Vid Commentary: Icebound Stream

[sisabet]

So, in direct response to the New, Improved (no, not really, but it is late and I am tired and being creative is hard) Vid Commentary meme
anoel asks some specific questions about "Icebound Stream". I didn't have the heart to tackle this by myself so I made renenet help out. And by help out, I mean I answered the questions and then whined at her and turned this entire post over to her capable hands to see if any sense could be made out of me. At the very least there is mocking. And bears.

And the Questions:



Why is Fraser a polar bear?

Hmm. Because he is. See, the thing you have to know is I didn't see any of this coming. I had no game plan for this vid at all other than "Oooh, polar bears" and a desire to say something different about Victoria.

I sometimes fall for a new fandom, and a particular character, really really hard. I then spend an obscene amount of time thinking about them - and trying to know stuff about them. It isn't as if I do it because I want to vid them (although that helps) and it isn't as if I write fic. I was a frustrated wannabe theater major who ended up in the psychology department - I'm all about imaginary people and their motivations.

And I was really obsessed with Fraser. I mean - it probably wasn't healthy. I don't just have vid songs about him, I have a song that is totally about him but it is a figure skating routine. It is Fraser-Interpreted-On-Ice by some teeny little skater. In my head! I spent many hours figuring out who his first teacher was and how she always had Fig Newtons and a green sweater. I hesitate to say that I wanted to get into his head because that sounds really pretentious and silly - like I had a muse or something. But I did want to address this vid in a very stream of consciousness way, and I wanted to really get at the thing with Victoria, but I wanted to do it as Fraser felt it - as he saw it. Not me and not a thousand stories I read where she was this irredeemably evil character. I wanted to get at who Fraser really is, to himself, underneath his extremely rigid exterior.

And to tell you the truth, I didn't know Fraser was a polar bear when I first started making this vid. I don't think he really wanted to admit it. We both thought he was a beluga whale. But I wasn't really thinking as I built this vid and so I'd put some clips in and look at them and hey! Containers! There was glass everywhere and things were being boxed in and viewed behind something else and it was all being juxtaposed with these wild shots of these huge, open vistas. And I saw that Fraser was boxed in and I kept putting in the shots of Fraser and the bear at the zoo and I still had no idea he was a bear.

Meanwhile - as I am vidding, I am getting my hands on every single documentary with ice and snow and polar bear footage in it I can find and I am clipping doc footage, laying clips, clipping doc footage and I clipped the footage of the two bears that appears in the vid at 2:19 and I had a "Holy shit" moment.

Cause Fraser is a polar bear.


renenet: now, to clarify... did you always know Victoria was a polar bear?
sisabet: Yes
renenet: and the revelation was that Fraser wasn't a beluga whale, he was another polar bear?
sisabet: yes

(Betas keep you focused and honest)

Hi. renenet here. Liz is letting me contribute to this commentary directly because she's, well, crazy, I suppose. So I have to mouth off just because I can. My contributions will be over here, indented.

I know she would rather let people figure out what it means to them and then say "okay." But to summarize from my armchair, Fraser is a polar bear because Victoria made him feel wild, untamed, uncontained... which matched the vast expanses of ice and tundra that represent home to him. She was a force of nature, from his wilderness (it fucking snows for Fraser when he is with her, when he sees her...that's canon, man) and he feels all of those deadly, wild forces when he is with her. That is their history; that is what she means to him. Like calls to like, and Victoria's polar bear nature calls to the part of him that knows and loves that wilderness.

He is a polar bear swimming behind glass at the zoo first and then in the wild he is always one of a pair of tussling polar bears with Victoria. And *then* the glass/ice/container breaks as Fraser decides to go with Victoria and the birds fly at the camera and he is free. And then he is shot just as he reaches her, so that beautiful wild feeling of freedom lasted mere seconds for Fraser before he's immobilized on the ground. Note, however, that the last shot of Fraser is not him on the ground, but him just starting to run for the train to join Victoria, which fades into the lone polar bear running across the snow. It's such a poignant ending. The polar bear is out from behind the glass, but he is alone. It sums up the vid perfectly. The entire vid is about getting Fraser to that moment, although it is fleeting. And it's fleeting because that romantic notion ("dream a winter's gale") cannot sustain and the vid is also entirely about the heartbreak and beauty of that. As the barriers break he has a precious moment of free-fall before he "crash[es] into [him]self" (and right into a neck brace on a backboard). But my words are clunky and stupid and inadequate compared to how the vid is accomplishing these things. Or something like them. Whatever works for you. And I think sisabet says some of this more elegantly farther down in this commentary.

How'd you come up with the idea?

The show gave us two incredible episodes with amazing symbolic shit just scattered throughout. It was a blessing, really. And I LOVED the Victoria's Secret arc. I loved it - I loved how fucked up everything got, I loved we got to see Fraser break and I loved Victoria. She is fascinating.

Also - there were bears and I have a thing for polar bears. I need to stress something - it wasn't until I finished this vid that I realized that for most people polar bears = cute. I mean, I find them cute - sure, just deadly cute. Wait, no deadly cute is Puppet Angel and polar bears are more like Redefinition Angel. Not cute - but really goodlooking and will lock you in a cellar with a bunch of hungry vampires just 'cause. See, the first time I ever went to a zoo they warned us about leaning over the gate to the polar bear habitat and told us about this woman who did just that and had her arm swiped off. I have always respected the hell out of polar bears since I heard that. I admit it - there were stars in my five-year old eyes. I never had to get over the "cute" hurdle cause I didn't really even know it was there.

At this point several things all happened within the same time period: I watched Victoria's Secret an amazing amount of times and thought "God, that polar bear footage is really cool" and infinitemonkeys posted an icon set from "The Blue Planet" including the icon I am using here and I thought "Oh, more polar bears. I should vid DS to polar bears and it would be a lot of swimming and water and hands (cause I love water and hands in vids). It would be a wild polar bear diving into the water and I could morph the footage into the polar bears at the zoo and that would be cool." And that would have been that cause honestly, I do this kind of shit all the time and it never goes anywhere. Except I was making a mix for pipsqueaky and I put this song I had just gotten "Icebound Stream" on it cause I figured it was kinda about Fraser. As much as the Waterboys' "Medicine Bow" was about Ray - it was a mix, it was new love for all of us, we were not all that strict about what fell through the filters. And I didn't especially like "Icebound Stream" and I didn't really think it was about Victoria to the extent that I would vid it - not when I could vid the Victoria arc to songs I LOVED like "Rain and Snow" or "Alone So Far" - Icebound was filler.

Annoying filler. But really catchy. I couldn't stop listening to it and then I decided I should figure out what vid this was, in my head, so I could let it go, and of course I immediately went to dS with it (I was obsessed!) but I needed to move past my obsession and find out what this song was really about. I remember I kept thinking that I could do something with Twin Peaks and this song -- I kept forcing this female POV on the potential vid in my head and I was thinking maybe this could be from Donna's POV about Laura Palmer - about how Laura was this cold current that pushed her along even after death, and I could juxtapose this with Laura's corpse on the banks wrapped in plastic and turning blue.

And I was boring myself and this close to calling it a Vid In My Head, But Only In My Head, and moving on when I remembered the polar bears. And I got over the fact that there is a female first person singer because - well, Fraser would get over that. And I had my song. The rest happened reeeeeaaallly fast. It felt really fast. Kinda fast. Maybe, sorta fast. I started clipping Victoria's Secret right away. So that part happened fast.


sisabet: Do you remember when I first started working on this?
sisabet: I can't remember if I was talking about it a lot
renenet: let me look at chat transcripts
...
renenet: oh man, we were talking a lot about our OTPs around then
renenet: and fic and porn
renenet: it's a little distracting
sisabet: well...obsession
renenet: omg the porn
sisabet: there was a lot of porn


What were you trying to show in the video and how do you think you accomplished it?

What did I know going in? I knew Victoria was a polar bear and I wanted to show how this relationship occurs outside conventional morality (because what is right and wrong to a polar bear?) and that when Fraser says he is attracted to her - that part of her calls out to him, that they have this connection - well how can you illustrate this and still keep it about Fraser? And I figured, short answer, is this wildness in her is recognizable to this man - who is very familiar with these harsh landscapes and unforgiving terrain. Who isn't just familiar with them, actually, but who holds it close to his heart.

And I was really lucky cause vid farr took hold right away and I didn't have to actually think for the first half of the vid. I just built it. And I realized along the way that the thing that Fraser recognizes in Victoria is a sameness - they are alike on an essential scale. So there is a lot of stuff about containment, expecially in the first part - they view each other behind glass, within the revolving doors, there are these huge snowscapes and these tiny snowglobes. And there is intense shame for Fraser -- I don't think it was just over his mistake years ago, but deeper. What this means about him and who he really is and the lengths he must go to, how hard he has to work, just to keep it bottled up and contained. And she is there and she is like him, they are soul mates and yet she won't stay behind the glass.

And I think Fraser realizes that neither of them really belong locked away. Nothing is more depressing than a zoo. Well, casinoes. They are both neck and neck on the depressing scale.

I never meant for this vid to be a condemnation of Victoria - I am actually really fond of her. I don't know that she gets a bad rap in fandom so much as an over-simplified characterization when she is anything but simple. I don't think what she did was right or justified but I get why she did it and I think she truly cared about Fraser in a way that became really twisted. If she was just a cold-blooded psychopath, a solitary human predator, she wouldn't be nearly as interesting. That is one-note. That means Fraser is an idiot for falling for this one note person and while Fraser is many things, he is neither a beluga whale nor an idiot. He is not prey.

I do not know if the vid actually carries this across fully. A lot of interpretations have centered around Victoria the Predator and Fraser the Prey and while I think this is a valid way of seeing the vid, I didn't intend for it to read this way. Well, not entirely. I kinda did want it to read that way a little at first and then I wanted the viewer to of realize, as the vid progresses (like Fraser), that even if Fraser doesn't want to admit it - there is a truth and he is a polar bear and this is what she wants. In the vid she may even be right. It is debatable. Was getting shot on the platform the greatest tragedy of his life? Maybe it kept him locked away - back behind his glass - did she represent freedom, the only route to real freedom he could follow? I wanted to present these questions at least (I sure didn't want to *answer* them!)


renenet: It seems to me that the beauty and power of the vid is in that freedom -- that untamed, vast expanse -- as both a literal space and a metaphor for Fraser's unbridled emotions for Victoria.
renenet: That's what the feel of it is truly about more so than any sort of judgment about right and wrong.
sisabet: well yes and there is the freedom in just being your own essential self
renenet: Yes
renenet: Fraser wants his vast expanse
sisabet: and the incredible shame in acknowledging what that essential self may be
renenet: and he *should* want it
sisabet: and the freedom in accepting it
renenet: and perhaps it's debatable whether or not Victoria is his only route there
renenet: but she is a route there for him, emotionally
sisabet: I think he feels she is his only way
sisabet: and he *needs*
renenet: he is so used to containment that someone would need to force him out of it
sisabet: he is all about containment
sisabet: everything he does, wears and says is a wall
sisabet: God I love him


How did those polar bear clips in their various states connect with the clips around them?

I watched a lot of documentaries. A lot of bears did not make it into this vid. Some of the bears in this vid were too skinny (THE BEARS ARE STARVING) and had to be stretched out horizontally so they wouldn't look like the aspect ratio was off. Some bears were too dirty, too aggressive, and just too happy and wouldn't work. A few were forced out because of callous and unfeeling betas who have no heart for a crying vidder and her Bear OTPs.

Everything else was just luck.


renenet: is that it for that question?
renenet: because you're not answering it
renenet: you're answering it about the bears that didn't make it in more than the ones who did.
renenet: or, well, not answering the how they connect with the clips around them part.
sisabet: well the ones that made it in worked with the footage

SEE MY PAIN?! She makes me *think*!

sisabet: I mean - it was easy - some bears worked and most didn't
renenet: I wonder if that person was thinking of the echoed motion polar bears
renenet: where the bears motion echoes the humans' motions
sisabet: yeah
sisabet: again
sisabet: some bears worked and some didn't
sisabet: I don't really remember this to tell you the truth
renenet: okay, moving on
sisabet: it just happened


What are your favorite technical and narrative parts in it?


I really love the bloody faced bear walking across the tundra and turning and looking and then Victoria echoing that movement at 1:01. I just - when I clipped that bear, I knew this vid would figure itself out. Have I mentioned how much fun this vid was to make? Even considering my betas mocking my pain at the end, this vid was SO MUCH FUN. I didn't have to really consciously think at all until the end. I *love* that!

Here - see, this is the first minute of the vid that I completed. It was just falling completely into place like it was just going to vid itself.

http://sisabet.com/icebound-9-24.zip


I am also proud of the selective glowing of certain objects, especially Fraser's bed at :29. That was fun and I don't think I abused it too much -- there is a certain amount of surrealism inherent in Due South so I felt like it and the snowglobe stuff with the melting ceiling (totally a request from my beta) worked. Oh! Yeah - speaking of, I was allowed to use footage from Fraser's sweatlodge vision in "The Mask" since that episode totally dealt with transfiguration and animal totems. IT IS CANON! I also needed fire and epiphany face so yeah - I was able to justify its presence in the vid when in actual canon that scene has little to do overtly with Victoria.


Why did you end it the way you did? What was the hardest part about making it?

I am answering these two questions together because other than the GODDAMNED SHEETS (and really - one of my betas should really post a chat transcript from one of my outbursts about the sheets cause I was not well-behaved at all in my frustration)

sisabet: FUCKING SHEETS
sisabet: OMG
sisabet: I hate these sheets so fucking much
sisabet: DIE DIE DIE

it was the end that killed me. Everything else (except for those goddamned sheets!) fell right into place but the end was killing me.

And I realize that it was because I didn't want to do to Fraser, what had to be done at the end. I mean - I start the vid with him on a stretcher. I KNEW how it ended. I knew he crashed into himself.

But I didn't want to admit it. I wanted, at least symbolically, for those two crazy bears to have a chance. So I invented some bullshit story about how the end is Fraser remembering after the fact and wishing.

pipsqueaky: do you have any clips of a single polar bear sleeping?
sisabet: for the end?
pipsqueaky: yes
sisabet: I don't know
pipsqueaky: or is there a specific reason why you wanted two?
sisabet: yes
renenet: she's still inside Fraser's head
sisabet: it makes my heart hurt
sisabet: she's gone
sisabet: he is falling asleep
sisabet: this is where he wants to go
renenet: one would make my heart hurt more
renenet: but you're all soft on Victoria just like Ben is
pipsqueaky: I am soft too!
sisabet: it is NOT MY POV
sisabet: it is his
sisabet: he would see two
sisabet: in his longing
sisabet: he denied his nature for so long
sisabet: and went thru so much SHAME
renenet: his nature is disappointed, though
sisabet: she *wrenched* it out of him
sisabet: she forced him to break apart
sisabet: to, confront his inner polar bear
sisabet: and he did
renenet: she did and he did...and the tragedy is that he went through it and still can't be happy
sisabet: and all that shit came tumbling down and broke away
sisabet: and she is gone
sisabet: and this is yearning

And my betas would not let me do this. Seriously. And pipsqueaky told me the only way I could use my FAVORITE BEAR CLIP IN THE ENTIRE VID was if I made one of the bears disappear.

renenet: one of them should disappear before our eyes
sisabet: oh shit
renenet: can you make a polar bear disappear yet?
sisabet: I can't do that
pipsqueaky: omg
pipsqueaky cries
sisabet: I would if I could
sisabet: but I don't have a space where that bear isn't
sisabet: damn

Do you have any idea how hard it is to make a bear disappear? I TRIED! Disappearing bears is not something I was born to do. So I cut them. Then I had trouble with figuring out how to cut the end - I kept going back to the wide open spaces and finally laurashapiro told me that the mountains have already crashed - let it go. So that was good.

And then renenet forced me to take out the lovely Victoria reaction shots (most of them, anyway) that illustrate that she was devastated at the end because....well, the fact that I love Victoria is not the point of this vid. But now - HAHAHAHA - now I give to you an early draft of the ending. An ending where I CLING to the hope that at least in metaphor, the vid won't end lonely.

http://sisabet.com/iceboundending10-13.zip

Ha ha! This is renenet claiming the last word. With sisabet's own words of acknowledgment. And her whining. And then the snark. After all, this is for posterity.

sisabet: If I do this and then it doesn't work
sisabet: I'll
sisabet: well I will accept it and move on
sisabet: but omg
sisabet: and I can't believe you guys don't like the two bears at the end
sisabet: it is so bitter
sisabet: the bears are so content
sisabet: so not what happens
renenet: well, I wasn't going to bring it up, so blame Pips
renenet: but it does seem awfully shippy to me
renenet: and the polar bear thing overall seems authorial rather than Fraser-imagined
renenet: so that's an authorial statement at the end
renenet: I get what you intend when you say it
renenet: or when I'm psychic
sisabet: damn
renenet: but you know I don't believe in psychic vidding
sisabet: I'm gonna have to lose the bears, aren't I?
renenet: at the end?
sisabet: tell me straight so I can take it
renenet: you could put in a Sad Panda
sisabet: I don't have one
* renenet snorfles
sisabet: damn
sisabet: but they are so great
sisabet: I love those bears
sisabet: I want the world to see them
sisabet: but they will never ever be those bears
sisabet: so I can't use them in the course of the vid and FUCK ME
sisabet: I just answered myself
sisabet: FUCK
* sisabet loses the bears
renenet: shit, I didn't convince you with my argument, did I?
renenet: you're just responding to our negative reaction?
sisabet: the bears are gone
sisabet: I am doing something else with the end
sisabet: shhhh
renenet: because I wasn't gonna make an issue of the bears
* renenet shushes
sisabet: I am so sad
sisabet: Poor BEN
sisabet: now my vid is too sad to watch
sisabet: BEN
sisabet: HEATHER HE IS BROKEN
renenet: I can't stop laughing
renenet: Ben is dead from lack of polar bears
* renenet chortles with mad, distrubed glee!
renenet: poor Ben
renenet: oh! do you have any footage of *dying* polar bears?
renenet: your despair just won't stop being funny to me
renenet: I am so going to hell
renenet: OMG! In beta hell I bet they play nothing but very bad vids!
* renenet is sober now
sisabet: OMG you deserve it for MOCKING MY PAIN
sisabet: and I actually DO have a dying polar bear but I wasn't gonna use it outta deference to tzikeh
sisabet: so THERE
sisabet: also dude
sisabet: I so can't have a polar bear die at the end of my vid
sisabet: people will be all WTF Happened to the POLAR BEAR?
renenet: not dead, just dying
renenet: dyING
renenet: not dead yet
tzikeh: that's worse
renenet: thinks it'll go for a walk
renenet: well, only if you've seen the docu
renenet: otherwise you don't know what happens
renenet: maybe the polar bear thinks it's feeling better
renenet: feels happy
renenet: here now, he says he's not dead
* sisabet pictures Polar Bear "I'm Not Dead Yet" musical number
sisabet: SEQUEL
tzikeh: a;lskghas;dlkfjas;dlkha
tzikeh: HAY!
tzikeh: It's a *symbol*
sisabet: crash!
tzikeh: NEVER NOT FUNNY
sisabet: EVEN WHEN POOR BEN LIES BROKEN ON THE GROUND
renenet: he'd better not get up for the musical number because he's got a bullet near his spine
* Disconnected
Session Close: Thu Oct 13 23:42:28 2005

Session Start: Thu Oct 13 23:42:32 2005
renenet: I see that my irreverent humor killed me and I fell out of the room.
renenet: meanwhile, Ben and that polar bear are probably both still breathing
sisabet: DON'T MOCK HIM
sisabet: Also?
sisabet: I want you to know
sisabet: I am the only vidder who would ever ditch that great polar bear shot at the end
sisabet: THE ONLY ONE
sisabet: because she talked to her beta
* sisabet mourns
sisabet: I am gonna end this vid with Fraser on the FUCKING GROUND
sisabet: because it is snowing
sisabet: and that is how it should end
sisabet: to frame it
sisabet: but I never wanted it to end that way
sisabet: AND
sisabet: you know what else??
renenet: what?
sisabet: I am totally gonna start it with the inuit women singing louder
* renenet rewatches ending
renenet: you know, I told myself the polar bears were okay because they looked very very sad
renenet: both opinions are true
renenet: or how about snowy emptiness
sisabet: yes
sisabet: I felt the polar bears were appropriately solemn
renenet: you know that one polar bear leaves like victoria
sisabet: I actually had to cut a bear for being to happy
sisabet: the name of the clip is "rolling in zee snow"
* renenet is laughing again
renenet: you are so adorable about your polar bears
renenet: zee snow!
renenet: should be zed snow
sisabet: did you ever think that in the course of being a beta, you would end up discussing the emotional states of polar bears?
renenet: it does not surprise me
sisabet: I want to quote that
sisabet: hee
renenet: I can't say that I ever predicted it, though
renenet: I would have predicted the unpredictability of the whole endeavor, however
renenet: man, I should think about retirement
sisabet: I am posting that one-two interchange
sisabet: cause I am needing to be cracked up
sisabet: OH THE WOE
sisabet: you have no idea
sisabet: all the woe just staring at me all puppy eyed and broken
renenet: I didn't shoot the woe in the back!
sisabet: OH THE WOE
sisabet: it did get shot in the back
sisabet: WOE
sisabet: oh
* sisabet cries a little
renenet: awwww
renenet: poor liz
renenet: I am sorry for your emotional distress
sisabet: http://www.livejournal.com/users/sisabet/312264.html
sisabet: poor ben
sisabet: I can hardly look at him
sisabet: I can't look at him directly
sisabet: the force of his pain is too great
renenet: yay your post
sisabet: instead I have to punch a hole in a sheet of paper
sisabet: like it is an eclipse
sisabet: OH
sisabet: Eclipse
sisabet: that will cheer me up
renenet: the force of ben's pain should be like a concussion grenade in the sternum
renenet: oh, you know what might frame the polar bears as inside ben's head? make them the next to last shot
sisabet: my premiere disappeared
renenet: uh oh
sisabet: the woe of Ben was too much
renenet: this does not surprise me
renenet: it might start a black hole it is so dense


And she is still whining about it. This is us tonight discussing the vid and this commentary post:

sisabet: OH GOD POOR FRASER
sisabet: LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE ME DOOOOOOO1!!!1
sisabet: you broke my heart with this vid
renenet: Dude!
sisabet: it was so much fun until the broken hearted pain
renenet: Due South broke your fucking heart.
renenet: I just kept you honest.
renenet: I'm your Vecchio.
sisabet: ::cries::
sisabet: ::cries HARDER::
renenet: shut it and do your PT, bitch!
renenet: oh, wait, um...
sisabet: "In my saaaadddle!"
* renenet mumbles something about two axes
* sisabet smiles sadly and enigmatically while thinking of vid
* renenet can't feel as guilty as Ray because not Catholic and don't have an Italian mother
sisabet: but soon there will be dehydration and head injuries
renenet: All the leaves are brown...
sisabet: All the leaves are brown
renenet: And the skyyyyy is grey...
sisabet: and the sky is grey
renenet: I went for a walk...
sisabet: I went for a walk
renenet: On a winter's day...
sisabet: on a winters day
renenet: ...
renenet: All the leaves are brown...
sisabet: All the leaves are brown
sisabet: ::dies::
renenet: ::jiggles you::
sisabet: ::is insane::
sisabet: oh GOD FRASER IS BROKEN
sisabet: I really hate the end
sisabet: I mean I like it
sisabet: no love it
sisabet: but I hate it
sisabet: and I love this on the show
sisabet: I do
sisabet: I love they break him
sisabet: that they take him all the way to this point
sisabet: it is riveting
renenet: yes
sisabet: it feels different when it is me
renenet: culpability?
sisabet: well I am a vidders
sisabet: wait
sisabet: a VIDDER
sisabet: singular
sisabet: I should be able to give him some comfort
sisabet: except fucking vid won't let me
sisabet: I couldn't even use his SMILE
sisabet: GOD that SMILE
renenet: there is no comfort in vidding
sisabet: only relief
renenet: not when you pick a fucking heartbreaking story to tell
sisabet: and no crying in baseball
renenet: only catharsis

Comments

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*sniffles*

FRASER.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

OMG FRASER!

[swanswan.livejournal.com]

::heart-hurty::

But I loved reading this. It is always so great to get an insight into the way talented people work, and you and renenet have such a great vidder-beta relationship. Fraser is lucky to have you on his side!

[lyra-sena.livejournal.com]

oh, thank you for posting this! The vid is absolutely brilliant and mesmerizing, and the process behind it just as intriguing.

[joyfulseeker.livejournal.com]

It was so funny to hear your take on the song, because--first off, I LOVE this vid. Absolutely adore it as in have watched it many many times and made other people who know absolutely nothing about Due South or vidding watch this vid. But the first time I watched it, I didn't particularly care for the song. And then over the next couple days I just fell in love with the song, and how unusual a song it seemed to vid, and how well it worked, because Fraser can't hold a thunderhead in his heart and deeply meaningful OMG, and then I rapidly lose coherence on this subject. But it had to grow on me, and so it's interesting that it sounds like it had to grow on you as well.

first

[kormantic.livejournal.com]

I don't think I have ever sent you feedback for this vid, and that is crime, man, because this was one of the most riveting vids I've ever seen. When the ice/the diamonds burst into birds! The song is insanely catchy, with a funny broken rhythm that you just *owned*, and just-- every moment is extraordinary. I've watched this vid a probably embarrassing number of times, and the imagery, the pinetrees curving into a snowglobe, the possible future/warped past seen in the crystal ball, the whole battle of equals, the wildness of Fraser's secret heart, the frank way that Victoria *is* the polar bear and knows that about herself far better than Fraser does-- brilliant, brilliant. The commentary with "they're trapped behind glass!" and "there's no place more depressing than a zoo"-- exactly.

You are splendid and amazing.

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

God, I love your commentary. It's like, okay, I saw the vid, watched it over and over again, and I got the whole FEELING of what you saying and what was going on and everything, but then you go and put it into words and I'm going 'yes! YES! that is what I was feeling when I watched it but I couldn't put it into words!' But thankfully the two of you have done it here (and how much do I love renenet for contributing to your commentary? OMG SO MUCH) and you're just awesome. AWESOME. You know I think you're awesome, I mean, you could be talking about something that was far, far from vids, like dead horses, and I could be going 'omg, yes! I LOVE YOU OMG!' just because I love the way you speak/write/type and you always say things that feel very close to ME. And I think this personality thing comes out in your vids so that your vids feel very close to me, too, and I don't know if other people have this same thought but this is just how *I* feel.

So, in essence: I LOVE YOU LIZ.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

Saw this vid at Escapade and loved it.

1) I liked the use of ice -- you captured all the symbolism that it typically has.

2) But, equally important, you showed that ice itself is always restless, in motion. Sure, it may move slowly, but ... it was a great way to actually suggest a thread of hope. Things will change. The ice will shift. The thaw will come. And then there's the spring.

Bravo.

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

POLAR BEAR (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/luciel12/poster.jpg)

*coughs* What?

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

This is so the wrong icon for this post. Dude, why don't I have any Fraser icons? ::marvels at own idiocy::

I have loved this vid for months, but seeing it on the big screen was like falling hardcore in love with an old friend. I squeed all over myself. I love reading your thoughts (and renenet's!) about putting this together, the whys and wherefores. Also, the goofiness. Cuz that's key.

I can't believe you ever thought Fraser was a beluga whale!

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

The way you brought the polar bears and the ice and all of that wildness into this vid still leaves me picking my jaw up off the floor, and reading about how you got there was just too much fun. :)

[anoel.livejournal.com]

*puts Icebound Stream vid on repeat*

Thank you so much for writing this all out! Wow. I really had too much fun reading it. And so glad renenet joined in.

I understand falling into a fandom too well. And I love psychology as well, it is interesting to discover characters motivations. Fraser is just too easy to become obsessed with. The beluga whale is just too funny but the polar bear really fits too well and hey, it's even shown on the show so its practically canon. renenet's comments about it are so perfect, that's what I saw as well and what amazes me so much in how the vid shows that. Great explanation on the end, that fleeting moment and the heartbreak of not getting it was shown beautifully.

I absolutely loved the two Victoria Secret episodes for all the reasons you described. Victoria i interesting and the relationship with her and Fraser is so deep which I think your vid showed. Also as a huge animal fan and polar bear lover, I just looved that aspect to your vid. They are cute but there's so much more to them than. I love water and hands as well, in fact this one anime show I watched captured me precisely because they had so many hand shots in the preview episode and I kept saying, hands! Hands! Anyways, I love the song you chose and it does take another hearing to like the song but once you do, it really is good to hear over and over. And Fraser would get over the female voice because, well, I have to quote "Eclipse" here: Ray- "I'm asking Fraser to pretend that he's a woman. Okay?" Fraser - "Well, I have done that, yes." And so that's that.

One of my favorite parts was how you mentioned that the relationship took place out of conventional morality because polar bears don't see relationships that way. That's exactly how I see it and why I think that there really were no good and bad guys in their relationship. Their connection, sameness, wildness that breaks out, I agree on all points of it. I don't see Victoria as the villian or predator (if she was that then Fraser would have to be a fish or something, and whales don't count there) but as another animal in the wild, struggling with nature and feelings and everything that comes with living. I think the vid did show that, at least to me as well as showing how much Fraser wants to be free through Victoria.

Watching documentaries of polar bears sounds fun. It really was a brilliant move to include them in there and go outside the source text. I loved the bloodied face bear and I didn't notice it at first but they *do* turn in exactly the same way. So cool. Thanks so much for including previous versions of the vid, it's great that it fell in place for you so early. I just looved the glowing, again not noticing it at first but now I see it and it's just the coolest thing ever. The sheets do sound like they'd get frustrating after awhile though.

I can understand your pain at the end. At least you get to show the other version now. I just loooved the shot of the two polar bears at the end and you're right that they do look sad and all...but I can still see why the final ending worked the best. That being said, I would have wanted to do the same thing. Love seeing the chat but the authorial/Fraser thing is true. I'm just glad there wasn't a dead polar bear, good choice there because if there was, it'd break the heart of millions (obviously exaggerated, at least I think...). Not that it didn't but it'd be worse. So sorry for your pain though. Ah what vidders must do for the integrity of their art. Oh and also *dies laughing from chat*

That got a bit long but I just wanted to tell you (and renenet) how much I appreciated the time you took in writing all of this. And also you are much too entertaining to read.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Nervously delurking.

This was fascinating. And heartbreaking. And fun. And makes me think even more about the ending.

I find it hard to make the final bear Frasier because he never makes it back to the wilderness himself. But for some reason I'm convinced that the bear is looking back as it runs. I want it to be Victoria choosing freedom in the end but in some part of her heart regretting it. Or the bearness of both of them, which can never be captured or tamed.

Is Frasier a polar bear? I think he has bear in him. I think he has wilderness in him and that there are bears there. I think I saw Brief Encounter at too impressionable an age and find inevitable separations unbearably romantic. I think cheap puns are evil.

We were talking about the vid over at the Tea at the Ford site. Would it be OK to link to this commentary post there?

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

I am so glad you made this post, because while I adore Icebound Stream and have watched it a gazillion times, I've always felt like I didn't 'get' it as much as other people maybe did--my brain just doesn't really do extended metaphors. *snerk* But this post was very helpful, and it made me love the vid even more.

Polar Bears

[drdawn.livejournal.com]

And can you explain again why you chose not to use the footage of the polar bears doing it that I sent you?

Re: Polar Bears

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

::pointedly ignores you::

[transtempts.livejournal.com]

Just found this commentary on what is one of my favorite music vids...mmm.

Oh neat, Fraser is totally a polar bear - Victoria too. ::g::

You know, when I was watching this, I didn't feel as though it was a condemnation of Victoria. True, she did really screw with Fraser's world as well as his mind, and did it for her own purposes- yet, she wasn't entirely without feeling. She was attracted to Fraser just as much as he was drawn to her. I thought she was perhaps more aware of just how badly one fared while inside a zoo and saw that Fraser was allowing himself to be tamed. She brought out more of the wild Fraser and wanted that from him.

Loved the way snow played such a big part in this, Fraser's weakness for it and the power it, and Victoria have over him...

Lovely.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I thought she was perhaps more aware of just how badly one fared while inside a zoo and saw that Fraser was allowing himself to be tamed. She brought out more of the wild Fraser and wanted that from him.

Oh, yes! Excellent point! Thank you.

[transtempts.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I think that part of what makes Victoria such an interesting character and one that works so well with Fraser is that she is out there in the world and has all that experience. And even though she excels at being a lone wolf- or bear, she definitely wanted company, the sort that wouldn't control her, but who would understand her. Of course, she nearly had it too, if not for Ray Vecchio's timely intevention.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

I just found this commentary via fanlore, and I ... I think I learned a lot about vidding from it. POV, authorial voice, and getting your betas to help you figure out what story is being told in your vid.

Also, just realized that in an AU I wrote (http://keerawa.livejournal.com/57012.html), Fraser is RayK's Victoria.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and transcripts!