Fancam

Synonyms:	Fan Cam
See also:	Stage Mix, Fanvid
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A fancam is a recording of a celebrity or public figure taken and/or circulated by fans. They are particularly popular in K-Pop fandoms on Twitter. The most common fancams are taken during a musical performance, during which idols are usually dancing. Fancams will follow a single member of the group.

Around 2019, many began to use the term to refer more generally to what is usually known as a fanvid or an AMV. Largely on Twitter, where fancams had become ubiquitous, videos that were not fan-recorded single takes, but rather edited clips from other sources set to different music, were referred to as fancams. These "fancams" were no longer limited to real people who could be recorded naturally by fans; video from any source, such as a live-action film or cartoon, could be edited to make a "fancam."

Fancams have become such an integral part of the Kpop fandom that in 2020, when most Kpop events were pre recorded without an audience due to pandemic restrictions, some venues were releasing "fancam" footage from the performances.

Use

Use of fancams is extremely high among K-pop stans on Twitter. Their ubiquity has spread to the practice of using fancams in replies. Stans will attach a fancam to their reply despite the idol, group, or even K-pop having nothing to do with the topic of discussion. Stans may attach fancams to deliberately make light of the topic by pointedly changing the subject. For example, if someone outside of K-pop fandom tweets that K-pop stans are annoying and overenthusiastic, K-pop stans will deliberately flood the comments with fancams and interact with each other instead of the OP. However, they are also used simply because of a genuine desire to boost the video.

Here is are two fans explanation in 2021:

Fancam is a video of a single event, often focused on a bias (e.g. one idol within a group of 11 singing)

Fan edits is a bunch of videos put together to make some point (e.g. XZ clips cutest with puppies)

Fanvids is what we know best xD put together to create an au-style narrative

fancams are edited videos of real people, fan edits are short edited footage of some fictional media for tiktok/insta, fanvideos are fan edits but normally longer and on youtube

this is just my interpretation but: fancams - of one celeb/character, short, special effects edits - of multiple characters/a ship, short, special effects fanvids - longer/full length, sometimes less special effects, focus on any number of characters/ships

Fancam activism

George Floyd Protests, May-June 2020

On 31 May 2020, during the protest movement following the killing of George Floyd the official Twitter account of the Dallas, Texas Police Department (@DallasPD) invited people to share video of illegal activity during the protest through Dallas PD's app iWatch Dallas.

K-pop fan @7soulsmap tweeted a screencapture of DallasPD's tweet to their followers and in a follow-up tweet encouraged people to post fancams to the app to protect the identities of BLM (Black Lives Matter) protestors.

Twitter user @ngelwy was one k-pop fan who quote tweeted @7soulsmap with instructions to 'DOWNLOAD THE APP AND SEND ALL YOUR FANCAMS!!! SEND THEM ALL!!! MAKE THEIR JOB AS HARD AS POSSIBLE!!! GET THEM FRUSTRATED!!! MAKE THEM TAKE DOWN THE APP!!!'. (@Ngelwy's tweet was deleted early in the morning of 1 June 2020 out of concern for the security of people downloading the police app.)

Although (as of 1 June 2020) there is no concrete proof that this fancam activism was the reason, the police app was taken down soon afterwards. Early in the morning on 1 June 2020, Dallas PD tweeted that 'Due to technical difficulties iWatch Dallas app will be down temporarily'. One of the earliest replies to the tweet came from twitter user mika (@chaengjiwoo) who responded 'hope you enjoyed the fancams', attaching a fancam to the tweet.

A screencapture of @ngelwy's deleted tweet went viral when it was shared by twitter user Unfriendly black thottie (@thotimus_primee) who tweeted within an hour of the DallasPD taking down their iWatch Dallas app to say 'LMFAO THE KPOP GIRLS TOOK DOWN THE IWATCH DALLAS POLICE APP WITH THEIR FANCAMS'.

Afterwards, Twitter users encouraged K-pop fans to use their fancams for good by flooding the pro-police hashtags, which they promptly did, including spamming the Instagram hashtag #whiteouttuesday on 2 June . On 3 June K-pop fans were so prolific at spamming the Twitter hashtags #WhiteLivesMatter and #whiteoutwednesday with fancams that Twitter categorised those hashtags as 'kpop'.

Other Twitter users expressed their joy at this activism, many saying something along the lines of "I take back all the annoyed comments I made about fancams".

The Dallas PD iWatch app incident was reported by Caroline Haskins at Buzzfeed on 1 June 2020. Follow-up examples of fancam activism against protest-related apps and hashtags were reported by Seren Morris at Newsweek on 2 June 2020.

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  @DallasPD: iWatch tweet, 31 May 2020

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  @7soulsmap: Twitter profile

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  @7soulsmap: Screencaps Dallas PD, 31 May 2020

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  @7soulsmap: Post fancams, 31 May 2020

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  @ngelwy: Twitter profile

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  @DallasPD: Technical difficulties, 1 June 2020

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  @chaengjiwoo: Hope you enjoyed the fancams, 1 June 2020

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  @ngelwy: Deletes initial tweet, 1 June 2020

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  @thotimus_primee: Kpop girls took down iwatch app, 1 June 2020

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  @asaaaad23: Spamming #whiteouttuesday on Instagram, 2 June 2020

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  USA Twitter trends, afternoon 3 June 2020

Examples

• Yuri of SNSD performing Oh! at Namyangju Central Stadium – by kwonyuri125.com (100522)
  • One of the first viral fancams.
• Jonghyun and Taemin of SHINee perform a cover of Internet War by Seo Taiji at SM Town in Seoul – by 종현아/JongHyun_A (120818)
  • This performance single-handedly caused Jongtae to go from a rarepair to one of the most popular ships in the fandom.
• Kai of EXO performing Angel at Dream Kpop Fantasy Concert in Manila – by LET THE MUSIC PLAY (130119)
• SNSD performing I Got A Boy at Dream Concert (130511)
• Hani of EXID performing Up & Down for soldiers in Paju – by Pharkil (141008)
  • Prior to this fancam going viral EXID were near disbandment. It was entirely due to the promotion they received from Hani's fancam that they were able to continue on to release more music. This fancam also noticeably increased the general public's awareness of fancams.
• Super Junior performing Evanesce at Super Show 6 in Beijing ft. Heechul missing the rising stage – by SJ饭团SUPERHOLIC (141122)
• Suzy of Miss A performing Love Song at M Countdown (150402)
  • This is what is sometimes called an 'official fancam', meaning it is actually filmed by the staff of the music show in the style of a fancam. These 'official fancams' from Korean music shows became increasingly common beginning in about 2015.
• Hwasa of Mamamoo performing Um Oh Ah Yeah prior to its release at a guerilla street concert in Daehak-ro by drighk (150614)
• GFriend performing Me gustas tu on a very slippery stage at SBS Radio's Hyundai Eco-driving Concert – by -wA-/smilewa.com (150905)
  • This is another instance of a group's popularity drastically increasing as a direct result of a viral fancam.
• Suga of BTS performing BTS Cypher Pt.2: Triptych and BTS Cypher Pt.3: Killer at ALL FORCE ONE – by REAL MIN (150920)
• Jimin of BTS covering Perfect Man by Shinhwa at MBC Music Festival – by jamjam park (151231)
• Twice performing Cheer Up at Yonsei University's Akaraka Festival (160521)
• GFriend performing Rough in the rain at Gimhae Lotte Water Park – by TheGsd (160702)
• Jonghyun of SHINee watching Blackpink perform at SBS Gayo Daejun – by IdealBoy (161226)
  • This is an example of a fancam of an idol taken while they're not performing.
• Jonghyun of SHINee covering Lee Hi's Breathe, a song he wrote, at his The Agit (The Letter) concert series – by IdealBoy (1707??)
• Taemin of SHINee debuting his solo song Move as Seoul Fashion Week – by ALOHAtaemin (171017)
• Nancy of Momoland performing Bboom Bboom at Wonkwang University Freshmen Orientation – by DaftTaengk (180322)
• Kai of EXO performing Tempo at their comeback showcase – by Mr.Destiny (181102)
• Lisa of Blackpink dancing to Swalla by Jason Derulo at BLACKPINK World Tour /in Your Area in Bangkok – by LALA LISA (190112)
  • An edit of this fancam made by thekidzzzzz/7kidz on 11 Feb 2019 was subsequently reposted and went viral on Twitter.
• Key of SHINee and Changsub of BTOB having the time of their life performing with the Wonju Armed Forces Symphony Orchestra during their enlistment – by 햇살아,안녕?/hellokey.net (191007)

Fan Comments

i will say that kpop stans have the right idea by using fancams in online arguments. inoffensive enough to not be taken down but annoying enough to drive the opponent crazy. the modern equivalent of bugs bunny kissing his enemies on the lips