Help Wanted: Asexual Portraits Collab Video for Asexual Awareness Week!

[virtua]

2nd EDIT: The video is out! You can view the video here or in the AVEN thread. Thank you so much to everyone who participated and supported it.

Edit: To clarify, I will not be using your audio, so there is no need to speak. That's why you'll be answering the questions in the google form because I will take your answers to the question and pick a quote from them and edit it in over your portrait. However, (and this goes to anyone who's already filmed their videos who did speak), it is okay if you speak in your videos. Videos should also be at least 15 seconds long. A good example of what I'm looking for is this video.

Hi everyone!

Asexual Awareness Week is coming up and I’d like to put together a portrait collaboration project featuring asexual-spectrum people from any and all backgrounds.

But in order to do that, I’ll need your help.

I want to get short video portraits showing asexual-spectrum people posing and expressing themselves how they see fit and then take a memorable quote from them (about their asexuality or their experiences with it in life) and display it over their portrait. The end result is that all of these short video clips of people will be combined into one large video, which will be hosted on the Portraits Collaboration Youtube channel.

In order to get these quotes, I’ve provided a set of open-ended interview-style questions for you to answer:

1. Can you describe what it’s like to be asexual? Imagine you’re explaining this to someone who’s having a hard time understanding it. How would you describe it?
2. What was it like for you before you discovered asexuality?
3. How did you feel when you finally discovered the term, the community, or the fact that you are asexual or on the spectrum?
4. Were there any obstacles that delayed your discovery of you being asexual or on the asexual spectrum?
5. Describe the kind(s) of relationship(s) you wish to have in your life. (Define “relationship” in whatever way you’d like).
6. Have you ever had difficulties in communicating your boundaries in relationships with other people? Regardless, have your boundaries been respected by other people you formed relationships with? (“Relationship” is defined broadly and includes friends, family, acquaintances, etc.)
7. Do you feel that the people in your life understand your asexuality?
8. Do you find that there are aspects about yourself that make it difficult for other people to accept your asexuality?
9. How do you personally feel about sex and sexuality? Do you think this is related to your asexuality?
10. What do you wish the rest of the world knew about asexuality? How do you wish the rest of the world viewed asexuality?

If you are going to participate in this project, please choose at least two of the questions to answer. If you want to answer more or all of them, go for it! These questions are meant to be free-form, so it’s up to you how you want to interpret and answer them.

If this project sounds like something you want to participate in, here’s what you need to do:

1. Send an email to portraitscollab@gmail.com with “Asexual Portraits Collab” as the subject and let me know which questions from the google doc you want to answer. Remember to choose at least two. This is just to get a general idea of who’s going to answer which question(s).

2. FIlm your video! For more detailed instructions and tips on what I’m looking for, scroll down for the video below.

3. Answer at least two of the interview questions, which are listed above and in this form. I will then take a quote from your answers and edit it over your video portrait. If the questions you wish to answer are different from the ones you said you would answer in your email, please let me know as soon as possible, either through email or by messaging me on here.

4. Submit your video clip and answers here, and I’ll take care of the rest!

Submissions for videos and answers closes on October 17, 2015 at 9:00 AM PDT, so make sure to send in your video portraits and answers by then.

Detailed instructions and guidelines for how to make your video (in video format below):

• Express yourself! Feel free to laugh, smile, or gesture as much as you want. Don’t feel like forcing a smile for the cameras? You don’t have to. Pose (or not!) and pick a facial expression that you feel is most natural to you.

• Make sure we can see you! Adequate lighting is essential to getting good video. If we can’t see you, unfortunately your video may be unusable.

• Know your focus! Good videos have a clear focus. Be sure to have a clean background and follow the rule of thirds so that you are focusing on the important parts of your frame.

• Have fun! Last but not least, enjoy yourself!

Captions are enabled in the video below:

Once again, remember to send in your submissions here: https://goo.gl/LIU7m5.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at portraitscollab@gmail.com. Thanks so much for participating in this project!

[michaeld]

I'd like to highly recommend everyone participate in this project and/or spread the word around.

- michaeld (AVEN PT)

[virtua]

Thanks Michael!

To give everyone a better example of what I'm looking for, it's similar to the Humans of New York photoblog coupled with the Portrait of Lotte video. The former is basically a project where a street photographer goes around New York City taking pictures of people (if you look at some of the photos, you'll notice that he doesn't always take pictures of people's faces, so if you are uncomfortable showing your face, you can still find a way to have a portrait) and then talking to them for a bit. Then, he uploads the photos onto his blog, takes a memorable quote from their conversations and displays it underneath their photos. The Portrait of Lotte video is basically a timelapse video where a Dutch artist films his daughter for 15 seconds every week.

So the Asexual Portraits Project is essentially combining the video portrait part from Portrait of Lotte and the interview/quotes element portion from Humans of New York, but with asexual-spectrum people.

[Chewy]

So are we speaking in the video? say the answer to a question? I don't understand that part because it talked about editing it over the video.

How long sould the video be?

[virtua]

So are we speaking in the video? say the answer to a question? I don't understand that part because it talked about editing it over the video.

How long sould the video be?

No. You will not be speaking in the video. However, (and this goes to anyone who's already filmed their videos who did speak), it is okay if you do. I will not be using your audio though. That's why you'll be answering the questions in the google form because I will take your answers to the question and pick a quote from them to edit it in over your portrait.

Good question. I'd say maybe 15 seconds or so. It can pretty much be as long as you'd like, but at least around 15 seconds or so.

Thanks for asking! I'll edit this into the original post.

[river1216]

I would indeed like to be a part of this! I will get back to you in the next couple of days!

Thank you for helping asexuality be more visible.

[AlwaysADreamer]

I will definitely try and submit something!

[Morning Glory]

Do you still need volunteers? If you're short, I'll try to help, but I'm a bit self conscious so... Yeah. Only if you're short on volunteers. ^^;

[Znkyou]

A few questions: Does the intial 5 second portrait need to have a plain background? Can it be done outside somewhere with other people in the background, for example? What about scenery in the background?

Can there be other people in the video at all? And how many people are participating so far vs how many you're looking for?

[virtua]

I would indeed like to be a part of this! I will get back to you in the next couple of days!

Thank you for helping asexuality be more visible.

I will definitely try and submit something!

That would be great! Thank you!

Do you still need volunteers? If you're short, I'll try to help, but I'm a bit self conscious so... Yeah. Only if you're short on volunteers. ^^;

Yes, I am definitely still in need of volunteers and will most likely still be in need of volunteers until the deadline date. But I do understand being self-conscious; I am very self-conscious myself. Let me know if there's anything you feel I can do to help you out with your submission if you decide you want to participate!

A few questions: Does the intial 5 second portrait need to have a plain background? Can it be done outside somewhere with other people in the background, for example? What about scenery in the background?

Can there be other people in the video at all? And how many people are participating so far vs how many you're looking for?

The initial 5 seconds of doing nothing is just to make it easier for me to edit, so it can really be anything. The portrait video can technically be as long as you wish, but the longer it is, the more likely it is that I won't be using most of it. A plain background would be preferable, but you can film outside where there are other people as long as you make sure you can get adequate lighting and that the other people won't be distracting to the focus of your video.

Yes, there can certainly be other people in the video if they also want to participate! So far, I've only gotten one completed submission but there have been maybe 7-8 people who have expressed interest in contributing something.

If any of you have any other questions, please feel free to ask in this thread, PM me on AVEN, or send me an email.

[virtua]

If anyone was still interested in participating in the project, the submissions close in approximately three days from now.

If you need more time, please let me know. Send me an email at portraitscollab@gmail.com and I can work things out with you.

[Morning Glory]

Ah! I'm sorry! I wasn't able to make the video up until now but I will be sure to finish it before the end of the day. I haven't done this before but I think I can figure it out. I'm just a bit nervous~ >.<

[Morning Glory]

I sent it. >_> I'm nervous. I wonder if I should've picked a different name. I wonder if I was supposed to be more specific about my location. I hope the lighting was okay. I hope the length won't be a problem. I wonder if my answers will be enough to work with. I hope I didn't look terrible! >_<

[virtua]

Hi everyone! The submissions for this project have officially closed but I am still accepting. I will most likely be accepting until October 18, so you all have about a full day to get them in if you have not. Please let me know as soon as possible if you want to submit something in. Asexual Awareness Week is coming up in two days on October 19 and I'd like to get the video out around that time.

I sent it. >_> I'm nervous. I wonder if I should've picked a different name. I wonder if I was supposed to be more specific about my location. I hope the lighting was okay. I hope the length won't be a problem. I wonder if my answers will be enough to work with. I hope I didn't look terrible! >_<

Everything is fine! Your video clip was great! The lighting works, the length is not a problem, your answers are good, and it fits very well in my overall video.

Location and age are also entirely optional.

[virtua]

Update: I am no longer accepting any new submissions from this point on.

However, if you have already been in contact with me about getting a submission in, I will be accepting yours for the next couple of hours and then I will have to close.

[virtua]

The video is now out! You can view it here or in the AVEN thread. Thank you so much to all of you who participated in this project, helped out, and supported it.

[confusedbat]

Hi Amy, it was great to be a part of your video project! I've saved this video to my bookmarks so I can always come back to watch it again. It was exhilarating to see myself along with so many others. I don't have an active social life (very close to non-existent at the moment) and I often feel like an alien on the wrong planet, so to see this and be a part of this was just great. Made me feel a little more connected to humanity.

[virtua]

it was great to be a part of your video project! I've saved this video to my bookmarks so I can always come back to watch it again. It was exhilarating to see myself along with so many others. I don't have an active social life (very close to non-existent at the moment) and I often feel like an alien on the wrong planet, so to see this and be a part of this was just great. Made me feel a little more connected to humanity.

I'm very glad you decided to be a part of this video project and am honored to hear that this project means so much to you. In a way, I can relate to how you may feel because I was not very active on AVEN or in the asexual community for almost a year prior to making this video. I was very disconnected from the community but making this video again reminded me of why I had gotten involved in the asexual community in the first place and why it mattered to me.

Seeing yours and everyone else's video portraits was really an experience like no other. You all were the ones who made the video. I simply put it together. As I told a Huffington Post journalist, "This project has made me feel more grounded to the asexual community as a whole. I feel like I'm telling these people's stories, as if I carry this responsibility to do it justice because they barred their souls to the world." But I could not have done it without everyone who took the time to share a part of themselves with the world.

Also, if you ever need or want someone to talk to for whatever reason, feel free to message me whenever you want (and this offer goes for anyone who reads this).