This week's discussion reminded me of a lecture in 191 (television) with Jennifer Holt. Perhaps some of you were in that class and remember that she dedicated an entire day to fanvids and slashvids. In particular, I remember the Lost and Buffy videos that were circulating. I think that I took this class Freshman year, so it would have been Spring of 2005 which as I remember was before YouTube was as huge as it is now. Actually, I remember having a really hard time finding those videos again to show some friends which in itself shows a vastly different atmosphere of fandom between now and three years ago. Anyway, I thought I would post some videos similar to one's shown in 191 because I think they speak to our generation as the Star Trek videos spoke to earlier fans. The one thing I wonder about these slash vids is what the percentage is of actual fantasy on part of the artist versus exploitation of the characters and subculture. There seems to be a general recognition, even within the fan community, of a type of parodying that accompanies slash creations but I think that some are made with more earnest desire to see and share the outcome than others. When "Brokeback Top Gun" came out it really seemed to exploit the slash vid community, parodying the success of the gay narrative in Brokeback Mountain, versus the two I have posted below which seem less interested in parody than the portrayal of the relationships. Maybe I am just reading into this but what do you guys think?
(Just looked it up, YouTube was founded February 2005 and not launched until November of that year.)
"No One Else" Jack/Sawyer
http://lostvideo.net/viewvid.php?vidid=3748
"Closer" Spike/Angel
http://sisabet.livejournal.com/10640.html
Also, here is a good article from Henry Jenkins himself; "How to Watch a Fan Vid".
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One sure thing is that these videos raise the bar for us as editors!! Especially that first one you posted...make fun of the fan vid subculture if you will, but you can't deny they have skills!
I think these vids are a sort of visual fanfiction. If you take a gander at fanfiction.com, the same slash stuff and exploitation has been going since before youtube (and I'm sure fans were writing long before the internet); now that technology is so advanced and accessible, it makes a lot of sense that fans would make this transition.
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