Vividcon Vid Auction

[vivid-concom.livejournal.com]

(crossposted from vividcon)

Inspired by the Escapade art auction, we've come up with the idea to try something new this year, as a general fundraiser for the con: a vid auction. VividCon is pretty expensive to put on, because of the small membership and high equipment costs, so we're looking for some alternatives for raising money that will keep us from having to constantly push membership costs higher, and which might also be fun in their own right.

The basic idea of the vid auction is this: a vidder puts up an offer to make a vid to order, with whatever conditions she feels are appropriate -- e.g., listing what fandoms she'll work in, how the song will be chosen (both parties should be happy with the song, but beyond that, either one can be responsible for coming up with suggestions), how much input the bidder gets to have into clip choices -- and then we hold an online auction, with the proceeds to go to the con.

These vids will be due on July 15 along with the rest of the non-premiere-show vids; if for any reason a vid doesn't get done, we will of course refund the money to the bidder in full, and then it's up to the vidder whether they eventually finish the vid or not.

The winning bidders will each get one DVD and one tape copy of all the auction vids, as well as a credit in the vid titles (vidder's technology permitting) and in the program book, along with our gratitude for contributing to the con. We will be showing the auction vids at the con, most likely at the start of the Dead Dog panel on Sunday.

We hope this will turn out to be a fun way to raise money for the con, and also provide a neat way for some folks who may not vid themselves to get to participate in the making of a vid, or to hijack a willing vidder into their own fandom for a bit. The auction will be open to non-members, so those who can't come to the con themselves can still participate this way (either as contributing vidders or as bidders).

We would greatly appreciate offers from any vidders who would be willing to donate a vid to the con for this fundraiser. Unfortunately, because we just came up with the idea, we can't give much lead time for this year -- the auction will take place around the end of March, so the vidders will only have from April-July to get their vids done this year.

If you're a vidder who would be willing to participate, and you're confident you could make a vid to order in this time frame, would you please drop us a line at vividcon@vividcon.com by this Friday, March 19? If you'd be willing to participate, but aren't sure if you're up for it with so little warning, please don't feel bad about not offering: provided this year's experiment goes well, we hope to repeat this for next year's con with a lot more lead time.

Also, in case we're lucky and end up with a lot of willing vidders, I just want to mention that we're viewing this year as a pilot project, and so we're going to be keeping the auction small, to 5-6 vids at most. This is the first time we've tried something like this, and we want to be very sure it's feasible and fun for those involved, before we get crazy ambitious and start auctioning off dozens of vids. *g*

So if we end up with more volunteers than that, we won't be able to take advantage of everyone this year. But ideally, if this is a success and we have enough willing volunteers, we hope to have a different slate of vidders each year, spreading people out so no vidder gets asked to vid-to-order two years in a row.