vid rec: "Blue" by beerbad - BSG
Title: "Blue", music by A Perfect Circle
Vidder: beerbad
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck focus
Spoilers: All of season three, major plot spoilers
Download and Feedback: WMV, YouTube, and iMeem all available at her journal
I don't do vid reviews (I just vid! but I was feeling this one), so my brain doesn't really know how to do this other than commentary style. Hopefully no one will mind. :-)
I very much like the style of the opening titles, bold and dark, strong and effective. Pairing the shot of Kara holding Casey with the music credit is a smart move. Whether beerbad did this intentionally or not, I like the image of their hugging arms as an imperfect circle (like the band's logo). The song choice is a solid one, both tonally and lyrically. The opening guitar line is melodically disjointed, much like Kara's sanity at the beginning of the season, and the viewer is immediately transported to the tension of Kara's state of mind.
beerbad structured this vid chronologically, but this also fits very well with the lyrics of the song. The first four episodes, when Kara was imprisoned on New Caprica, fall around the repeated line "I didn't want to know." This sums up so many different aspects of the situation Kara struggled through, such as Leoben's obsession with her, her supposed destiny, the idea that Casey is hers, and then the truth that Casey isn't. We see all of those here.
The vid is paced so that we reach her marital troubles with Anders (episodes 5&6) at the line "close my eyes just to look at you." This section of the season is a time of deep denial and disassociation for Kara, pushing everything as far away from her as possible; she closes the curtain, closes her eyes, and tries to just fade away. Another strong theme throughout the song is the line "ignore the smoke," which is depicted visually with the mandala. This is an excellent parallel not only because she eventually flies into the smoke of the maelstrom, but because she's spent her whole life trying to avoid this destiny that keeps looming over her like a cloud. The line and image repeat three times, each shot similar to the previous but closer in, much like the mandala follows Kara everywhere she goes, becoming clearer and more foreboding all the time.
Great use of intercutting at the first chorus (1:15) paralleling the boxing scene from "Unfinished Business" with the sex scene, as Lee and Kara can so rarely distinguish violence from sex with each other. This is further emphasized by matching Lee punching Kara with giving her an orgasm (which, in turn, is nicely punctuated with the fade-to-white). The dancing shot on the brief instrumental bar is a nice touch. And now we've reached the halfway point of the song. Having seen the three most important men in Kara's life--Adama, Lee, and Anders--all do some kind of violence to her (be it physical or emotional), it's natural to finish off the chorus with shots of Kara returning the energy by doing violence to whomever she is able--Leoben and herself. Still, the center of the song is focused on Lee, and as he's Kara's emotional core, he deserves it.
Before the second verse, we get more excellent parallels: Kara in a crashing ship, and Kara's role in the Quadrangle of D00M. Both her marriage and her affair with Lee are situations she's lost control of (if she ever had it in the first place) and everything's going up in smoke. Holding a shot of Lee over our old friend "I just didn't want to know" is a solid move, as he probably wishes he never knew Kara loved him at all if he can't really have her. And just like Kara can't escape the mandala, it comes back around at the end of the verse to segue out of the Quadrangle back into Kara facing her destiny.
I love that we see Adama over the line "mistook their nods for an approval," as winning back his love and trust is a running theme for Kara in season three. And in one of the smartest clip choices in the vid, we see Kara looking out over the maelstrom for "ignore the smoke and smile." I'm so pleased beerbad didn't go literal here and juxtapose in a shot of Kara actually smiling. Kara is "smiling" by accepting her destiny and finding peace in her troubled past, so showing her moment of realization that that's what she needs to do is the perfect visual for this moment. And again, another smart fade-to-white here.
Now we jump all the way back from Maelstrom to the first episode again with Kara behind bars. By circling back around to this shot, beerbad makes us feel like we're trapped right along with Kara. We've jumped back to Kara's beginning, bringing in Leoben and young!Kara this time, and now we're seeing how it's all starting to piece together for her. The mandala, her connection to Leoben, her painful past. Just like Kara and Lee mixed intimacy with violence, Kara and Leoben do the same thing, as is shown by great intercutting. I love that Kara wipes the blood on the line "such a lovely color for you." Red is indeed her favorite color on Leoben :-) And appropriately, the video ends the way Kara's journey this season ends--she embraces her destiny, makes peace with Lee, and sacrifices herself.
A few choice moments that matched up nicely with the beat:
-punch on "swim" (0:29)
-falling out of chair and leg stomp on ground (0:45)
-look away from Lee (1:27)
-explosion next to raptor (1:46)
-tilting chin on beat (1:54)
-hand dropping (1:56)
All in all, this vid is a poignant look at Kara's emotional journey in season three. It doesn't rely on rapid cuts or fancy effects to get its message across, and it doesn't need to. By taking us through each painful step of the way and weaving together connections and parallels from different points in the season, we really see how everything comes together and leads Kara to her final decision. I highly recommend this vid to any BSG fan who's caught up on the series.
Vidder: beerbad
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck focus
Spoilers: All of season three, major plot spoilers
Download and Feedback: WMV, YouTube, and iMeem all available at her journal
I don't do vid reviews (I just vid! but I was feeling this one), so my brain doesn't really know how to do this other than commentary style. Hopefully no one will mind. :-)
I very much like the style of the opening titles, bold and dark, strong and effective. Pairing the shot of Kara holding Casey with the music credit is a smart move. Whether beerbad did this intentionally or not, I like the image of their hugging arms as an imperfect circle (like the band's logo). The song choice is a solid one, both tonally and lyrically. The opening guitar line is melodically disjointed, much like Kara's sanity at the beginning of the season, and the viewer is immediately transported to the tension of Kara's state of mind.
beerbad structured this vid chronologically, but this also fits very well with the lyrics of the song. The first four episodes, when Kara was imprisoned on New Caprica, fall around the repeated line "I didn't want to know." This sums up so many different aspects of the situation Kara struggled through, such as Leoben's obsession with her, her supposed destiny, the idea that Casey is hers, and then the truth that Casey isn't. We see all of those here.
The vid is paced so that we reach her marital troubles with Anders (episodes 5&6) at the line "close my eyes just to look at you." This section of the season is a time of deep denial and disassociation for Kara, pushing everything as far away from her as possible; she closes the curtain, closes her eyes, and tries to just fade away. Another strong theme throughout the song is the line "ignore the smoke," which is depicted visually with the mandala. This is an excellent parallel not only because she eventually flies into the smoke of the maelstrom, but because she's spent her whole life trying to avoid this destiny that keeps looming over her like a cloud. The line and image repeat three times, each shot similar to the previous but closer in, much like the mandala follows Kara everywhere she goes, becoming clearer and more foreboding all the time.
Great use of intercutting at the first chorus (1:15) paralleling the boxing scene from "Unfinished Business" with the sex scene, as Lee and Kara can so rarely distinguish violence from sex with each other. This is further emphasized by matching Lee punching Kara with giving her an orgasm (which, in turn, is nicely punctuated with the fade-to-white). The dancing shot on the brief instrumental bar is a nice touch. And now we've reached the halfway point of the song. Having seen the three most important men in Kara's life--Adama, Lee, and Anders--all do some kind of violence to her (be it physical or emotional), it's natural to finish off the chorus with shots of Kara returning the energy by doing violence to whomever she is able--Leoben and herself. Still, the center of the song is focused on Lee, and as he's Kara's emotional core, he deserves it.
Before the second verse, we get more excellent parallels: Kara in a crashing ship, and Kara's role in the Quadrangle of D00M. Both her marriage and her affair with Lee are situations she's lost control of (if she ever had it in the first place) and everything's going up in smoke. Holding a shot of Lee over our old friend "I just didn't want to know" is a solid move, as he probably wishes he never knew Kara loved him at all if he can't really have her. And just like Kara can't escape the mandala, it comes back around at the end of the verse to segue out of the Quadrangle back into Kara facing her destiny.
I love that we see Adama over the line "mistook their nods for an approval," as winning back his love and trust is a running theme for Kara in season three. And in one of the smartest clip choices in the vid, we see Kara looking out over the maelstrom for "ignore the smoke and smile." I'm so pleased beerbad didn't go literal here and juxtapose in a shot of Kara actually smiling. Kara is "smiling" by accepting her destiny and finding peace in her troubled past, so showing her moment of realization that that's what she needs to do is the perfect visual for this moment. And again, another smart fade-to-white here.
Now we jump all the way back from Maelstrom to the first episode again with Kara behind bars. By circling back around to this shot, beerbad makes us feel like we're trapped right along with Kara. We've jumped back to Kara's beginning, bringing in Leoben and young!Kara this time, and now we're seeing how it's all starting to piece together for her. The mandala, her connection to Leoben, her painful past. Just like Kara and Lee mixed intimacy with violence, Kara and Leoben do the same thing, as is shown by great intercutting. I love that Kara wipes the blood on the line "such a lovely color for you." Red is indeed her favorite color on Leoben :-) And appropriately, the video ends the way Kara's journey this season ends--she embraces her destiny, makes peace with Lee, and sacrifices herself.
A few choice moments that matched up nicely with the beat:
-punch on "swim" (0:29)
-falling out of chair and leg stomp on ground (0:45)
-look away from Lee (1:27)
-explosion next to raptor (1:46)
-tilting chin on beat (1:54)
-hand dropping (1:56)
All in all, this vid is a poignant look at Kara's emotional journey in season three. It doesn't rely on rapid cuts or fancy effects to get its message across, and it doesn't need to. By taking us through each painful step of the way and weaving together connections and parallels from different points in the season, we really see how everything comes together and leads Kara to her final decision. I highly recommend this vid to any BSG fan who's caught up on the series.