The swelling music rises and quickly cuts to an underscore of voiceover from a dashing young vampire. He slinks along the forest floor into the night as the scene fades out. Was this an ending passage from Twilight you just read?
Nope! What about a scene from the season finale of that teen drama you love?
Getting closer….
No. It's the sweeping and dramatic conclusion to a fan video.
What's a fan video you ask?
A fan video is a fan-made edited video that can include everything from pictures of your favorite celebrity to video clips from "The Walking Dead" mashed together with music to provide a story. Think your very own personally edited music video without the lame MTV-style dancing!
You are now a vidder. Welcome to the world of vidding.
Vidding started in 1975 with the television series "Star Trek." At a fan convention, attendee Kandy Fong was able to sync-up stills from the sci-fi show with music from her cassette player. In that one moment, Fong created a community that has spanned almost 40 years. As technology changed, so did the fan video. When the VCR came around, fans began to use Fong's video ideas in a new and progressive way. They would edit video and music to tape and send them across the world to one another for each other's viewing pleasure. One could say this method resembled a pre-historic Youtube.
A well-known vidder, Luminosity, brought the idea of today's fan videos to the 21st century. Luminosity would take clips, make videos, and share them on video based websites like Youtube. Luminosity says, "Vidding is not a static art form. It is subject to waves and schools, just like any other art. It may have started with parody, but now it has progressed, I think, into modern and postmodern interpretations of the source."
While vidding is considered an art form to some, this aspect of being a fan has not been an easy road for those involved.
"If anything, vids provide free advertising. I wish the industry would join us in the 21st century." As of 2007, Luminosity goes on, "as we speak, a group of fans are putting together a new nonprofit, the Organization for Transformative Works, which will be working to help protect the fair-use rights of fan creators to make vids."
Luminosity believes that because vidders do not benefit from anything other than appreciation from fellow friends, vidding should be established as being outside of copyright laws.
Organization for Transformative Works wants to help shine light on the plight of the vidder. The organization's mission is to, "serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms."
In other words, fandom is just as important as any other forms of self-expressional art. They strive to defend their work, "from commercial exploitation and legal challenge, and to preserve our fannish economy…by protecting and nurturing our fellow fans, our work, our commentary… and our identity, while providing the broadest possible access to fannish activity for all fans." Vidders want to be heard.
They believe what they do is defined by the government's definition of "fair-use." Fair-use is a limit on copyright law that protects free expression which can include making videos for non-profit and non-commercial use. Vidders and the OTW want to provide a distinction that someone trying to sell you a bootleg copy of "Catching Fire" or that person uploading a new episode of "Revenge" to the internet is in no way the same thing as a vidder editing a "Cougar Town" video set to "22" by Taylor Swift.
Vidders want to create something new by putting a new twist on an old subject. Organization for Transformative Works believes their use of the word "transformative" is crucial. Their organization's definition stems directly from the Supreme Court, "[it] adds something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the [source] with new expression, meaning, or message." OTW believes that you can take the material, but it can't be a direct interpretation of said material. You have to be original and more importantly different with your intent. DO NOT post a direct scene from "Harry Potter" online, but make a "Harry Potter" fan video where Voldemort is the hero and Harry is the villain.
Fandom and what fans do is clearly important. We, as a society, wouldn't be social media crazy if it didn't matter. We wouldn't be reblogging an animated GIF of that half-naked guy from "Teen Wolf" or Grumpy Cat's umpteenth peeved face if we didn't want to be heard by the world. We desire to be seen by our internet friends. Trying to wake up your roommate in a funny manner to get 10 million views wouldn't be a thing if fandoms and social media interaction wasn't worthy of our time.
Fandom is about creation. Creation allows the viewer to become more than a watcher, it allows them become an artist, a director, a writer, and a thinker. In the end, being a fan is being involved with what you love.
Vidders want to show the public they are involved. Their mission is to tell a story from start to end. The only question is now, will you watch it?
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