shipwreckedcomedy:

…about the last episode of Lily & James, about the first chapter of the series, about the KitR fandom experience so far. We wanna know all the things!

And here’s how we feel about every single one of you:

There will be a separate post collecting thoughts on the transmedia experiment next week. Canonization will continue through this week, the experiment will conclude on Monday, 4/28 with a final drabble from yulinkuang.

Thank you so much for watching with us, we would kiss you all in the pouring rain if we could!

Much love,

Shipwrecked

What do I think?

Well, in general, I love it. But you knew that, right?

I think it was a gift. A gift conjured out of thin air by mad magicians who used cameras and lights, PVC and sprinkler heads, and transformed them into moments of beauty.

It was a gift of talent and imagination and humor. It was a gift of people willing to spend their few precious dollars, and something even more precious: their time, their nights and their weekends, to make something cool and give it away to strangers for free.

“The digital world can be an environment rich in humanity, a network not of wires but of people,” said Pope Francis back in January. “The Internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity. This is something truly good, a gift from God.”

I can’t verify the God part. But the rest is dead on, and Kissing in the Rain is the best example I know of what he was talking about. Because it was a gift.

To speak more specifically I’d have to watch all the Lily and James episodes again, so I could comment on my favorite parts of each. Which is clearly impossible. “I’m far too busy, so ask me now before I can become sane.”

Heh. Okay.

Episode 1: Lily & James

Still my favorite episode. Favorite things:

• Crazy blocking at the beginning that works so well I can’t even.
• Q: The “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you”… Is it meant as a Singing in the Rain reference? Was it scripted like that? Inquiring minds want to know…
• Sean’s improv at the end.
• Sean’s (real!) glasses, and all the business that Lily doesn’t see him doing after the cut.
• The RAIN! Favorite rain of the series. It seems so real, especially in the wide shot at the beginning, and it just totally sucks me in. A+ rain.

Episode 2: Anne & Gilbert

A very fun episode. Favorite things:

• The magical rain that falls from a barely-clouded sky.
• The contrast between Anne’s heightened, slightly self-important delivery with Gil’s naturalness.
• James’ post-“cut”: “You are… not a nice person.” I love that line, and the delivery.

Episode 3: Olivia & Ben

From the BTS info Yulin gave, I think this is the episode on the treehouse porch that was shot late at night, with only a limited amount of something (battery? memory?), such that they had relatively few takes. Also, I think the actors talked about it being especially uncomfortable in terms of cold and wet?

I’m not going to say it’s my least-favorite episode, because I love them all, and you don’t say things like that about the things (or the people) you love. But I’ll say that this sometimes feels like the hardest episode for me to love.

Favorite things:

• The rain. Heh. This is also the hardest rain for me to love. Is it okay for me to say that it basically felt like they were standing under a sprinkler head? Especially when Ben moves in for his dance and the hissing gets louder?
• The director’s line. I like the little bits of the different directors’ personalities that we get, and this one is one of my favorites.
• The blanket gift, and the understated Lily and James interaction after he puts it around her. The first signs of a thaw. Watching this was when I really started to see the shape of the characters’ relationship arc. I mean, I’d sort of wondered if that’s where things would go from the beginning. But this was where I really started plotting the post-“cut” interactions mentally against the episode numbers to see how events were tracking.

Episode 4: Edgar & Annabel

Next to episode 1, my favorite episode. Depending on when you ask, it might be in first place. I’m glad it’s not a contest.

Favorite things:

• Annabel’s face, and Lily’s acting, generally, in the pre-“cut” part. I think it’s funny that Mary Kate thinks she looks stupid, or awful, or something (can’t remember exactly what she said, but I think she’s both posted about it and mentioned something during the livestream re-watch the other day). I know the prevailing opinion is that it’s the magic-hour sunset lighting Zac managed to capture on her face that makes her look so pretty here. And if so, then okay; it’s the lighting. But I think it’s Mary Kate, too, and not just her face (which srsly needs to stop). I think it’s acting. I just really loved her as Annabel here.
• Sean as James as Poe. I want more Sean as James as Poe. I’ll watch Sean as James as Poe any chance I get. Forever. I don’t know why it works so well for me. But it does.
• The post-cut interaction. The little bouncy thing James does, and the way Lily looks at him.

Episode 5: David & Susan

So fun seeing a minute-long screwball comedy. I love that James and Lily get to show off this completely different style of acting.

Favorite things:

• The contrasting body language, with Susan sitting up ramrod straight and David hunched over, hiding under his paper.
• “Cut. Boom in the shot.” Okay; not so much a favorite thing, but a thing I’ve been curious about since I first watched it, and am still a little confused about. Is it that the director says that because in the scene we were just watching, there was an accidental appearance of the boom mic in the shot? Because I don’t think it’s visible, at least not on the cut we see (though I realize that we’re seeing different cuts edited together in the pre-cut section). Hm. And also, the director’s voiceover happens during the “Kissing in the Rain” title card, when we can’t actually see the shot. So maybe the mic dipped into the fame during the part we didn’t actually see. And of course, it dips down afterward. Is that just meant to explain the director’s comment? Or is it meant as an action the boom operator has taken in response to the director’s statement? Like I said, I’m a little confused. I like it all. I just want to understand a little better what the intention is with all that.
• The fact that we get to see them going back into the next shot, with the rain starting up again, and the way James grabs the prop newspaper and ducks back under it. Something about it just felt really cool. Like, here I am, going back to work. And my work is… holding a newspaper over my head under a sprinkler.
• The sidelong look Lily gives him at the end, and the sidelong look James gives her right after. Heh. Even if I wasn’t following along the drabbles and canonized fics, I’d know you were full of shit with the “I don’t care about you” line, James.

Episode 6: George & Mary

Third-favorite episode. Though depending on mood, it might slip into second. Or first. Okay; look: like I said, I love them all, and love is an all-or-nothing kind of thing for me.

Favorite things:

• I picked up on the It’s a Wonderful Life reference as soon as I saw the title; I’m on record (if anyone feels like stalking my blog backwards far enough) as loving the “He’s making violent love to me, mother!” scene, especially the great story about how Reed and Stewart had pages more of dialog, and skipped it in the moment to go straight into the kiss. God, what a scene. I mean, the emotion in that scene is terrifying, in the best sense. I can’t believe a 1947 audience would have been able to handle it (which they apparently couldn’t; the film’s gritty realism was so far ahead of its time that it flopped commercially, taking years for audiences to catch up).
• The post-cut kiss. Awwww. So well-done. Legitimately misty-eyed every time I watch it.
• A weird thing: I love the minimal set design of this episode, especially since seeing aivlysann’s beautiful fan-art. Something about the way she extended the frame beyond the shot, so I get to see the actors full length, down to their feet, does some weird thing to my aesthetic perception, and makes me appreciate it even more.

Episode 7: Lily & James

Love, love, love. Perfect way to end the series. Favorite things:

• James has a badass house, with a really expensive-looking door. Way to arrive, KiTR actors!
• The rain is mostly invisible, but the sound of it rocks. Very good rain sound.
• The sneaky way they hold off on the kiss, and James is mumbling, and then he pushes into that super closeup so fast for the kiss, such that Zac (I assume it’s Zac?) even loses focus for a moment. So cool. In a weird way it reminds me of the blood pack that spattered on the lens during the inside-the-bus part of that huge extended take at the end of Children of Men, and the way Cuarón was actually shouting “cut” but no one could hear him over the explosions so they just kept going, and it was his DP (I think was the version of the story I heard?) who convinced him that no, the blood spatter on the lens was what made the scene even more raw and real. Um, maybe that’s not the most tonally resonant thing for me to be thinking of in this particular moment of KiTR. But still. I mean it as a compliment. Comparing a scene to the blood spatter at the end of Children of Men is about as high as my compliment-o-meter is capable of going.

* * *

Okay; that’s all I’ve got for now. But once again: Thank you so much for KiTR! I can’t wait for the musical interlude, and then on to series 2!

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Haha, well, dialogue-wise, the first episode is me referencing every Lily/James HP fanfic I’ve ever read. In my personal headcanon, these characters are living in my dream world where Warner Bros. is actually making a Marauders prequel movie and the director is, oh, idk, some obscure former fanfic writer turned filmmaker you’ve probably never heard of before now.

The Chapter I episodes of Kissing in the Rain are a mix of literary and cinematic references, whereas Chapter II is almost entirely literary references. I do have a list of movies/movie scenes I sent to Sean and Mary Kate and the rest of the creative team for reference on each episode, sometimes those scenes were different on the same episode depending upon what department they were in. If that film reference playlist is of interest, let me know and maybe I’ll do a master post with that/some of my pre-production notes at the end of each chapter of KitR for people’s reference.

I am still planning on writing a BTS post on my reblog of each episode, just haven’t gotten around to that yet. And also still have tons of BTS footage to sort through, which I’ll release once the total series has ended.

Hope that answers your questions!

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The KiTR/ATTV livestream was oodles of fun to watch. Thanks for making it happen, super-fun-talented creators!

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thattimethatplace:

Mary pulls George back to her. Lily awkwardly walks away. They´re not their characters at all. (x)

Whoa. Trippy. And awesome.

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the way he’s touching her feels too much like goodbye

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clavisa:

whyhelloitsjo:

Kissing in the Rain drabble, inspired by this fabulous piece of artwork that was done by this fabulous person.

Read More

I love this. Fanfic of fanart :)

I loved this too.

The whole KiTR experiment reminds me of some of the most-compelling parts of the LBD transmedia. Not in terms of the specific mode of interaction; it’s obviously different than tweeting back and forth with the LBD characters. But in terms of how it feels, there’s a similar sense of being actively engaged with the ongoing creation of the story.

It’s an opportunity to collaborate with the show’s creators, rather than merely consuming their output. Even just reading along, seeing other fans’ contributions, there’s a wonderful sense of being part of something organic, where something wonderful and unexpected can happen at any moment.

It’s a giant directed improv exercise, where we all get to play along.

I realize that the basic concept isn’t new; people have been doing different versions of this for a while. It’s basically a version of what Welcome to Sanditon tried to do. But this approach, as implemented by this particular team with this particular content in this particular way, is working really well for me.

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stpauligirl:

I was a HUGE fan of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and I am also incredibly pleased with The Autobiography of Jane Eyre.

However, after the spectacular disappointment of Emma Approved (I only made it through about 8 or 9 episodes before giving up) I have been hesitant to start watching any more web series.

Which brings me to Kissing in the Rain. Many of the people I follow and whose tastes in media I share are watching this. But I am not.

I am a little confused by all the screen caps and gifs I am seeing. Aren’t there only 2 episodes? I don’t understand where all this content is coming from. Also, the difference between canon and fan-canon.

So basically my questions are thus: Is the writing good? (This is ESSENTIAL.) Is the acting good? Why should I be watching this series?

I can’t speak for anyone else. (And luckily I don’t have to, because many someones else are already speaking for themselves.) But speaking for myself:

• Yes, there are only two episodes (so far). And those episodes are actually pretty short (just a couple of minutes and change for each). But they are conceptually rich, with many layers of backstory and meta. It was intentionally written to provide a small window into a larger world.
• Where all the content is coming from: As I said, lots of layers. The episodes themselves feature two actors performing a scene in a movie, then an off-camera director says “cut!”, and then you get a scene of the actors interacting between takes. There are companion drabbles that provide additional backstory written by Yulin Kuang, the show runner/writer/director. And there’s lots of fanfic, some of which has been made canonical. (See below.)
• Fan-canon is just what the fans are writing and speculating. But some of the fan-canon gets blessed by Yulin into being canon-canon, by virtue of being reblogged to the show’s main tumblr account. At that point it’s part of the “official” story. See About the Experiment.
• Q: Is the writing good? A: Oh yes.
• Q: Is the acting good? A: Oh my god yes.
• Why should I be watching this series? See above. Also, as someone who also is an LBD and AoJE fan, and was disappointed by some aspects of Emma Approved, I’ve found KiTR to be exactly what I’m looking for in a web series.

You owe it to yourself to check it out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

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Believe me, if I could turn all dudebros making ”fix me a sandwich” jokes into dorkishly enthusiastic appreciators of sweetly snarky romance, I would 100% do it. Gamers are okay I guess, but I’ll seriously pass on the dudebros. 

I have a non-dudebro irl guy friend who liked LBD and AoJE so I assume eventually he’ll get into KitR (I think he’s pretty busy right now so I’ll push it on him later), but he doesn’t tumbl, so we won’t see him here. I assume there are probably *some* guys who watch it on youtube but maybe aren’t in the tumblr fandom, but I guess I’ll post this in the tag and see if I’m proven wrong? 

Maybe we can we get the guy who posts the awesome reaction pictures to LBD into KitR and then he can also post awesome reaction pictures to KitR? Um. I forget his name, I’ve just been seeing the pics around a lot lately with the lbd twitterfiction, I hope this isn’t weird. 

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…about Shipping in the Rain, Lily and James, ep. 2, in no particular order:

• Sean got most of the lines in episode 1’s moving-in-a-movie, so I like that Mary Kate gets to be more of the star in the first half here.
• Where episode 1’s rain impressed me with how real it was, ep. 2’s rain impressed me with its magical ability to fall from a sky with almost no clouds, leave Anne and Gilbert completely dry even after the umbrella’s removal (though Anne’s knee is wet in the overhead shot at the beginning), and completely avoid falling on the (anachronistic, but not visibly so in the opening half, so that’s cool) copy of Bradford’s Emma’s Secret that James picks up after the cut.
• Maybe the previous high-profile project Lily and James worked on was marked by a more grueling shoot where the director soaked the actors to achieve greater authenticity, while this production of Anne of Avonlea is more pleasant and pretty but not necessarily as gritty and real.
• Sounds like the voice of the same director, though. Is that canon? Is Anne of Avonlea is being directed by the same up-and-comer as the previous feature? And is there canon for the name of the previous feature?
• Maybe the drier conditions on set are actually something Lily’s agent negotiated as part of her contract, giving the now B-list, rather than C-list, actor a more pleasant working environment as one small concession in a list of things Lily demanded before she would agree to work with James again.
• Hm. Or maybe the rain-that-isn’t-wet is a stylistic choice meant to evoke magical realism. Clearly I need to think about this rain thing some more.
• I can still hear the Allen’s hummingbird, right around the “mint” business, though not as prominently as in episode 1. That makes me happy.
• Everything else about it. Literally everything.

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Thank you so much for the kind words! It really does mean a lot, since I felt for a longish while that I was making my work in a vacuum and then sending it off to film festivals where the audience wasn’t necessarily as responsive to my shippy short films, haha. So the fact that you found my work and enjoyed it is so incredibly wonderful to hear, and it’s the reason I keep making work for the internet.

And I’d be happy to do more pre-production/film referencey-type notes. I was planning – still am planning, just been a bit swamped this past week – on adding my production notes on each episode upon my reblog of the episode post. Before I write the first one though, what sort of behind-the-scenes production-y things would you guys like to know? I was mostly going to talk about working with the actors and possibly some of the creative choices we made as a team (along with the DP and production designer and makeup artist, the crew members on set who I usually work with most closely) – I could go into some of the technical aspects as well, though our DP onthewallnow would probably be better at discussing those aspects in detail.

Let me know what you’d like to know and I’ll do my best to answer! (Not just you, anyone in the KITR tag reading this, really.)

Much love,

Yulin
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http://ift.tt/1aMnLyM

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yulinkuang:

lies:

shipwreckedcomedy:

Kissing in the Rain is a new series from shipwreckedcomedy in which two sets of actors keep finding themselves kissing in the rain, all while grappling with their off-camera feelings between takes.

Kissing in the Rain – Ep. 1: Lily & James
Follow the Fan-Canon Tumblr Transmedia Experiment

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Starring
Mary Kate Wiles as Lily
Sean Persaud as James

Created by Yulin Kuang

Watch our previous historical comedy series, A Tell Tale Vlog

Disorganized thoughts about episode 1 below the cut.

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Hahaha I love reading audience responses and this one makes me happy. Though when you say the Yuliniverse of student work/Shipwrecked/IDWT, does that mean you’ve watched my student work? o.0 How much did you find? Re: other questions, I’ll hopefully answer them when I get around to doing my behind-the-scenes production-type notes reblog post of this episode.

I’ve only watched the material in your YouTube channels, so The Perils of Growing Up Flat-Chested and First Kiss, both of which I enjoyed, are what I was referring to as student work. I apologize if I mischaracterized them.

And yes, I’m very much looking forward to whatever BTS information about KiTR you’re able to make available at the appropriate time. Thanks!

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ankahikoibaat:

so peter is a thing. and interacting with yulinkuang.

Haha. I read that exchange and was like, wait; what? I didn’t even consider that Peter could be fictional. This whole thing is unsettlingly awesome.

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Of course she said no. Like the Allen’s hummingbird that chose that moment to chase an interloper from the red honeysuckle behind the crew, its zuppity chup terse and dismissive. Like Lily’s “No thanks”. Not angry. Just busy, with things to do, his rejection an extra item on her todo list, now checked off.

The location was really birdy. If he hadn’t been there for a shoot he’d have liked to sit with his binoculars, watching and listening.

How had the bird thing started? It must have been that time when his grandmother, visiting, had pointed out a gray bird on the lawn in their backyard. That was the house on Hilton, before they moved, so he would have been four, or at most five. Before the divorce. The first divorce.

“Do you see that bird? Do you know what it is?”

No, grandmother.

“That’s a mockingbird. When it flies you’ll be able to see the white flashes in its wings.” And then it did fly, and he saw, just like she’d said.

“You can always tell a mockingbird by those flashes.”

Later, when he was 12, he stayed with her for six months during what became the second divorce. That’s when the birding bug really bit him. He came back from Florida obsessed, and the obsession never wore off.

He loved the Allen’s, small even for a hummingbird, with that gorgeous auburn back and the flash of red at the throat. More than that, he loved its exuberance, its lack of concern.

Not like him. He knew it surprised people when they heard about the acting. “Really?” Because outside of acting people tended to think of him as shy and self-conscious.

But it was different with a script. Playing a character with lines on the page was liberating. It was like having rails to carry the scene where it needed to go. He could play it straight or be spontaneous, and it didn’t matter; either way it wasn’t him.

And like bird-watching, he realized, it was a chance to be in the presence of something beautiful, to stand enraptured before it, watching and listening, with no pressure to say or do anything that wasn’t on the page. Until the director said, “cut.”

The hummingbird’s call faded, and he was aware of himself again, the awkwardness, the silence that hung between them.

“I didn’t either. I was just testing you. I was just making sure.” Ugh.

Audio: Kissing in the Rain, Episode 1. Image: Flickr user Wokcus.

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shipwreckedcomedy:

New photo post for an upcoming Shipwrecked short, a mysterious musical parody starring Sinead Persaud and directed by Yulin Kuang.

Scheduled for release during a one-week hiatus between Chapters I & II of Kissing in the Rain. We’re keeping the details under wraps on this production for now, but we always invite speculation!

And don’t forget to stay tuned for the premiere of Chapter I of Kissing in the Rain this Monday, 3/10 at 10am PT!

Much love,

Shipwrecked

—

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I’m going to be doing my mega-commute tomorrow, so I probably won’t be able to check out the KiTR premiere until tomorrow night. But I’ve taken a closer look at this post, and wanted to do some speculating. I still don’t have any real idea what it will be, but there are some clues. It’s:

• “a Shipwrecked short”
• “a mysterious musical parody”

That sounds to me like it’s not a “yulinisworking” literature adaptation, but more akin to the Poe stuff (though in a single episode). And probably comedy? Is “Shipwrecked” always comedy? “Parody” sounds comedic.

Looking at the photos, there are lots of flowers, and lace, and darkness. It’s really dark, in the literal sense. I’m not sure that means the actual video will be dark; I guess the darkness could be an artifact of how and when the stills were shot. But I’ll go ahead and assume the dark, spooky look is a feature of the actual production.

Photo 1: Sinead looks at the camera with a mysterious half-smirk and a hint of mischief in her eyes. She’s lying on her back wearing a lacy white dress (a bridal gown?) on what appears to be a bed, surrounded by vintage-y embroidered (or at least leafy patterned) pillows. Her arms are folded across her chest in the style of a corpse arranged for viewing. She’s wearing what appears to be a thin gold wedding band on the ring finger of her left hand. There are white flowers arranged on the left side of the frame, and a doll with what appears to be a black blindfold over its eyes. And above and to the right of her head, a dark outline that almost looks like it could be… a black bird? Poe’s raven? (It actually looks a little small for a raven, but I seem to recall that the stuffed bird they used in the Poe videos was also smallish for a raven.) MK already played Annabel Lee, so I suspect we’re not talking about her, but there’s definitely a Corpse Bride-y feel to this image, in the literal sense even if not necessarily in the Tim Burton sense.

Photo 2: Sinead sits up on one arm on what we can clearly see now is a bed, with a headboard draped with lace. There are more flowers visible in the background by the side of the bed (dark pink/magenta on the left, and maybe blue on the right?), and a cool vintage wall lamp/sconce with a stained glass shade. Sinead’s head is turned to the side and deeply shadowed, but she appears to be looking toward the viewer with her mouth open in a smile, perhaps talking or singing.

Photo 3: Sinead looks straight at the viewer, her face fully illuminated and small magenta flowers in her hair. This time her look is more serious, challenging, her mouth closed and her eyebrow slightly raised. White flowers are visible in the out-of-focus background.

Photo 4: Sinead smiles at a burning match or candle in her hand. There’s a better view of the floral arrangement in her hair. Blue and green patterned curtains are out of focus in the background.

Photo 5: Sinead walks away from the viewer, parting a curtain formed of old-fashioned keys dangling from strings.

Photo 6: Sinead stands in front of a window, surrounded by white and dark magenta flowers. She looks back over her shoulder, her face in shadow, but with a definite look of sadness, regret, or longing.

So, summing up: She’s a bride, and a corpse. Looking through the songs in Corpse Bride, there’s one, “Tears to Shed”, that is mostly sung by Emily, the eponymous corpse bride, and includes imagery about how if she touches a burning candle she feels no pain, and which the shots of Sinead evoke pretty nicely. And I guess that Poe’s raven and the blindfolded doll could be present to sing the parts of Maggot and Black Widow.

It’s probably something completely different. But that’s my speculation.

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yulinkuang:

snowbelle:

shipwreckedcomedy:

Chapter I of Kissing in the Rain premieres in 3 days! We’ll be posting a new question each day leading up to the premiere because we like knowing things.

What wisdom/miscellaneous reflections on your previous experiences with webseries/transmedia/fandom would you like to share with the creators of Shipwrecked? (Solicited advice, give it to us!)

Don’t forget to check out the Kissing in the Rain Fan-Canon Experiment, which launches on the same day as the premiere!

Much love,

Shipwrecked

— 

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This morning, the wisdom I offered on twitter was, “Let the fans be fans and do fannish things w/o engaging or commenting on those fannish acts” and you asked me to expand on that.

I don’t mean all engagement is bad, at all. It’s a connection that is lacking in traditional media consumption in most cases, and sometimes, that’s a shame. Why shouldn’t we take advantage of what the internet offers? When I think of great engagement, I think of Rob Thomas and his transparency and emails about the Veronica Mars movie. I think of social media offering glimpses at behind the scenes happenings, photos and shenanigans. I think of panels at ComicCon or AMAs at Reddit or in-character tweets/replies from the characters. Those humanize the people working on canon + the fans to each other and offer a structured window in on the creative process, and that sort of engagement is totally cool. But I’ll expand on the type of engaging I think has the potential to hurt both sides.

I get nervous when creators start engaging with specifically creative fannish acts (fics, vids, meta), in unstructured ways, because I’ve seen that crash a few times. Creators and fans both love the source, but they come at them from different angles. Fans like to fill in gaps, give depth to characters or situations it’s necessary to gloss over, debate motivations and meanings, ponder what is coming, play with what-ifs and complain about things they don’t like. In my experience, that can make creators defensive, or very proprietary if they see fans taking things in unexpected directions.

Years and years ago, the creators of Lois and Clark saw the fans on the then-new internet message boards and starting engaging and batting around ideas and giving fans power in storylines. It didn’t work out well. For one thing, the obvious issue of too many cooks in the kitchen. Fans had different views of what they wanted from the show and not all fan groups agreed – perfectly awesome in fandom, where you can try all sorts of things, even contradictory things, at the same time, but less so in canon. Trying to please everyone meant no one was pleased. Or, look at Glee – fan response may have gotten Brittany and Santana together, but when Ryan Murphy didn’t like what the fans were saying a few years later, he broke them up. I also remember the big kerfuffle in Lizzie Bennet Diaries when a staff member felt that fans were being disrespectful because of how they reacted to certain storyline aspects, and wrote posts on it. It blew over in a week, but soured a lot of fannish enthusiasm.

I worry that Bernie Su is dealing with the same L&C challenges now when he starts to defend his storytelling choices, asks for input and is presented with a 30 page document of everything a few fans think he is doing wrong. Those fans aren’t the voice of the fandom, but they’ve been given that power. People are going to like your stuff without liking everything about your stuff. They should feel free to explore that without feeling guilty. That’s the nature of creation and the arts. I feel like the structured window needs to be there – sharing is cool, but boundaries protect both canon and fanon, and the people on both sides.

Choosing to engage with fans also means, often, choosing to engage with certain fans. Louder fans, fans who are creative in certain ways, the fans who want to engage with creators. It creates an artificial hierarchy within the fandom, which can have a very negative impact and limit participation. The more conscious a group is of being observed, and the more conscious one group is that another has more power, the less open and creative it is. The more engagement with creators/actors, the more constrained fans feel. People get self-conscious when they think they might be judged by someone with more power, be it a creator or someone they perceive to have the ear of the creator. There’s less risk taking. There’s less depth. It hampers discussions. It promotes in-fighting and policing, which leads to fear and even less creativity.

Traditional fandom has generally been a playground, separate from canon, where we can do things show runners won’t agree with – twist things, reimagine things, criticize things, interpret something in a way that wasn’t authorial intention, etc. It becomes our story in that way, and to be best, stands alone, away from creator influence. It’s not that engagement is bad, or learning what fans think is bad, or considering that there are people putting labors of love for us to enjoy are bad. But when creators and fans share the exact same space, rather than adjacent ones, I think there’s generally less creativity, less organic growth and frankly, more stress on both sides.

And thus ends my novel. ;) It’s just my perspective, but I’ve been in fandom for (dear God) nearly 20 years, and I’ve seen the shifts of engagement first hand – both what has worked and what has not. Despite this, and this is probably hard to believe after all that, I really am super excited for Kissing in the Rain, and I love exploring new levels of fan interaction. I don’t think it’s impossible for shared spaces to work in some situations, really, with the right expectations and boundaries. I think the Fan-Canon idea is cool (though not without potential pitfalls, many of which are outlined above) and I’m excited to explore it. I think it does have structure and boundaries and expectations which could help it succeed. I also hope, though, that a more traditional and separate fandom pops up, away from your eyes, because sometimes the magic comes from something wild and crazy and not at all even potentially canon compliant, but still awesome. What if.

Super interesting from a creators’ perspective, reblogging to collect more thoughts on this end. And yes, I do think the hope is that one day our fandom will expand to a point that we can no longer easily find everything on the Tumblr tags in one scroll-through. :) Thanks again for voicing your thoughts!

Yes, bad things can happen when creators and fans interact directly. I don’t agree with the view, voiced by some during the LBD kerfuffle referred to above, that for a creator to “invade fannish spaces” is inherently a bad thing. Creators are people. Fans are people. Sometimes when people interact with each other one side or the other (or both) make mistakes. That doesn’t mean all future interactions should be outlawed, though I’ve seen that argument made (not by the original responder above; I’m talking about much more strident assertions that I’ve seen made by other people).

The great innovation of the Internet is that its dumb-in-the-middle design allows for any endpoint to connect to any other endpoint without a gatekeeper in the middle. That creates the potential for fans and creators to interact directly. It also means that those arguing that such interactions should not happen have no real way to enforce their preference. They can assert that a norm should exist that fannish spaces be free from creator participation, and they can explain why they believe that, but that’s all they can do. If people don’t choose to follow the norm, interactions will keep happening.

I’m glad the LBD creators invaded my fannish space. It sometimes created problems, but it also created a lot of coolness. I think the problems have been exaggerated by some who make the “no invasions of fannish spaces” argument. Personally, I thought the negative reaction by a few fans to the “invasions” were more off-putting than the invasions themselves.

Yes, some creators have made what were, with the benefit of hindsight, mistakes when interacting with fans outside traditional limited channels. It’s valid to talk about those mistakes. There’s a risk to those interactions. But there’s always risk when people interact with each other. Power disparities, as between creators and fans, can heighten those risks, but that doesn’t mean the interactions should never happen.

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Closer…

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superpotterwholockedonfire-lotr:

things that make me happy: summer rain

Closer…

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“Tumblr will lose their shit.”

– Yulin’s KiTR-inception text to Sinead

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Am I the only one who’s anxious at Yulin’s battery being down to 22%?

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Yulin being trollish on Twitter. [x]

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