Vidding: Connecting With Audiences

In 2004, laura shapiro and rache held a panel at Vividcon about vidder's "Connecting With Their Audiences." Portions of the panel explored the different types of vid viewing audiences, the differences between con vids and living room vids, the differences between a slash and gen audience, what type of audience might respond to a meta vid, and whether vidders were trending towards only vidding to an audience that shared "our opinions about the source text and our aesthetic sensibilities?" See panel notes.WebCite for Vividcon panel notes.
A year after the convention, vidder permetaform posted a follow-on essay to her LJ (archive link) asking herself (and other vidders) whether it is possible, as a vidder, to communicate with multiple audiences who share wildly divergent aesthetics.WebCite for "[viddish] Gattaca WIP, Connecting with audiences, and Other thinkyness" dated April 11, 2005. Among the questions she posed:
*How do I, as a vidder, communicate with you, as a viewer?
*And specifically [how do I communicate with] a viewer that is not part of the echo-chamber...how do I communicate with the Other, that does not already see eye-to-eye with me?
*Is this communication even *possible*? (I'd like to believe that it is.)
*Question is: is it possible to vid to both aesthetics simultaneously?
*Also: *should* it be a goal to vid to both aesthetics simultaneously?
The panel notes and subsequent essay stirred a vigorous debate among both vidders and vid audiences. Discussion threads have been broken out below into rough thematic categories. Note that there may be overlap in some of these threads/discussions. Click on the links to read further.
Discussion threads
* I don't think there's anything wrong with not connecting with part - note, part - of an audience.WebCite for sarahtheboring's "I don't think there's anything wrong..."
* I wonder whether vidding is like reading poetry...poems that seem to go for the emotions and the pretty images and language and they make sense on first or second reading.WebCite for "Vidding is like reading poetry... "
* I started to encounter a lot of people who said they didn't understand vids at all. And started to wonder about why a TV show (visual medium) could generate so many millions of pieces of fanfiction (and readers), but only a handful of vids (and viewers).WebCite for "I started to encounter a lot of people ..."
* What I have trouble with isn't as much the speed of the edits as it is the overlapping and color palette "shocks" that happen sometimes with a lot of effects. WebCite for "What I have trouble with..."
* Is this a question of linear narrative versus circular narrative? ie. the linear narrative grabs your gut more 'cause the circular one is too repetitious?. WebCite for Is this a question of linear narrative ..."
* If it becomes possible to capture the heart and the mind simutaneously, does it become, then, a question of *which* heart and *which* mind? WebCite for "If it becomes possible to capture the heart and the mind..." 
* I've been thinking that my vids were too transparent and narratively simple, and making them harder as a result. WebCite for "I've been thinking that my vids were too transparent..."
*Perhaps you could call me one of the "disenfranchised viewers" because my brain is not equipped to deal with most of what is out there in the vidding world. WebCite for "Perhaps you could call me one of the "disenfranchised viewers"....
* Not Only Are There Multiple Audiences - They Change. WebCite for "Not Only Are There Multiple Audiences - They Change".
* It's possible for vidders to allow too much outside influence (like audience reaction, etc.) to creep in. WebCite for "It's possible for vidders to allow too much outside influence..."
* There are a number of factors working against vidders and a number of reasons why vidders may not be able to reach a certain audience. WebCite for "There are a number of factors working against vidders...."
* The best way to connect with the audience is to convince them that you're having fun with your vid, even if it kept you up nights and you wanted to send your monitor out the window, WebCite for The best way to connect with the audience is to convince them that you're actually having fun with your vid..." which is continued here WebCite for continued "Having fun with your vid..." and here. WebCite for continued "Having fun with your vid..." 
* About the audience. I wonder if worrying too much about the audience isn't kind of a mistake. WebCite for "I wonder if worrying too much about the audience..."
==References==
Category:Panel Discussions, Notes & Transcripts
Category:Vidding Meta
Category:2004 Meta
Category:2004 Conventions