I guess I'm just not satisfied with leaving folks with that level of vid appreciation. I agree that canon knowledge can give you a certain kind of connection with a vid but if you aren't reading then you aren't comprehending. I also agree that most people don't know how to watch a vid but honestly I think part of that is because they aren't preparing themselves for what a vid might do and sometimes it's a simple as not knowing that they should look closely.
I guess I see it like prose poetry. Give a high school kid their first prose poem and then ask them about it and they'll paraphrase it to tell you the plot. Tell them it's a poem and they'll read it again and have all kinds of things to say. Part of that is that they can go 'oh, ok. Poem... what tools do I have to help me appreciate poetry'.
There is precision in vidding. Finesse. If you aren't looking for it then you could be missing a large part of the message. First-timers watch vids superficially, like someone would watch a commercial music video or a musical montage in a movie but these are not the same media at all.
The reason vids speak largely to vidders is because they know what went into the creation of the vid, they can watch a vid and immediately start peeling away at the dense onion skin of communication - they start with song choice and the establishment of viewpoint, mood and themes. Knowing the source helps but film and tv is largely tropes that they know so source doesn't matter so much. They can pick out a pov and they can get enough context to just roll with it. They then pay attention to the cutting, its speed, the associations being suggested with each shot and each juxtaposition. They listen out for refrains in the song and how they change over time. They look at character reactions because they've know that each one has been selected out of hundreds, they know to look at movement because it creates another kind of connection, just like colour... just like everything. These clips don't just go together, they were placed, methodically. They know that 'I Put You There' means more than just re-appropriation of cannon. They know to listen for changes in the music to anticipate pov shifts or eureka moments where ideas are fully realised. They also know that they might not get it and that that's ok because sometimes you never will.
Watching vids for the first time isn't an spectacle - it's a test and there *will* be questions later. Perhaps your point is that expecting folks to read at the speed of vids isn't realistic and if they can enjoy a vid then perhaps somewhere down the line they will be able to understand why. I get that and I know everyone has to start somewhere but I worry about people making assumptions about this as being all there is to it. Access is right but when it comes to fan studies I guess I'm expecting people to make an effort to look closer not only at what the vid's existence means for digital participatory culture or what-have-you but also (and more distinctively?) at what the vid is actually doing and what understanding that may bring on its own merit and how that connects to what all these other vids (ALL these other vids) and what they are doing and saying.
One thing I can say for sure is that academic writing on vids has improved massively the last few years and it's clear that there's a lot more interesting stuff to come.
tl;dr Ian rambles a great deal and looks forward to more study of what makes everyday vids collectively different, individually significant and acknowledges that the interesting parts about vidding are not limited to fan works that can be easily connected to established cultural or political discourse.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-03-17 12:28 am (UTC)I guess I see it like prose poetry. Give a high school kid their first prose poem and then ask them about it and they'll paraphrase it to tell you the plot. Tell them it's a poem and they'll read it again and have all kinds of things to say. Part of that is that they can go 'oh, ok. Poem... what tools do I have to help me appreciate poetry'.
There is precision in vidding. Finesse. If you aren't looking for it then you could be missing a large part of the message. First-timers watch vids superficially, like someone would watch a commercial music video or a musical montage in a movie but these are not the same media at all.
The reason vids speak largely to vidders is because they know what went into the creation of the vid, they can watch a vid and immediately start peeling away at the dense onion skin of communication - they start with song choice and the establishment of viewpoint, mood and themes. Knowing the source helps but film and tv is largely tropes that they know so source doesn't matter so much. They can pick out a pov and they can get enough context to just roll with it. They then pay attention to the cutting, its speed, the associations being suggested with each shot and each juxtaposition. They listen out for refrains in the song and how they change over time. They look at character reactions because they've know that each one has been selected out of hundreds, they know to look at movement because it creates another kind of connection, just like colour... just like everything. These clips don't just go together, they were placed, methodically. They know that 'I Put You There' means more than just re-appropriation of cannon. They know to listen for changes in the music to anticipate pov shifts or eureka moments where ideas are fully realised. They also know that they might not get it and that that's ok because sometimes you never will.
Watching vids for the first time isn't an spectacle - it's a test and there *will* be questions later. Perhaps your point is that expecting folks to read at the speed of vids isn't realistic and if they can enjoy a vid then perhaps somewhere down the line they will be able to understand why. I get that and I know everyone has to start somewhere but I worry about people making assumptions about this as being all there is to it. Access is right but when it comes to fan studies I guess I'm expecting people to make an effort to look closer not only at what the vid's existence means for digital participatory culture or what-have-you but also (and more distinctively?) at what the vid is actually doing and what understanding that may bring on its own merit and how that connects to what all these other vids (ALL these other vids) and what they are doing and saying.
One thing I can say for sure is that academic writing on vids has improved massively the last few years and it's clear that there's a lot more interesting stuff to come.
tl;dr Ian rambles a great deal and looks forward to more study of what makes everyday vids collectively different, individually significant and acknowledges that the interesting parts about vidding are not limited to fan works that can be easily connected to established cultural or political discourse.