There's gold in them thar hills! Eureka!

[gwyn]

Thanks to the help of laurashapiro, I managed to get a workable large-window, manageable file size, Divx avi file of my new vid, and finally, after many cranky emails with the annoying new web hosts, get this vid uploaded. I may still tweak some settings and try for a less jerky QT file, or maybe even give 3ivx a try at a future date and see if that will improve image quality, but overall, outside of some stuttering on the action scenes, I'm pleased with how this turned out and especially pleased to be able to make it available in a more viewable format. It's not perfect, especially in movement scenes, but different players may help that. In the long run it was only 6 more MB than a smaller window, so I didn't make the smaller size available, because at that point, it doesn't seem that much worse to just DL the extra.

Anyways. The vid is called Loaded Gun, the song is by Hednoize, and the fandom is of course The Fast and the Furious. I know no one is interested, but I will post later about my thoughts while making it and the process, more for my own amusement than anyone else's, I'm sure. The DL is 29.1MB, and this one is MILES better in VLC than viewing in a regular QuickTime window, so follow the links on the vid page and grab VLC media player if you haven't already. VLC really brings out the vibrant colors, smooths the jerky action scenes, and pixelates the fast edits way less. I don't normally attach lyrics, but there is a link there for some if you need them -- whoever transcribed lyrics and has passed them around the Net was, IMO, utterly demented and hearing impaired, so I've provided them here since I don't want people to get mistaken ideas about what the vid is saying.

If you have any troubles DLing, please let me know. I had to use a different method (mutters darkly about the new web hosts) this time so I'm not sure how well everything uploaded. As always, feedback of any kind is welcome.

Comments

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

You got the avi file fixed. Yay! J'adore le vid! *g*

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

And hey, nuns! Prancing nuns! In water!

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

They are! I decided I needed a Yay! icon, and nothing says Yay! like frolicking nuns in the surf.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

So glad you got it uploaded! I will grab it this afternoon/evening and take a look.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you again, so much. It's a good lesson to me to stop being so stubborn about asking for help, and that it's not a sin to send email and ask "pleeeeease"!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Not only is it not a sin, it's not even annoying. It's my pleasure to help you make vids -- they're always so good!

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

Whee! New vid!

Between you and lierdumoa I have finally bought TF&TF, it just arrived a few days ago! I will have to watch the movie and then watch your vid!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I cannot imagine a better way to while away some brainless eye-candy time than with this movie. I told merryish the other day that it is, in fact, gayer than any gay movie I've ever seen, and it's just kind of goofy and stupid, but wonderfully so. IMHO, you won't regret it!

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

Wow. Brian is *so* in love with Dom. Just with the.. and the... His face, his body language -- he glows! That's not subtext, that's text!

I actually had to pause the movie when Vince had the shotgun on Brian. It was too intense and upsetting, I had to take a break.

And then I stayed up way too late immediately watching the director's commentary track so that I could see it again :)

And then the next night I watched your new vid! And your earlier vid! Many times ;) I really liked them. Loaded Gun has not just a great fit on lyrics but the sound, the music of the song is a great fit for the visuals of the movie, for the sound of cars and racing (and eye-fucking). Because I enjoyed the whole thing it's hard to single out specifics, but I liked the blurry effect that was timed with the zoomy/echo-y music, and the fast cuts (stick shifts are phallic!). And the opening shot. Great match with the music, excellent way to smash ino the vid. And at 1:51-ish, the match with the music when Brian's car goes into "hyperdrive." It's very cool from start to finish. Thanks for sharing it with us!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed both the vid and the movie -- I love seeing people's reactions to the movie, it just makes me feel the love all over again. Brain really is in love with Dom (and Dom, of course, with him -- that scene where they're flirting with each other when Brian brings him the Supra is just... guh. They are so into each other everyone else has to comment about it.

For a genre popcorn movie, it has a lot of style and substance in some ways. But mostly it has slash. And gay gayness of the gayest sort.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Wow that was great! I only know TF&TF through your and lierdumoa's vids (and what she told me of the movie when I was confused), but it's enough to appreciate what you've done here. You really put Brian in the driver's seat for most of it and then it switches very smoothly into this sense of tension where Dom is in charge and that last shot actually gave me chills. My favorite parts were the quick cut sections, especially the first one at the end where you have them shifting. Very cool.

The quality is great. I may have to corner laura on AIM and ask her to help me figure out why my DivX isn't working. :)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is definitely not, I'm afraid, terrifically accessible to someone unfamiliar with the story. But I wanted it to be a little more complex than my first one, so I knew that would be the tradeoff in some respects. But I'm glad you enjoyed it despite that inacessibility!

I was so lost about the effects, just not sure what to do and feeling as if I HAD to have some, but in the end, I think the fast cuts turned out to be a better effect than anything else. Sometimes, the basics are the best. ;-)

And I still need to find out about your 3ivx stuff, just because I'd love to see if I could get this looking as smooth and lovely as Cold, Cold Water. I definitely learned a few things about Divx this time, though why it is the way it is baffles me.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

In the course of poking around with DivX trying to help out Gwyneth, I think I realized why you're generating only a log file and not an actual .avi -- I found this happened if I set the codec to multi-pass. Try single pass encoding and see what happens.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Squeeeeee!

I'm going to watch it without the VLC player because I have things to do and really shouldn't be spending more time on the computer this morning, but I'll download the player and get the better viewing experience later. And then watch it again. And again and again.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Definitely get that player -- it's a fast DL, too. And don't be silly about SASEs -- you can pick up a copy next time you're in the neighborhood.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

That may be this weekend. What are you doing Saturday evening?

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

Oooooooooh! Gwyn, that was awesome! It made me want to drop whatever I'm doing and go watch the damn movie again, after I've watched the vid another, oh, fifty times or so.

I loved the intensity, the almost subliminal cuts (gay male porn tableaux, I'm talkin' to you!), the fit of lyrics. Interestingly, I think my favorite part was the bridge, with no words, just music and clips. It's just...gorgeous.

Happily off to watch it again.

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

PS -- the last shot gave me chills, too! Goosebumps went racing up my arms! Ya done good!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it! If it were to help inspire ...oh, anyone, say... to write more in the fandom, I'd definitely be thrilled. Not that I'm looking at anyone, no sir. Not me. ;-)

I have waited and waited for the chance to use that damn porn cover deleted scene, and this was such a great way to finally get it in -- it's so off in color and grain from the rest of the movie that it's hard to work with, but this was a perfect chance.

That song just screamed Brian and Dom to me when I first started being obsessed with the movie, and the more I listen to it, with the pounding beats and the weird feedbacky sounds, it gets better and better every time.

[maubast.livejournal.com]

Any chance of getting it on DVD, gwyn? *hopeful* Will gladly cover costs.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Of course! At some point, when you remember, drop me a private mail with your address (I may still have it, but there's no guarantee these days I could find it, I'm in such bad shape mentally sometimes) and I can get one ready. There's not a lot on the new WIP disc, but I have a feeling it's not the other stuff you're looking for... :-D

[maubast.livejournal.com]

Have done, and would love anything and everything you send me. Am a greedy person when it comes to your vids.

Shiny!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I'm just breathless, Gwyneth. How wonderful it is! I love the way you wove the fast-car-splody-action with the contextual storytelling bits -- not knowing the film, I couldn't follow the story very closely, but I appreciated what you were doing with the vid's structure, giving emotional wait to all the pretty-shiny-fast stuff.

That motion blur effect as the cars take off -- that was you, right? (:

The thing I liked best was the way you used color. I love how the first verse is all acid green and feisty, like that green car, and it's green green green until the bridge, and then things get emotionally dark and the color changes to red. Blood, damage. And then in the final section, it's both red and green, alternating in some places. I thought it might have also been your intention to associate each color with a character, one being green and the other red, but I wasn't 100% sure on that. Even if not, it's a fantastic device, because it makes me really pay attention to the song and the way you're using its tonal shifts.

Really cool stuff. I'm so glad you got it posted!

Re: Shiny!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

And that would be "emotional weight", not "emotional wait". My brain does occasionally work...

Re: Shiny!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! Car-splody-action is going in my dictionary forever... that is just hilarious. As good as Destina's "frosty dead nun eyes." Yeah, it's definitely more contextual than a previous vid i did in this fandom, but I figured more than anything it would be for an audience that's either already into the movie, or one who, like you, enjoys vids qua vids. I like that circle contains both. ;-)

I did do the stop motion blur -- I kept feeling like i was obligated to do something effects wise, but it never worked elsewhere except those dragging scenes. It's weird how quickly I got this mentality of "must do effects" after all these years of never having them, so never thinking of them. But this was a good chance for me to remember that I don't really always need them. I am so grateful that you noticed the colors -- it's hard because the movie has definite divisions, and if you don't follow the timeline of the film, they get jumbled; the director may not be a genius in terms of story, but he is incredibly gifted with cinematography, and he uses color and lighting and set backdrops to create and emphasize character unbelievably well. In some ways, it was like a gift to me, to be able to build that palette, and I am thrilled that you noticed. (But of course, because you're an artist!)

Re: Shiny!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about effects. When I came on the scene, most of the old school vidders were saying "OMG, worst. stuff. ever," but now that people are getting a handle on how and when (and when not!) to use them, the community is warming up to the idea.

Yay, I got it right about the colors! You did great stuff there. I hope other people gasp and point delightedly, as I did.

Thanks for saying I'm an artist. I'm aglow.

[paris7am.livejournal.com]

Wonderful wonderful work. You pick up all of the unspoken emotional communication and condense it into an amazingly dense gift. Really enjoyed it.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

ooo, thank you! yeah, the boys definitely pass the broccoli test big time, and it was kind of fun trying to find the best moments where they're not just eye-fucking, but also communicating other things, I think. There's so much going on between them, it's just *fun.*

[dine.livejournal.com]

ooooh, this is fabulousness. fast, spiffy, shiny, and just wow.

I don't know the technical language of vidding, but think the way you crafted this completely conveys the feel of the movies - it's a love story to the film, and makes me want to rewatch it again tonight.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you, hon! It really is my love song to the movie. With my first one, I wanted it to be tight on the relationship, but this one... i wanted to show how cool I think it looks, how amazing it can be visually, how great the relationship is... just everything that is this wonderful package.

[wistfuljane.livejournal.com]

I really love the beginning intro and the transitions in your vid, all the sudden changes and intro flow with the song choice as well as fit to how I see the movie and street racing.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- and hi! It was definitely fun putting what Laura called above the "car-splody-action" scenes together -- it's such a vibrant movie, and makes editing to a really fast, strong beat a total joy.

[(Anonymous)]

just saw the vid. loved it. very cleanly, prettily done. the sound of the song is perfect. the effects fit in well. in particular i liked all the sequences involving driving - it fit in seamlessly with the song. i'm off to watch it again. thanks! - tally

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Hi Tally! Thank you, so much! This is really is a perfect "driving" song -- to me, it just evokes images of cars, of force and power... and then you get those sexay lyrics, and it comes together perfectly. I'm glad you liked it!

[keiko-kirin.livejournal.com]

Saw this last night at a DSL-enabled friend's house, and WOW! Best F&F vid I have seen (coming from someone who hasn't seen the films, but has seen several F&F vids). Why? Because of the song choice -- it seemed perfect for the material -- and because it actually told me something. I could follow along without knowing the source material, and I totally got into the vid's storyline. Plus, beautiful editing. This blew me away, honestly! I love it!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I'm so glad you got a chance to see it (especially since it might be a bit before I can make up a DVD and send down to you all), and that you liked it. I know what you mean about the song -- I've wanted to do this since I first got into the fandom, but I wanted to focus on the relationship first, so I put it off. But it kept calling me back, because the song is just so powerful and hard and sexy... it's hard to believe that the song might be directed at a woman, in some ways, just because it's so strongly sexy and tough, it almost feels too masculine in a way, if that makes sense. I don't mean it in a sexist way, just that... it seems so much like one guy talking to another. And very predatory. (I actually used to fantasize about doing this for Mulder and Skinner, but back then, I couldn't do the cuts I wanted on VCRs, so I never pursued it.)

So glad you enjoyed it.

[thevetia.livejournal.com]

This vid was really something! And I speak as one who has not, yet, seen The Fast and the Furious. But the wonderful song choice, the way it illuminated the *feel* of the clips you chose, told a story that pulled me right into the universe. I loved the change in pacing in the vid, the way the change in the song changed the focus of the clips, so that the clips of the car stunts that in some other F&F vids have looked like, well, like clips of car stunts, in this vid looked like symbols of things deeper and darker between the characters. (Geez, don't ever do a usage post on the mis-use of the comma splice, please? I'd never write again.) So much to enjoy in this vid!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I'm so glad you all got to see it, because your opinion means so much to me and it's like I feel like I have a gold star next to my name now! And I thank you again for explaining to me that strobing technique last year when I asked you about it. At first I wasn't sure what to do with that section, because the blips come faster than the regular bum-bum-bum-bum-bum parts where I used four-frame clips. Then I remembered that effect, and went and studied how you applied it. Klia tells me she found it in a music video, but I'm glad that you did it because it worked perfectly here and I might never have thought of such a thing. And I thought how you handled it, with that slight pause in the middle, then ending on the same beginning clip... just perfect.

The cars in this movie are such an extreme metaphor for sex, but more than just the obvious penis=car motif. There's something deeper than that, and I think that's one reason I love the movie so much. It's retarded, but it's also got some good things going on.

[permetaform]

Heya! I just saw this and then I saw it again and then saw it again...I think I played it on repeat for half an hour! Very neat, I love the structure of it, the way you showed the complicated feelings and the complicated relationship they had with each other. It's a repeititive song, lyric-wise only, at points, but the singer makes each repetition slighly different and I love how you showed the difference in the constantly flickering and changing emotions between Dom and Brian. I love how you revisited scenes of them, showing the scenes in one light, and then it looks different when you revisited it further along in the song, like the way a memory might change it's 'tone' when you reflect on the past.

This is lovely work with motion and color, and really awesome use of the source; even though I've seen the source alot, it caught my attention in a whole new way, and then again and then when I didn't think it could get anymore intense it DID and towards the middle I was holding my hands to my mouth and going "OH MY FUCK".

I'm very glad to have been able to see this; I wasn't able to before because I'm on dial-up but I'm sound-testing the dvds for bascon. Thank you so much for submitting this, thank you so much for creating this in the first place! ::GLOMP::

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!! that means a LOT to me, coming from you, one of my favorites. I feel kind of funny submitting another F&F vid to Bascon since I did that last year, but... it's the slashiest thing I've made in a while, so I figured it would be safest. It's weird how many different angles such a short movie can provide for a relationship!

[permetaform]

I feel kind of funny submitting another F&F vid to Bascon since I did that last year,

pshaw! A good vid is *always* welcome, and two times does not make it a habit. =)

It's weird how many different angles such a short movie can provide for a relationship!

::nods:: and I find it awesome that you managed to showcase all these angles in such a non-traditional way. Ah Dom and Brian! TheirloveissoRomeoandJuliet...;D