For my creative project, I created a Polygon/Brian David Gilbert Unraveled style video on memes. I used mostly iMovie to edit it and expanded my knowledge of how to use the platform, by dipping into color correction and iMovie’s implementation of green screen. I used by own equipment to film, sound and light the project. I scripted, filmed and edited the whole video by myself. Everything from shifting camera angles to performing the script to props and lighting was all done by myself. My project helps emphasize the messiness of looking at (and sometimes categorizing) a new genre or form of internet advancement. In the video, in an attempt to look at a specific subsection of the internet (meme editing), I have to compromise my original plan and concede that it is much harder than tacking on a predecessor. Although it may have started as a derivative of one category or another, the current view of these videos is much more complex and intermingled than these two categories alone. I also talk about how these videos and other fandom content works toward agency in the digital age. I was even able to make a supercut video out of my own video and thus, was able to participate with my own content. Obviously, this ties into Janet H. Murray’s Participatory Affordance. Audiences are able to participate not only directly on digital media to the content that they enjoy but are able to create variations or fan content that includes the original content.

I originally hoped to have the script done by today, but as I anticipated, the script is going to take the longest time. I have a tentative script/outline, which is below. Nothing content wise is 100% set in stone, but the general form of it will likely remain the same.

“What is a meme video? 

When I was doing research for this, I ended up figuring out that it was easier to watch and understand what it was then to explain it, especially in academic terms.

Scholars have had a hard time answering this question directly and usually attempt to talk about the predecessors of this new overarching genre. These predecessors are for the most part clear, but after, there isn’t quite a clear path or place of divergence.

So where did it come from? Is it based on the comedy, the editing, the form or all three? Wouldn’t it be nice if someone categorized meme videos into their predecessors to see where it comes from and try to define it? I think so. 

EDITING: (a title appears:) JUNE TRIES TO DEFINE MEME VIDEOS

Dance a little

It’s me! I’m the one that will do it! I am the BDG!

Dance a little to get off screen

So now that we have determined what we are doing today, let’s break it down.

FIRST: We are going to be putting up categories (Defining each category)

Supercut/Compilation editing:

1. Compilation
2. The same type of action, scene, word, phrase, object, gesture, cliché or trope

Mashup (YouTube Poop): 

• The most recent predecessor

1. humorous, profane, annoying, confusing, shocking, détournement, or dramatic purposes
2. visual and auditory effects to alter the underlying work.
3. may involve completely or partially repurposing sources to create or convey a story, while others follow a non-linear narrative, and some may contain no storyline at all

NEXT: Bring on the videos.

Let’s start simple. 

https://youtu.be/Rn1_we58hW4 (cyberpunk) YTP

https://youtu.be/sfqD_VSnGMw (ooc bdg) YTP

https://youtu.be/KsbaVFMb-iI (mustache) YTP

Okay. I think we can actually do this!

https://youtu.be/Xq-dAXrPo7g (school bdg) YTP/Compilation

https://youtu.be/CrHuojUV9yo (galoomba) Compilation but not really

https://youtu.be/OwU0ZOJYEu8 (5%) YTP

(at some point here i give up)

No… What if we don’t have to choose? rips paper What if the new digital reiteration of compilation and comedy editing uses it all? What if…

Pins both up

What if…

Conclusion: Meme editing/Meme videos have become a modern take on comedy, remix culture and compilation The new genre of these videos encompassed by the title “meme editing” has pervaded popular colloquial knowledge to the point that even the creators are not fully conscious of its predecessors, derivative techniques, and the qualities it draws from the past. Remix culture in this day and age allows the viewer to also be the creator; it allows them to participate in the media they consume by supporting this kind of editing and reediting. “

In my annotated bibliography, I revised my proposal to figuring out a definition of the “meme video.” In the paper, I hope to look at predecessors of meme videos and look at how they compare as well as how predecessors are defined. For the project, I decided to create an Unraveled style video categorizing different kinds of meme videos into their predecessors in an attempt to define meme videos. I will strive to use the critiques and analyses that I will come to in the paper. I wanted to do an Unraveled style video because it will mimic the videos that I have chiefly made meme videos from.

Examples of how this format may look: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaDrN74SfdT7Ueqtwn_bXo1MuSWT0ji2w

Depending on how much I feel like this is appropriate and how much I may be able to pull from my own video, it may be interesting to make a meme video out of that video.

The biggest thing for the Unraveled video will be the script, especially since I will be basing it off much of the work I will be doing in the paper, so by the rough draft date, I’d like to at least have that completed. Between the rough draft date, the process will be mostly filming, editing and uploading.

I am interested in exploring how meme video editing. “Meme video editing” is a relatively new genre of internet content in which clips are compiled or manipulated usually for comedic purposes. As someone who participates as both a viewer and creator, I am interested to really analyze it. I still am trying to figure out what I want to look specifically into, but the two ideas I have are: how different formats of meme video editing are similar in their diversion or fulfillment in the audience’s expectations or how different meme video editing formats transcend fandom.

For the first idea, I would take one internet series or set of videos and manipulate them in the formats that I describe and compare in the paper. An example of what this may look like would be: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAb1EbtQ8RuTa9TaWXO1rYhs_YjLpCtPZ

For the second idea, I would focus on one format and edit in the format in a few select fandoms. An example may look like this: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAb1EbtQ8RuQUq9G3wY9l5Ql5KRjvdj08