Nobody's Side

Vid
Title:	Nobody's Side
Creator:	JAC
Date:	1989
Format:	VCR vid (VHS)
Length:
Music:	"Nobody's Side" from the musical "Chess"
Genre:	character study
Fandom:	Wiseguy
Footage:
URL:
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Nobody's Side is a VCR-era vid by JAC. It was the second vid that this fan created.

The vid was shown at the 2007 Vividcon "Geneology of Vidding" and the 2005 "Wayback Machine" vid shows.

In 1997, the vid was listed as one of the "vids that define a fandom":

"I might well vote for Nobody's On Nobody's Side ...for Wiseguy--though nominally a Roger [Loccoco] vid, it's really more about the show as a whole, and a great vid."

The Vidder's Comments in 2012

From Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Judy Chien:

People have told me that [this vid looks and feels very modern]. Well, and once again, well, once again because I have been talking to her earlier, I don't like to say, "Oh, my vids were really good!", but I mean, they were, actually, I thought, pretty good. I mean, I was very much of a stickler for timing. And making sure that every scene meant something, both visually and, in, contextually. I mean, there isn't a scene in either of those vids that didn't have both a meaning you could get without seeing the show, and a meaning that came from seeing the show. Now, whether I was clear about some of this stuff is another matter entirely. But in my head, it made sense both ways, so, so that's actually one of the reasons I'm an extremely non-prolific vidder. Also, I kind of find that when I made a vid, then that is what I had to say about that storyline.

[This vid was] "The One That Was Vinnie-", well, Roger, it wasn't Vinnie and Roger, it was Roger with Vinnie as a special guest appearance. [And Herb Ketcher as the other bad guy.] Yeah. Actually, it was more about Roger and Herb Ketcher.

My friend Jean Curley was a huge Chess fan. But I'd seen Chess, actually, in London, because I was an archeologist, and I was digging in London. Not London, what am I saying. Northampton. Northamptonshire. But, you know, you go to London because there's no where else to go. And, you know, seeing as many plays as I could, because, what are you going to do when you're in England. And I saw "Chess" and Murray Head wasn't in it any more, but his replacement was Anthony Stewart Head. Which, at the time was way before Buffy.... I used the Original Broadway Cast recording because I initially started with the London cast recording, but the songs are different. They are cut differently. The London cast recording, which I actually like better, does not end definitively... So for the purposes of telling a story, the American version worked better. Because I tried it with both, and I'm like, this will not flow properly. And now, of course, since you play the song eight million times, now I'm much more familiar with the American version. [laughter] and so, but that was why I did that. But that was the next year. Because we got positive feedback. I did get positive feedback the first year. Because those people who had seen Wiseguy, you know, were all excited because it was the only thing. And there were a lot of people who came to me and said "I've never the show," but they wanted to see the show after they'd seen the vid. And that was really something that people may not be aware of now, that vids used to be gateways, you know, they used to be drugs to get you into the fandom. You know, you'd show the vid; people would be, "That looks like an interesting show," and then they would watch the show.