Content
The vid remix that Guy and I attempted was designed to show disabled women overcoming their disabilities and being perceived as “abled” women. We conducted research to find video clips to use. I searched on You Tube and found five videos while Guy plunged into making clips from the “Firefly” science fiction television show. I had never heard of this show before, but I was confident Guy had a great idea and we would compare notes in class at the workshop session.
Preparation
To start this project, I carefully reviewed Dr. Lothian’s class presentation to learn how to create the vid. I again reviewed “Pipeline” by Sumana Harihareswara to get a better idea of what we should achieve. Then I reread Harihareswara’s notes in “Vids I Learned From,” but did not gain much information except in her comments about “We Didn’t Start the Fire” where she said it is helpful to create a spreadsheet to track the sources used. This was a good tip because I wanted to be careful about copyrighted material and detail my clips. Then to gain knowledge of how to handle the technical aspects of creating a remix I opened the link for Elvira Sweeney’s website at http://www.elvirasweeney.com/iweb/ElviraSweeney/Top_technical_things_that_confuse_vidders.html. After reading her comments I clicked on the hyperlink for Vidding 101, but was disappointed when it took me to www.api.viglink.com and displayed the message “This forum’s URL has changed. Please update your bookmark to fpvideo.proboards.com.” Every tutorial hyperlink on Elvira’s site took me to the same place. Hence, I did not find the Vidding 101 tutorial. I even registered (or thought I registered) in the forum, but still could not find a tutorial hyperlink that worked. Bummer!!
I read most comments on Elvira’s site to learn what I needed to make a remix. I noticed that editing formats are AVI and MOV files, so I decided to convert the You Tube videos to AVI files for editing in class. After reviewing eight videos I selected five, downloaded Windows Movie Maker and Freemake on my computer, converted the vids to AVI files and copied them to my flash drive. Then I reviewed the movies and created a detailed listing of “in” and “out” times for clips I wanted to use so that Guy could easily pull them in with his clips for the remix. Of the five videos, my favorite was “It’s Our Story” that has some poignant scenes and dialogue from disabled men, women and children.
It’s Our Story (1)
Remix Class
Guy inserted my flash drive into the Mac, but the files did not download. Dr. Lothian suggested there may be a problem with the codec(s) in the AVI files. Needless to say, after spending so many hours viewing, analyzing, reviewing and cataloging potential clips, I was very disappointed. We could not use any of my material, but Guy was ready for the challenge.
I have to admit, Guy’s clips from the “Firefly” show were much more exciting than mine would have been and the audio track of Dessa singing “Skeleton Key” was very cool. Guy was very skillful in syncing the music to the emotionally telling scenes of the character he called “Summer” (actually River Tam of “Firefly”) who seemed to have uncontrollable episodes of mania. I researched “Firefly” after Guy sent me the remix and learned that “Summer” had been told never to touch a gun because the crew of the space ship knew she was mentally unstable (or maybe psychic). However, at the end of our remix “Summer” saved the crew from attack by shooting the enemy with that same gun. Guy’s imaginative visual of transformation by “Summer” from out of control emotion to very controlled “masculine” protective behavior was absorbing and freeing. “Well done, Guy!” for accomplishing such a challenging task in such a short amount of time.
Reflections
After class I downloaded utility Gspot from http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ to check the codec(s) in the AVI files. All of them said, “Codec H264 installed,” so there should have been no problem downloading to the Mac. Despite this, I am glad I reviewed these vids because I learned some interesting facts about the history of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). I saw the sit-ins and other protests by disabled men, women and children to force the American public to understand their frustrations with discrimination against the handicapped. In fact, it was the televised picture of a 9-year old girl, Jennifer Keelan, who crawled out of her wheelchair and up the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., that convinced Congress to pass the landmark ADA legislation (see “It’s Our Story” at 2:10-2:23 minutes). Consequently, I have a deep appreciation and gratitude for the people who participated in those demonstrations. The law did not end discrimination, but at least now there is hope for disabled people to live their lives with fewer barriers and less discrimination.
There were two class readings that reminded me of how female gender restricts women from reaching their full potential, yet somehow, women sometimes overcome barriers. The character of “Summer” in the remix (really Guy’s remix) reminded me of Ada Lovelace, the English woman who wrote the first example of computer programming. As quoted in Sadie Plant’s “Zeroes and Ones,” Ada said, “very much afraid as yet of exciting the powers I know I have over others, & the evidence of which I have certainly been most willing to admit, in fact for a long time considered quite fanciful and absurd . . . I therefore carefully refrain from all attempts intentionally to exercise unusual powers.” (Plant, 1997) “Summer” seems to be a woman also afraid of showing her true self for fear of being misunderstood or considered “absurd” and saves the crew by showing her courage and strength when she uses her powers to defend them. Also, vidding is defined by Francesca Coppa in her article “Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding” as “a visual essay that stages an argument, and thus it is more akin to arts criticism” (Coppa, 2008). Guy’s remix is true to Coppa’s description of fan vidding. It is definitely artful and I considered it to be an example of a vid that “heals the wounds created by the displacement and fragmentation of women” (Coppa, 2008). “Summer” triumphed by “kickin’ ass” and I wanted to be her!
Spitfire – Zoe (Firefly) – YouTube [360p]
Sources:
Coppa, F. (2008). Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish viding.
Transformative Works and Culture, no. 1.
Harihareswara, S. (2015). Pipeline. Retrieved from
https://brainwane.dreamwidth.org/2015/05/23/pipeline-vid.html
Harihareswara, S. (2015). Vids I learned from. Retrieved from
https://brainwane.dreamwidth.org/2015/05/23/vids-I-learned-from.html
Plant, S. (1997). Zeroes and ones. Digital Women & The New Technoculture, Fourth Estate
London.