September 2013

It Is 1979 And Do You Know Where Your ARPANET Is?

(some links take you to Fanlore, the fan run wiki about media fandom)

Yes Ma'am, We'll Get Right On That (Online FanFic In 1995)

This time the year is 1995 and a fan on a media fandom mailing list asks a very reasonable question:

“Why in the world aren’t there online fanfic zines? If the writers aren’t doing it for the money and the editors aren’t doing it for the money yet there’s still a ton of money being spent, doesn’t it make sense to cut the money out of the equation? Sure, not everyone has Web access but as a general rule it’s becoming easier by the day to get some sort of connectivity that connectivity that would get you the goods, so to speak.”

The good news is  that 1995 is the year that a X-Files fanfic archive appeared with many more fandoms soon to follow.

(links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki about media fandom)

E-Mail and Mailing Lists: When The Internet Was A Toll Road

Kirk/Spock - Not Always A Happy Ending

This week I scanned this zine for the authors and their families.

The zine, The Rack, was a response to the K/S premise by carrying forward the then current views about homosexuality into the Star Trek future with devastating consequences. It made quite an impact when it was published in 1980. And it, in turn, created more response fic.

As the authors explained: “We have stated that many readers were emotionally upset by the tragedy of THE RACK. Some expressed their feelings through Letters of Comment, while others were compelled to write their own stories, poems and vignettes, ideas inspired by the heartwrenching, difficult-to-accept ending… Other stories, published elsewhere, were also inspired by our novella. Mariann H, in TRIAL (NEXUS 1), delivers an alternate ending which had its own impact on fandom. While we don’t agree with her premise, we know Mariann’s story did satisfy those for whom the unhappy ending of THE RACK was difficult to handle….People have been compelled to analyze the story, write alternate endings for it and continue to request we reprint ALL THE KING’S HORSES. Working on THE RACK, its sequel and this ‘zine has been a unique and important experience for us as writers. The stories have touched our lives, becoming part of us in a very personal way — we’ve learned a lot about people in general, fandom and the art of writing”

Links go to Fanlore - the fan run wiki about fandom

Fan Vidding: The TeenAge Years - Part 5

We’re at the end of our discussion of Rainbow Noise, the first (and only) vidding letterzine. Published in 1993, we have been only able to find two issues. If you have any copies, drop me an email or comment.

The last section in the letterzine focuses on two topics: “how much to charge for your fanvids on videotape” and “wouldn’t it be awesome to have a fanvid library where we could borrow vids on tape?”

The issue of whether to charge - and how much to charge - for fanworks is that one fanzine publishers, fan artists, and fan vidders have wrestled with since media fandom flowered in the 1960s. Today, the prevailing view is that it is wrong,  wrong and WRONG to ask for any money for your fanworks. Fanworks are gift of love. And everything should be free on the Internet, right?

But in those olden days, the days before the Internet, the only way to share a story was to physically imprint it on paper (such as a mimeograph machine that inked letters onto drums that rotated and spun and made you high with their fumes), seal it in an envelope and send it via post. Few fans had printers in their homes and before the 1990s computer ownership was not common among fans (although fandom with their geeky ways were early adopters of computer technology). Fan vids had to be made on VCRs using videotape. In fact you needed two VCRs to make a fanvid – at a time when most homes could only afford one VCR. And, like fanzines you had to ship the videotapes through sleet and snow and hail. Fan artists - well the print reproduction process was limited. And who would ship their originals to a convention hundreds or thousands of miles away just so someone could see your art? Submitting your fanart to fanzines in exchange for a contributor’s copy was the only way to “be seen.” Which led straight back to fanzines and how much to charge for them.

But back to the song video library. If a vidder did climb that logistical mountain to make copies of her “songtapes“ to send out to the world….. well the quantities were limited. Since there was no Internet, the only place to see fanvids was to travel to a convention (very expensive) or to find someone local who had a copy and was willing to open their living rooms to you. And for fan vidders who wanted to see other vidder’s work - well everyone was in the same boat. Forget about discussions of fan vids, or feedback or concrit…. if 100 people ever saw your vid, you were lucky. If 500 people saw your vid, you might as well call yourself Vincent and gogh home and paint more sunflowers.

So you can imagine how a song video lending library would have been an awesome idea.

Sadly, the technical logistics and the small circulation of the Rainbow Noise meant that the songvid library never took off.

So now, aren’t you glad that the Internet was invented just so you can watch and share fanvids? And art? And fic? And podfic? And gifsets?

On to the proposal in issue #2 of Rainbow Noise:

"Opinion Time: Like a story sitting in a drawer, a video that no one sees is wasted. Years ago I became frustrated because I would see a video once at a con and never again. Or, even worse, hear about it second hand. Or, the very worst, have only multiple gen or ripped-off copies floating around. That’s why, back in the Calicon days, I started making "contest tapes” for the convention members. There has been wonderful encouragement and support from concoms (like Candy P. who even makes special lists on her

computer) and the video makers who allow me to copy their songs. I want to publicly thank everyone for their help. But, I’m still a little frustrated. I keep hearing about videos, videomakers that I’ve missed (I was told 2 years ago about a funny video with different fandoms bowling—but have yet to see it!)

I am also disturbed by reports that pseudo fans are duping off multiple gen copies of music videos and selling these for big bucks. If anyone wants more than $5.00 for any con, or compiled (ie. from multiple video makers) tape—this is a rip-off. Please spread the word and let’s try to shut them down.

A second means of attack and a way to relieve my frustration with missing videos came to mind while talking with several video makers. I propose setting up a music video library. Video makers would send me tapes of their work and I could dupe for fans (at cost) on my industrial quality VHS, Beta and PAL machines. Creators would have a wider audience, the best possible copies would be available, and creators would miss the hassle of running bunches of copies. This arrangement has worked out well for people like Mary Van Deusen and Cybel. However, if a maker, such as Dee Jay, prefers to make her own copies, I’d be willing to pass along flyers, or info. So, I invite all video makers to contact me.

I am also willing (eager) to put together and distribute copies of con video contest tapes for cons that1 do not attend. I would like to invite any concom to contact me.“

(links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki about fandom history)

The Digital Dark Ages...

But digital historians are testing out new reconstructions method:

“What’s interesting is that this process is a kind of internet archaeology that reconstructs an historical web page from the context in which it occurred. That’s a fascinating new discipline.In the real world, archaeologists and anthropologists have become highly skilled at reconstructing natural history in this way. The conclusions that can be drawn from the discovery and analysis of a single tooth, for example, are truly astounding.”

I Only Do It For Love, Not Money

Interesting article (a snippet below).

Read more about Going Pro/Pulled To Publish , Fandom and Profit  and fandom’s Gift Economy on Fanlore.

“Because women’s social role is often essentialized as procreative labour accordingto the extant sex-gender system, it is unsurprising that women who challenge that role arediscursively connected to women who disrupt their ‘proper’ sexualized role as wives andmothers. Women writers who publish their work refuse their role as unpaid producers of“gifts of love” – instead, they enter into the market economy to “sully” themselves in thepublic sphere. We can see this in discussions of fans who seek to profit from their work:too often, this is described in pejorative ways, such as complaints about fan authors who“try to make a few bucks” (mctina) and “earn” themselves “some cash” (akasakasan), by
forcing others in fandom to “pony up the Benjamins!” (thebratqueen).”
from “Filthy Lucre and Test Audiences: Fan Debates about Publishing Fan Fiction” by Monica Flegel

Fan Vidding: The TeenAge Years - Part 4

We’re almost at an end to our journey back to 1993 and the Middle Ages of fan vidding. In the second issue of Rainbow Noise, the vidding letterzine, a lonely male vidder writes an essay titled: “Song Videos and the Male of the Species.”

At the time, almost all media fan vidders were female (in contrast to other vidding fandoms such as anime)

In the essay, he argues that the prevalence of female vidders in media fandom is an historical accident. And that surely the percentage of slash videos will drop dramatically. Right? Right?

“Unless we can argue that there is some inherent predisposition from an interest in slash to the production of music videos, above and beyond a familiarity with video equipment which is shared with, for example, fans of Japanese Animation, we must admit that the particular way in which song tapes have evolved and the resulting preponderance of female video artists is largely a historical accident.

All this may be painfully obvious to everyone else, but if the theory is true we can make several predictions. As time goes on, the dominant sex of those creating music videos may remain female, just as a small majority of science fiction fans are still male, but the ratio will level. out More significantly, we can predict that as the hobby expands, the total number of slash videos being produced will probably increase, but the percentage of slash videos will drop dramatically.”

Links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki.

It's IDIC! Live! From 1988!

ScotPress, one of the earliest Star Trek fanzine publishers in the UK has posted the first 10 issues of their letterzine IDIC online. You can read the issues here. And there is more info about the newsletter’s history on Fanlore here.

Here’s a snippet from the first newsletter:

“It was the advent of video which changed the face of conventions. At first, the technology was too expensive for the average ‘man on the street,’ but conventions could afford to hire the equipment, and although blank tapes were £15.00 a time, a secondary programme of available episodes began to take shape, splitting the attendees into smaller groups. The 'one big happy family’ feeling began to dissipate; I’m told of a convention where Trek episodes were available 24 hours a day on the hotel’s in-house system, resulted in some people never leaving their rooms for the entire weekend!… Nowadays if an original Trek episode formed part of the main programme at a convention, it would have a very poor attendance indeed, and it seems that a higher percentage expect to be entertained 24 hours a day, rather than being prepared to make their own amusements.”

(links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki)

Fan Vidding: The TeenAge Years - Part 3

The shift from analog to digital vidding in the early 2000s impacted fannish life on so many levels. For example, videotape was fragile and could wear out and break. Every copy you made from a videotape lost clarity, until you were watching small blobs running across the screen. And for many fandoms, it was not until decades later when your TV show appeared on DVD that you realized you had your favorite character’s eye  color all wrong.

But vidders were always willing to give technical tips. Here are some tips on how to watch your favorite TV shows. To closely approximate this on your DVD/DVR/Computer, please remember to use only every other key/button to preserve their lifespan:

“It is possible to love a tape to death. Recently, I borrowed a series from another fan, and I can tell where every one of her favorite scenes is located. Every time she paused the tape - backed it up - paused the tape - replayed it (sometimes in slow motion), the tape stretched a little bit. Now her favorite scenes are bracketed with wavy pictures and rolling images. You can avoid this. First, pause a tape as little as possible. Second, if you must pause, as in making music videos, try to pause in a different spot each time. Doing it just seconds before and after the usual spot can minimize the damage. Third, use a stronger tape. Professional (AKA industrial) tape is made for editing. Few of us can afford it for a whole series, although you can get best episodes in rerun.* The next best choice is an extra high grade (AKA special event) tape. I use Sony, Maxell, or TDK.”

From Rainbow Noise, the first and only vidding letterzine published in 1993.

*The cost of a single 2hr professional grade videotape in the early 1990s was around $15 or $24 in today’s dollars. Imagine paying $24 today  for 2 episodes that you recorded off-air…That would be almost $300 for an entire season of Teen Wold or Supernatural, And you’d have to do all the taping work yourself…and pay for the cable. And the VCR. And the TV. 

Links go to Fanlore, the fan run Wiki

Fan Vidding: The TeenAge Years - Part 2

We’re still in 1993, solidly placed within the era of VCR vidding. In the first issue of the letterzine Rainbow Noise, vidder Gayle F writes an article about the use of color in vids: how she selects clips based on color scheme and not because of content or context or movement.  Digital vidding is another 7 years away and the ability to change or edit the color scheme of an existing clip is beyond imagination. 

“I realize this will not be obviously apparent to the viewer, but I do believe [color in vids] influences the whole, making it a more aesthetically pleasing and emotionally effective vid. …. I do think it is an often over-looked way of adding richness and cohesion to a video. It can be used to build mood, and to smooth transitions….. While color is generally only one of these many on-going considerations for me, I do have one recent vid where I feel it works a major force in the emotional effect of the vid, fusing meaning and mood. This is the MV vid, End of the Night…..When I was listening to the Doors’ End of the Night, I decided it would be a great song for a Sonny-as-Burnett vid. Without a clear memory of that part of the series, I knew I wanted to use the dream sequence, and imagined that it would be played against a lot of night images, dark both visually and in content. When I actually rewatched the episodes, I was delighted by the frequent use of surreal color, and decided to build the vid using those images. Because so many of the images from these episodes have colored lighting, the same visual effect might have been inadvertently obtained choosing images only on the basis of content, but there were significant moments that could have been used with more natural lighting which I rejected in favor of the strange nightmarish world that builds up with the heightened color. All the night blacks are stained with either blue or red, and the cold, distant blue and the hot, flame and blood red are themselves used as the predominant lighting in other shots. The unnatural, bleached white of the dream sequence becomes the "bright midnight” of the lyrics, fusing the black nightmare world of Burnett with Sonny’s haunted dreamscape. I choose just one moment of white interior lighting before the end of the song-in Burnett’s bathroom, where the screen splits into black and while halves as Sonny/Burnett reaches out to touch his reflection in the mirror. Although the color was less exaggerated, it echoed the other scenes and epitomized the emotional conflict. Only when Sonny starts to remember and accept who he is, does natural sunlight, normality, enter the images. Even then, the first images are blue washed, impressionistic. Only in the last-paradoxically nightmarish-shot of Sonny’s return to the station is the lighting clear and bright.“

A few years later, Gayle repeated the lesson in color at an Escapade vid panel and fan vidders boggled at the idea of using color as  a primary factor in choosing a clip. It would be like designing an entire menu around the color white. Or red. Choosing your food based on color and not on nutrition or taste? Craazy vid talk!

You can see screencaps from the Miami Vice vid "End of the Line” here.

On a personal note, my first VCR vids were done with Gayle as my teacher and mentor. When I vidded with her clips were selected based on color, context (what was happening in the episode) and content (what was happening in the clip), often in that order. When I vidded on my own, my choices were content, context and only then color. When I began digital vidding, I discovered I no longer had to put color last - I now had the ability to change the color palette of a clip if I needed to. I could have my white chocolate cake with white chocolate  frosting and white chocolate cherries on the top and eat it too (although why anyone eats white chocolate anything is beyond me.)

The second in a series about the Rainbow Noise letterzine. Links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki,

Fan Vidding: The TeenAge Years - Part 1

The year is 1993. Video editing VCRs are all the rage with fan vidders pooling their money to buy a single machine for $1000* which they pass around from home to home. Fanvids have been around for almost two decades but there are few, if any places, where vidders can talk about vidding. Almost no one has email and mailing lists are just beyond the horizon.Two vidders decide to publish a letterzine for vidders and decide to call it Rainbow Noise - named after the flashes of color you sometimes get on videotape when you make an edit on a VCR without a flying erase head.

But first, before they can publish, they have to decide what to talk about. In the initial subscription letter, the editors tossed out a few suggestions. Remarkably, technology aside, it is very much the same as what vidders talk about today.

The first in a series of posts about Rainbow Noise.** 

Some inks go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki.
___________________________________________

Carlos and Cecil Are Sitting In A Tree....

1. I think it would make Cecil very happy if we all decided to donate a set number to Nightvale so he could take Carlos out on a date. Say….we all send $6.66? You can donate here
2. A handy dandy Fall TV preview grid is here,
3. The history of e-zines (electronic zines) is on Fanlore here.

A Follow-up To My Star Trek Audio Recording Post

(some links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki)

For Those Unhappy With Unauthorized Sharing of Fanworks....

When has fandom ever *not* shared. Even in the face of warnings like the ones below. It is like premarital sex. There is the Pope and the local priest thundering about how it is not done/should not be done/wasn’t done as much in those olden more morally upstanding days…and all the while everyone just goes out and keeps doing it all over the place. The problem is not the doing…it is the lying about the doing and the pretending there is no doing and trying to shame and shun those for the doing. (links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki)

From Fanlore:

“At least one copy of the Pros circuit version contains a front page with a copyright notice "1983 by Blue Jay Press” and a statement:

“A limited edition printing of 50. Copy number 33…Not to be copied or otherwise reproduced without permission in writing from Blue Jay Press. This copy of PAINTING IN THE CLOUDS remains the property of Blue Jay Press, who reserve the right to ask for its return at any future date.”

Below in handwriting someone has written:
“[N], I don’t have permission [to copy this story] and I don’t care. It’s Lewis B-day today and I’m being anarchic. (Just don’t tell [P] or she’ll yell at me).”

Above in different handwriting:
“K&J, [N] sent me a copy of her copy before I got mine….a year ago I guess, as Lew’s Birthday is May 27. Read this before Masquerade.”

There is no author credit on the story.

Bits of history like this make me happier to be a fan…to know that we are still human and have always been human and (hopefully) will stay human down the road.