Media Cannibals/Tape2

Vid Collection
Title:	Tape 2
Vidder(s):	Media Cannibals
Date:	1995-1996
Format:	VHS
Length:
Genre/Theme:
Fandom (s):	Multifandom
URL:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

playlist on the back of the videotape

Tape 2 covered the next two years of the Cannibals' vid collaboration, 1995-1996. By this time, the Cannibals had started including liner notes via a photocopied sheet of paper and a listing of what vids were in the box taped to it. Duplication was still done manually, with Sandy making the majority of the copies. Tape 2 also contained Megan Kent's early Starsky & Hutch vids, which had been made around 1987/1988 and were very difficult to get to.

Original Vidders' notes:

The Media Cannibals are a loose group of people who live in Seattle, (or visit frequently) who like to do fannish things collectively. MC is working on a zine at the moment too (Guilty Pleasures by the Media Cannibals, due out at Escapade VII.)

And for those few that care

• The MC VIDEOS were done on one of our two Mitsubishi editing decks, either the U57 (1994) or the U59 (1996), both Hi-ZFi VHS machines with insert edit. They were both around $400-$500 new. Megan's vids were done on a Canon VR-HF 800. It cost about $800 in 1987
• The MC TITLES were created in Powerpoint for Windows, using pictures scanned in, stolen from the web, or taken as screen shots, brought over to the Mac, and then converted into NTSC with an Apple video card. Not a bad way to do this, but we learned that Reds and Greens that look great on your computer screen will look terrible once transferred to a TV screen.

Tape Contents

Vid	Fandom	Singer or Band	Vidders	Liner Notes
A Fire Is Burning	The Professionals	Oyster Band	Alex, Sandy Herrold, Gwyneth Rhys	Alex found this great song, and we nearly broke our two editing decks making the short cuts that the song required. I think of this vid as being a roller coaster ride, a little like Bodie and Doyle's lives.
You Gotta Be	Multimedia	Des'ree	Sandy Herrold, Alex, Blackbird, feochadn, Gwyneth Rhys	I was sitting at the bar at Escapade IV with Alex and Lezlie Shell, and this song came on the big screen. We all thought the song embodied both the humor and the strength of character that we love in our fannish heroes. I'm not sure why this didn't turn out to be a favorite of mine.
Knocking on Heaven's Door	Wiseguy	Dylan	Sandy Herrold, Nicole V., Morgan Dawn	I don't think that either Frank or Vinnie is actually suicidal, but they've each definitely had days where they feared they had nothing left to give. This vid was in my mind for months before I finally found the Dylan version of the song--the abrupt ending isn't me: it's from the original album.
Rock and Roll	Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin	Sandy Herrold, Megan Kent	This was a blast to do, but LZ is such a small fandom we figured we were the only two people who'd understand (or care...) Basically, it's about them missing each other, all they've done while apart, and the short reunions that finally lead to them getting back together as Page & Plant last year.
Walk the Same Line	The Professionals	Everything But The Girl	Blackbird, Alex, Sandy Herrold	Blackbird turned us on to this band. The song was a little 'soft' for our rough, tough boys, but we loved the theme. This was the first vid where we tried structuring the POV first one, then the other, then both of them at the end.
Roll to Me	Due South	Del Amitri	Sandy Herrold, with lots of help	At the time I started this, most of the Cannibals weren't watching Due South yet, so this is the first vid I did with Net collaboration. I like this, but can't help being embarrassed by how short and snappy it is. I would appreciate recommendations for a serious song in the fandom/pairing.
Out of Tears	Wiseguy	Mick Jagger	Sandy Herrold	I live with a married couple: Nicole is part of the Media Cannibals, and her husband John is very friendly to it. He is a huge Rolling Stones fan, and assigns a character or pairing to ever Jagger, Richards, or Stones song he hears: once in awhile, we listen to him. I think Frank suffers beautifully.
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), take 2	The Professionals	The Proclaimers	Sandy Herrold, Alex	I was never happy with the original version of this on Tape 1: I'd blown the audio part way through it, and when I laid the audio back down, I got it 1/2 a second 'off'. Too many Pros stories show Bodie doing all the running: I wanted to do a visual rebuttal, showing Doyle doing the chasing. See Tape 1 for more back story on the re-diting of this vid.
Something to Talk About	Wiseguy	Bonnie Raitt	Sandy Herrold, Charlotte C Hill	I did the Pros version with Alex on Tape1, but Charlotte talked me into this one as well. I like them both, but this one is shorter, and has a wonderful ending (done by Charlotte, so I can say that.)
Stray Cat Strut	The Professionals	Stray Cats	Sandy Herrold, Alex, Blackbird	Complete fluff: I'd read one too many 'cat-like' Doyles.
Let It Bleed	Multimedia	Rolling Stones	Sandy Herrold, Nicole, Alex, Rachael Sabotini, Blackbird, Gwyn, Jo	Not a living room vid, but fun in a group. The weakest part is the 'someone to bleed on' section: who'da thought it would be hard to find good clips of our heroes bleeding? Making the title was fun too: gave me a goodish excuse to go web browsing to find all of those show logos.
Too Much Love Will Kill You	Wiseguy	Brian May	Sandy Herrold, Charlotte C Hill	I Love it when one fannish interest complements another. Charlotte found it impossible to listen to the poignancy of Brian May's elegy for Freddie Mercury without thinking of the incredible torment that Frank McPike goes through at the loss of his friends and relationships. (FYI: This was done before the WG movie, when Vinnie was still dead.)
Promises	Led Zeppelin	Clapton	Sandy Herrold, Megan Kent	One of Megan's strengths as a vidder is the ability to tell a coherent story using a strong, consistent POV. I love the Jimmy she draws. (We collaborated on this one the hard way: she'd mail me the master, I'd put a few clips in and mail it back. This is the first time we've computer edited a song for a vid. Megan did most of the vid, while Charlotte did the audio editing.)
Little Baby	Due South	Rolling Stones	Sandy Herrold, with thanks to John and Gwyn and Michelle Christian	I could only hear John say, 'you know this is a Benny song' so many times before my fingers started to itch. In both Due South vids, I tried switching the POV 1/2way through the vid, so the viewer could contrast their relationship: is there a difference between Benny following Ray and Ray following Benny?
Tender Comrade	The Professionals	Billy Bragg	Sandy Herrold, Morgan Dawn, Alex, Gwyn	Rosa Westphalen gave me this beautiful song about soldiers being under fire and I loved it, but it was both a cappella and much too slow. Using the pause button of a cassette player (low tech!), we cut a verse and made all of the pauses at the ends of each line much shorter. I was afraid that it would still be too slow and too quiet, but I like it.
Send The Marines	Space: Above and Beyond	Tom Lehrer	Charlotte C Hill, Megan Kent, Jo, Carol S., Wendy	With a show like SAAB, how could this song not be more perfect! Spoofing our space marine heroes was wonderful collaborative fun.
We Could Leave Right Now	Highlander	Oyster Band	Lynn C.	At Virgule convention #3, we loved this vid of Lynn C.'s so much, we immediately asked to distribute it for her. The vid perfectly captures my view of Duncan and Methos's relationship: Methos is trying to get Duncan, and Duncan wants 'to think about it.' If he's not careful, he's going to leave it too Late...

Blast from the Past Contents

Original notes for "Blast from the Past: Starsky and Hutch Vids by Megan Kent"

Megan made these Starsky and Hutch vids back in 1987-88, and they're wonderful! Though at times you can tell that vidding styles and techniques have changed since then, they use strong songs to tell clear stories about the characters' relationship--just the way I like vids to be.

Vid	Singer or Band	Liner Notes
Trouble in Paradise	Romanovsky and Phillips	I loved the idea that once the guys are together, that's not the end of the road.
That's All	Genesis	My first vid. What can I say? Also the only vid I have ever COMPLETELY re-cut. Every clip. I still like the mood, but I'd do it very differently today.
Lost Emotions	Romanovsky and Phillips	I get more response on this vid than any other. It seems to have captured much of the H/C mood of the show and the fandom. It has some of my favorite clips in it.
Don't Use Your Penis for a Brain	Romanovsky and Phillips	Once I had the R&P tape, this was the obvious choice for a humorous vid. This is the first time I edited a song for content.
You're My Home	Billy Joel	This song seemed to embody the SH relationship from Starsky's POV
Secure Yourself	Indigo Girls	This is the only song that has come close to expressing the agony of loss I think Hutch would feel if Starsky died. Also my one and only use of my neato strobe effect.

Historical Perspectives on the Vids

"A Fire is Burning" was considered a "heart-pounding" vid, as the clips were just so fast for the time.

At the time that this tape was created, RPS was still very underground, so it was highly unusual to have an RPS vid shown at a con or included in a collection tape. The fact that it was a band fandom at a media convention made it doubly rare.

"Roll to Me" may have been one of the first Due South vids created.

"Stray Cat Strut" won a first place award at Zebracon the year it was shown.

"We Could Leave Right Now" may be the first Duncan/Methos vid created.

Review of the Tape

In November 1996, Michelle Christian posted the following rewiew of the tape to the Virgule-L mailing list. It is reposted here with permission.

"Very tentative reviewer's disclaimer: I'm not sure how well this is going to work. I've never reviewed Music Vids before and I thought of sending something like this just to Sandy. I then realised, though, that if I had, she'd probably say something like, "Why didn't you post this to the list?" so I'm cutting out the middle man. Please keep in mind that while I have suggested scenes to people and songs for vids, I've never actually made one myself. I can only go by what I think, what works for me and what doesn't. And as always, the following are my ideas and mine alone and I'd love to hear other people's opinions as well. They wanted reviews of vids, they should know better than to ask!

MEDIA CANNIBALS Tape #2

available from

Sandy Hereld

[address]

for $10 via US postage

MC has made some of my favorite vids in various fandoms and this one has a couple more favorites. It also has the added bonuses of Lynn C.'s HL vid and six of Megan Kent's S&H vids from a few years ago.

I really liked the addition of liner notes. I like the comments from Sandy and megan and the anal part of me *really* likes having the title, fandom and name of the singer/group listed. The only thing that could make me happier is lyric sheets, but I think that that really is asking for too much on my part. (I'm telling you, though, I was real quick to go lyric hunting after seeing the Cure's "Lullabye" as a B7 vid a couple of years ago! I think that's one of Gayle or Tashery's vids, if anyone cares.)

There are only two vids in a fandom I'm not interested in and they're both for Lef Zeppelin ("Rock and Roll" by Led Zep and "Promises" by Eric Clapton). I'm not that fascinated with Robert and Jimmy (okay, especially not Jimmy!) and they actually managed to pick one of the very few EC songs that I don't care for!

"A Fire is Burning" (Pros) sung by Oyster Band--A very nice, fast-paced vid. I liked having something with a lot of quick cuts right away and the song definitely fit the show.

"You Gotta Be" (Multi-media: WG, S&H, DS) sung by Des'ree--I really liked this one. I think it might be slightly off the beat one or two places, but a very solid vid for a very solid song. (And, of course, I knew that the poster of Robert from one of the S&H episodes wouldn't go unnoticed in certain sectors...)

"Knocking On Heaven's Door" (WG) sung by Bob Dylan--It's interesting that all the WG vids this time around are F/V and that they're all of the "poor Baby" variety. Not that Frank doesn't lend himself to them, but after the wide mix of WG pairings on the first tape, this might be a bit disappointing to the Heretics in the audience. But this is still a lovely, mournful vid--to the best version of this song!

"Walk the Same Line" (Pros) sung by Everything But the Girl--This is one of a couple of songs that I have one major complaint about on this tape: I don't feel that the music really fits the show. The lyrics themselves are good, the scenes fit the lyrics, but the music--it just doesn't quite fit.

"Roll to Me" (DS) sung by Del Amitri--One of the two DS vids on the tape. It's another solid entry, though I like the other DS vid better.

"Out of Tears" (WG) sung by Mick Jagger--Yet another "poor Baby" Frank vid. I have to say that while I don't generally like Mick Jagger that well, this song and vid really work well.

"500 Miles (take 2)" (Pros) sung by The Proclaimers--This is the redo that they did to a vid that's on the first tape. I always liked that vid, but this one definitely feels tighter, which makes it that much more enjoyable.

"Something to Talk About" (WG) sung by Bonnie Raitt--When I first heard this song, I knew it was going to wind up being in numerous vids. It's got the slash feel to it and is just generic enough in the lyrics to fit almost *any* show. This is one of the better ones, though not my favorite. I think I'm also going a little sour on the whole song and concept; I think this has become like Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" a few years ago: I'll shoot the next person who does a vid to it!

"Stray Cat Strut" (Pros) sung by the Stray Cats--This is one of the few vids I saw at Z-Con last year and I about laughed myself sick. I *love* the whole concept and execution. If Doyle's a cat, he's definitely an alley cat.

"Let It Bleed" (Multi-media) sung by the Rolling Stones--It says in the liner notes that this isn't a living room vid, but is meant to be seen in a group. While I can definitely see where this would be more fun with a selected group (how long is it until Escapade?!), I enjoyed it plenty in my living room, all on my lonesome. Just one complaint: Duncan Richie?! Yech! (I'm not going to mention Crockett/Tubbs. Really I'm not.) Have to admit, though, I loved the scenes for the "cream on" lyrics.

"Too Much Love Will Kill You" (WG) sung by Brian May--*The* "poor Baby" Frank vid and my personal favorite of the tape. It's just a beautiful song and a beautiful and heart-wrenching vid.

"Little Baby" (DS) sung by the Rolling Stones--I prefer this to the other DS vid, though they're both very good. And I never really noticed before how much Ray usually leads the two of them, no matter how much he's bitching at the time.

"Tender Comrade" (Pros) sung by Billy Bragg--This one is an a cappella song and though I didn't notice the cuts that Sandy makes mention that she made in the song itself, I still felt that while the words worked, the song itself really didn't for a Pros vid.

"Send the Marines" (SAAB) sung by Tom Lehrer--This song is perfect for this fandom, McQueen is a perfect John Wayne (and Vansen a Randolph Scott)--and for some reason this bid still falls a little flat for me. Maybe it's because I've always loved the Pros vid to this song. But that didn't stop me from loving "Vatican Rag" for WG even though I've known and loved the S&H version longer. So, I'm inclined to say that it just fell flat. Though I have no real explanation why.

"We Can Leave Right Now" (HL) sung by Oyster Band--This is the vid by Lynn C everyone came back from Virgule and told me I *had* to see. And they were right! Lovely vid with some great Duncan/Methos scenes. You doing any more, Lynn?

The last six vids are all Megan's old S&H vids. And they all suffer uniformly from the same problem: Not enough cuts. I know that this is kind of unfair since I'm seeing them after watching the MC vids where they used a bit more up-to-date equipment, but...This is more notciable and therefore more of a problem in some of the vids than others, such as "Trouble in Paradise" (Romanovsky and Phillips) and especially "That's All" (Genesis). Some of the others are still lovely, though, especially "Lost Emotion" (R&P). It's a different angle and a lovely, if despairing one. And could there be a more perfect song for S&H in hormonal heterosexual rut than "Don't Use Your Penis for a Brain"? I think not..."You're My Home" (Billy Joel; nice idea, though I'm not sure the vid itself works) and "Secure Yourself" (Indigo Girls) round out the tape.

All in all, definitely worth the $10. It's not got as many vids as the first tape (I don't think) and perhaps not the variety--no B7 vids this time around?--but it still has some great stuff and I think that most of them are ones that will wear pretty well."