New Vid!! Battlestar Galactica!

[sisabet]

I finished another vid! Massive thanks and kudos to renenet for the machine gun beta performed well into the wee hours.

Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Song: When I Paint My Masterpiece
Artist: Emmylou Harris
Starbuck, character study
Format: WMV, 20mbs
Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble

WMV version - 19 mbs here


All thoughts, criticisms, recipes, whatever - it is welcome. Feel free to link to this page (not to the vid) on LJ, webpages, and communities/mailing lists.

A rough outline done in the hours before I started laying clips and was itching to vid, but stuck at work, can be found here . At that time I said I was not up for discussing the vid, just process. Now, now that I have done all that I can do, I am up for discussing the vid. Whew.

ETA: 1-11-10 the vid is now available (wmv only, sorry) for download again.

Comments

[cosmic.livejournal.com]

Yay for BSG vid! In the very first seconds, especially because of your song choice (which fit perfectly, I later realized), I felt completely dioriented. For a few seconds, it felt like Firefly. Then it was Starbuck, Starbuck, Starbuck, and perfectly so, and this vid shows and highlights just about everything I - and you and everybody else, I imagine - love about her. Lovely work!

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Whee Starbuck!

As usual, you make me feel like I know the character more than I do. I can't wait to watch more of the show.

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

Argh! I'm at work with no sound.

::sad::

[permetaform]

awwwwwwwwwww! dude, I don't know the fandom but I feel like I know HER now. good stuff!!!

[astolat]

Dude, this is awesome. Starbuck! Starbuck! Starbuck! Eee! Also, goddamnit, I have to finish catching up with the show, argh. I love the bounce effect of those zoom in and out clips, the short sharp cuts, and just how you capture the sort of loose easy way her whole body moves, throughout, from her body to her smile. Yay!

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

Adorable.

Also, a very very excellent use of the cheesy zooms that the show has everywhere (totally ripped from Firefly but hey).

Also also, some great honorary-daddy/daughter moments in this vid. Of all the loving connections that's certainly the strongest right there.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I'm glad the song worked out for you. It didn't so much scream BSG at me as it did Starbuck.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Watch!! Finish the mini and the first ep and tonight I'll send the Atlantis pilot and you will be all set for Friday Night Geek-A-Thon!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

You need sound!

::bides time::

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Prepare for Immediate Jumping! Er...

Are you even gonna watch the reruns? Not that it matters, for I shall bug you with squeeage anyway :D

[myriad69.livejournal.com]

So let's say some n00b wanted to try her hand at vidding... and let's say her only experience was a semester of TV production almost ten years ago. Where should said n00b go to a) find an easy yet effective vidding program and b) a fabulous tutorial?

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I'll watch - I'm in serious love of the show. I'll watch!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Great! You should watch the fandom cause there is space stuff and people stuff and things blow up a lot. All really good stuff there.

And there are robots who use sex to proselytize because they are whacked out religious robots.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!

just how you capture the sort of loose easy way her whole body moves, throughout, from her body to her smile

I watched "Zebra" the other night and I was thinking almost the exact same thing.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

DADDY! Um, sorry - but I just love their relationship, even the messy bits of their relationship. The Adamas don't just have issues -- they have periodicals. They have piles and piles of microfiche!

::loves::

Also, a very very excellent use of the cheesy zooms that the show has everywhere (totally ripped from Firefly but hey).

I think Firefly lifted some of the jump cut techniques from Homicide: Life on the Streets and also... COPS (and whoa, just made that connection) but I do like the immediacy the nausea-cam gives us (although they totally go overboard on the zooms - not that I am complaining cause that worked in my favor here, just observin'). I have a weakness for cheesy zooms and special effects (::pats Smallville fondly::)

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, there is no such thing as an easy yet effective vidding program *although* most of the nonlinearediting programs are not as challenging as they first appear to be. There is a steep initial learning curve, but that is because they don't work on an intuitive level.

Windows Movie Maker and iMovie *do* work on an intuitive level although my opinion about WMM is that it is a piece of trash. iMovie is stable, but not ideal for making a music video where timing is everything. iMovie is linear (as WMM) which means any change in one clip will affect the place on the timeline of all the clips).

I would suggest, for a PC, Adobe Premiere as the editing software and VirtualDub for clipping/capturing. For a Mac - Final Cut Pro is where all the bells and whistles are, but I have seen some really great vids made with iMovie (although I would think the timing thing would be frustrating) and Final Cut Express.

But for a PC - Premiere is pretty much the way to go. The dude commenting above you, absolut3destiny, has written several wonderful guides over at the AMV re: getting set up to make a music video. He's taught me more about Premiere than I thought possible for my brain to contain, so I know his write-ups are easy to follow. permetaform has also compiled, in her memories, and incredibly extensive collection of links re: getting started to various vidding meta discussions.

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, although there is a little difference between the sci-fi interpretation of these essentially documentary techniques. Where the cop shows like the shield will only move the camera after the action has happened in order to create this spontaneous realistic feel the sci fi shows can occasionally be more omniscient feel about it, which can create an interesting eerie feel. There's not *quite* as much out-of focus stuff but there is a great deal of panic, which works well.

It's all very much a modern US-TV way of doing things though - it's the zoom shots in the external CG stuff that was a particularly firefly thing... applying this documentary idea to sci-fi externals was unique. Of course the CG in firefly and the CG in BSG are done by the same folks so :)

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I think it would be fun to stack all of the sci-fi shows of the last, say, 10 years, together and look for trends in the SE and camera work, but I am lame and have a lot of free time.

You are right about FF and BSG doing the same thing with the external CG(which I never really noticed before) - I wonder if "Serenity" keeps it up.

[rydra_wong]

*de-lurks briefly*

Just to add - for Macs, there's also Hyperengine-AV, which is non-linear, freeware, and has a really interesting interface. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of even Final Cut Express, and it can be cranky, but (speaking as a clueless newbie myself) it's way more fun than iMovie. So it might be something to consider as a starter option:

http://www.arboretum.com/products/hyperengine-av/hav_main.html

[just-eunice.livejournal.com]

STARBUCK! YOU! I love you. I love Starbuck. I have no further coherent thoughts.

[piper47.livejournal.com]

I don't know if the video was supposed to cute... but it was. Probably because I didn't really know what was going on and because the song is really well... it's really cute. So it just made the whole thing kinda cute and I have no idea is that is what you were going for or not.

The show looks interesting though. And the video was really good. As always I love the motion you use in your work... which was definitely in play here because of all the spaceships flying and things like that.

I'll have to watch it a few more times... but I its really good and now I see why you've been so busy lately... this video was worth all the time and energy.

[kathyh]

Followed elz's link here and just wanted to say that was a fascinating look at Starbuck in all her many facets. I can't comment on the technical aspects of the vid, but the character really shone through.

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

Thanks to MissM (and Kes) I am finally getting on track with watching BSG, and my mouse cursor was hovering over the little red X on WMP the whole time I was watching this, just waiting to save me from too much spoilage.

Of course I couldn't do it. Spoilage be damned, I wasn't waiting *days* to watch this. :) Your posting of that outline had me all excited, and it was neat to keep that mind while watching the final vid. Which I really liked. I liked how the energy of the whole was so good at uniting all of the different aspects of her character.

And I loved the way you played with the movement and the zooms. As usual. :)

[gobi-rex.livejournal.com]

Whoa!
Other people already mentioned the zooms and the fluid movement and I second that. I also appreciate that you didn't go literal, and good vidding rarely does. The song choice did bring to mind Firefly, at first, but the more I watch, the more I think it fits the character. Plus, it's Starbuck is all but conventional, so why should she have typical music.

And thank you for sharing your vid outline, I love to read this behind-the-scenes stuff.

[elz.livejournal.com]

I think your Inner Starbuck is a little more Country than mine. :) I enjoyed that, though, looking at the character from a different perspective. I loved the way you traced her relationships, and the sweet little moments with her 'family'. And it does come across as very loose and hopeful even with all of the torture and genocide. *g*