Finnegan

Anja, Sheida,

I've made and uploaded onto three sites a version of roughly the same video that is better in three respects: (a) it's in high definition, (b) the text stills are better written, and (c) the annoying watermark ("made with an unregistered VideoEditor") is gone, although I paid no money to get rid of it.

The improved version is publicly available on YouTube at YouTube - Rawley Angel, but remains inaccessible from Germany. I can't fix that, despite having tried several ways of doing so, including more pedantic text and comments to try to exploit the "fair use" exception for "study and criticism" in US copyright law, which, not surprisingly, seems to count for little in Germany.

Also, a bad copy is now online at 56.com, at 56.com - �*国最大的视频分享网站,在线视频观看,视频搜索,视频上�*及分享互动; it looks as if every second frame has been deleted in that copy. It's not publicly accessible yet, but it should be within half a day or so; that site seems a bit slow about that; if not, no great loss.

I'm afraid the "submission file" must continue to come from MegaUpload, although there's a new URL:

Title of Video: Rawley Angel
Download Link: MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service (uploaded as a WMV file). This forum's software automatically overwrites the URL, which is www-dot-megaupload-dot-com/?d=2HK6R2FO
Fanforum User Name: Finnegan
Characters/Couple: Jacqueline Pratt & Hamilton Fleming
Song Title & Artist: "Angel," written and preformed by Sarah McLachlan
Short Description: At the climax of Young Americans, the "frog prince" moment when Hamilton Fleming kisses straight but cross-dressing "Jake" Pratt and "Jake" turns into a girl, Pratt tells Fleming: "I'm obsessed by Sarah McLachlan." This video attempts to show why Young Americans' creator, Steve Antin, included that allusion to McLachlan; her best-known song, then as now, "Angel," aptly describes both Hamilton Fleming, a miraculously compassionate emotional savior, and Jacqueline Pratt, whose emotional despair and self-destructive behavior are reminiscent of the heroin addiction and overdosing that occasioned McLachlan's "Angel."

s e r e n i t y

Aww megaupload, I cant download from that site

Well, seeing as youtube and pretty much anyother site is filtered here in Iran you gotta access them using proxies which sometimes go crazy and also sometimes takeforever to load a small video though Ill be able to download it tomorrow when Im in uni probobley, internet speeds faster there so thanks for the re-upload

wolkenfuehlen

Thanks for the new and improved upload! I finally managed to download it and watch it. I'm so impressed you learned to do all that in just a few days! It looks great, and I love the way the images reflect the lyrics or vice versa! Very well done!

s e r e n i t y

I couldnt download it in ni but never fear Ill find a way

wolkenfuehlen

I hope you do!

Hey, isn't the deadline today? So I guess that means we'll only have one entry this year I guess that will make judging pretty easy

Chris

Wow! The video is wonderful. I really enjoyed it.

Congratulations. I still treasure my little silver photo album (and we vacationed in British Columbia). You have a year to come up with something special. This year I received pearls (and an Alaskan inside passage cruise is still to come).

Finnegan

Thanks for the flattery and the sage counsel, Chris. We aim to please, and a trip to Toledo is plotted for silver shopping.

Video editing has, I think, more useful applications than making music videos, but this was a good learning exercise for me.

Tina

Here is the round one winner for the Young Americans board!



Congratulations.

s e r e n i t y

Thanks for posting that Tina

Finnegan

Not too surprising given the absence of competiton ...

Anja, Sheida,

It should be possible to get more YA videos for the annual Fanforum music video competition in future years. People are still making YA music videos and posting them on YouTube; do a YouTube search for "Young Americans" and "Jake and Hamilton" and you'll see for yourself.

Have you considered creating a YouTube account for this board? You could keep that account private and use it only to send messages to people who've put YA videos on YouTube during the past year, asking them to consider entering their videos into this annual competition. Or you could make that account public and post on its channel previous years' winners of the FanForum YA video contest.

I'd be happy to help you with any of that; I can pretty easily create a YouTube account tailored as closely as possible to whatever you might want and turn it over to you, after which you could change the password.

wolkenfuehlen

Thanks for posting Tina! What a pretty graphic. And, again, congrats to you, Finnegan!

That's a really good idea for next year! I wasn't aware people still create lots of videos for the show - I don't spend much time on youtube. So yeah, I think we should definitely keep that in mind. When the time comes, I'll create an account

Finnegan

Well, don't be shy, Anja. The Matt Czuchry board of FanForum has what amounts to its own YouTube channel, including the moderators' shamelessly self-promoting videos, like this one celebrating 250K posts on this forum's Czuchry board.

s e r e n i t y

Thats a really good idea I dont go on youtube at all really so I didnt know we could do that

Finnegan

Sheida, Anja,

Yes, I suspect that having a YouTube channel for this board might increase participation substantially; Fanforum and YouTube participants seem to overlap significantly, especially for YA, which may be most commonly watched on YouTube because no authorized recording ever has been released.

More participants might help this board meet FanForum posting quotas with less reliance on "game threads," and thereby make discussion on this board more substantive, which in turn might help attract participants.

A "Fanforum YA board music video contest winners" playlist might be only one part of a YouTube channel for this board. If you would like to discuss this further, PM me.

wolkenfuehlen

As I said, we'll probably look into it and create one once we've talked it over Thanks again for the suggestion!