VID: 'All These Things' [The OBAMA Movement]
For the record, I blame this all on the complete LACK of Obama vidding in the world. We've gotta do something about that.
In honor of Dr. King Day, and Obama's Inauguration Weekend, I give you...
'ALL THESE THINGS'
A Story of the Obama Movement
Song/Band: ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ by the Killers
Vidder: zimshan
Fandom: Obama/American Politics/American History
Length: 4:50
Summary: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Time, truth, and hearts of The American People jettison the skinny junior Senator of Illinois to the Presidency.
Links: 51 MB AVI | 51 MB AVI [ALT LINK]| BAM Vid Vault (Streaming)| Youtube
Disclaimer: All clips property of Obama for America, CNN, and CBS. I claim no ownership of anything in this vid other than the editing I have done myself. If I knew the editor of the campaign’s wonderful ‘Signs of Hope and Change’ vid, I would credit them for their magnificent black boxes I shamelessly just HAD to use at 02:40.
Find more videos like this on BAM Vid Vault
I'm laughing my ass off that I ACTUALLY made this.
And THIS SONG. I *know*. It’s been done to DEATH. But it struck such a chord with so many of us during our work on the campaign. We'd turn it on when we were tired, annoyed, or in need of a morale boost, and it'd give us the quick boost of energy we'd need every time. So, all along, in sort of a crazy way, I had this idea in the back of my head that this would make the perfect Obama movement vid.
And then, something amazing happened: we won. WE ACTUALLY WON. And I just...someone NEEDED to vid this. Not to show the Barack Obama story like the million and one versions every channel in the world has been trodding out since, (and still all insist on missing the most crucial point: the ground game that had been laid between February 2007 and January 2008 *cough*). But to concentrate on The Movement of the American People that unfolded in these crucial 22 months. Democrats, Independents, Republicans, old, young, black, white, asian, latino. That's not just a line from an Obama speech, it was true. And someone just had to use this song to show it.
But I convinced myself that it deserved a lot better a vidding job than I could ever give it. So, I waited and waited and NO ONE DID ANYTHING. And the idea kept nagging me and nagging me, like vidbunnies do, until Christmas when our internet went out and I gave in, deciding to see what it might look like. By the time I actually sat down to put this together, I had most of it trodded out in my head. So the hard part was done, right?
NOPE. Because, by far, the HARDEST part was my complete LACK of good source. It seems incredibly wrong that it’s harder to vid historical events than any tv show out there. But the number of HD sources for politics are SEVERELY limited. The whole political world seems to get by on youtube and youtube alone, and how disasterous is that for vidding? It became especially hard with video of the grassroots campaigning prior to January 2008, which I wanted to highlight here. It breaks my heart that there aren’t enough HQ sources of the Harkin Steak Fry or Iowa’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. [Heck, there's hardly any sources, period, and in my eyes, without what happened at those events, we wouldn't have a President Obama to inaugurate!] Many sources I wanted to use, I couldn’t, and some sources I didn’t want to use, I had to, simply because of the fight between higher quality and the right imagery. One day, I hope to obtain better source of these moments and remaster this to the quality it deserves. But until then, I hope you all can enjoy what little I can bring...
FOUR QUICK POINTS:
1) I say the above to stress that regrettably this vid is not something to watch full screen. The downloadable 51 MB AVI I got to render by some miracle with less quality issues than I assumed (though the compression did wouldn't work for a crisp smaller download). Some of the beginning footage is still extremely pixelated but it gets less so as the vid progresses with more HD footage. I actually favor the IMEEM version, since it has the pretty black bars, even if it screwed up some of my coloring. Unless you're really crazy, don't even bother watching the Youtube version. It's horrendous.
2) As for the vid itself, it's about the most straightforward a vid I‘ve done, so I’ll leave it to judge for yourself.
But I do realize religious undertones contained in the song itself. So I want to make clear, my intention is not to characterize the Obama Movement as a religion but to characterize America and our core ideals as a sort of religion, chronicling the crisis of faith the last eight years has wrought, and the renewal for which ordinary people worked so hard for during this 22-month campaign.
3) Finally, this post is not complete without acknowledging that the Obama campaign is the source of more pride than anything I‘ve been fortunate enough to participate in. And contrary to what you might think, it really isn’t because of Obama. It’s because of the people I worked with along the way, the thousands of people who worked their butt off all over every state I visited, giving numerous amounts of time and energy that made my commitments look like a merely a passing fancy in comparison. And they did it all with a smile on their face and a joy in their hearts.
These people’s work is the untold story of the campaign.
This vid is for them.
This is simply one perspective of the movement, seen through my own eyes. There are still thousands of other perspectives still waiting to be told. And I encourage you all out there, please do so!
GEEKY HISTORICAL NOTES & TIMELINE:
1) The beginning quote was famously spoken by Dr. King after the successful completion of the Selma to Montgomery March on March 25, 1965, in his famous 'How Long, Not Long' Speech. Obama first referenced the quote at his first campaign rally at George Mason University on January 25th, 2007. The audio here has been taken from his speech on February 18th at Columbia, SC. The full excerpt can be found HERE. The full audio of the speech can be downloaded HERE and . The full video can be found HERE and HERE.
2) 00:10 - 00:27 & 01:22 - 01:26 | Features the people and houses of New Orleans two years after Katrina
3) 00:28 - 00:38 | Photographs taken by service men and women stationed in Iraq & Afghanistan, featured at the U.S. Department of Defense 2008 Gallery
4) 00:38 - 01:02 | Barack Obama's Official Presidency Candidacy Announcement | February 20, 2007 | Springfield, IL [with Obama's 2004 DNC Speech mixed in]
5) 01:19 - 01:22 | Photographs from James Nachtwey's photographs of Iraq
6) 01:30 - 01:33 | Barackobama.com! My homestay for the last two years.
7) 01:41 - 01:47 | 30th Annual Harkin Steak Fry | September 16th, 2007 | Iowa City, IA [That rainbow appeared right underneath this amazing chuppah-like banner of HOPE signs supporters had constructed earlier in the day, one of my favorite little stories of the campaign]
8) 01:49 - 01:54, 2:07 - 02:11, 02:22 - 02:24 | Obama supporters parade through the streets of Des Moines into the Iowan Democratic Jefferson-Jackson Dinner | November 10, 2007 [At a dinner all the most important and distinguished democrats of the country attended, out of the 9,000 record attendees, it was estimated about 4,000 Obama volunteers cheered, chanted, stomped, and hollered in the cheaper seats above as Obama delivered his speech. The level of organization astounded everyone. It was groundbreaking and fabulous and so much fun. Probably my favorite night of the entire campaign, and I wasn't even there myself. Iowa set the template that night for every other state in the country organizing for Obama, and the next day, everyone wanted to be Iowa.]
9) 01:54 - 01:59 | Obama Clinches Democratic Nomination | June 3rd, 2007 [Clinton concedes four days later. Sorry, still makes me laugh.]
10) 03:11 - 03:15 | CNN's coverage of the 1st Presidential Debate [HD] | September 26th, 2008 | St. Louis, MS
11) 03:39 - 03:40 | Obama Speaks to Nation After 30-Minute Ad Airs Country-Wide [HD] | October 29, 2008 | Sunrise, FL
12) 03:45 - 04:49 | CBS's coverage of Barack Obama's Presidential Victory Speech [HD] | November 4th, 2008
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
- Barack Obama's Infomercial [HD] (without which, this vid would have been impossible)
- Signs of Hope & Change | Obama for America
- Road Trip To Iowa | Obama for America
- Students for Barack Obama | Obama for America
- America's Seniors: The Greatest Generation | Obama for America
- Newspapers: Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Washington Post
*Many of the HQ Obama for America sources I snagged last year are no longer up for download, but for interest's sake, I've linked to the youtube versions. For those interested in the HD versions, I'd be happy to upload them.
HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY!
Comments are like cake and cookies with frosting on top. :)
In honor of Dr. King Day, and Obama's Inauguration Weekend, I give you...
'ALL THESE THINGS'
A Story of the Obama Movement
Song/Band: ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ by the Killers
Vidder: zimshan
Fandom: Obama/American Politics/American History
Length: 4:50
Summary: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Time, truth, and hearts of The American People jettison the skinny junior Senator of Illinois to the Presidency.
Links: 51 MB AVI | 51 MB AVI [ALT LINK]| BAM Vid Vault (Streaming)| Youtube
Disclaimer: All clips property of Obama for America, CNN, and CBS. I claim no ownership of anything in this vid other than the editing I have done myself. If I knew the editor of the campaign’s wonderful ‘Signs of Hope and Change’ vid, I would credit them for their magnificent black boxes I shamelessly just HAD to use at 02:40.
Find more videos like this on BAM Vid Vault
I'm laughing my ass off that I ACTUALLY made this.
And THIS SONG. I *know*. It’s been done to DEATH. But it struck such a chord with so many of us during our work on the campaign. We'd turn it on when we were tired, annoyed, or in need of a morale boost, and it'd give us the quick boost of energy we'd need every time. So, all along, in sort of a crazy way, I had this idea in the back of my head that this would make the perfect Obama movement vid.
And then, something amazing happened: we won. WE ACTUALLY WON. And I just...someone NEEDED to vid this. Not to show the Barack Obama story like the million and one versions every channel in the world has been trodding out since, (and still all insist on missing the most crucial point: the ground game that had been laid between February 2007 and January 2008 *cough*). But to concentrate on The Movement of the American People that unfolded in these crucial 22 months. Democrats, Independents, Republicans, old, young, black, white, asian, latino. That's not just a line from an Obama speech, it was true. And someone just had to use this song to show it.
But I convinced myself that it deserved a lot better a vidding job than I could ever give it. So, I waited and waited and NO ONE DID ANYTHING. And the idea kept nagging me and nagging me, like vidbunnies do, until Christmas when our internet went out and I gave in, deciding to see what it might look like. By the time I actually sat down to put this together, I had most of it trodded out in my head. So the hard part was done, right?
NOPE. Because, by far, the HARDEST part was my complete LACK of good source. It seems incredibly wrong that it’s harder to vid historical events than any tv show out there. But the number of HD sources for politics are SEVERELY limited. The whole political world seems to get by on youtube and youtube alone, and how disasterous is that for vidding? It became especially hard with video of the grassroots campaigning prior to January 2008, which I wanted to highlight here. It breaks my heart that there aren’t enough HQ sources of the Harkin Steak Fry or Iowa’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. [Heck, there's hardly any sources, period, and in my eyes, without what happened at those events, we wouldn't have a President Obama to inaugurate!] Many sources I wanted to use, I couldn’t, and some sources I didn’t want to use, I had to, simply because of the fight between higher quality and the right imagery. One day, I hope to obtain better source of these moments and remaster this to the quality it deserves. But until then, I hope you all can enjoy what little I can bring...
FOUR QUICK POINTS:
1) I say the above to stress that regrettably this vid is not something to watch full screen. The downloadable 51 MB AVI I got to render by some miracle with less quality issues than I assumed (though the compression did wouldn't work for a crisp smaller download). Some of the beginning footage is still extremely pixelated but it gets less so as the vid progresses with more HD footage. I actually favor the IMEEM version, since it has the pretty black bars, even if it screwed up some of my coloring. Unless you're really crazy, don't even bother watching the Youtube version. It's horrendous.
2) As for the vid itself, it's about the most straightforward a vid I‘ve done, so I’ll leave it to judge for yourself.
But I do realize religious undertones contained in the song itself. So I want to make clear, my intention is not to characterize the Obama Movement as a religion but to characterize America and our core ideals as a sort of religion, chronicling the crisis of faith the last eight years has wrought, and the renewal for which ordinary people worked so hard for during this 22-month campaign.
3) Finally, this post is not complete without acknowledging that the Obama campaign is the source of more pride than anything I‘ve been fortunate enough to participate in. And contrary to what you might think, it really isn’t because of Obama. It’s because of the people I worked with along the way, the thousands of people who worked their butt off all over every state I visited, giving numerous amounts of time and energy that made my commitments look like a merely a passing fancy in comparison. And they did it all with a smile on their face and a joy in their hearts.
These people’s work is the untold story of the campaign.
This vid is for them.
This is simply one perspective of the movement, seen through my own eyes. There are still thousands of other perspectives still waiting to be told. And I encourage you all out there, please do so!
GEEKY HISTORICAL NOTES & TIMELINE:
1) The beginning quote was famously spoken by Dr. King after the successful completion of the Selma to Montgomery March on March 25, 1965, in his famous 'How Long, Not Long' Speech. Obama first referenced the quote at his first campaign rally at George Mason University on January 25th, 2007. The audio here has been taken from his speech on February 18th at Columbia, SC. The full excerpt can be found HERE. The full audio of the speech can be downloaded HERE and . The full video can be found HERE and HERE.
2) 00:10 - 00:27 & 01:22 - 01:26 | Features the people and houses of New Orleans two years after Katrina
3) 00:28 - 00:38 | Photographs taken by service men and women stationed in Iraq & Afghanistan, featured at the U.S. Department of Defense 2008 Gallery
4) 00:38 - 01:02 | Barack Obama's Official Presidency Candidacy Announcement | February 20, 2007 | Springfield, IL [with Obama's 2004 DNC Speech mixed in]
5) 01:19 - 01:22 | Photographs from James Nachtwey's photographs of Iraq
6) 01:30 - 01:33 | Barackobama.com! My homestay for the last two years.
7) 01:41 - 01:47 | 30th Annual Harkin Steak Fry | September 16th, 2007 | Iowa City, IA [That rainbow appeared right underneath this amazing chuppah-like banner of HOPE signs supporters had constructed earlier in the day, one of my favorite little stories of the campaign]
8) 01:49 - 01:54, 2:07 - 02:11, 02:22 - 02:24 | Obama supporters parade through the streets of Des Moines into the Iowan Democratic Jefferson-Jackson Dinner | November 10, 2007 [At a dinner all the most important and distinguished democrats of the country attended, out of the 9,000 record attendees, it was estimated about 4,000 Obama volunteers cheered, chanted, stomped, and hollered in the cheaper seats above as Obama delivered his speech. The level of organization astounded everyone. It was groundbreaking and fabulous and so much fun. Probably my favorite night of the entire campaign, and I wasn't even there myself. Iowa set the template that night for every other state in the country organizing for Obama, and the next day, everyone wanted to be Iowa.]
9) 01:54 - 01:59 | Obama Clinches Democratic Nomination | June 3rd, 2007 [Clinton concedes four days later. Sorry, still makes me laugh.]
10) 03:11 - 03:15 | CNN's coverage of the 1st Presidential Debate [HD] | September 26th, 2008 | St. Louis, MS
11) 03:39 - 03:40 | Obama Speaks to Nation After 30-Minute Ad Airs Country-Wide [HD] | October 29, 2008 | Sunrise, FL
12) 03:45 - 04:49 | CBS's coverage of Barack Obama's Presidential Victory Speech [HD] | November 4th, 2008
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
- Barack Obama's Infomercial [HD] (without which, this vid would have been impossible)
- Signs of Hope & Change | Obama for America
- Road Trip To Iowa | Obama for America
- Students for Barack Obama | Obama for America
- America's Seniors: The Greatest Generation | Obama for America
- Newspapers: Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Washington Post
*Many of the HQ Obama for America sources I snagged last year are no longer up for download, but for interest's sake, I've linked to the youtube versions. For those interested in the HD versions, I'd be happy to upload them.
HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY!
Comments are like cake and cookies with frosting on top. :)