Ghosts, commentary by beccatoria
Title: Ghosts
Vidder: beccatoria
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Link to vid: Ghosts
Commentary by beccatoria
Introduction
This vid is unusual in that I decided I wanted to make a vid about the character before I had found a song to fit. I spent quite a while puzzling over how to pick a song to tell, essentially, a love story with no second person. My initial approach was to try to find a song about unrequited love, but the ones I found didn't quite fit. They seemed too literal and obvious to capture the poignancy I felt was necessary. In short, they weren't invisible enough. I felt that was important as part of what I wanted to highlight was Caprica Six's invisibility within the series and even her own plotlines. So ultimately I decided to vid a song about a love affair and simply attempt to make it abundantly clear that there is no one other the the other end; it's a love song to an absent partner. Attempting to minimise Gaius' involvement in the vid and, essentially to vid his absence was an ongoing challenge throughout the vid. However, I was lucky enough to find a song that was also about the vast distances between people and was, I felt, incredibly haunting. It ended up being one of the musical choices I'm happiest with in my entire vidding collection.
The second issue I want to broadly address before I move on to specifics is the narrative structure. I imagine to most the vid appears to be fairly non-linear and I'm actually perfectly happy if people see it that way. It's more of an emotional narrative than a plot line. That said, there is a linear storyline hidden in here that at least makes sense to me. I was working under the assumption that if there was coherency in the planning, it would hopefully improve the overall vid, even if it wasn't immediately obvious or even necessary to the viewer. Another reason for the, um, non-linear narrative (which I will detail below) is that Caprica is in surprisingly few scenes for a main-cast character. I believe I used every single scene she's in except one, in some capacity, and I also pulled footage from a number of deleted scenes. So the more limited source than I was used to also played a part in my decision to shy away from a more linear narrative structure. I also thought it would help with the nebulous sadness I was gunning for.
Commentary
0.00
The vid starts by telling two parallel tales; the reintroduction of Caprica in Downloaded and her journey of self-discovery and also her reintroduction to the Fleet's storyline in Lay Down Your Burdens II which is the fruition of her plans and dreams as laid out in Downloaded.
The opening shots are intended to be striking, hopeful, but foreboding. We see rebirth and a lit doorway, an entrance, a promise. But Caprica's expression is fearful and we know the door will let in monsters. Likewise, we move to Caprica at Boomer's door - another symbolic beginning, another door opens seemingly full of hope, but like the cut on Caprica's cheek, there is an unsettling undercurrent.
0.09
I actually sped up a section in the middle of this clip so that she would knock on the door on the beat. The section I sped up was the section between her lifting her hand from the wall and her beginning to knock.
0.21
D'Anna's murder is a physical representation of the cultural "state lines" Caprica is crossing, while the dissolve from Caprica to New Caprica is indicative of actual physical vastness.
0.26
Bad Vidder Confession Time: I'm not particuarly happy with the first shot. The second shot - the lingering shot of Caprica reaching, for Boomer, for the Gaius she imagines is waiting for her with the Fleet, for a peaceful future - each thing will turn to ash in turn, but at that moment, so full of hope - that shot, I love. It was one of the first ideas I had that sold me on this song as a workable choice. But the clip wasn't long enough and working with the constraints of Windows Movie Maker, which I was using at the time, took its toll in this instance. I slowed the clip down to half, but it wasn't long enough, and slowing it down half again made it jerky and distracting, so I needed something else in there, and picked another clip from that scene. But I think in retrospect it goes by too quickly and is just confusing and distracting as it's not clear enough what's there.
0.32
Narratively, the story is still stuck in the parallel tale of Caprica reawakening and her arrival on New Caprica, but at this point, I start using the lyrics about a long-distance relationship and the physical absence of a lover to represent the physical absence of Head Gaius, with shots of Caprica continually reaching for him when he is not actually present. Throughout the vid, I attempt never to use him unless I show a shot of his absence very shortly afterwards.
I would note, technically, that in the scene on the park bench, I slowed the footage as I felt it helped limit the distracting nature of speech in the clip, and in the invisible martini section, during the second shot, when Gaius is not present and Caprica touches her forehead and then turns to look at Boomer (the last image above), I used a subtle (I hope!) time toggle in order to make sure Caprica moved with the music.
0.47
This is the first "flashback" in the narrative structure. It's just a single clip, but intended to foreshadow the somewhat messy way in which this tale unfolds. As I will detail later, much of this vid - which is from Caprica's perspective - unfolds in messy flashback as she reflects while in prison, or relays information to third parties. It's a somewhat rambling tale and as I said in my introduction, I knew even as I was vidding it that most of it might be lost in translation, and that's okay. But...since I'm doing a commentary, it would be wrong, I think, not to lay out the structure of the vid as I originally imagined.
0.51
Narratively we move fully into the occupation at this point and the emphasis is on the disappointment and loneliness of it. Another early idea I had in storyboarding this vid was to really linger on this scene of Caprica dressing, almost leaving, being called back by Baltar and of both of them sitting, either side of the bed, miles apart.
The laughter penetrates my silence.
I also wanted to keep the violence of Caprica's storyline in the vid - violence she commits and that is committed against her. Caprica is often sidelined and metaphorically silenced in the narrative of the show, and here her "silence" is violently literal.
1.06
As drunken men find flaws in science.
This is one of the few blatant POV breaks in the vid. I have no narrative justification, but both lyrically (because those were some perfect lyrics!) and in terms of emotional impact I thought it was right to include this here. Tigh will become a larger piece of the vid at a later point, and his obsession with Caprica-as-Ellen seemed to merit some inclusion of that storyline earlier to hammer home the broken isolation of the thing. So, Tigh's storyline in the aftermath of the occupation is included in the transition to the post-occupation section of the vid.
Another reason I wanted to put Tigh in at this point, and even to do so in a very obvious and potentially jarring fashion, was that I did not want this to become a Caprica/Gaius vid. I actively wanted to work against that because I feared, if I didn't, it would become a ship vid instead of a character vid, and I didn't feel that there was a need for another ship vid or another Gaius vid, but I felt that there really was a space for a vid about Caprica.
And yet, like the original paradox of the vid itself, this is a love story. And Baltar is her chief love interest. So I decided to approach this problem by minimising Gaius' involvement in the vid as much as possible. The presence of Head Gaius and the fact that, well, the show provides such pervasive context, meant I wasn't worried about his character being forgotten in any way, and Caprica's love for him is often so thankless, I thought removing him would provide an interesting way to comment on that fact.
Part of my strategy, therefore, involved including absolutely every other love interest - romantic or platonic - Caprica ever had, or I could pretend she had ever had. All the other connections she tried and failed to forge. (D'Anna, Tigh, Boomer, Head Gaius, Hera and perhaps even Laura Roslin and Athena.)
However, due to the narrative of the show, most these other characters don't figure heavily until later, so I was stuck with an awful lot of Baltar in the beginning and, a minute in, I was glad for the chance to throw in someone new and say, "Hey, this isn't just about Gaius."
1.11
Narratively we skip forward very quickly now, missing out much of the plot. Caprica is dumped by D'Anna and Baltar at the same time. She ends up in prison on Galactica with only her hallucination for companionship. Physically as well as culturally isolated now, we enter the largest section of the vid, which is Caprica, imprisoned, remembering.
Tactile as always, the bridge between the "present" where she is in the brig and the past before the Colonies fell are her reaching fingers - for Gaius who does not exist, and then for flowers in the Riverwalk Market in Caprica City.
Ostensibly she is thinking of better times, though even here, there is the spectre of Gaius' poor treatment of her, which segues into the next part of this long flashback section, where she is beginning to realise quite how little the real man resembles the one in her dreams.
1.36
This is a cut scene, and one I was very happy to be able to use as I think it's extraordinarily expressive. As Caprica reflects on how she came to be in Galactica's brig - the slow process of disillusionment with her people and with herself that led her to hand herself over to her current captors - I continue to cut back to this scene as I think it does a fantastic job of visually illustrating the moment (a moment?) she began to realise it was all falling apart.
1.40
This is the first occasion where "cold ground" is associated with death. Resurrection meant that violence was dished out to the Cylon - Boomer in this case, but also Caprica - with brutal casualness. Less lethal for sure, but also it always struck me as terribly lonely, to have your life thrown away like that by those that love you and by those you love. Caprica's quest for love is inextricably tangled in violence and murder, perpetrated by and against her.
1.49
Quite frankly, if I was praying for something to pick me up and take me away from my isolating loneliness and put me down into warm arms, and instead I got this guy, I'd be concerned too...
This does, however, bring us back to the "present" as Caprica has finished filling in the blanks for us in the narrative. Which means we're just in time to launch us into another flashback sequence! This time, she is recounting events for Romo Lampkin - the events of the occupation under Gaius Baltar, whom she loves, whom she may be helping to convict of treason.
1:57
This is the song's climax; finally, two people are together after such vast distances and such long separations. This is a love song. But to vid such a moment for Caprica would not only undercut the message of the vid - it would actually be, well, pretty much impossible given her storyline. Her quest for someone who loves her as much as she loves them is - as of the end of the vid - unfulfilled.
So, the way I approached this section was to show the point in time that should have been this perfect. The occupation of New Caprica - not the prelude or the aftermath, but the devastating effects of the occupation itself. Fire and destruction and death threats and death and desolation. This is what happens when Caprica finally manages to surmount the vast distances between herself and the one she loves. It is the least intimate and romantic section of the vid.
We set the fire to the third bar.
The third bar is not a refuge; the fire is not metaphorical.
All of these memories are held between Caprica's ever-searching fingers, curled around a pen Gaius Baltar never really gave her.
2.29
There's nothing particularly innovative to note here, except that we're back in the "present" again, more-or-less, although I am taking some linear liberties in terms of the order of things, essentially the vid ends with the events of the end of season three and the first half of season four, both in terms of Tigh and the Opera House visions.
Also from a purely personal point of view, I know the relationship between these two wasn't to everyone's tastes but I always found it kind of...amazing in a horrifying yet oddly perfect sense and I really love this long, lingering shot. Finally, a real physical moment of connection, and yet, the "joy" your "soft skin is weeping" is blood. As always, it's horribly creepy as soon as you look under the surface.
2.33
Laura is perhaps an odd choice to include in a list of people that Caprica loves as - much as I wish they'd had a more developed relationship in canon - they don't really know or trust each other very much. Still, she's included here for two reasons. Firstly, I will admit (though I probably shouldn't) that I had a real shortage of footage which meant had I not used Laura here I would have been really stuck for what TO use.
But also, while I don't think the emotional relationship is the same as it is between Caprica and the other characters, I do think that the Opera House visions, which appeared and suddenly dropped Caprica, this constantly forgotten and sidelined strange little lost girl, right in the middle of the largest of the show's mythic narratives, form a bond between Caprica and Laura (and Athena) regardless of personal relationships.
Laura and Caprica both seek meaning in the Opera House and therefore seek meaning in each other. But Laura holds Caprica at a metaphorically vast distance, and in literal terms, holds her in a cell at the end of a gun. As with many of the characters in this vid, she often occupies the same space as another character and yet there are miles between them.
2.43
At this point, we have reached the narrative end of the vid - the Opera House is how we lead out - with Caprica entangled both with Athena and Laura and Hera in their visions, and also with Tigh, one of the final five, in another storyline. Emotionally, this suggests perhaps she has a wider connection with the meaning of the show's universe, even if she is still devoid of personal connection.
Interspersed with the Opera House are moments from earlier in the vid's narrative - moments of violence and loss, or near-connection and near misses. This end section is intended as a narrative explosion without a specific linear sensibility - a grab bag of instants; a hand at her throat, a child in her arms, another dead lover on the cold ground; how many resurrections, or abandonments, or different moments next to Gaius in bed and yet years away from him?
2.13
It ends, of course, with Caprica, still caged and still alone. And, I like to think, unrepentant and ready to throw herself at the next heartbreak because she is fearless, her capacity to love is boundless, and I really don't understand why this show never paid her more attention.
Vidder: beccatoria
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Link to vid: Ghosts
Commentary by beccatoria
Introduction
This vid is unusual in that I decided I wanted to make a vid about the character before I had found a song to fit. I spent quite a while puzzling over how to pick a song to tell, essentially, a love story with no second person. My initial approach was to try to find a song about unrequited love, but the ones I found didn't quite fit. They seemed too literal and obvious to capture the poignancy I felt was necessary. In short, they weren't invisible enough. I felt that was important as part of what I wanted to highlight was Caprica Six's invisibility within the series and even her own plotlines. So ultimately I decided to vid a song about a love affair and simply attempt to make it abundantly clear that there is no one other the the other end; it's a love song to an absent partner. Attempting to minimise Gaius' involvement in the vid and, essentially to vid his absence was an ongoing challenge throughout the vid. However, I was lucky enough to find a song that was also about the vast distances between people and was, I felt, incredibly haunting. It ended up being one of the musical choices I'm happiest with in my entire vidding collection.
The second issue I want to broadly address before I move on to specifics is the narrative structure. I imagine to most the vid appears to be fairly non-linear and I'm actually perfectly happy if people see it that way. It's more of an emotional narrative than a plot line. That said, there is a linear storyline hidden in here that at least makes sense to me. I was working under the assumption that if there was coherency in the planning, it would hopefully improve the overall vid, even if it wasn't immediately obvious or even necessary to the viewer. Another reason for the, um, non-linear narrative (which I will detail below) is that Caprica is in surprisingly few scenes for a main-cast character. I believe I used every single scene she's in except one, in some capacity, and I also pulled footage from a number of deleted scenes. So the more limited source than I was used to also played a part in my decision to shy away from a more linear narrative structure. I also thought it would help with the nebulous sadness I was gunning for.
Commentary
0.00
The vid starts by telling two parallel tales; the reintroduction of Caprica in Downloaded and her journey of self-discovery and also her reintroduction to the Fleet's storyline in Lay Down Your Burdens II which is the fruition of her plans and dreams as laid out in Downloaded.
The opening shots are intended to be striking, hopeful, but foreboding. We see rebirth and a lit doorway, an entrance, a promise. But Caprica's expression is fearful and we know the door will let in monsters. Likewise, we move to Caprica at Boomer's door - another symbolic beginning, another door opens seemingly full of hope, but like the cut on Caprica's cheek, there is an unsettling undercurrent.
0.09
I actually sped up a section in the middle of this clip so that she would knock on the door on the beat. The section I sped up was the section between her lifting her hand from the wall and her beginning to knock.
0.21
D'Anna's murder is a physical representation of the cultural "state lines" Caprica is crossing, while the dissolve from Caprica to New Caprica is indicative of actual physical vastness.
0.26
Bad Vidder Confession Time: I'm not particuarly happy with the first shot. The second shot - the lingering shot of Caprica reaching, for Boomer, for the Gaius she imagines is waiting for her with the Fleet, for a peaceful future - each thing will turn to ash in turn, but at that moment, so full of hope - that shot, I love. It was one of the first ideas I had that sold me on this song as a workable choice. But the clip wasn't long enough and working with the constraints of Windows Movie Maker, which I was using at the time, took its toll in this instance. I slowed the clip down to half, but it wasn't long enough, and slowing it down half again made it jerky and distracting, so I needed something else in there, and picked another clip from that scene. But I think in retrospect it goes by too quickly and is just confusing and distracting as it's not clear enough what's there.
0.32
Narratively, the story is still stuck in the parallel tale of Caprica reawakening and her arrival on New Caprica, but at this point, I start using the lyrics about a long-distance relationship and the physical absence of a lover to represent the physical absence of Head Gaius, with shots of Caprica continually reaching for him when he is not actually present. Throughout the vid, I attempt never to use him unless I show a shot of his absence very shortly afterwards.
I would note, technically, that in the scene on the park bench, I slowed the footage as I felt it helped limit the distracting nature of speech in the clip, and in the invisible martini section, during the second shot, when Gaius is not present and Caprica touches her forehead and then turns to look at Boomer (the last image above), I used a subtle (I hope!) time toggle in order to make sure Caprica moved with the music.
0.47
This is the first "flashback" in the narrative structure. It's just a single clip, but intended to foreshadow the somewhat messy way in which this tale unfolds. As I will detail later, much of this vid - which is from Caprica's perspective - unfolds in messy flashback as she reflects while in prison, or relays information to third parties. It's a somewhat rambling tale and as I said in my introduction, I knew even as I was vidding it that most of it might be lost in translation, and that's okay. But...since I'm doing a commentary, it would be wrong, I think, not to lay out the structure of the vid as I originally imagined.
0.51
Narratively we move fully into the occupation at this point and the emphasis is on the disappointment and loneliness of it. Another early idea I had in storyboarding this vid was to really linger on this scene of Caprica dressing, almost leaving, being called back by Baltar and of both of them sitting, either side of the bed, miles apart.
The laughter penetrates my silence.
I also wanted to keep the violence of Caprica's storyline in the vid - violence she commits and that is committed against her. Caprica is often sidelined and metaphorically silenced in the narrative of the show, and here her "silence" is violently literal.
1.06
As drunken men find flaws in science.
This is one of the few blatant POV breaks in the vid. I have no narrative justification, but both lyrically (because those were some perfect lyrics!) and in terms of emotional impact I thought it was right to include this here. Tigh will become a larger piece of the vid at a later point, and his obsession with Caprica-as-Ellen seemed to merit some inclusion of that storyline earlier to hammer home the broken isolation of the thing. So, Tigh's storyline in the aftermath of the occupation is included in the transition to the post-occupation section of the vid.
Another reason I wanted to put Tigh in at this point, and even to do so in a very obvious and potentially jarring fashion, was that I did not want this to become a Caprica/Gaius vid. I actively wanted to work against that because I feared, if I didn't, it would become a ship vid instead of a character vid, and I didn't feel that there was a need for another ship vid or another Gaius vid, but I felt that there really was a space for a vid about Caprica.
And yet, like the original paradox of the vid itself, this is a love story. And Baltar is her chief love interest. So I decided to approach this problem by minimising Gaius' involvement in the vid as much as possible. The presence of Head Gaius and the fact that, well, the show provides such pervasive context, meant I wasn't worried about his character being forgotten in any way, and Caprica's love for him is often so thankless, I thought removing him would provide an interesting way to comment on that fact.
Part of my strategy, therefore, involved including absolutely every other love interest - romantic or platonic - Caprica ever had, or I could pretend she had ever had. All the other connections she tried and failed to forge. (D'Anna, Tigh, Boomer, Head Gaius, Hera and perhaps even Laura Roslin and Athena.)
However, due to the narrative of the show, most these other characters don't figure heavily until later, so I was stuck with an awful lot of Baltar in the beginning and, a minute in, I was glad for the chance to throw in someone new and say, "Hey, this isn't just about Gaius."
1.11
Narratively we skip forward very quickly now, missing out much of the plot. Caprica is dumped by D'Anna and Baltar at the same time. She ends up in prison on Galactica with only her hallucination for companionship. Physically as well as culturally isolated now, we enter the largest section of the vid, which is Caprica, imprisoned, remembering.
Tactile as always, the bridge between the "present" where she is in the brig and the past before the Colonies fell are her reaching fingers - for Gaius who does not exist, and then for flowers in the Riverwalk Market in Caprica City.
Ostensibly she is thinking of better times, though even here, there is the spectre of Gaius' poor treatment of her, which segues into the next part of this long flashback section, where she is beginning to realise quite how little the real man resembles the one in her dreams.
1.36
This is a cut scene, and one I was very happy to be able to use as I think it's extraordinarily expressive. As Caprica reflects on how she came to be in Galactica's brig - the slow process of disillusionment with her people and with herself that led her to hand herself over to her current captors - I continue to cut back to this scene as I think it does a fantastic job of visually illustrating the moment (a moment?) she began to realise it was all falling apart.
1.40
This is the first occasion where "cold ground" is associated with death. Resurrection meant that violence was dished out to the Cylon - Boomer in this case, but also Caprica - with brutal casualness. Less lethal for sure, but also it always struck me as terribly lonely, to have your life thrown away like that by those that love you and by those you love. Caprica's quest for love is inextricably tangled in violence and murder, perpetrated by and against her.
1.49
Quite frankly, if I was praying for something to pick me up and take me away from my isolating loneliness and put me down into warm arms, and instead I got this guy, I'd be concerned too...
This does, however, bring us back to the "present" as Caprica has finished filling in the blanks for us in the narrative. Which means we're just in time to launch us into another flashback sequence! This time, she is recounting events for Romo Lampkin - the events of the occupation under Gaius Baltar, whom she loves, whom she may be helping to convict of treason.
1:57
This is the song's climax; finally, two people are together after such vast distances and such long separations. This is a love song. But to vid such a moment for Caprica would not only undercut the message of the vid - it would actually be, well, pretty much impossible given her storyline. Her quest for someone who loves her as much as she loves them is - as of the end of the vid - unfulfilled.
So, the way I approached this section was to show the point in time that should have been this perfect. The occupation of New Caprica - not the prelude or the aftermath, but the devastating effects of the occupation itself. Fire and destruction and death threats and death and desolation. This is what happens when Caprica finally manages to surmount the vast distances between herself and the one she loves. It is the least intimate and romantic section of the vid.
We set the fire to the third bar.
The third bar is not a refuge; the fire is not metaphorical.
All of these memories are held between Caprica's ever-searching fingers, curled around a pen Gaius Baltar never really gave her.
2.29
There's nothing particularly innovative to note here, except that we're back in the "present" again, more-or-less, although I am taking some linear liberties in terms of the order of things, essentially the vid ends with the events of the end of season three and the first half of season four, both in terms of Tigh and the Opera House visions.
Also from a purely personal point of view, I know the relationship between these two wasn't to everyone's tastes but I always found it kind of...amazing in a horrifying yet oddly perfect sense and I really love this long, lingering shot. Finally, a real physical moment of connection, and yet, the "joy" your "soft skin is weeping" is blood. As always, it's horribly creepy as soon as you look under the surface.
2.33
Laura is perhaps an odd choice to include in a list of people that Caprica loves as - much as I wish they'd had a more developed relationship in canon - they don't really know or trust each other very much. Still, she's included here for two reasons. Firstly, I will admit (though I probably shouldn't) that I had a real shortage of footage which meant had I not used Laura here I would have been really stuck for what TO use.
But also, while I don't think the emotional relationship is the same as it is between Caprica and the other characters, I do think that the Opera House visions, which appeared and suddenly dropped Caprica, this constantly forgotten and sidelined strange little lost girl, right in the middle of the largest of the show's mythic narratives, form a bond between Caprica and Laura (and Athena) regardless of personal relationships.
Laura and Caprica both seek meaning in the Opera House and therefore seek meaning in each other. But Laura holds Caprica at a metaphorically vast distance, and in literal terms, holds her in a cell at the end of a gun. As with many of the characters in this vid, she often occupies the same space as another character and yet there are miles between them.
2.43
At this point, we have reached the narrative end of the vid - the Opera House is how we lead out - with Caprica entangled both with Athena and Laura and Hera in their visions, and also with Tigh, one of the final five, in another storyline. Emotionally, this suggests perhaps she has a wider connection with the meaning of the show's universe, even if she is still devoid of personal connection.
Interspersed with the Opera House are moments from earlier in the vid's narrative - moments of violence and loss, or near-connection and near misses. This end section is intended as a narrative explosion without a specific linear sensibility - a grab bag of instants; a hand at her throat, a child in her arms, another dead lover on the cold ground; how many resurrections, or abandonments, or different moments next to Gaius in bed and yet years away from him?
2.13
It ends, of course, with Caprica, still caged and still alone. And, I like to think, unrepentant and ready to throw herself at the next heartbreak because she is fearless, her capacity to love is boundless, and I really don't understand why this show never paid her more attention.