -- LJ announcement pages, vid tage pages, websites and streaming sites are all allowed.

MASTER LIST OF PARTICIPATING VIDDERS

Reminder: Please check the master list to make sure that all the information is accurate. The master list will be updated daily and the time at which it is done placed at the top of the page.

Vid Commentary Challenge 2009 - Commentator Sign-Up

Sign up here for the vid(s) that you wish to write/record commentary for. There is no maximum number of vids that you can sign-up for; however, please do not sign-up for more than you can realistically complete in the time allotted. If you are unable to complete one or more of the commentaries that you signed up for, then please send me (deathisyourart) a private message or an e-mail and I will remove it/them from the master list.

When commenting please include your name, the title of the vid that you will be commenting on, the vidder's name, the fandom, and a link to the webpage/vid announcement page/streaming site. We prefer that you use the vid announcement page if possible, since it allows other members to leave feedback for the vidder if they wish to.

Remember that you must have vidder permission before signing up! If you do not have a specific vid that you would like to work with, then you can check the master list of vidder permission to see who has volunteered their vids for commentary.

MASTER LIST OF CLAIMED VIDS AND VOLUNTEERS

Reminder: Please check the master list to make sure that all the information is accurate. The master list will be updated daily and the time at which it is done placed at the top of the page.

Vidder Permission Master List
Updated: July 15th
This is the complete list of vidders who have given their permission for their vid(s) to be used for this commentary challenge. If there is any inaccurate information in this post then please e-mail, or send a private message to the moderator.

Achyeb
LJ vid tag

Anarchicq
Youtube account
AMV account

Anoel
LJ vid tag

Bop_radar
LJ vid tag

Bradcpu
LJ vid tag

Buffyann
LJ vid tag

Castorsfate
LJ post for Beautiful

Chaila43
LJ sticky post

Charmax
LJ sticky post
Bam vid vault streaming

Chayiana
LJ sticky post

Cherryice
LJ vid tag

Clucking Belles - Sherrold
Website

Counteragent
LJ vid tag

Danegen
LJ vid tag

Deirdre_c
LJ vid tag

Di - Di_br
LJ vid tag

Dragonchic - bananainpyjamas
LJ vid tag

e^y - etothey
Website

Fabella - wistful_fever
LJ sticky post

Flummery - Seah and Margie
Website

Greensilver
LJ vid tag

Here's luck
Webpage

Hollywoodgrrl
LJ vid tag

Humansrsuperior
LJ vid tag

Jarrow
Website

Kassrachel
Website

Kazbaby
website

Kiki_miserychic
LJ vid tag

Laurashapiro
Website
Bam Vid Vault streaming
Blip TV streaming

Lithiumdoll
Website

Littleheaven70
Website

Lovestories
LJ vid tag

Marycrawford
Website

Millylicious
LJ vid tag

Mresundance
LJ sticky post

Nicole Anell
LJ vid Memories

Proofpudding
LJ sticky post

Reese - dreamrequiem
Website

Sabaceanbabe
LJ memories page

Sdwolfpup
LJ memories page
Website - Buffy vid page

Sister_claymore
DWidth vid tag

Sockkpuppett
Website
Bam vid vault streaming
DWidth sticky post

Sweetiejen
Youtube Channel - new vids

Taragel
LJ vid tag

theanonsisters
LJ vid tag

Tearful eye
LJ sticky post

Thandie
LJ sticky post

Thuviaptarth
LJ vid tag
Website - solo vids only

Claimed Vids & Volunteers Master List
Updated: August 7th 2009
The following list contains all claimed vids and the volunteers attached to them divided first by fandom, then in alphabetical order by title. If there is any inaccurate information in this post then please e-mail, or send a private message to the moderator.

_deejay_
...and Ladies With Pretty Hair by hollywoodgrrl (complete)

Alchemise
Scarlet Ribbons by aycheb (complete)

Aycheb
Half Acre by jarrow & laurashapiro (complete)

Bop_radar
Tear You Apart by bradcpu (complete)

Chaila43
DLZ by bop_radar (complete)

Charmax
Everything's Not Lost by trelkez (complete)

Ciaan
Who found Mr fabulous by kuwdora (complete)

Countessmary
Above & Below by counteragent (complete)

Deathisyourart
Patterns by halcyon_shift (complete)
Unknown Soldier by halcyon_shift (extension)

Ebonypsyche
Weak by charmax (complete - Not yet posted to Dreamwidth)

Hollywoodgrrl
What We Had by cherryice (complete)

Kiki_miserychic
Unnatural Selection by charmax (complete)

Millylicious
Goodnight Moon by bradcpu (extension)

Phantomviola
Why by humansrsuperior (complete - not yet posted to Dreamwidth))

Rhoboat
The Pinky and the Brain by chayiana (complete)

theanonsisters
The Wizard and I by chasarumba (extension)

tearful_eye
Elemental by wistful_fever (extension)

Thuvia Ptarth
Ding!Dong! by kiki_miserychic

ZephyrPrince
Beautiful by castorsfate (complete)