The Art Of Fan Videos.

Fan videos, like fanfiction, are a creative way to show your love for a fandom or a part of a fandom in a unique way that will hopefully expand the experience of the original medium somehow for someone else.

As I have mentioned in other entries, I'm a fanfic writer, not a video maker, but I watch a lot of fan videos and have made a video before. It taught me a lot about what goes into making fan videos, specifically that it is a lengthy and daunting but ultimately rewarding task. And that anime's slow frame rate can make it hard to keep things interesting. That one time making a fan video was really all I needed. It's not that I don't have the vision to make fan videos; I lack technical skills. Fan videos, for me, are just better left up to people who can use Vegas or Final Cut with skill that I do not have the time or drive to develop.

So as they say: those who can't do, teach.

I will try to provide examples for everything I talk about but I should warn that: A.) A lot of great fan videos are hosted by YouTube and end up getting taken down because of a misunderstanding of copyright laws. A lot of video examples I would like to use are not available anymore and I can't be sure that ones I will use will last either and B.) My videos are likely to be heavily from a few certain fandoms (Fullmetal Alchemist, Whedon shows) that I enjoy most because those are the ones I watch. I apologize for the lack of diversity. Try to focus more on what I am trying to point out in each video than get hung up on the fandom.


Some Things to Consider When Making A Fan Video

Fan video making comes down to four basic elements: premise, audio, content, and editing.

PREMISE

Premise and audio usually go directly hand in hand. Often the premise for a video comes from hearing a song and thinking that the song perfectly encapsulates some part of a fandom and that is how the idea for a video is born. However, sometimes the initial idea for a video is not tight enough and you should really think hard about whether or not your premise works.

Premises usually come in a few basic types:

1.) Relationships.
Although I don't know if this is actually true, it would seem that the vase majority of fan videos are made in the support of a pairing, usually romantic although there are the occasional friendship based videos. The reason for this is abundantly obvious: people feel very strongly about their ships and  making a tribute to that ship is the kind of thing someone can actually devote hours of work to.
If the ship you want to make a video for is very common, it is good to have more to your idea than just, "I am going to make a general video about this ship because this song reminds me of them."
One of my favorite fan videos of all time is called "Nightlights" by EarnestHumor. The video is very obviously about the relationship between Roy and Riza in Fullmetal Alchemist and the simple but pretty song really could have been taken any way in terms of visuals. The maker has decided to make the video sort of a dual tribute both to the character's relationship and to the use of lighting in the anime itself.

2.) Style.
These videos are rare but I figured I should add this one in as a follow up to the "Nightlights" video. A good half of that video, maybe more, is not about a ship but is about a stylistic choice of the anime. These are hard to make and usually require some kind of special visual analysis from the maker to have even decided to make such a video in the first place. I honestly don't know if I have seen another video so devoted to a reoccuring image and style choice. Also, with this kind of video, the mood of the audio has a tendency to be less important and a lyric-less choice might actually be better than one that is trying to send a message.

3.) Plot or Plot Fragments.
This could mean the whole story of a movie/series or just a specific part of it. Plot based fan videos are common because they are probably one of the easiest. These are especially common in shows where there is a popular story arc that people would want to make videos about.
This one doesn't need an example because it is so self explanatory but if you really need one I would recommend "Violet Hill" by EarnestHumor which is a video that is about the Ishval War arc of Fullmetal Alchemist. This maker will appear a lot in this entry because they are one of my favorites and they still have all their videos up.

4.) Character.
These are pretty easy to find as well and talk about a character throughout the length of the medium, a specific aspect of the character's personality, or a specific development/change in the character's personality. They can also talk about multiple characters who are all linked somehow i.e. part of the same crime fighting group, evil corporation, etc.
I have a good non-Fullmetal Alchemist example but I wanted to use it for the "Content" section so have "Stand In The Rain" by KhmyhVKBII, a character study of Riza Hawkeye with a song that may as well have been written about her as the songs picked for this kind of video should be.

5.) Theme and/or Motif.
 Theme requires some reading into but most well written shows and movies have a few very clear ones. This is one of the more ambitious videos to attempt because although a song for the theme will usually come easily, clips will not. With a character, ship, or plot video you usually already know in your mind where you can find the right clips. Theme videos usually require more digging.
One fantastic example of this kind of video is "Maybe Redemption Has Stories To Tell" by Elphiyero10, a video that uses all of Joss Whedon's shows and recent movies to show a theme of redemption throughout all of them (and some smaller connections as well). A theme video within a show is a noble endeavor, the fact that this video covers four shows, a webseries, and three movies is ridiculous.

6.) Comedy.
Comedy videos are pretty much intended to not have much to do with the actual plot or characters of the original medium. The comedy almost always comes from the audio directly and the clips are put in places to match. This would be pretty much anything that uses a song like "Like A Boss" or "I'll Make A Man Out Of You". Even if it does follow some loose character or plot threads, the main goal is to make the viewer laugh instead of being true to the story.

The last video I have to post here is one of the hardest I have found to categorize but I like it nonetheless: "Heads Will Roll" by OhMyGoddess86. Based on the premise itself (a Tudors video using "Heads Will Roll" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) you would expect it to be a comedy but it isn't really very funny once you get over that initial laugh at the premise. It's actually more of a theme piece, capturing the mood of the show rather well in how the show would juxtapose a scene of intense sadness and violence with a scene of indulgence and pleasure. The song actually plays that idea up very well too with it's bouncy tune but conflicting lyrics. From the opening scene of violent dialogue you get the impression that this is actually going to be a serious video and it ends up making the opening music more like a dirge than a prelude to a dance song.
You can play on people's exceptions with your choices and make them view not just a show differently but also a song.

Some other things to question:
* Will I have enough footage to make this idea work? Will I need to cut the song down or can I broaden my idea to accommodate? Alternatively, is the idea too broad/doesn't fit the song?
*  Does this premise represent a fanon or a canon idea? If it is a purely fanon idea, can I sell this idea to a viewer with audio and content?
* Has this idea been done before? Sometimes an idea that seems obvious to you hasn't been thought of by anyone else or it has been done but your premise or approach is different enough from theirs that there is no reason not to do it.

AUDIO

As I said before, the audio for a video is directly related to the premise but there are a few things that could be said about using audio specifically. There are a few different kind of audio that I have seen used in fan videos but there are three main ones: Music with lyrics, Music without lyrics, and dialogue.

1.) Music with lyrics.
This is by far the most common choice because usually an idea for a fan video is sparked by listening to a song you like and thinking that the lyrics fit for a certain part of a medium. The most important thing is to make sure that the lyrics fit your premise exactly. Generally I find that the types of music chosen are of the rock genre ranging from pop rock to metal and this is likely because these songs are generally less shallow than your average pop song and also avoid the problem of aging a video greatly if you use a song that is only topically popular. Country songs get used sometimes and pop songs that are more lyrically driven come up as well but I think overall these genres are just less popular with the fan video making crowd. Rap is pretty much always a bad choice because the likelihood that the song really conveys a message relating to the show/movie is unlikely. These kinds of songs work best for a more comedic approach like in this video "Bumpy Ride Around The World" by salhar1 which is just a bunch of Hetalia characters dancing to an R&B song (but is still delightful and mesmerizing).

2.) Music without lyrics.
Mood is important with songs with lyrics but it is the WHOLE point with lyric-less songs. I am no expert on songs without lyrics but I do know that major chords= happy and minor chords=sad. Otherwise this is obviously up to you to judge what the mood of the song is and if it fits with your premise. Well done, a lyric-less song can actually be used for any of the six premises I listed above.
I already showed a video with a lyric-less song, the Whedonverse Redemption video, although I should point out that the song is "Dare You To Move" by Switchfoot which actually does have lyrics that do fit the theme. This is another interesting option. The maker intentionally chose a song that would fit but used a version without lyrics to allow for easy additions of . . .

3.) Dialogue.
There are really only two ways to use dialogue that I have seen so far. The first way is to use carefully selected dialogue from the medium in the video during moments where there aren't lyrics to support the premise. The second way is to use dialogue from a completely different medium in order to make a comedy video.
I already gave an example of a video that uses a song with no lyrics in order to add dialogue but "A Hole In The World" by visitjessiechan is an example of a video that uses a song with lyrics but has a long intro that is filled with dialogue in which to drive this plot-based fan video. The song builds up to lyrics and similarly, the content in the video builds until both the lyrics and dialogue are used.
As for the comedy alternative, have Baccano! doing The Hangover by TheBrokenComputer.

Some other things to question:
* Are there any lines in the song that don't fit what I'm making? Should I taken them out? Should I shorten the song?
* Would dialogue help or hurt my premise? Does it make more sense to use a song with lyrics or without?
* Will the type of song I chose alienate viewers? Does the song conflict with the mood of the original medium? If it does, is this done for comedy purposes?

CONTENT

Content can only come in two forms, clips and stills, so there is not a lot to say about this section.

1.) Clips.
The most important thing in putting together a video once the premise and audio are tackled is not actually the video effects that I will talk about in "editing" but simply choosing the right clips and positioning them correctly. Here are just some of the things you can do:
* Drawing parallels is a great technique to use. Show two clips side by side that relate to each other.
* A technique that you see used in the "Stand In The Rain" video shows a character's face, a flash to what they are thinking about, and then a flash back to their reaction to the thought. This tells the story without needing dialogue.
* A similar technique can be used more long term when you flow between the present and the past.
* Changing clips to the beat of the song.
* Matching clips to song lyrics that describe the clip.
* If a song has lyrics that define an indistinct "he", "she", "you", "I", or "they", the video should clearly show who these pronouns actually are. If you can't match characters to pronouns, you may need to rethink your premise or song.
A great video that has a little excess editing (just transitions and zoom) and is entirely based on well placed content is "Wesley: On My Own" by Viddwhizz. It has examples of every technique I mentioned here.

2.) Stills.
For the reference, stills refers to both pictures and words. A video made of stills is subject to everything I mentioned in the "Clips" section but still videos have one very strong disadvantage over clips: less visual interest. This is why in order to make a still video that is memorable and quality, video effects have to be used. The stills must have the appearance of movement unless your only goal is to make a slideshow.
One great video I saw accomplished this by quoting dialogue on the screen word by word to move the eye across the screen with still images around it. Unfortunately, I can't find this one so I will use another great video that uses manga panels as the stills: "Somebody's Watching Riza" by EarnestHumor (yes, again).

Some other things to question:
* Am I creating enough visual interest with my clips/stills? Are the shots too long and could benefit from being shortened?
* Could a combination of clips and stills be better than sticking to just one or the other?

EDITING

As I mentioned before, editing is not actually necessary to make a good video if you are strong in the other three elements but it is good to have some basic knowledge of the little details one can add to make your video more visually interesting.

I definitely don't know all the elements of editing but I can name a few keys ones to think about when you are making a video:

* Transitions: Fade Out, Fade In, Cross Fade
* Filters: Can change the color, add a slight pattern to the video, black and white, etc.
* Zoom and other camera movement that is not inherent in the clip
* Inserting of stills or clips into other stills or clips (as a superimposition or as an opaque image)
* Changing the lighting of the clip.
* Changing the lens.
* What I call "clip jumps": when the image shakes briefly. Also when the lighting gets brighter for a second.
 * Boarders
The list goes on and on.

I have posted videos here that have mild to moderate editing which is most common and what I prefer. The EarnestHumor videos have probably been the most edited but that is still mostly moderate editing by fan video standards. Here is an example of a heavily edited video: "Gives You Hell" by Viinurify. This video uses every technique I mentioned and probably more.

Editing really is a matter of personal preference and knowledge of editing software but you should at least know about transitions when you make a video since this an unavoidable bit of editing any video.


Hopefully I have taught you something.

Now go make some pretty.