Fanstravaganza Feature ~ RA Fan Highlight

I just love watching Richard Armitage fan videos.
I could waste (and have wasted) so much time sitting in front of my computer screen, staring in awe at RA, enjoying the music, admiring the vidders' editing skills and wondering how in the heck they do that... it's just another addicting aspect of being an RA fan.  

Today I am featuring an RA enthusiast who knows all about

fan videos.  She runs the site RAfanvids.com : Ms. Elvira Sweeney.

*Banner created by Heathra & Angelfish/Spikesbint*
I may love RA vids, but Elvira is downright passionate about them! Every time I discuss fanvids with her, she's like a kid in a candy store... and her excitement is contagious.  I recently asked her to list her favorite fanvids for me.  I was thinking she'd give me her top 5 or something... HA!  Her list went on and on... not only giving me links to all her favorite videos, but detailing what she loves about them and how each vidder's style is different yet so brilliant.  Elvira told me, "Trying to pick just one vidder would be kind of like asking, "Which is the best music, Beethoven or the Beatles?" They are so different, you can't just choose *one* best, can you?"  I ignored my laundry baskets last week and watched most of the videos on Elvira's list... and WOW! I'm so grateful for Elvira's willingness to share her passion with me and the rest of us through her own videos and site.

Here is my formal interview with her:

Nat: Please tell me about yourself. What part of the world are you from? Are you single/married? Do you have any kids/pets?

Elvira: I am boring! But I will tell that I am not married and I live in the USA. I have more than one useless cat which I pamper and indulge.

Nat: When and why did you start your RAfanvids site?

Elvira: I am a geek and like to make sites. Actually, this whole RA thing is my first introduction into fan sites. (I once devoted part of a web site to my favorite scanner, doing tests and analysis of this scanner's performance! I am that much of a geek! LOL.) When I saw N&S and joined C19. A fellow C19er, Remontant, came up with a great domain name for N&S, foolishpassion.com, I quickly registered the domain, just for fun! Then Remontant and I started working on developing it and it was SUCH a great time! Then several other fan sites followed, like richard-armitage.net and foolishpassion.org.

My previous experience with web sites was very fun but rather solitary. I'd write a site and get a few emails a week about it from visitors. With the RA fandom, the reaction to the sites were immediate, the sites were very collaborative efforts (which I loved), and I found the whole experience to be very gratifying.

Nat: How did you learn so much about "vidding?"
Elvira: I'm a geek! I needed to learn for myself, and since I like to write web sites and tutorials, I decided to share what I'd learned in the form of tutorials.

Nat: What is your favorite thing about running your site?
Elvira: Finding new videos! It is so cool! I love fan videos and I love seeing all the creative things that others do with them. Before I learned to make them, I watched them continually and I have a huge collection of them.

Nat: What do you hope to accomplish with your site?
Elvira: I guess just to make fan videos accessible in higher quality and showcase all the great talent we have in the RA fandom. That's one of my big agendas--good quality, HD quality when possible (I'm really pimping HD these days--it's the future!). Before I learned more about fan videos and started making them, it seemed like it was accepted that downloadable copies of fan videos were kind of blurry and murky and low detail. When I found out from a fellow vidder that this didn't have to be so, I decided that this is what I wanted for as many videos as possible!

Nat: To your knowledge, does Richard or "his people" know about your site?

Elvira: I have no idea, but I suspect he does! That makes me feel a little peculiar, to be honest. But as I say on the "about" page of RAfanvids, we don't make the videos for HIM, we make them for each other, because it's a fun creative way to express ourselves. But, if he does see the site, I assume that he knows what's going on, and is okay with it. He has left us with the impression that he is happy that all of us deranged gentlewomen have found a creative outlet and camaraderie in this fandom.

Please check out RAfanvids.com! 
Not only is it filled with awesome vids that you won't find on YouTube, it's also full of helpful tips and info for vidders.  (Unfortunately for my YT subscribers, instead of being educated in the proper ways of video-making, I always get distracted by the site's fanvids! *ahem*)