Marvel

August 26, 2014 12:04 PM

Fanvids have come a long way since Kandy Fong's first proto-vids/slideshows in the 1970s-1980s. Vidder lim provides a great example of how far the form has come. Her recent Marvel Cinematic Universe vids Expo (Iron Man), Marvel (MCU), and Time (Captain America 2) are gorgeous examples of vids at their best.

If you want more vids, check out the vid premieres from the annual North American vidding convention Vividcon, which was held earlier this month. With vids for everything from the Hunger Games to the new Cosmos, there's something for everyone.

posted by yasaman (17 comments total)

A note for those with epilepsy or migraine triggers: lim's videos use some fast cuts and strobe-like effects. Also, the vid Marvel features some shots of the Chrises Evans and Hemsworth shirtless, so maybe NSFW.
posted by yasaman at 12:06 PM on August 26, 2014

Am completely new to this entire genre of film (I know, how? I don't know!) and just watched Winter Soldier last night for the first time. There's something really great about completely missing the boat on all of this, because you decide you want to catch up and it's a fully multi-modal, immersive experience. There's comics! Books! Podcasts! Boardgames! Forums! And now, very apropos, excellent fanfic vids!

(plus everybody I know is really into helping me… "What, you've never seen the X-Men?! Right, drop everything, let's go, now!")
posted by iamkimiam at 12:31 PM on August 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Interesting. For whatever silly reason, I though anime fans were unique in this, but I show my youth through such assumptions. All you need is a projector and a cassette player. If anime is your thing, Anime Music Videos dot org is probably the key source for AMVs, going back to 2000. There are a ton of literal music videos, but some really good ones that have a really good flow.

The discussion of canon and interpretations of themes/shows is interesting, and not something I've seen in AMVs.

Keen stuff, thanks!
posted by filthy light thief at 1:22 PM on August 26, 2014

Not all of this year's premiering vids will show up via VVC's official tumblr, because not every participating vidder is (yet) in the habit of blogging their vid on tumblr and making sure the VVC account sees it.

I think right now the Vividcon Livejournal is still the place where the most centralized and complete lists of vid links are being gathered after the con. (I know, I know, but Vividcon has been around a long time!)

So for instance, here's this year's Master Vidshow List post--it goes through the con by day, and links each show (all the curated/topic-based ones, and also the submitted-Premieres one from Saturday night) to a list on the VVC database, and in that list there'll be links available in the right-hand column (if the vid has been made available for streaming/download online by its vidder).

Less one-click-shopping than the tumblr-reblogs, but still, really worth a look!

Also, the Livejournal (and the con's Dreamwidth, too, though that's still not always a complete mirror) includes some people's posts about their panels, sometimes with outlines or notes included, vids showed at room parties, etc.
posted by theatro at 1:40 PM on August 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

I really wanted to like these (I'm a total MCU fangirl) but found her musical choices so annoying that I couldn't make it to the end of a single video. :( :( :( They did look gorgeous, though, so maybe I'll give them another shot with the sound off.

If anyone has any recs to good MCU fanvids done to more traditional pop/rock music, I'd really appreciate it! :)
posted by Jacqueline at 2:08 PM on August 26, 2014

All you need is a projector and a cassette player.

Apparently, that's where it all began. Sometimes the vids were made with vcr's and stopwatches.

The discussion of canon and interpretations of themes/shows is interesting, and not something I've seen in AMVs.

It's an appropriate reaction to the video equivalent of fanfic.
posted by ZeusHumms at 2:08 PM on August 26, 2014

Starships Were Meant to Fly

AKA the most fun fanvid I've seen. Do you like any spaceship from popular culture? It's in this vid. Just watch!
posted by hepta at 2:16 PM on August 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

That's odd I just ...teleported here.
posted by The Whelk at 2:22 PM on August 26, 2014

Yeah, vids are a whole separate thing from AMVs. Like, there is definitely a whole category of vids that boil down to "Yay, look at our source, isn't it pretty/fun/awesome?" or that are more literal music videos. But most vids in the fanvid tradition that grew out of the likes of Kandy Fong's "Both Sides Now" are more about commenting on the source in some way. It's actually one of my favorite things about vids that you can distill thousands of words worth of meta or commentary into a single 3-4 minute well-cut video that makes the point just as if not more eloquently.
posted by yasaman at 2:35 PM on August 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yay vids! I love that there are enough critical vids now that they kind of serve as macros of criticism.

For instance, I can comment on that Halle Berry show Extant, by posting a link to LauraShapiro's vid "Stay Awake", and I won't have to comment at all.

Lim's "Us", here, is a marvelous look at live-action media fandom and its desires and history.
posted by suelac at 2:48 PM on August 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

I see your Starships and raise you Space Girl, aka the vid that makes me cry every single time I watch it.
posted by fight or flight at 3:37 PM on August 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's actually one of my favorite things about vids that you can distill thousands of words worth of meta or commentary into a single 3-4 minute well-cut video that makes the point just as if not more eloquently.

Agreed!

- "white" and nerdy by talitha78onlj (Weird Al and Gus from Psych)
- Vogue by luminosity (Madonna and 300)
- Starships! (Monochromatic remix), jetpack_monkey's shot by shot remake of bironic's vid linked above using only source material from before the moon landing
- ...on the dance floor by sloanesomething (Flight of the Conchords and J.J. Abrams' Star Trek)

For more character-study type meta:
- Mama Said Knock You Out by AbsoluteDestiny (LL Cool J, Toph and Lin Bei Fong from Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra). AbsoluteDestiny is one of my favorite vidders and picking just one vid was an effort.
- Handlebars, by flummery (Flobots, the Tenth Doctor)
- The War Was in Color, by settiai (Carbon Leaf, MCU Steve Rogers). Disclaimer: settiai is an acquaintance, but I'm pretty sure I'm not being biased here.

Now to settle down with all the links in the OP...
posted by bettafish at 6:22 PM on August 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

I had the same reaction Jacqueline - I'm wondering if it's a visual literacy thing. There are some vids I love (Mama Said Knock You Out is SUCH a fave) but it's almost entirely dependent on music choice. I can appreciate it as good form, but not enjoy it.
posted by geek anachronism at 9:17 PM on August 26, 2014

This reminded me of the superb Babylon 5 fanvid set to Billy Joel's 2000 Years - a lot of thought went into pairing the visuals to the lyrics.
posted by Molesome at 3:23 AM on August 27, 2014

iamkimiam: Am completely new to this entire genre of film (I know, how? I don't know!) and just watched Winter Soldier last night for the first time.

Wow, that is... not the one I would recommend for a first entry in the Marvel movies. Did it even directly explain how Cap can be a superhero from WWII?

You might have already heard this, but the main thing about the current era of comic book movies is that the ones from the independant Marvel Studios form their own coherent story (the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU), and the ones from other studios that hold the movie licenses to other Marvel characters aren't related. The MCU is the Iron Man, Hulk (2008 movie only), Thor, Captain America, Avengers (the big team-up), and now Guardians of the Galaxy movies. So, you aren't going to see Spiderman (Sony) or the X-Men (Fox) in Avengers 2 anytime soon. Some people like to futz around with the viewing order, but it's best to just watch them in release order, as that's how they were designed to make sense. Most of them are relatively stand-alone within their own series, but they all have some nods to and elements of the larger universe, especially in the post-credits scenes they all have. The entire shared MCU storyline looks to be coming to a climax in Avengers 3, but that's in 2018, so you've got plenty of time to catch up if you want :)
posted by Wandering Idiot at 11:19 AM on August 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah the music choice on these things is pretty pivotal. I can't handle sitting through most of them, but that Space Girl vid linked by fight or flight is pretty good. Maybe using a song that's relevant to the supercut helps. As soon as that expo song mentioned being on a subway I knew the narrator was the opposite of Tony Stark.

To add to Wandering Idiot's explanation: MCU also includes Agents of Shield (which gets better halfway through season 1, and ties into Winter soldier, Thor 2, and Iron Man 3 so far), the upcoming Agent Carter show, and the upcoming Netflix shows about Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Power Man, and Iron Fist, and all of them together in an Avengers style team up miniseries called Defenders.

Supporting characters are expected to pass around between any show and any movie- Black Widow has already shown up in Iron Man 2 and Captain America 2, Lady Sif from Thor was in an episode of Shield, Daredevil will be other characters' lawyer, Hawkeye will probably be in Captain America 3 or a few episodes of Shield to argue with his in-comics girlfriend on the cast, Captain Marvel/Iron Man both possible for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, etc, but you can easily follow and enjoy the plot of any one character even if you only watch the bits that really interest you and ignore all of the other threads, or just individual movies. It's the comic book model brought to the movies.
posted by sandswipe at 10:46 PM on August 27, 2014

Thanks for this background info, people! Fortunately, Winter Soldier was not my very first foray into the genre. I started with Avengers Assemble, then Captain America, then Guardians of the Galaxy. And most recently, Winter Soldier, which was admittedly my least favorite. I'm hooked though, and want to absorb it all. And I feel I've seen enough to make these fan vids really entertaining, yet there's obviously still bits I don't recognise.

Honestly though, I don't know if it's Gunn or what, but Guardians is in a whole 'mother league of movie making as the other films. I'd really like to see more of that caliber please.
posted by iamkimiam at 1:16 PM on August 28, 2014