Vidukon Programming!

[purplefringe]

Look at me, making three posts in as many days \o/ And all of them about vidding, because I absolutely refuse to talk about What Is Happening In The World on here, and my actual daily life is very boring and nobody needs to hear about that, and I haven't got my brain in gear to talk about the latest episode of Doctor Who yet (!!!!!!) and I've got many (not all, but many) of my other tv-related emotions off my chest through the medium of capslock on WhatsApp (they should rename it WhatsCapp). So: vidding it is!

In exciting and only-slightly-terrifying news - I have joined the VidUKon ConCom this year! \o/ I'm . . . not entirely sure how this happened?? I definitely remember offering last summer to help cosmic_llin with things behind the scenes if she needed, and then suddenly I found myself in co-charge of programming. But it's exciting! Continuing my running trend of making the con slightly more challenging for myself every year.

SO, on that note: please submit your programming ideas! It would be super awesome to have some, you know, actual content at this con. Otherwise it's just going to be three days of Vid Roulette from the (several hundred) vids I have saved on my laptop, and whilst I'm not saying that wouldn't be enjoyable, it could lead to some serious emotional whiplash. Here are the kinds of things we're looking for:

VIDSHOWS: Alongside the regularly-scheduled shows (Vidder's Choice, Premieres, the Festivids show), we would like some other curated shows! If you've come to the con before, you don't need me to explain this to you. If you haven't - head over to the very snazzy website and check out the shows from past years! They can be shows on a particular theme or concept (eg. 'Home' or 'Religion' or 'Fandom' or 'Be Gay, Do Crimes!') or about a particular genre of media (eg. horror, or SFF set in space or video games) or kind of character/relationship (Vampires! Lady Spies! OT3 relationships! ...ngl I would watch that show). Or the show can be constructed around the kind of vid (eg. constructed reality vids, comedy vids, dance vids, vids set to non-english-language music, vids with a POV switch). We had a karaoke show one year, which was fun, and we once had an amazing show which showcased snapshots of human history through the medium of vids in chronological order, from Ice Age (20,000 BCE) to Goodbye Lenin (1989). We often have a show for vids made a decade ago, if someone volunteers to put it together - so this year we'd be looking at vids from 2010! (what is linear time??) Possibilities are endless and exciting! You can run a show by yourself or in a pair or group - and if you've never done it before and are thinking it sounds fun, please ask me things :) I super enjoy talking about it. If we have too many shows submitted, priority will be given to those run by people attending the con - but if you are supporting the con you should totally submit ideas too \o/

PANELS: We would also LOVE some panel suggestions! Past panels have included Anatomy of a Vid, in which three panellists each spent 15 minutes lovingly analysing one of their favourite vids; we've had some amazing academic panels on the history of vidding as 'women's work', vidding as critique, fannish archives; we've talked about vidding different kinds of canons, about watching vids as a vidder vs as a non-vidder, about various technical aspects of vidding. It's always a bit more of a struggle to find panels, but I would really love it if people had suggestions <3 I personally am always up for LEARNING things and so would be very enthusiastic if anyone out there wanted to talk about, eg. vidding to different genres of music, or how using visual effects can sway a viewer's emotions, or different ways to beta vids. But please suggest things! Any things!

To submit a vidshow idea, go HERE, and to submit a panel idea, go HERE and click 'create a show/panel'.

PREMIERES: We are also looking for PREMIERES! You do not have to be attending or supporting the con to submit a premiere! You do not have to be an experienced vidder - it could be your first vid! :D It can be about any source. Literally the only requirement is that it isn't released online or at another con before it airs at the VidUKon show (Saturday 13th June) and that it's submitted to us by the 10th May. Premieres is a great time - it takes place after dinner on Saturday night, and tends to result in a lot of emotional hangovers for everyone. GOOD TIMES.

So, um, yes, please send us things. I really don't want to subject everyone to three days of Vid Roulette.

Comments

[lilly_the_kid]

Yay, thanks! We already booked flights and the hotel :) I'm really excited!!

I submitted my first idea and I'm thinking about the second one, it's not quite clear yet. Can I already ask people for input/recs? And then I fill out the form with vids I think are fitting? Do I ask vidders permission now or do I wait until the show is approved/the programming is worked out?
Thanks again :)

[purplefringe]

aaaaaah amazing! You should definitely get to registering for the con then :P Where are you coming from?

I just had a look at the behind-the-scenes bit of the website (which I can do now I'm on the concom! aaaaah) and I love your first idea! Very interested to see what your second idea is.

You can totally already ask people for input/recs if you think that will make the decision-making easier! I wouldn't go to the effort of asking vidders for permission yet though - wait until you have a show put together, and then ask them. In my experience (and I've done a LOT of vidshows now) everyone will say yes :)

You can't submit any actual vids to the Vidukon site yet - what will happen is that at the end of the month, when the 'submissions' period closes, I will have a look at what show and panel ideas have been submitted, and hopefully we will have enough for me to cobble a programme together (I mean, hopefully we will have MORE than that, but who knows) and then I will approve the shows we want in the con. And then you will get an email to say your show has been approved! And then you can start putting it together in earnest, and will eventually have to input a load of metadata into the website, which is all v easy. And upload the vids to the site, which is also v easy

The only time things might get complicated is in the (reasonably unlikely) event that two vidshows are submitted with the same vid, in which case I will ask the VJs to try and work out a compromise and change one of their vids.

I hope that's useful! Feel free to ask anything else! .

[lilly_the_kid]

Yes totally :D I'm planning on doing it tomorrow, my friend thinks she's gonna do it on the weekend :) We're coming from Germany.

Thanks so much for your reply, that's all very helpful and I'm looking forward to getting started :)

[lilly_the_kid]

I received a lot wonderful recs from people already :) (Right now I think I might stick with this one idea, the other one is still too vague and in a way quite similar to this one.)

And I have a few more qustions:
Do I have to put in all the information of the vids I'd like to be in the show before March 1st? Or can I still alter the list after that?

And I'm not sure about the field 'editor's email'. What should I put there if I can't find someone's email address?

Thanks so much!! :)

[purplefringe]

Hey! Yay, I’m so glad! I’ve been having a think – I KNOW I’ve watched loads of recruiter vids, and have been trying to remember what they are to rec them to you. This is a great show idea – and you could always save your other idea for next year 

All questions welcome, this is all useful – shows me we need to make our FAQs clearer.

Do I have to put in all the information of the vids I'd like to be in the show before March 1st? Or can I still alter the list after that?

Nope! In fact, I would strongly recommend you don’t bother to put in ANY show info before March 1st. The March 1st date is just when we need all show ideas to be submitted. Not the actual vids involved – just the show title/theme. Then cosmic_llin and I will spend a few days figuring out the schedule and ‘approving’ the shows we want to include. When we’ve approved your show, you will get an email to say it has been approved and is definitely going to be part of the Con programming, and THEN you should start filling in the vid info. I really recommend you don’t do it before then, because you need to put the vids in the order you want them to appear in your show, and you aren’t going to know that until you have decided on all the vids!

Once your show has been approved, you will have until 26th April to fill in all the info about the vids, and until 29th May to actually upload the vids themselves.

And I'm not sure about the field 'editor's email'. What should I put there if I can't find someone's email address?

Good question! So this depends on how much of a control-freak you are. (I am a BIG control-freak). Putting in the vid editor’s email address means that the vidder will get an email saying something like ‘Hi [vidder]! Lilly-the-kid would like to include your vid [title] in her vidshow. If you are happy for it to be included, please upload your vid here [link to upload page on website].' I am a control-freak, so I prefer to contact each vidder myself (via dreamwidth or the Ao3) to ask them to send the highest res version of their vid to me. And I put my own email address in all the ‘editor email’ boxes. That means *I* receive all the emails with the upload links, and I can upload them myself – it means more work for me, but means I KNOW that it’s been done. But YMMV, and if you are less obsessive than I am, and you have the email addresses for some of the vidders, you can put those in if you prefer.

Does that help?

[lilly_the_kid]

Thank you so much, this helps a lot! :)

Heh, I think I might also put my email address in those fields, I'm a big control freak as well and that sounds like a good way to deal with that :D

And I'm very much looking forward to your recs!

[purplefringe]

Hey hey! Just wanted to check in - we approved the vidshows today! Did you get an email confirmation for ‘I Want To Go There’? I’m not sure if the emails went out or not...

[lilly_the_kid]

Yay, I'm so happy it got approved! :) But I didn't get an e-mail, I'm afraid.