Lingering Madness

location: On my soapbox. Get your own!

mood: predatory

music: 'Smooth Criminal' Alien Ant Farm

So, here's the what. I was contacted about a month ago by a newbie *shudders* who claims that she used (stole) my clips without knowing it was wrong til it was pointed out by her beta. She sent me the vid and asked for permission to post it with proper credit given. Now, upon viewing it I noticed two clips that had my stamp on it (literally, I insert a corner card on almost all of my vids) and thought, 'okay, she's new, didn't know, and came to me about it'. I gave her my permission to post the vid.

Anyway, a month goes by and I A) notice the vid up for an award and B) no credit had been posted on her site. So, I tell/ask her to disqualify that vid because it's not completly hers and ask about the cred. She is all nice and polite and says she's been busy and of course she will disqualify it (she didn't know she was nom'd) because she vids for fun, not awards.

So, out of curiousity, I watch the vid again (because on Kawoosh! she does cred me for 2 clips). Well, I rewatch this vid and surprise, surprise! Upon closer inspection I notice not 2, not 3 but 9 clips that are, in fact, mine. These segments are all edited clips, not unedited source files and tally in at a whopping 1 min 7 secs of my vids 'These are the times' & 'I miss you a little' in her 3min 54 sec video. So, aprox. 1/3 of this video is my editing. All these scenes have been cropped so that the lower right corner where my corner card used to be is now non-existant. Don't tell me she didn't know what she was doing. 

I write this little *edited* and mention that there are more than 2 of my clips in her vid and request proper credit. She of course tells me that no, there are only two. But if I think there are more, then fine, but she honestly only took two. ?How can you honestly steal anything?

So, anyway, two days go by and I hear nothing so I write the awards team informing them I want that vid, and only that vid removed. They are currently considering banning this vidder. Then I get this pissy email from this vidder about telling everyone she's a nasty little clip stealer and how she's disappointed in the SG community and whatever. Then a friend points me to the Kawoosh! forum and a post by the brat that is oh so sincere and paints such a pretty picture of the events and she says how she LOVES my work and never wanted to offend. Blah! If she had responded to me with less defensiveness and more sincerety I might not have been so fired up in the first place. Every email from her was one excuse after another. She would apologize and then immediately claim she wasn't at fault because she was new. *Punching bag, please*

So, this brings me to the second half of my bitch-fest. Directly after this exciting drama, I discover that some of my Supernatural clips from my video 'Time of dying' now existed in a poorly edited, video "created" by johnnysbiotch. And this "vidder" didn't even have the knowledge or foresight to crop my corner card out of the scenes. I still haven't received a response to my email or comment. But this all just burns my ass.

Where the hell do these people get off stealing clips and then acting like it's not a big deal because they didn't take transitions or the clip was only 5 seconds long? Length and transition matter not a damn bit. Just because you can't see the hours of editing work that goes into a scene doesn't mean it isn't there! I am so sick of hearing 'I didn't know the rule' or 'I'm a newbie' or 'I didn't have the clips I needed, what else was I supposed to do'. Ah, how about wait like everyone else until you can make the vid your GD self! Who doesn't know that stealing is bad? Raise your hand if you were never told in kindergarten that stealing is wrong. Anyone? Didn't think so. So why the hell would taking someone else's artistic expression be socially exceptable? And why should these rules be broken or bent for someone just because they are new to vidding?

*Side rant* I am also sick to death of newbies whining that they don't get feedback. 'Give me feedback or I'll quit and be gone forever and it'll be all your fault 'cause you're mean'. That is damn close to some of the posts I've read from newbies over at Kawoosh!. I am so sick to death of it. We all want feedback. Good or bad. Me personally, enjoy the critical posts the best because I learn something. This is where I come full circle to my origional rant. Newbies don't appear to want to learn. They want instant gratification. Love me, NOW! Praise me, NOW! Envy my mad-skills, NOW! Again, I say, WTF?

This is why they take clips. Instead of learning how to create a look, a feel, a personal style-they take. Instead of thinking, working, learning-they take. They bypass the process and churn out one shitty vid after another and other vidders *praise* them because they're new and trying. Bullshit. Completing 4 videos a week is not trying. It's assemble, post. Assemble, post. Recieve lies and feel heart warm. Receive truth and disregard and continue with assemble, post, lies. I don't think it's a bad thing to say to a vidder that clips 1:02-2:56 were poorly thought out, too long and out of context in relation to the lyrics and musical style of the song choice. What is bad is watching a vid that makes you cringe, sigh, or raise your eyes to the sky and proclaim 'Dear God, not another long-winded, poorly edited, sappy, totally unbelievable S/J that uses all the same clips in the same context as the last trillion videos posted' and then reply to the vidder that 'You liked it.' Where the hell is the lesson in that?

You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, fine. Don't reply. Watch and leave. You want to eventually view excellent videos that make you go wow and loop your media player for 2 hours? Be honest.

I think newbies need it. Maybe if they started learning something about vidding, they would take some pride in their work instead of taking other people's pride and hard-work.

Here endeth the rant.

For now.