Stargate SG-1 - Review - Unwell
Title: Unwell
Vidder: lea_ysaye
Song: Unwell - Matchbox 20
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Size: 14 MB
Link: http://files.filefront.com/unwellwmv/;4378740;;/fileinfo.html
Notes: Spoilers for Season 6
Overall impression:
Jonas usually gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop - in fanfiction, in vids, even in the show, so it is refreshing to see a vid centered around him. The vidder shows us the fuzzy end, the lack of support and respect, but also shows us a Jonas who keeps doggedly doing his best. It's a good vid overall, and the only problems I had with it were a couple places where the character-focus was unclear, some odd black-cuts, and towards the end when there's an overwhelming number of flash-backs.
Titles: The titles were at the end and were clear and concise, nothing fancy but that's fine.
Music choice: I thought that the music was a good choice for this vid. It was slow and introspective, which is what the vid was all about.
Narration, Tone and Movement: In general, the narration was fine but there were points where the lyrics are about "me" and the screen character isn't Jonas. For example, when the lyrics are "stay awhile maybe then you'll see/A different side of me", the second half of that has a close-up of Carter when it should be of Jonas. While we're far enough into the vid to know that the song is about Jonas, not Carter, sticking with the POV character when the lyric fingers them specifically makes a much tighter vid. As far as movement, there were several places where the vidder did an excellent job of lining up the internal movement of the clip with the beat of the music - the first one being in the opening bridge where Jonas raises his eyebrows. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, absolutely love it, so just that little bit of extra care and timing at the start of the vid hooked me right in and focused my attention.
Cuts: There's always questions of whether to cut to the beat, the lyric, or a combination. I noticed that when this vidder cut to the beat, particularly in the opening sequence, the cuts were very good and well placed. The problems I saw seemed to be points where the cuts were either ahead of or behind the lyric. For example, when the lyric is "I'm just a little unwell" for the first time, I felt that we should have stayed on the pouring out pills and then cut to the close-up of Jonas turning away on "I know". Much tighter that way. And the "stay awhile and then you'll see" cut following that was all off, should have started with Hammond moving away perhaps.
Transitions, Effects: I broke this off from above because I wanted to particularly discuss the special-effects transitions of the cuts to black and to white. The first time the cut-to-black occured, at about :56, I thought my viewer had hiccuped because the cut to black was so short and came right back to the same image. Then there were more of them later, and I realized this was deliberate, but I'm baffled as to why these transitions/effects are there. It's not the lyrics because the first time, it was in the middle of the lyric "and I don't know why". It's not the music because there wasn't anything special happening at this point. A cut away to blackness is very dramatic and highly effectively when used well, as in the Highlander vid "The Space Between" or in the Due South vid "Pavlov's Bell", but there didn't seem to be a point to it in this vid. I'd love to know the reasoning behind these, but as a viewer, I'd have to say they were distracting. On the other hand, the cuts-to-white were very clear on what their purpose was, for flashbacks or precog-moments, and I really liked the way they were used at the start of the vid. However, towards the end of the vid, at about 3:12, there was a whole mess of these - nicely timed to the music, which I like, but there were just too many of them in a row. I started seeing spots before my eyes. *G* I would recommend changing that. The first bit isn't too much - where he's sitting and then flashes to the running figures and then back to him blinking, that makes it clear what is happening to him. One more "flash" to what he's seeing (the rings) and then I would ditch the flashes and use cuts. It's been a while since I've seen that particular episode, and I think that whole sequence might be as it was in the show, but there's a difference when taking something like that from context where there's dialog and stuff happening and translating it to a music vid - plus the whole point of doing that kind of effect in a movie (or on TV) is to rattle the viewer and put them on edge, disorient them. You can do that to a vid viewer as well, but that's a whole 'nother type of vid, one meant to creep the viewer rather than make them go "awww! Poor Jonas!" as this vid does. And since that's right there at the end of the vid, you really want to wrap it up with something that gives the viewer warm fuzzies about Jonas, instead of reaching for their motion-sickness meds.
Specific vid & music notes: (Time marked points of interest)
00:11 - 00:17 - one of my favorite parts because the cutting is right on and the clips are already telling me what this vid is about
00:53 - 00:54 just my personal preferences, but because I love him falling into frame on the music cue, I'd like to see internal action at "breakdown" or cutting to a new clip
00:57 - the first of those short cut-to-black effects - no purpose that I can see, so I'd remove it and have a straight clip
01:01 - 01:11 - the most noticeable place where the clip loses focus on the main character and the cutting seems off. Tighten & focus
01:40 - one of the really, really nice uses of clips and lyrics with the "I can hear them whisper", with nice internal movement
03:12 - start of the flashback cuts, which I would pare down or replace
Final notes:
Overall, a nice look at a much-maligned character although I would replace the ending with something that makes viewers want to cuddle the poor guy. The vidder clearly understands vidding concepts and has a knack for cuts to the beat when used. I believe that removing the cuts-to-black and tightening the focus of a couple scenes would make this an excellent vid and a favorite among the Jonas-fans.
Vidder: lea_ysaye
Song: Unwell - Matchbox 20
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Size: 14 MB
Link: http://files.filefront.com/unwellwmv/;4378740;;/fileinfo.html
Notes: Spoilers for Season 6
Overall impression:
Jonas usually gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop - in fanfiction, in vids, even in the show, so it is refreshing to see a vid centered around him. The vidder shows us the fuzzy end, the lack of support and respect, but also shows us a Jonas who keeps doggedly doing his best. It's a good vid overall, and the only problems I had with it were a couple places where the character-focus was unclear, some odd black-cuts, and towards the end when there's an overwhelming number of flash-backs.
Titles: The titles were at the end and were clear and concise, nothing fancy but that's fine.
Music choice: I thought that the music was a good choice for this vid. It was slow and introspective, which is what the vid was all about.
Narration, Tone and Movement: In general, the narration was fine but there were points where the lyrics are about "me" and the screen character isn't Jonas. For example, when the lyrics are "stay awhile maybe then you'll see/A different side of me", the second half of that has a close-up of Carter when it should be of Jonas. While we're far enough into the vid to know that the song is about Jonas, not Carter, sticking with the POV character when the lyric fingers them specifically makes a much tighter vid. As far as movement, there were several places where the vidder did an excellent job of lining up the internal movement of the clip with the beat of the music - the first one being in the opening bridge where Jonas raises his eyebrows. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, absolutely love it, so just that little bit of extra care and timing at the start of the vid hooked me right in and focused my attention.
Cuts: There's always questions of whether to cut to the beat, the lyric, or a combination. I noticed that when this vidder cut to the beat, particularly in the opening sequence, the cuts were very good and well placed. The problems I saw seemed to be points where the cuts were either ahead of or behind the lyric. For example, when the lyric is "I'm just a little unwell" for the first time, I felt that we should have stayed on the pouring out pills and then cut to the close-up of Jonas turning away on "I know". Much tighter that way. And the "stay awhile and then you'll see" cut following that was all off, should have started with Hammond moving away perhaps.
Transitions, Effects: I broke this off from above because I wanted to particularly discuss the special-effects transitions of the cuts to black and to white. The first time the cut-to-black occured, at about :56, I thought my viewer had hiccuped because the cut to black was so short and came right back to the same image. Then there were more of them later, and I realized this was deliberate, but I'm baffled as to why these transitions/effects are there. It's not the lyrics because the first time, it was in the middle of the lyric "and I don't know why". It's not the music because there wasn't anything special happening at this point. A cut away to blackness is very dramatic and highly effectively when used well, as in the Highlander vid "The Space Between" or in the Due South vid "Pavlov's Bell", but there didn't seem to be a point to it in this vid. I'd love to know the reasoning behind these, but as a viewer, I'd have to say they were distracting. On the other hand, the cuts-to-white were very clear on what their purpose was, for flashbacks or precog-moments, and I really liked the way they were used at the start of the vid. However, towards the end of the vid, at about 3:12, there was a whole mess of these - nicely timed to the music, which I like, but there were just too many of them in a row. I started seeing spots before my eyes. *G* I would recommend changing that. The first bit isn't too much - where he's sitting and then flashes to the running figures and then back to him blinking, that makes it clear what is happening to him. One more "flash" to what he's seeing (the rings) and then I would ditch the flashes and use cuts. It's been a while since I've seen that particular episode, and I think that whole sequence might be as it was in the show, but there's a difference when taking something like that from context where there's dialog and stuff happening and translating it to a music vid - plus the whole point of doing that kind of effect in a movie (or on TV) is to rattle the viewer and put them on edge, disorient them. You can do that to a vid viewer as well, but that's a whole 'nother type of vid, one meant to creep the viewer rather than make them go "awww! Poor Jonas!" as this vid does. And since that's right there at the end of the vid, you really want to wrap it up with something that gives the viewer warm fuzzies about Jonas, instead of reaching for their motion-sickness meds.
Specific vid & music notes: (Time marked points of interest)
00:11 - 00:17 - one of my favorite parts because the cutting is right on and the clips are already telling me what this vid is about
00:53 - 00:54 just my personal preferences, but because I love him falling into frame on the music cue, I'd like to see internal action at "breakdown" or cutting to a new clip
00:57 - the first of those short cut-to-black effects - no purpose that I can see, so I'd remove it and have a straight clip
01:01 - 01:11 - the most noticeable place where the clip loses focus on the main character and the cutting seems off. Tighten & focus
01:40 - one of the really, really nice uses of clips and lyrics with the "I can hear them whisper", with nice internal movement
03:12 - start of the flashback cuts, which I would pare down or replace
Final notes:
Overall, a nice look at a much-maligned character although I would replace the ending with something that makes viewers want to cuddle the poor guy. The vidder clearly understands vidding concepts and has a knack for cuts to the beat when used. I believe that removing the cuts-to-black and tightening the focus of a couple scenes would make this an excellent vid and a favorite among the Jonas-fans.