Vidding: Inside The World of The Hunger Games Fan Vids
Mon, September 21, 2015 ;)
We're talking fan made music, movies and more this week in our 100 Days of Mockingjay celebration and today we're going to highlight Hunger Games fan vids. Vidding is basically creating new music videos from tv and movie footage. But there is nothing basic about what talented vidders do. Wikipedia says it well: "At their best, fanvids are a cross between narrative story-telling and visual poetry, a form of visual essay that uses the source material itself to put forward one aspect of how the author sees the source."
Our guest poster and vidder, the incredibly talented Francesca (AKA Akai-Echo) gives you a peek into the vidder's world and shares some of her favorite fanvids.
I’ve always loved associating music with visual content. From my earliest memories I’ve always thought about a certain movie or show when listening to music.
I remember that I started to watch slide shows (90’s stuff where people used to put images with a musical background, in a pretty random way) about several TV series, and I thought: “Ah! If only it were possible to do this with actual footage!” Little did I know that it was indeed possible! As soon as I saw the first fan-made music videos (that’s what people used to call them) I knew I had to make my own!
I was 14, I think, and the fandom was The X-Files. At the time finding clips to use was almost impossible, the quality was creepy to say the least, and you need to be very committed to do it! I discovered a whole new world, and I never left it.
Eventually, doing these fan videos led me to study video editing, and then it was my career for several years. I was a video editor specializing in historical music videos, and I had so much fun. Then the crisis came, and the job was gone (now I mostly do websites or any kind of graphic designs) but video editing will always be my first love!
Obviously my obsession with The Hunger Games was meant to be merged with this other passion!
Katniss & Peeta | Sacrifice from *EchosVideos* on Vimeo.
I just can’t help it, every time I hear a song I visualize what particular scene I could use or what voice over would go along well with the melody. Like many other vidders, I always try to tell a story through my videos. I like to study the lyrics and create my own stories before, so that they will make sense with the music, rather than just randomly putting images on a musical background.
Katniss & Peeta | This Love from *EchosVideos* on Vimeo.
Once I even pictured a whole video in my mind long before doing it. I remember I was brushing my teeth (LOL) and listening to this song, when I started to think “this would be perfect for a Katniss’s POV”, and I imagined its entire concept right in that very moment. I started working on it, and it was finished within few hours (which for me is something, I think I’m the slowest vidder ever, I have the bad habit of re-doing things, deleting a lot and starting from zero over and over again).
A playlist of some of my vids below:
I get a lot of inspiration from other videos I find on YouTube, there are plenty of amazingly talented vidders out there, I just can’t believe they are not professionals!
There are a couple of editors that are real gurus among the vidders community and I love to share them with you. I’d like to talk about this awesome French girl: TheGirlWhoWasOnFire. I’m in love with Jeanne’s style, which is very recognizable, and this is something remarkable. She makes dark, sometimes gloomy, hypnotic fan videos, and she deserves to be loved because she is amazing! Seriously, check her YouTube Channel out! Here's a playlist of some of favorites, but there are more on her channel.
FlowerKatniss (aka Alyssa) is amazing! Here's playlist of her vids:
MetroGirlzStation these two twin girls are very popular, in fact, they’re fabulous. Here's a playlist of some of their work:
Do you have a favorite THG vidder? Share them in the comments so everyone can check them out!
And be sure to follow Francesca on tumblr here and subscribe to her youtube channel here.
Be sure to enter our 100 days of Mockingjay THG Music, Movies and More Giveaway! You could win a limited edition Skullcandy Mockingjay headset and a black Mockingjay pin. Enter through the widget at the bottom of the post HERE.
Reader Comments (1)
I was hoping I'd be on this list but... *Wipes tear from eye and flicks it away* It's fine :')