This weekend, I flew to Chicago for a dance party full of 100 drunk fangirls covered in sparkles, stayed up almost all night, slept 90 minutes, then flew back to Boston and went to a wedding rehearsal. This is the kind of the thing my life is full of.
Technically, I wasn't just there for the dance party. The dance party, Club Vivid, is the Friday night event at Vividcon, the fanvidding convention that occurs every August in Chicago. (For explanation of vidding, here's one of my earliest posts to this blog: Festivids Reveal.) The con runs friday-sunday, with many people arriving Thursday and staying till Monday, for extra time with rarely seen friends, or time to visit Chicago. Last year, my first time, I showed up on Wednesday and stayed till Monday. This year, I was scheduled to be Maid of Honor in my friend's wedding on Sunday (today). I was quite miserable over the scheduling, and eventually decided to go anyway, just attending one day of official programming.
I flew to Chicago on Wednesday, and went and visited two old internet friends of mine who live in the area. On Thursday, I visited the Field Museum with 5 other fangirls, one of whom works there (and got us in free!) On Friday, I attended panels, and Club Vivid. During all that, I spent as much time hanging out with my once-a-year friends as I could. It was very bittersweet, knowing I'd be missing two days of programming and the big Premiere event, when dozens of vids made my attendees premiere for the first time ever.
There's a lot to talk about with Vividcon, but in this post I'm just going to talk about Club Vivid.
From what I've gathered, no one ever expected Club Vivid to become what it is. It started as a dance party where attendees danced to fanvids made to dancey music. Now Club Vivid has on the order of thirty vids that are made *for* Club Vivid, and premiere there before being offered online or to anyone else. I think the whole con shows up, there is a pre-paid open bar, people wear complicated costumes and a whole lot of glitter, and it's my favorite dance party in the world. I had a fabulous time this year. A lot of people at Vividcon are anxious, many of them surrounded by people they only know online. Drunken dance parties help with that.
Club Vivid always starts with the Joxer Dance from Xena. Imagine rows and rows of excited fangirls dancing along to this, including the weird hopping and the conga line. It is good times. I found myself in a somewhat grumpy mood before Club Vivid, wondering if it really was smart to come all the way to Chicago for such a short trip that would leave me exhausted for the wedding rehearsal.... and then the Joxer Dance came on and everything was better. :-)
[It is at this point in the writing that the author realizes that many of the vids she's been planning to use in this post are not yet available online. This makes her sad, thought she doesn't fault the vidders at all, because they are still having fun at the con or traveling home. It does however change the rest of the post.]
I don't know of anything like Club Vivid. Vids made for Club Vivid... will get watched by other people, but the intended audience in unique in my knowledge of vidding. (Please enlighten me if you know otherwise!) The audience will be watching many, many vids in a row, but that is not unique, given vidshows at many cons. The audience will generally be very happy, and much of it will be intoxicated. Club Vivid (CVV) vids might have some deep and profound meaning, but most of the audience won't see deep nuances while dancing. They won't be looking at the vid continuously, there may be a significant undulating crowd between them and the screen, and they wlll be *dancing*. Some people will ignore the images completely and just dance to the music! I have no proof, but I feel like CVV have it easy, because the audience is easy to please. Given them good music, and something that looks pretty or contains characters they like, and people will cheer and dance. In the light of day, those vids will be analyzed, they will be watched by sober people who are sitting still and watching ever second intently. They will be critiqued, praised and criticized, but for those few moments at Club Vivid... it's just pure glee. I like to play vids for my friends who aren't regular vid watchers, and I have a hard time trying to explain the context of Club Vivid vids to them... hopefully I have done a better job here.
Unsurprisingly, I would like my first Vividcon vid to be at Club Vivid, and I at this moment I am committed to submitting one next year.
And now, some vids that have shown at Club Vivid. I really wish this year's first premiere was available online... I'll add it when it gets posted. Not all vids at CVV were made specifically for Club Vivid.
First off, an Adam Lambert vid to a Lady Gaga song. :-)
This is one of my favorites CVV vids. It premiered last year at CVV and played again this year, it's a multi-source vid about robot armies. Seven Nation Army
Iron Man vid to "Let it Rock" (made for one of my vividcon roomates!)
Club Vivid makes me dance to things I'd never voluntarily listen to, like Miley Cyrus and Kee$ha. Yes, I know.
From Milly, a "Legend of the Seeker" vid to "Party in the USA".
http://millylicious.livejournal.com/343231.html
From Kuwdora, a Vampire Nikola Tesla (from "Sanctuary") vid to "TiK Tok" by Ke$ha
http://kuwdora.livejournal.com/502230.html
This one might need to be seen to be believed... "The Sound of Music" to a remix/cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". It is a bit weird. :-) (If you want to see a "The Sound of Music" vid that made me cry, go here)
One that was very popular at Festivids, OK Go and "Back to the Future", Here It Goes Back Again (download only, no streaming).
Of course, we had to be on a boat.
This one is so loved that when the song was played at another con's dance party, sans vid, people were shouting about this vid. It's my favorite of Dualbunny's vids about Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica to Pink songs. :-)
There are many more, but I need sleep to recover from my mad 5 days of con and wedding!
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