they made a statue of us

[sab]

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My very first video! The YouTube window is behind the cut, because it seemed terrifying out there by itself. A higher quality version is available [here] via YSI, 20mb, divx .avi; running time 3:24. But the truth is the YouTube version's perfectly serviceable -- and so handy!

It's the BBC's Casanova, dir. Russell T Davies, starring David Tennant and Laura Fraser. It's a Giac/Henriette vid of the nth degree, and a shameless and earnest love story that projectjulie dubbed a David/Emily vid. I confess. *g* Set to Regina Spektor's "Us" and hopefully enjoyable to people who haven't seen Casanova too, because, through no fault of my own, this is an awesome song and even though I've listened to it eighty billion times cutting this vid I'm still not sick of it, which says a lot about Regina Spektor, or something.

Thanks in huge amounts to Julie, to wearemany and fmangel, to fialka and especially z_rayne for help above and beyond.

Comments would be most especially excellent; how'd I do my first time out the gate?

Comments

[clomoo.livejournal.com]

Absolutely lovely vid. Makes a change from seeing Ten/Rose! Casanova/Henriette are just perfect and I love that song too (after hearing it in a cinema advert and going home to find out what it was *g*) so good choice I say! Love how all the dancing fits in perfectly with the music but my favourite bit was the positioning of 'You will forget me' along with miserable Casanova and the dancing.

Great job!

(sorry I've rambled on a bit haven't I?!)

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Glee! Thank you so much. That song and that movie were MEANT to be together, it turned out. *g*

Feel free to ramble any time in my general direction.

[clomoo.livejournal.com]

I forgot to say: Make more! :)

(pretty please)

[katiegsr.livejournal.com]

The vid is absolutely lovely and makes me want to see Casanova even more [and I have no idea when or even if it will be shown here *sigh* but anything with DT must been seen heard or watch :)]

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

You must see Casanova, it's frellin' awesome and sexy and twisted and angsty and, *sigh*, Tennant.

[katiegsr.livejournal.com]

I have now seen part one which is so much love :) Nobody told my Rose Byrne is in it too which made me doubly squee! *waits impatiently for parts 2&3 but plans to buy DVD's asap*

[lizlet.livejournal.com]

MASTERPIECE THEATER. In the FALL.

A long way away. But still. T'will make it to our sunny shores.

[katiegsr.livejournal.com]

Ahh I actually live in Australia so we dont get Masterpiece Theatre but am hoping our ABC decides to show us the wonderfulness.

[walkingshadow.livejournal.com]

it's charming! it feels sweeping and epic and cheerful, a combination of that piano and her voice and those panning camera movements—i especially loved they'll name a city after us—and, oh, very sad in the middle there, but on the whole, sweeping and terribly romantic. plus regina spektor! who, i think, can do no wrong. great timing and scene-to-song matching.

songvid protocol has usually been to include credits at either the beginning or the end, with author name and contact/homepage information and video/music source identification (and by "usually" i mean "if you wanted viewers to ever be able to find you again"); has that changed now that all that information is available adjacent to the video if you're watching from the youtube site?

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

*I* was too impatient to figure out how to make a title card! Which will go at the end under "our noses have begun to rust" as soon as I learn how.

This video's a living document! and shall be continually edited as I learn about Premiere.

Thank you SO much for the comments; I totally can't take credit for how well that song goes with that movie, except to say that visualizing how well Casanova would look on "Us" is what made me want to learn to vid in the first place. *g*

I am so GLAD it feels charming and sweeping and epic and romantic, as that was my very own goal! It's not breaking any ground or changing any lives, artistically, but it's so snuggly! And, with screaming! And dancing!

Um. Thank you thank you thank you.

[cosmic.livejournal.com]

You just became my favourite person of the week, because I've been craving Casanova in the worst way the whole week, and, at the same time, I've been grooving to Regina Spektor on my iTunes. I hadn't realized that anyone could combine the two, but you did, and it was fabulous. Great vid.

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Dude, it's like Casanova and "Us" were born to be together. I just did the lifting. Regina and Rusty are the real culprits.

Thank you thank you for the comment! I am so glad you like. Feel free to watch it on repeat until it burns itself, frame by frame, into your brain! (And I won't have to be alone having the thing play out behind my eyelids 24/7 -- the hazards of vidding, apparently...)

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

The embedded YouTube crashed my browser waah, and YSI tells me I have to log in. Can you give me a link to the actual YouTube site where I can see it?

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Here's the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSPRCNEPNRc

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm not familiar with the source material, so I don't quite get the story. But ooh pretty, especially the dancing.

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Pretty's what I was going for! *g* Thanks!

[arglefraster.livejournal.com]

Much fun! I have been loving Regina Spektor all week, and that just made me desperately want to see Casanova. And I haven't even seen Dr Who with Tennant, only the Christmas Invasion.

Although I was a little sad that the music faded out before my favorite line possibly ever.

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Our noses have begun to rust!

YOU must see Tennant as Ten. Also Casanova. Casanova first, it's shorter. And has more sex in it. *g*

Thank you so much for the comment.

[magalamb.livejournal.com]

I love that song! I am such a Regina Spektor fan! I love Begin to Hope the most. And yay for sexy fanvids.

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

"Begin to Hope" is end-to-end one of the best albums I've heard in the last couple years.

Thanks for the comment. Excellent icon!

[secretsmile90.livejournal.com]

Aww. Lovely vid. I love "Casanova" and your vid is great. :)

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[intl-princess.livejournal.com]

fantastic vid! i've only ever attempted it once, and i know how time consuming it is. spectacular work.

(also, Spooks-Hot-Guy is in Casanova? i have to check that out...)

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Maybe! Grimaldi? The...bad guy? With the punching and the dancing with Nina Sosanya? I don't know Spooks very well; I saw the first season and promptly forgot it, which led me to believe I wasn't too interested? But maybe I'm wrong! I should give it another go.

You should check out Casanova at any regard, as it's made of awesome. Thank you for the comment!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_swallow/]

This is adorable! I loved the scratching-the-message-on-the-glass part and the dancing near the end.

Since you asked, and since you say this is an evolving document, I'd say that I think this vid errs in some talkyface, literalism, and not cutting on the beat. (Are you familiar with those vidding terms? Well, I guess the last one's obvious.)

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

It is an evolving document! I'm learning and making stuff up as I go along. Tell me what you mean by "talkyface"? And also perhaps what's too literal? The cutting on the beat will hopefully get better as I get better. *g*

Thank you, really!

[fialka.livejournal.com]

You know, I taped Casanova when it aired and never got around to watching it. Gonna have to do something about that now.

On the plus side, it never bored me, which considering it's a long vid and I didn't know the source is a very high compliment. It definitely tells a coherent story. Also, loved the old lady dancing, that timed just right at the end.

On the minus, which is minor technical stuff you'll get the hang of as you get familiar with the programme -- have a look at some of the transitions and see if they can be softened with quick crossfades, 3-5 frames. There's a jerky quality to some of the cuts (not the ones that are deliberately jerky frame drops, those are okay). Also, to get a good long fadeout, you can make a black frame, then stretch it out in the B track for as long as you need and do a long slow crossfade, which can end in your titles if you want to go that way.

Btw, you know you can mess with the timing of the clips? Or even reverse them. That might help keep it to the rhythm in a couple of places where you lost it, or where you're using clips that are slightly overlong to fill a gap that's too short for another clip - you can snip the excess and slow down the main action so it fills the time (rhythm depending, of course).

Does that help?

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I tried fifteen ways to get a long fadeout, this is helpful. I'm still playing around with it, and have tried some crossfades between cuts but they're still not quite looking the way I want, so I have to play around more.

I have NOT tried stretching or compressing the timing of clips! I'll have to read how to do that. I was so pleased with how well the song fit against the natural rhythm of the movie I didn't need to in most cases, although some of them aren't exactly properly positioned and the cuts need to be fixed and in some cases trimmed.

You will see the next draft and we'll see how I do. *g* THANK YOU! I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along...

[projectjulie.livejournal.com]

that chick is hot. I'd totally do her.

-------->

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

This girl's totally hot TOO. I'd do HER.

Re: -------->

[projectjulie.livejournal.com]

hee. there is empirical evidence to this effect.

and also! better transitions/timing. and act 2 is different! I had to go watch the first version again. I like the guillotine bit and the jump cuts, but I wasn't totally happy with the rhythm of the intercutting. I thought the balance of that section was a bit better before. still think the dark clip doesn't belong in act 1.

but yeah, it's absurdly adorable and a fucking great song. almost made me cry!

I showed steph your vox blog. she says to show you this blog (http://heywriterboy.blogspot.com/) -- their friend (who I already love after looking at the blog for only 3 seconds. ninjas!)

Re: -------->

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have to get that jail clip out of act one. And the guillotine clips REFUSE to cooperate -- I think I liked it better before too. I'm going back to the original movie and totally re-making the guillotine clips and starting again.

Tell me: scary or distracting, the, like, two frames of Peter O'Toole at the end of the guillotine clip right before the ring? That's grown-up Casanova, and half the time that shot confuses me and half the time I like it.

Bookmarkin' the ninjas, thank Steph!

[boxmint.livejournal.com]

Yr smashing vid was my first sighting of Mr. Tennant. To which I say--that man is so attractive that I never want to see him again.

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

SEE! WALLOW in my TORMENT!

I die.

Exeunt, pursued by David Tennant, spinning.