Vid: Compass Points (SG: A, John/Rodney)
Title: Compass Points
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Pairing: John/Rodney
Spoilers: None
Rating: PG
About: Made for artword's astronomy challenge. (Picture prompt)
My fantastic partner was sheafrotherdon. You can read her story 'Compass Points' right here.
Music: Comfortable Mystery by Kevin McLeod. (2005 version)
download
xvid. avi. rar file. 42MB. 3:07mn.
If you download, please take the time to comment. Thank you.
Read ' Compass Points' by sheafrotherdon
Process notes: This whole thing started with Cate sending me an email saying that she enjoyed writing to something an artist had produced and that basically she was giving me a free pass to do whatever the hell I wanted. I'm not sure whether or not she fully realized what she was getting herself into when she typed the last line of her email: "All ideas welcome! I will do anything! :D" I don't need to tell you that my brain went in complete overdrive. When an author like Cate tells you something like this, you think yes, yes, ok, yes, \o/ and then my thought process was about as follows: omg, what to do, what to do, collage, no, wallscroll, no, flash anim, no, vid? huh, omg, zofzieufohzef, yes, yes, vid.
Here I was with my want to make a vid and no concept, so I went back to the artword post and looked through all the pictures again, and daydreamed about planets and star systems and pretty lights... and those always make me think of Rodney because, well, he's an astrophysicist. And I started thinking of Rodney and how we've never really seen him in the show take the time to just marvel at the fact that he's a freaking space explorer, which I should think, is every astrophysicist's wet dream. And that's how I had this image in my head of Rodney looking up at a starry sky, in awe, and it became the starting point of the video.
I imagined Rodney as an effervescent 6-year-old, in his backyard, looking up at the night sky through his telescope, maybe with his dad. And I imagined John doing pretty much the same thing except he'd be pretending to be a spaceship flying in all this space. And then I thought of them, 30 years later, actually living those childhood dreams but being too busy running for their lives to truly stop and say "well, damn, who would have thought? and look at that! I'm on a freaking alien planet and this is SO fucking cool!" Too busy except for that one mission where they're stuck on a barren planet with a malfunctioning puddle jumper, and where for once, no one's trying to kill them. Teyla and Ronon are in Atlantis and are going to come and rescue them soon so they actually relax and enjoy their surroundings. And so they look up and they remember what it felt like *before* they saved the universe on daily basis, and because I can't actually make my own footage and have to work with what I have, they also remember everything that's happened to them since they came to Pegasus, and there's a memory in everything they see: sand, stars, light, etc.
And basically that was my story and I build the vid around this idea. Most of all, I wanted a feeling of awe and wonder, and also maybe a bit of longing. Cate knew nothing about all of this; I just sent her the vid and didn't give her any hint. The point was not for her to tell my story but to tell her own.
I went to Kevin McLeod's site where he offers royalty free music for download and just went through the various tracks tagged with the eerie, mysterious or relaxing keywords until I found the one I liked. (Links are available in the header.)
As far as the vidding technique is concerned, it's all pretty straight-forward. Most of the editing was done in Vegas. I used simple cuts or crossfades for the transitions, quite a lot of gaussian blurs and a few masks. The color-keying was done in After Effects, aka every scene where video and the death valley picture are put together, only because it was faster to do it there than in Vegas. The gun-trees were of course done in After Effects as well -- when I made this sequence I had a fond thought for blithesea who one day, while we were both in my flat in Shanghai and that I was working on "The Tree", looked at me and said "oh you and your trees" and well, yes, I did it again. It's true that I always end up putting trees in my vids (see 'Ambushed', 'Dreams' or obviously 'The Tree'). What can I say? I love them dearly. Anyway, if you have a specific vidding question, just ask and I'll do my best to answer it. :)
This was incredibly fun to make, as always, and I can't wait to read Cate's fic, which I still haven't read as I type this. Thank you SO much sweetie, FOR EVERYTHING. *snorfles you fondly*
I also would like to thank blithesea, nightfive, darkmoore and ca_pierson who tested and betaed random bits of video when I needed a new pair of eyes. Thank you ladies!
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Pairing: John/Rodney
Spoilers: None
Rating: PG
About: Made for artword's astronomy challenge. (Picture prompt)
My fantastic partner was sheafrotherdon. You can read her story 'Compass Points' right here.
Music: Comfortable Mystery by Kevin McLeod. (2005 version)
download
xvid. avi. rar file. 42MB. 3:07mn.
If you download, please take the time to comment. Thank you.
Read ' Compass Points' by sheafrotherdon
Process notes: This whole thing started with Cate sending me an email saying that she enjoyed writing to something an artist had produced and that basically she was giving me a free pass to do whatever the hell I wanted. I'm not sure whether or not she fully realized what she was getting herself into when she typed the last line of her email: "All ideas welcome! I will do anything! :D" I don't need to tell you that my brain went in complete overdrive. When an author like Cate tells you something like this, you think yes, yes, ok, yes, \o/ and then my thought process was about as follows: omg, what to do, what to do, collage, no, wallscroll, no, flash anim, no, vid? huh, omg, zofzieufohzef, yes, yes, vid.
Here I was with my want to make a vid and no concept, so I went back to the artword post and looked through all the pictures again, and daydreamed about planets and star systems and pretty lights... and those always make me think of Rodney because, well, he's an astrophysicist. And I started thinking of Rodney and how we've never really seen him in the show take the time to just marvel at the fact that he's a freaking space explorer, which I should think, is every astrophysicist's wet dream. And that's how I had this image in my head of Rodney looking up at a starry sky, in awe, and it became the starting point of the video.
I imagined Rodney as an effervescent 6-year-old, in his backyard, looking up at the night sky through his telescope, maybe with his dad. And I imagined John doing pretty much the same thing except he'd be pretending to be a spaceship flying in all this space. And then I thought of them, 30 years later, actually living those childhood dreams but being too busy running for their lives to truly stop and say "well, damn, who would have thought? and look at that! I'm on a freaking alien planet and this is SO fucking cool!" Too busy except for that one mission where they're stuck on a barren planet with a malfunctioning puddle jumper, and where for once, no one's trying to kill them. Teyla and Ronon are in Atlantis and are going to come and rescue them soon so they actually relax and enjoy their surroundings. And so they look up and they remember what it felt like *before* they saved the universe on daily basis, and because I can't actually make my own footage and have to work with what I have, they also remember everything that's happened to them since they came to Pegasus, and there's a memory in everything they see: sand, stars, light, etc.
And basically that was my story and I build the vid around this idea. Most of all, I wanted a feeling of awe and wonder, and also maybe a bit of longing. Cate knew nothing about all of this; I just sent her the vid and didn't give her any hint. The point was not for her to tell my story but to tell her own.
I went to Kevin McLeod's site where he offers royalty free music for download and just went through the various tracks tagged with the eerie, mysterious or relaxing keywords until I found the one I liked. (Links are available in the header.)
As far as the vidding technique is concerned, it's all pretty straight-forward. Most of the editing was done in Vegas. I used simple cuts or crossfades for the transitions, quite a lot of gaussian blurs and a few masks. The color-keying was done in After Effects, aka every scene where video and the death valley picture are put together, only because it was faster to do it there than in Vegas. The gun-trees were of course done in After Effects as well -- when I made this sequence I had a fond thought for blithesea who one day, while we were both in my flat in Shanghai and that I was working on "The Tree", looked at me and said "oh you and your trees" and well, yes, I did it again. It's true that I always end up putting trees in my vids (see 'Ambushed', 'Dreams' or obviously 'The Tree'). What can I say? I love them dearly. Anyway, if you have a specific vidding question, just ask and I'll do my best to answer it. :)
This was incredibly fun to make, as always, and I can't wait to read Cate's fic, which I still haven't read as I type this. Thank you SO much sweetie, FOR EVERYTHING. *snorfles you fondly*
I also would like to thank blithesea, nightfive, darkmoore and ca_pierson who tested and betaed random bits of video when I needed a new pair of eyes. Thank you ladies!