This weekend, I fulfilled my goal of showing a premiere vid at a con AND actually attending the vidshow at Virtual CONfabulation and it was great!! Both of my vids were for
Thunderbolt Fantasy and hopefully convinced the ~35 people in the audience to consider checking out the wuxia fantasy puppet show:
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"Feel the Thunder(bolt Fantasy)" (premiere)
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"Charisma Uniqueness Nerve & Talent" -
Full vidshow playlistI was not expecting to be first in the line-up, which was a little nerve-wracking but aside from a few glitches in the host's Internet, everything went well. Watching everyone's reactions in real time in the chat was a lot of fun and makes me feel like I'm on the right track in terms of overall vidding skills and getting the reaction(s) I want from the audience.
I also had the advantage that most if all of my audience has never seen budaixi before and thus had no idea what they're in for, so
everything came as a surprise. I try to design my vids on two levels - one for first-timers, and one for people who have already seen the show - so that the vid works regardless, but I think it's easier to pack a punch if this is someone's first time with the entire genre, because it's all new and different.
One thing I enjoyed was that everyone was fine going in fandom-blind and enjoying the vids even if they weren't familiar with the fandom, which was nice. I also enjoyed seeing a lot of vids in radically different styles and subjects than I would have necessarily sought out on my own - I have been mostly focused on upbeat action with the puppets, so slow, moody, atmospheric pieces felt like such a revelation - "Oh, yeah, I can
dothat" - which is an excellent reminder!!
I really want to do a TBF "fandom intro vid" and while ""Feel the Thunder(bolt Fantasy)" isn't quite what I originally have in mind, it's not a bad introduction, either. It is basically Shang Bu Huan being awesome for 3 minutes, with an emphasis on lightning/thunder/magic effects, and I'm really proud of how it turned out in terms of timing and escalation. Other favorite bits include the transition from first chorus to second verse that makes it look like Shang pops out of nowhere, the implication that Lin Xue Ya is calling Shang "easy" (lolol, gotta get my shipping in somewhere), and the musical bridge that is musical in-universe as well.
Meanwhile, "Charisma Uniqueness Nerve & Talent" is a very self-indulgent vid made at the suggestion of a fandom friend, and a tribute to the best fight scene ever filmed with puppets. This one is more narrative, and follows the major plot beats while still throwing a few surprises in. This was so much fun to make and hits so many of my favorite narrative tropes!!
Highlights for me include the countdown to to the fight where I built tension by interweaving the history that brought the combatants to this moment, and how I was able to creatively use a limited amount of footage to my advantage. After a year and a half of editing budaixi fanvids, I feel like I've
finally gotten to the point where I can intercut a fight scene from different scenes while keeping the action visually coherent (but it helps when I am given such good material to work from) - I was a little nervous I had done my job
too well and people would wonder if I'd "done" anything, but ultimately decided that was the price of success. (There are also a bunch of subtle tells if you look for them, but most people probably won't see them on first watch if they're not familiar with the source material.)
All of which to say, I feel like this was a real milestone for me as a Real Vidder (whatever that actually means, hahaha) in terms of personal goals and community, and I hope to submit to similar events in the future and attend when I can.
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china_shop) wrote2025-10-21 07:04 pm
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cnovels2025-10-20 06:27 pm
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dw_maintenance2025-10-20 10:11 am
