Like most people of our generation, I am a fan of many different things that are at least somewhat involved in the media. I am a huge Harry Potter fan, I enjoy all kinds of music and dance but mostly R&B/Hip Hop Music and Hip Hop dance, and I am just a movie fan in general. With that being said, I do not see myself making any kind of fan fiction, re-vamping a script, or putting a spin on any those things and making a video out of it. My enjoyment from those things usually always comes straight from the source. That is also why I do not particularly enjoy watching any fan fiction videos or spoofs. They just do not spark my interest. Some might say I am just not as big a fan as the people who make these kinds of videos, but I just think I am a different kind of fan. The farthest I would go when it comes to making a video based off of being a fan of something is just using a song or two as the back track of a video of me or my friends doing something completely original. This is also apparently against copyright laws because I do not own the rights to redistribute that song to the public. This is especially ridiculous to me because like the incident mentioned in class, one can be sued for even unintentionally having a track in the background of a video and posting the video online. The charges are usually dropped for ridiculous cases like this thankfully. Some corporations are a little stricter on distribution like this such as Disney and George Lucas, but mainly just Disney.
I think you are exactly right to think about this in terms of different types of fans; in fact some research I have seen indicates that the % of fans who actually make fan films, write fan fiction, etc, is relatively small. There are a WIDE variety of fan activities, some more production-oriented, other more consumption oriented. The technology, however, makes the production oriented fan activities much more visible than ever before.
And frankly, having watched a lot of fan film, much of it is pretty awful. But every now and then you find some really great stuff.
the way that you feel about fan fiction and spoofs…is pretty much how eye feel about the music industry….i usually prefer the original song over the remix or mash-up. But at the same time…i do find their creativity to be rather impressive.
It is ridiculous how when the baby was dancing to the PRINCE song, they were sued, for not even having the entire song uploaded. You have to be very careful with what you post online. I am also a fan oof the original material, but that is why I love spoofs and parody’s as well. I know the original work so well, that when minor twist are put to it, I find it really funny at times, and if you find a bad one, trust me a good parody/spoof is a click away.