How does one auction?

[bironic]

I don't know if this would be right for me, or what the interest level would be, but Vividcon announced signups for this year's Auction and it's got me wondering about how vidders set the various parameters available: "fandoms [you'll] work in, how the song will be chosen (as long as both parties are happy with the final choice), preferred styles of music, how much input the bidder can have on clip choices, etc." Do any of you have insights?

Just idle speculation at this point, but am curious, in case I do decide to give it a try, this year or some other year. I've never done anything more than Festivids for vid-to-order.

ETA: Uhhhh okay I signed up! We will see how this goes!

Comments

[jetpack_monkey]

I would bid for your vidding! :D

When I did auction, my first impulse was to just list movie fandoms I already had vid ideas for, like Festivids. I didn't get many bids. I made a follow-up post on my journal noting additional fandoms I could work with (like Star Trek: DS9) and bidding went way up.

So, you know, find a happy medium between what you'd be comfortable making right now and what you could potentially make with the right prompting.

Oh, and from my experience, it really works to communicate with whoever wins you frequently. Let them know what you're thinking, what's working, what's not. Solicit their feedback on drafts. An auction vid really is a collaboration, just one where you have final say.

[bironic]

I would vid for you! ♥

That's interesting about your initial strategy & the modification. I wouldn't want to stick to preexisting ideas because I don't have a whole lot of them, but I'm also not someone who could vid just anything, and would even have reservations about listing certain movies & TV shows that I love (like, I'm pretty sure I could handle anything DS9, but what if I offered The Vampire Diaries and someone wanted, like, six seasons of Elena/Stefan/Damon dynamics?), so finding that balance you describe seems like it would be the hardest part. I wonder how bidding is affected by asking people to contact you for source/idea approval beyond a moderate list.

Reading through past auction signups, including yours, has been very helpful -- seeing how people have phrased things, and how open or restrictive they've been for source & music & process.

That seems like sound advice about keeping in frequent touch with the recipient.

Thanks! I keep swinging between "This might be fun to try" and "Why would you want to introduce this kind of stress into your life" -- we'll see how it goes before signups close!

[jetpack_monkey]

The ultimate cushion you have is that the auction is for Vividcon. Both of you are working together to make Vividcon happen -- the winner with money and you with artistic capital.

You're both in it together, so if you offer Vampire Diaries and they want six seasons of Elena/Stefan/Damon dynamics, you can always say, "Hey, that's not a vid I am capable of doing right now, but how about..." Or, you know, outright state that you're not really a "six seasons of romantic entanglements" kind of vidder in your auction offering.

When destina won me, we couldn't agree on a song for Bashir/O'Brien, so I spent some time prepping a potential Forbidden Planet vid before deciding to give her initial song choice a whirl. It did end up working out!

[bironic]

You have many reassuring things to say. Also you helped me realize that offering TVD is probably not the best idea, even though I enjoy watching it. I've drafted a volunteer profile note thing and... think I'm going to give this a try?! Would be nice to know what the Challenge and themed vidshow topics are first, in case they inspire something, but those tend to come late, so.

tl;dr risk aversion is my middle name, heh.

[ghost_lingering]

I've always wanted to volunteer, but never have because I don't want to find out that I'd get nothing more than a few pity bids. I know it's not a competition or a popularity contest, but ...

I've actually had something written up for a few years that essentially boils down to: I would offer to vid non-traditional fandoms or Festivids-eligible fandoms that are under a certain length and that meet certain idiosyncratic personal requirements, even if I wasn't familiar with the canon.

[bironic]

Yeah, it's rough when they post which vidder went for how much. Even though the differences don't mean anything with regard to skill.

>>and that meet certain idiosyncratic personal requirements, even if I wasn't familiar with the canon.

Interesting! I do wonder how much detail is useful to provide and whether simply calling it "idiosyncratic" -- like my music taste beyond a few core genres -- would be better.

[ghost_lingering]

I think you've possibly inspired me to volunteer this year. Here goes nothing?!

I'm being pretty detailed, but that's simply because I'm opening myself up to vidding fandoms I've never heard of before.

[bironic]

Neat! And possibly mutual! Drafting an auction letter is raising my confidence that this could be an enjoyable challenge.

[bironic]

P.S. I'm glad we goaded each other into doing this.

[ghost_lingering]

Me too!

[isagel]

I've never done this, and I suspect the only way I could do it would be to say "I could make these specific vids that are already in my head/started on timeline." I would be really bad at vidding other people's ideas, I think.

[bironic]

Hm, interesting. Is that how you do Festivids, too?

[isagel]

Mostly, yes. I primarily offer fandoms I already know what I would make if I got, though I have offered some where i didn't have clear plans yet. Idk, I think it's a combination of me for the most part only having one vid I really want to make for a fandom/character/ship and being a slow vidder so the investment always feels major.