For all fanfic, graphics and fanvideos I was given permission by the author/vidder/artist to use their material in this vid. I thank all of them not just for graciously allowing me to play with their things, but for their wonderful contributions to the fandom as a whole.
Screencaps, with one exception, were taken without permission, but since the nature of the caps was mostly "check out the comm" rather than highlighting a specific comment or post, I hope that no-one will mind.
Artwork, Graphics, Screencaps and Texts
In order of appearance and subdivided into categories. Because I’m like that.
Artwork
Many of the pen and ink images of Holmes and Watson were drawn by Sidney Paget in the early 1900’s for The Strand. There is a very thorough census of his work
here.
Holmes and Watson,
Crime Culture: Classic Detective Fiction Holmes and Watson,
Visible Proofs Holmes and Watson,
Life.com.
(This image is awesome because it is Holmes showing Watson his bloodied knuckles after a fight and then Watson kisses it makes it better. Ahem. )
Holmes and Watson,
The Affordiable Housing Institute. Yeah.
Holmes and Watson,
Espada de Pau.
Professor Moriarty,
International Hero Holmes and Moriarty fighting over Reichenbach Falls,
Wikipedia.
Screencaps
221b: A BBC Sherlock Slash Community Holmes and Watson in bed, via
SherlockBBC on livejournal. (The comment on “anything is lewd” was also pulled from the threads here.)
The Logical Solution: Sherlock Slash Sherlock Holmes Kink Meme Urban Dictionary Cap of
talitha78’s vid
Fever on
Youtube.
Graphics
Sherlock Holmes vs. T-Rex. Er. Parchment paper texture from
Wildwestroundup.com.
Sherlock gets a facebook by
sherlockiangirl.
Texts
Excerpt from
“Autopsis” by
spikeface:
"I hate it."
"I know," John says somewhere near the back of his neck. "Come on, in you go."
That's what Sherlock wants: inside. He wants to be inside John. He can admit it now, as he falls onto the bed and watches John peel the patches off so quickly Sherlock can't even feel the sting of them tearing off his skin, the neat pads of John's fingers. He wants to peel those off, carve back the skin-not like carving a dead body, the slow slough of cells that are getting in his way. He wants it quick and violent, like the patches ripping off him. He wants to take and take, more than any man can offer, even John.
"I'm going to kill you one day," Sherlock slurs, too tired to hold it back anymore.
There is a dry, chapped pressure against his forehead and Sherlock realizes that it is John's lips. "In the morning, then, after you've slept."
Excerpt from “The Three Garridebs” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
Then my friend’s wiry arms were round me, and he was leading me to a chair.
“You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!”
It was worth a wound - it was worth many wounds - to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.
You can find the full short story, as well as many others by Doyle,
here.
Vid notes
I wrote a lot of meta to my beta regarding this vid. But as it is, it has largely become a process. I started with the premise that the Sherlock Holmes’ stories, no matter how many times they are re-invented, are always essentially the same. They are always about Holmes and Watson and their epic bromance, regardless of how you define it.
Hence, the subversion of the refrain “whole new way to love you”. It is - and it isn’t.
While I was culling sources the vid began to make itself, really, drawing from a number of sources and turning into a somewhat meta narrative dealing with the “fandom gaze” and voyeurism and how that too, has shaped the story.
I started with still images, black and white and used a “newsprint” filter on Sony Vegas. They would all look similar to Sidney Paget’s artwork, invoking a sense of coherency and unity between the three very different versions of Sherlock Holmes et al. I used it merely as a framing device to prepare us for the fact that this vid was about the synthesis of different versions of the same story.
The first section concerns John entering Sherlock’s life, obviously, though his POV is not as strong as I’d like it per se. I was trying to do a lot of set-up in a small amount of space, creating the framework for the overall vid, so it comes off a little more third person than it probably should be.
After establishing John’s absolutely ferocious devotion to Sherlock, we shift into my favorite part of the vid, Sherlock’s POV. Sherlock is certainly mad and a genius and completely addicted to being harm’s way. I think this would be very sharply reflected in his sex life - if he has one - whatever that may or may not entail.
For the record, canon and other meta in fandom has convinced me that Sherlock is indeed asexual. I didn’t start the vid with this premise and I have tried to reconcile the obvious sexualization with that. My compromise is that we more or less sexualize Sherlock - we being "fandom in general". Most of that section is seen through a "voyeuristic lens", objectifying and sexualizing Sherlock and turning clips or scenes which were platonic into sexual ones through juxtaposition and implication.
Sherlock's impulses are ultimately destructive on some levels, though, putting anyone in his orbit in harm’s way as well. Which moves us onto another John centered section, this one focusing on actual text by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. John’s love is cemented by canon in that he is willing to take a bullet for Sherlock, literally. It’s worth the wounds which is so much the crux of the character (to take what Sherlock literally gives him) - just - GUH. Allow me a moment of *flail* here.
For Sherlock it is also a crux - he feels guilty if John is hurt or in harm’s way - though Sherlock is not usually obvious in his display of feelings. He sinks back into intellectualism, a fretting kind of thought, as a way to cope.
And then the villains. This part was the hardest and actually ended up being a great delight. Originally this section was much more cut and dry. My beta suggested it wasn’t doing enough “heavy lifting” re: the meta and theme of the “outside gaze”. I told her that I seriously was convinced that the BBC Moriarty was secretly a Gary Stu. That all he essentially wanted was love and to insert himself into the Holmes/Watson dynamic, though obviously he covets Watson only to get to Holmes. It’s Holmes he really wants and this also has been true since the Doyle short stories. This became the jumping point for the rest of it. That the villains are always, essentially creepy, stalkery Gary Stu like dudes who just want to be with Holmes, because he that brilliant. Of course, their definition of "be with" usually also includes tearing anyone who gets into their way to pieces. Including Holmes.
Here the voyeurism really comes out. In some ways it could be read as a commentary on fandom and voyeurism - and the lengths to which we fans go in “possessing” texts and characters. Like Mory (Moriarty), we really just want to be loved back, so we essentially end up doing what Mory and other Sherlock villains do. We completely take Sherlock apart. We deconstruct him and then reconstruct him in a manner which pleases us.
However, most of us are probably not going to hire snipers and strap bombs to John’s chest in order to do so. :P
The ending was originally going to be darker and more ambiguous, kind of like the ending of the first BBC series. But I changed my mind and decided to frame it more like a traditional Sherlock Holmes story. John and Sherlock, in their various incarnations, always win and always walk away into the drippy cloud-obscured London sunset.
Thus it was and thus it should always be. :D
comments at
dreamwidth. Please comment there using dreamwidth or OpenID.