Category:Fanvids

Although not all vids can be categorised, here are some popular genres of Supernatural vids:

Brotherhood (i.e. Sam'n'Dean vids that do not include Wincest) - by far the most popularly vidded genre, not surprising due to the nature of the show. These normally include both Sam and Dean and center on their brotherly relationship in some way. For example, ringwrench's influential Season One vid, Born to Kill; sockpuppet's Season Two vid, "Two Step"; fabella's Season Three vid, Reach Out Touch Faith; killabeez's Little Lion Men which soothed fandom's achy breaky hearts during Season Five; or, in a unique fandom triple hitter, secretlytodream's "These, Our Bodies, Possessed in Light" which uses narration by fandom favorite poet Richard Siken's as its audio track

Character Study (centering around one Winchester) - second most popular, and sometimes confused with the former. For example, wolfpup's Dean-centric "Bitch"; ringwench's Sam-centric "I Woke Up In A Car"; charmax's John-centric "Deus Ibi Est"; or the Impala-POV "Hey Pretty" by astartexx. Later season vids include: lithiumdoll's skin-crawling demon possession exploration in "Glittering Clouds" gives you new visceral understanding of Sam over the course of the show; mithborien's Dean-centric vid "My Boy Builds Coffins" makes you feel core of the character's Season Five depression; sockpuppett's "Just Dropped In" fills in the gaps of Sam's Season Seven story arc.

Action - focused mainly on the hunting and horror aspects of the show typically cut to an harder, uptempo, rock beat. For example, dragonfly_sg1's "Carol of the Supernatural", boom_queen's "Lunatic Fringe", or ash48's "Take Me To The Hospital".

AU/Constructed Reality - takes clips from the show but reinterpret them to create an alternative universe (AU), construct a story outside of canon, or reinvent the characters. For example, dayin03's vid of Dean's last year "One Year Only", starrylizard's depiction of the Winchesters as notorious bank robbers in "The Heist", antigonesgift's disturbing vision of a dark violent Dean in "Impulse" or Little McKay's movie style trailers at SPN Trailers.

Comedic - vids with a humorous side, meant to be silly and sometimes even downright cracky. This includes, deirdre_c's "Things that make you go mmmm", hay1ock's "Supernatural in the Park", lsketch42's "Official Supernatural Drinking Game", muumyluvr's series "Supernatural Charlie the Unicorn", ash48's "Channel Hopping", Supernaormal Christmas which is an animated parody.

Ensemble - Focuses on more than just a few characters, sometimes with the idea to include as many of the show's guest characters as you can. Rare in this fandom yet there are some examples from later seasons: dragonfly-sg1's "People All Get Ready"; zimshan's vid, "Roller" about the show's kickass women we were never allowed to keep; emily_reich's "What About Everything?".

Episodic, which focus on clips or the story from a single episode, for example, stir_of_echoes' Evil!Sam vid from "Born Under A Bad Sign" "Evil Brings the Sexy Back" or the hysterical look at "Folsom Prison Blues" in "When You're In Prison" by sacrilicious.

Crossovers, which combine Supernatural clips with footage from other fandoms, for example, angstslashhope's SPN/Boondock Saints crossover set to the music of "The Last of the Mohicans".

Instrumentals - a genre which uses a musical audio track without vocals, can be considered harder to build as you have no words/lyrics to guide your clip choices. Examples include the early Season One Dean-centric "What It Is To Be" or dragonfly's "The Good Fight".

RPF/RPS - which use footage of the real actors or other people to create their vidding story. For example, andyfeltrad's Jensen/Jared vid "Accidentally in Love", or fabella's Jared/Chad vid "Documentary".

Meta - commentary on fandom e.g. counteragent's "Still Alive" which celebrates fandoms, creativity, culture - and disagreements; zimshan's "Kill A Man" which explores fandom's relationship with show creators/writers by following fan reactions to show decisions made in Season Five; really yugami's "Supernatural's Downfall" in which Hitler reads spoilers for Supernatural's fifth season, based on the way fandom has been reacting at the news coming out of Comic Con 2009. In the ultimate postmodern moment, ash48 made a fanfvi or the fanvid Stupornatural.

Vids are also used in Supernatural fandom to illustrate meta-commentary about the show, for example "Women's Work" by sisabet and luminosity. Or counteragent's "Coin-Operated Boy" complete with external footage cast and filmed by the vidder to accurately explain her frustration.

Romance (ships/pairings including Wincest), for example, maichan808's "Fumbling Toward Ecstasy".

Some vids make use of “manips”—manipulations or edited video. These are usually found in the context of Wincest themes and attempt to create the illusion of Sam and Dean kissing or having sex, as in novembersguest's Carnival of Rust , michaela3105's "Crash" or sisabet's "Falling For The First Time".

Secondary Characters - Character studies that focus one of the show's many guest characters other than the Winchester Family. This includes vids such as the YED-POV "Want" by destina; Season Three Ruby-centric Low Red Moon by untrue-accounts; Season Four Cas-centric "A Charming Man" by giandujakiss

Season Mytharc - Focus on the arc of the season instead of one character or pairing. More common in later seasons as the series got more complicated.

Voice overs - a style perfected by secretlytodream, where clips of character's dialogue become the primary audio track of the vid. Unlike other genres of vidding, you are not starting with a stable audio track to lay clips down to. It is editing within editing, as you build the audio track either before or simultaneously while building your video track. They are memorable for their incredibly emotional capacity, as the viewer connects not just the visuals but also words spoke in the past. Examples include: secretlytodream's From The Deepest of Red To The Lightest of Grey; secretlytodream's Sam-centric vid "I Promise" completed after the Season Six finale but still relevant even two seasons later

Visual Style - some vids play with visuals in a way that becomes a major focus or purpose of the vid. For example, greensilver's Dean-centric "White Light" uses color to narrate the destruction surrounding Dean's life.

Discussion and analysis of the visual style of Supernatural-- lighting, use of colors and filters, blocking, framing, etc.-- can be found in the livejournal community spnematography