Fanvids, or music videos constructed of recombined clips from movies or TV, have a 30-year history within a predominantly female subculture, and often make feminist and/or queer statements about their mass media source texts. Today, YouTube and its ilk render them more accessible and visible than ever before. The maturation of internet video sharing has enabled a riot of cross-pollination among moving image mashups, but this "mainstreaming" also carries the risk of detaching nuanced artworks from their interpretive context and diluting their vital underground community. Meanwhile, the media industry is becoming increasingly attuned to such fan production, both as lucrative promotional labor (when harnessed as "user-generated content") and as a target of takedown notices (when conducted outside proprietary control). Is profit the only axis of legitimacy for popular appropriations, and can queer viewing be monetized? Why is it that you've seen more Brokeback Mountain parodies than fanvids? Why does this material so often get TOSsed from YouTube, and what can you do about it? Finally, what can fanvids teach us about grassroots queer media, and about how to nurture it for the 21st century?

1. SkewTube Fan Videos, Brokeback Trailers, and the Future of User-Penetrated Content [ Swarthmore College, 04 March 2008 ]

2. Julie Levin Russo ‘01 Brown University Modern Culture & Media http://j-l-r.org

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_sharing_sites

4. digital video >> • YouTube Poop • mass media mashups • participatory promotions

7. 1) you don’t go up there to fish slash goggles

9. http://towleroad.com (October 2005)

10. slash goggles (personal collection)

13. http://youtube.com/watch?v=omB18oRsBYg

14. 2) if you’re looking for work user-generated promotions

15. http://scifi.com/battlestar/videomaker/tools/

16. contradictions you’re a tech-savvy internet based producer you’re a TV groupie who wants TPTB’s attention and approval be “original” and don’t infringe copyright promote the show, using its “look and sound” and other recognizable characteristics

18. http://video.scifi.com/player/?id=64712

19. 3) it’s nobody’s business but ours fan videos

20. http://profile.imeem.com/25CsW5/video/HsUGuJPi/

21. from “Pressure” by California Crew (circa 1990)

23. “ Closer” by Killa + T. Jonesy

24. fake trailers vs. slash vids effective humor > broad appeal > quantifiable popularity shared openly on YouTube; considered public accessible with a minimum of pop culture knowledge parodic narrative editing; soundtrack + narration + dialogue fragments effective communication > community recognition > feedback + joy values shared via subcultural channels; considered semi-private context speaking to a specific interpretive community audience sincere, at least on one level; deeply invested in the source tone balance narrative, textual associations, + spectacle; song as audio track form

25. “ Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by Laura Shapiro http://laurasha.imeem.com/video/Af5PXCX7/

27. 4) if you can’t fix it, you gotta stand it best practices

33. http://transformativeworks.org

34. 5) I wish I knew how to quit you! conclusion