TSCC Vid: The Queen

[beccatoria]

MWAHAHAHAAHAA! I GET TO DRIVE THE VIDWAR AGAIN! And! And, for the first time ever, I have vidded TSCC!

Title: The Queen
Video: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Audio: Knight Moves // Suzanne Vega
Summary: Everyone needs Sarah to be someone, and every piece needs something from the Queen.

Direct download available here. 42 megs approx.

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

So, for those keeping track, chaila43 successfully completed my challenge to her to remix my Songs of the Unforgiven series, thus, I'm am now on offense again, per her counterchallenge.

This vid is in response to her challenge to remix her first VIDWAR post into a single vid character study. Since the post I am remixing consisted of a John and a Derek character study, I decided to vid the woman who connects those two men - Sarah. MY REMIX MATH MAKES PERFECT SENSE, SHUT UP.

You can find all relevant VIDWAR posts at our tags here and here.

Cross-posted to vidding and scc_vids.

Other vids available here.

Comments

[chaila.livejournal.com]

I love this SO much, it's such an adept character study. I love how expansive this is, that it is not just about John and the usual suspects needing Sarah to be something, but everyone, literally right down to the minor characters. I really love the musicality (assuming, as always, that that word means what we think it does). The faster cuts and the jump cuts really bring out a harshness in the music, to match the harsh lyrics, that I might not otherwise have noticed as much, and as a result, it feels like you really earn those long, lingering shots (if that’s not a stupid thing to say). The contrast really makes the long shots even more emotionally resonant, and those clips are, of course, perfect. Especially the shots of John watching the tape, Sarah making John look at her in first chorus, and Kyle’s looooong tear towards the end. Your clip choices are also fantastic, especially the two “turns herself into a pawn” sections and the “gasoline” robot section. I don’t even know specifically what all the sections mean, but it feels meaningful and complex, like Sarah.

But also, I think you’ve captured how she just outright *refuses* to be whatever it is all these people want her to be, and yet she *is* that, too. Which is such a hard thing to show in a vid. I think it's because of the way you've showed their reactions to her refusal to be easily understood. So much walking away and turning away in this, after appeals are made and rejected. Even with John, you’ve avoided showing very much of her being actually there for him. What we see is John alone (and both times you emphasize that, with John in the bedroom and then at school, are so great). You show John crying, but not Sarah’s face there. And yet it still is very much *about* Sarah and how that hurts her, maybe even more than him, because you always come back to her and we can see that it hurts. Her emotion comes when no one is watching, when there’s a door between them, or after she’s turned away or the other person has left, because she likes to crush my heart with her boot. Both their faces when she turns away from Dr. Felicia will never, ever not break my heart.

Also, dude, minor characters! Terissa! Felicia! Auldridge! Are you sure this wasn’t a trophy for me? <3

So yes, lots of love. And EEEEEEE YOU VIDDED TSCC!!! \o/

TO THE DEATH!

P.S. Remix math is the new math; some people might not have the right textbooks yet, but it is clearly the superior method of computation.

And I forgot to mention the awesome CREDITS! Sarah, obvs, the most powerful piece on the board, but Weaver as the rook, up in her tower looking down, making powerful moves straight ahead; Cameron as a knight, moving only in predefined patterns; Ellison as a bishop, making moves also but only diagonally, sideswiping the full truth, never able to look at the whole thing straight on; and of course, John as the figurehead king. How far shall I take this awesome metaphor??

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Awwww, your feedback is enough to make me all swoony. :)

I'm really glad you like this - I'd hate, of everything I could possibly underachieve at to underachieve to you with regards to SARAH CONNOR. <3

As always, you just mention all these awesome things I was half thinking about and half running with on instinct, but I feel very grateful to have someone to interpret my visual ramblings into proper words because everything you say about Sarah is so true and reflective of the emotion I was trying to evoke in the vid, but, as you know from my angsting, couldn't quite put into words. I kid you not, I sat for about half an hour stressing over the summary.

One of the things I love best about vids is the way they let you visually associate emotions and ideas you do not have the words for and then other people show up and explain it back to you. <3

How far shall I take this awesome metaphor??

AS FAR AS YOU LIKE FOR YOU MAKE ME SEEM SO SMART (even though I suspect it was really the VRY SMRT writers who are so smart I would not put it past them to have thought shit like this out given their repeated chess imagery in the show!) Certainly I can't help but think of Derek as a pawn. Noble and brave and totally disposable.

ETA: If you can ETA then so can I! :p I wanted to say, usually when I vid shit like this I'm not sure what I mean, but actually the gasoline lyrics were some of the earliest I glommed onto and so I - oddly - have a very clear understanding of what I meant by them. Which is basically just the idea of someone drinking gasoline to quench a thirst is like...someone building robots to save us all. Horribly ironic - it looks like water, I mean, progress (medical, scientific, military) but actually it's just gonna kill you. We're gonna drink gasoline no matter how much Sarah tries to stop us until one day we're so soaked in it we're gonna catch fire.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a lucky thing that it would be viddishly impossible for you to vid Sarah Connor and have me not draw sparkly hearts all over it. (Or, I mean, I would if Sarah would allow it. Which she won't. See vid.)

One of the things I love best about vids is the way they let you visually associate emotions and ideas you do not have the words for and then other people show up and explain it back to you.

Aw, yes, so much this. Not to get too much off topic, but I think the thing I miss most about vidding in a fandom where the show is actually airing is that it feels like there are much fewer opportunities to talk about it. I love watching vids, I love making vids, but I REALLY LOVE making vids and then talking about them as little slices of show meta.

Horribly ironic - it looks like water, I mean, progress (medical, scientific, military) but actually it's just gonna kill you. We're gonna drink gasoline no matter how much Sarah tries to stop us until one day we're so soaked in it we're gonna catch fire.

That's really awesome! I knew it meant something deeply thinky. :) I don't know if my brain would have picked up on the specifics, but I definitely got the sense of the futility of Sarah's warning there.

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous. The editing is fantastic and engaging the whole way through, and I loved your use of the minor characters, and OH SARAH CONNOR. <3

JAwwww, your feedback is enough to make me all swoony. :) I'm really glad you like this - I'd ha

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it and found it engaging - I admit I was a little worried all the minor characters would drag it down as people wondered who the hell they were but I feel so much of Sarah is tied up in her interactions with these people it seemed right to put them in.

Thanks again! :D

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

I have no words for how much I love this vid. None.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

\o/ Thank you so much! :D

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I like it! I love the very beginning and the very end. And, uh, all the parts in between. Dammit, why must you be so good at this? It makes it difficult to be all "I liked exactly this" about your vids. ;)

Suffice to say, I think you captured everyone's character, but especially Sarah's, and I love that.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks for letting me know! And I'm happy to take a lack of specifics in favour of overall appreciation any day. ;)

Extra happiness for all on account of capturing Sarah's character!

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh! *flaps hands* This is really fabulous!

I'm not sure what I can say that Chaila hasn't already said--consider this a second to her comment! I also love the way your emphases on "you" and "me" become more deliciously ambiguous as the vid continues. In the first chorus it's so clearly and literally "does Sarah love John," with that fantastic long shot of him watching the video. But then as things progress it's more and more people asking things of her that she may not be able to give, and then in the final chorus it's Sarah herself in all the "me" shots: after all that she's given for everyone else, who loves Sarah? And this all works so well for this show that brings new meaning to the phrase "tough love"--culminating in that final scene where John looks horrified as Sarah steps out of the bubble and leaves him.

Anyway, I LOOOOOVE this!!! *squishes you*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

*big grin* Thank you - I'm so glad you enjoyed it and downright squeeful that you noticed the slow progression of the "you" and "me".

Thanks so much for letting me know how much you liked it!

[rose-griffes.livejournal.com]

This was really interesting! I liked the music choice and how everything comes back to Sarah.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I really fell in love with the song and how it could relate to Sarah and the lyrics were interesting to work with. I'm really glad I kept everything circling back to her.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Oh WOW. After chaila43's enthusiastic recommendation, I had fairly high expectations, but this vid surpassed them all. I love how you took the chess mataphor from the title and the first lines of the song and transferred it to Sarah. After all, she is the Queen who has to protect the King, refusing to become a Pawn of fate, but to fulfill this role, she has to drive them all away -- even those that she loves, like her ex-fiancé and humanity in general and, above all, John. It's also admirable how many of the men in Sarah's life appear in this vid and yet it's completely and utterly about HER. ♥

Also, I'm friending you since you post mind-blowing vids and fics and interesting stuf, and your profile says that you don't mind others hanging around.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

\o/ I'm so happy you enjoyed this and that it lived up to chaila's recommendation! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know you enjoyed it. It's so gratifying knowing that I managed to pull off the expansive nature of the vid without losing focus on Sarah.

And yes, new people are always welcome! :D Thanks so much for the kind words about the stuff I sometimes make. :)

Magnifique!

[tackdriver56.livejournal.com]

Becca, I am going to have to watch this over and over, to get the full effect of everything Chaila has so eloquently explained.

It's just hit me, after watching, and reading Chaila's comments, how vids like yours add layers of meaning and emotional complexity beyond the words, the poetry, the rhythm and melody of the song.

I've been a fan of Suzanne Vega since "Solitude Standing", but I haven't listened to her in a long time... thanks for reminding me of what I've been missing.

Whatever you were feeling, and leading us to feel in composing the visual sequences, every viewer is pulled there with our own emotional contexts and own perceptions of the characters.

I, for one, am going to enjoy looking for the subtle cues Chaila saw and shared.

Thanks for making it!

Re: Magnifique!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks so much - I hope it holds up on rewatch and thank you for taking the time to leave such lovely feedback.

I actually have a similar experience with Suzanne Vega in that I hadn't listened to her in a very long time until someone recommended her to me in a recent(ish) post I made asking for music recs. She really has astonishingly lovely lyrics and music.

Thanks again for taking the time to let me know you enjoyed it.

[goodbyebird]

Can't really do this vid more justice than chaila's words, but I loved it so! Such an apt character study of Sarah and how she can never give people the things they want from her, because she has to take care of the stuff she needs to do, no matter the price. *mems, with plans of reccage*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you! I'm really pleased you enjoyed it and that the message I was trying to convey came across clearly - it's always so gratifying to read that reflected in others' responses. I'm very flattered that you think it worth a rec. :)

[sol-se.livejournal.com]

Amazing!! Love it!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! And thank you! :D

i am spitting out all the bitterness

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

I adore jumpcuts and the unsettling sense that it gives your vid alone with music. It really makes the chorus section flow and feel that much more lyrical. The framework of Sarah and the others as chess pieces is a brilant concept pulled from what's deeply embedded in the show itself.

Re: i am spitting out all the bitterness

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

\o/ I'm glad the difference between the jump-cuts in the verses and the more fluid choruses works. Originally I kept trying to fit more of the actual chess-imagery from the show into the vid, but it wasn't working and felt forced, so it's nice to know that the framing device doesn't seem too "off" even without a lot of chess visuals.

Re: i am spitting out all the bitterness

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

It comes through without seeming blatant and too on the nose.

[fig-aruna.livejournal.com]

I'm late to the game, but here from chaila43's rec


This vid is so beautifully edited, it's really hard for me to say anything substantial regarding its content. But I can definitely say this at least: You make me remember that I love Sarah because she loves the whole world even when they fear and hate her, and it's so very Sarah that she loves them all in secret and in silence... *wibbles*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you, what a lovely response. Plus, can I tell you secret? Late feedback is my favourite kind!

[impatient-dream.livejournal.com]

This is the vid that drew me here in the first place. Actually, this is the vid that convinced me to watch TSCC. I'd seen a couple of John/Cameron vids but they didn't actually draw me in. Then I saw this one on a rec list, watched it, then watched the show. Because it was layered and complex and there was just something compelling about it. I wanted to know who these people were and why they looked to this one woman. And what the thing with the chess analogy, I wanted to know about that, too. So, you know, good job.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's high praise indeed - thank you very much, and I'm incredibly pleased to know that the vid helped introduce someone else to this wonderful, complicated show. <3