FAN LABOR and who benefits from it - Video Essay

[@JustaPlant]

I think corporations really keep inderestimating fandos and their online presence, Disney supossedly canceled The owl house because of "low ratings" on the public they expected but it still had A LOT of fans waiting for the newest episodes, making theories, fanarts, etc. also they can really impulse the production's popularity; i've seen shows get canceled or on hiatus and the fandoms jumping into other similar pieces of media. I appreciate the fact that there´s still corporations that are okay with that and even encourage it like with Genshin impact, i wish more chage their mind in the future and undertand the actual impact that fandoms make

[@Sunnydionysusart]

I agree completely!!

[@yootershooter8964]

I love this video! I've never really seen something dive into the way that the work people put into their fan creation really helps that community grow. Also, the rosemont convention center shout-out is so relatable omg. I saw my first Homestuck cosplayers at ACEN when I was 10 and I will always remember the amount of joy I got from being in that community and sharing my art, even if it seems like a distant memory now lmao.

[@Sunnydionysusart]

OMG SO TRUE acen is actually the con I was refering to in the video!! and thank you!!

[@pearlwalker4205]

Hope your videos hit the algorithm and get traction 👍

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Thank you!! 💖

[@longingmeow]

omg this was the display comment and it was so confusing bc i assumed from the nice thumbnail that it was a more popular video

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Aw thats so sweet!! Ty guys sm ;-;!!!

[@emilymares9623]

i love your art! it did a great job of accompanying your message

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Thank you!!

[@sharonflores6134]

Such a great video! Really calming and such beautiful visuals! Hope to see this blow up it's great!

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Thats so sweet thank you!!

[@lela8089]

I love this video!! As someone who spent a lot of time in fan spaces (supernatural!) the fan artists and fic and meta writers and everyone made the experience so much more enjoyable than just watching a show would have been! Fandom really is as important as the piece of media and carries so much of the enjoyment and hype!

[@azure-mist]

I loved this video! It always seems to go back to Star Trek, doesn’t it? Haha! Would you be okay if I linked this video on my personal website? There’s a section of it labeled “TV”, where I link my favorite video essays via embeds!

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Go ahead!! Thank you :)

[@foryouphilanything]

great video and a super interesting topic!!

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Thanks so much!!

[@Li2ardL1ker]

I LIKE YOU STYLE so cutteee Hihi

[@Sunnydionysusart]

THANK YOU!

[@stella-cx6de]

very interesting video + cute animations :D It's been a while since I've seen such a underrated video, I hope your efforts pay off. The only critique I have is that the video is very slow - it's chill, but I had a hard time paying attention throughout the whole video :) (maybe that's just my horrible attention span)

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Thats absolutely fair + thank you! I agree, I was playing around with where to put pauses and where to speed up, thank you for your feedback!

[@ajmoment8091]

one thing in particular I think fan labor has really helped the rise of is Gacha games. Genshin Impact, which basically every modern Gacha game models itself off of, relies almost entirely on its fandom to market itself. It designs its characters and writing in order to appeal to this fandom, and does things like give rewards for streaming the game to friends to try and encourage people to spread the word for it on its own. In doing a lot of this Genshin (and other games by Hoyoverse) have carved out one of the single biggest niches in the entirety of the modern internet while having what is an, on the outside, rather limited marketing campaign and I think a lot of corporations in the coming years (as well as the previous tbh) are going to start utilizing similar tactics that try to leverage the following of a series to market it for them. It's a trend I really do not like personally, especially when the current main utilizers of it are highly manipulative gambling platforms and really would like to see pushback for in the future. I specifically remember a few months ago the Genshin community boycotting the game because of the Whitewashing/cultural appropriation present in the game, but their outlined boycot was simply just not spending money on the game, which pretty predictably did not work because the creators of Genshin know about free to play players and have accounted them into their business strategy. What really earns the money from individual players of it is their talk of it in online spaces and how that spreads it to others, something the developers are very aware of. It's because of this I really want to see more fandoms get aware of how their dedication to something can be used by a corporation to gaud them into doing the work for them.

[@yappyjulio]

I'm so happy that I came across this video :3 it's something I hadn't thought about before but I agree with everything :D! Also I think that when big names like Disney or Nintendo extremely police fan work it damages the brand more... people are afraid to put their pieces out there and its so sad to think about all of the cool fanwork that isn't done because of this fear :C Awesome video btw!!!!!! :3

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Thank you so so much!!!

[@fox_4740]

Go white boy go ✨

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Lol!

[@Cashanator]

are the pictures from ASTL? it looks really similar to that venue

[@Sunnydionysusart]

Hi! most of them are from anime central years ago, although a couple of the crowd shots I got from online google searches. thanks for commenting!