Lonelygirl15

I appreciate your kind words of support. You guys are great!

awww thanks for letting us know amanda. I read that she was your sister and now I'm all awwwwwwww

For fan vids, those were really good, which is, I'm sure, what you guys were thinking when you decided to make them cannon. In some ways, they're more like a real kid's video blog than Bree's were. Without the knowledge that these were made as fan vids, though, audiences will naturally see these as professional art and entertainment, since they were released as such, and they will naturally scrutinize the acting, direction, script, ect. Still, I think we all need to be careful about the way we criticize people, period. Think of all of the terrible things that people say about some of the most famous actresses in Hollywood. It's fine to critique their work (within reason), but they are people too.

Shannon, at least on camera, has handled the scrutiny really well. Surely she realizes that the random videos she made are being compared with videos of professional actors working from professionally-written scripts. Once she was making videos with the knowledge that they'd be posted, she got pretty good. "Hear Me Out" is great as far as I'm concerned. I loved the "I can show you my dad" part! Maybe fans will enjoy seeing her grow as an actress now that she's already well into the series.

I am honestly shocked that the creators would put an amateur (with some professional aid) under the microscope like that. I'm assuming they A) didn't realize how fans would react (perhaps because the creators viewed the videos so warmly, knowing their context from the start), B) figured that the fans would be more bothered by a lull in posting than a change in video quality, and C) knew that Shannon would be good at dealing with whatever came her way. Judging from her continued performances on the series, Shannon seems particularly good at dealing with the criticism and moving on. How wonderful that she's actually a cool and self-accepting person...That's far better than just being a well-trained actress.

Thanks for letting us know I think she keeps getting better!

Mmm. Kay.

I think its really cool that she got a chance to be a part of the series starting off as a fan! Its terrible how harsh some people are around here. "phorons" as somebody said earlier - I like that.

So, Shannon, if you read this - I think you are doing a great job!

While Shannon is getting better every day, it does seem like if they were going to pick a fan vid to make canon there were others in which the acting was already professional quality. But since she is getting better very quickly, I guess no long term harm done.

woooooorddd! Go shannon go!

Just because she is not a real actor doesn't mean people can't complain about her acting. If you put yourself out there, you pretty much have to except all that comes your way whether in lg15 or outside lg15. I may not agree with how harsh some people are, but that should not be my problem (or anyone elses).

Moral - If you put yourself out on the internet (or real life) expect to recieve hate as well as love.

The internet is a harsh arena...

Yeah, sometimes I wonder how healthy these "instant feedback" internet media are. It becomes easy to sit back and criticize everything, and it seems to encourage us to lack patience with anything we innitially dislike. It's great that these forums give artists and entertainers a way to listen to their audiences in a way that no one has before, but this scenario can easily give an audience a sense of entitlement that gets in the way of our actually just enjoying what we're watching. Internet feedback has the potential to diminish the egos of actors, but it also has the potential to explode the egos of the viewers, and that's possibly even more dangerous.

Cleo, that was a really thought-provoking and sensible post. Just felt like saying.

Aw, thanks.

I agree

I don't think we can be surprised that videos are judged in relative terms. Other videos were better than hers, and we said as much. And we feel ashamed now for the hurtful words that some people used to express that, and it's appropriate to feel guilty to that extent.

Of course it's important to accept people for who they are and not who you wish they were. And it's important that your criticisms aren't a misplaced attempt to bolster your own ego. But on what basis do you take internet people for who they are? You don't know if they're twelve or twenty half the time, let alone if they have had professional acting training or not. I guess my point is that it's completely unsurprising that people reacted in the way they did. We are more likely to feel sympathy for a convincing character than we are for a disappointing actress.

I wish people had been less cruel in their response to Shannon's videos. Partly because I don't like to think of the pain that probably caused, but also partly because we are now left in a position where our entire assessment of her selection for the part is delegitimised by our own guilty consciences.