NaViMaMo Vidlet: The Heart, The Piano [BSG]

[beccatoria]

Don't expect I'll keep posting two a day (even if technically I did finish the other one yesterday). But this is about SPEED and JUST VIDDING IT, so hooray for early momentum! This is for kuwdora, and I actually have some vidderly thoughts on this one; probably best to read after viewing.

I find myself a little disappointed I didn't quite get what I was going for on this one. I mean I think in parts I did. My grand scheme was to make an endless, quick-fade montage of Helo's life, one thing after another, but always to focus more on the earlier seasons than the later. In the later seasons, the three most important people to him - Sharon, Hera and Kara - are all swept up in this opera house prophecy, and Helo, as he always does, stays like a rock, supports them, and sort of...gets left behind. I wanted to convey that somehow, and I thought condensing the whole later section of the show (which is the part of the show where Most Stuff Happens) into the very last, much shorter, section of the vid, might be a way to show that - that from his perspective, all the enormous changes to his life and viewpoint happened much earlier, and now he has to stand back and wait while the world changes, and uses his wife, his daughter and his best friend to do it. But honestly, I'm not sure that comes thorugh enough here, or that the piano playing is adequately synced up and that makes me saaaaaad. Well, all right, not that sad, but it does make me think, perhaps, it was a concept better suited to a vid than a vidlet. Still, Helo. I haven't actually vidded him much since the...third vid I ever made. At least now that's rectified.

Title: The Heart, The Piano
Video: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Audio: The Heart Asks Pleasure First [The Piano] // Michael Nyman
Summary: Time is relentless, Karl is patient.

Direct download available here. 15 megs approx. RightClickSaveAs.

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

I will index and crosspost all vidlets at the end of November or when I've done all the prompts, whichever comes soonest.

Comments

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

oh, HELO. <333 I'm completely blown away by how WELL you did this so quickly (and the Scar one too, which I watched but haven't commented on yet). Helo's just such a constant, steady guy, and I adore him for it, and you did that so well here.

HELOOOOOOOO, basically. ;)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you! :D

As for doing it quickly, yeah, speed vidding is turning out to be kind of fun, if tiring. Though there are some things that helped me to these so quickly. Firstly my new computer set up is just so fast and secondly I spent so long vidding BSG exclusively, I have a really good grasp of the footage in my head and where everything is. The Helo vid is very chronological which also helps and the other one is an episodic.

I'm so glad you liked it. HELOOOOOOOOOO!

[kuwdora.livejournal.com]

OMG HELO - the piano works AMAZINGLY here, I got goosebumps while watching it!! *FLAILS*

more later when I haven't just woken up from a nap!!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

YAY! I'm really, really glad the song choice works for you after our discussions and stuff. It's such a great piece anyway, I'm glad it works with the source. So thrilled you enjoyed it!

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

HEEEEEELOOOO!

Needs more vids. :-) I like this. Especially your zoom in shots and in particular the short of him at O:49/0:50. 'Cause he looks good and I rarely think of Helo that way! I'm selfishly glad you stopped short of the rest of season 4!Helo too. I just remember him yelling at Kara for something when he didn't know or maybe know that she was like dead, you know? And that he'd never get to say good-bye to her. :-(

Now, I've read your notes. I don't feel Helo got left behind (except maybe in Daybreak when he just got left out and I really thought he was dead until the last five minutes) so much as his role had been fulfilled. I think he was always the wind-beneath-your-wings kinda guy and I don't think he minded. Yet the decisions made involving him: giving Gaius that seat, helping to create Hera, giving Kara that photo, those decisions had such far, far reaching effects.

Yay, vidlet!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Helo! Yes, he does look particularly yummy in that shot doesn't he? Though I always thought he was pretty hot, so I'm biased. ;)

I think I didn't really express the stuff about Helo getting left behind right though? Cus I agree with you. I don't think he got left behind in a tragic way. He was still there, supporting his girls, quietly stoic, never giving up or being too freaked out, just silently acting like their rock while destiny swept them all up. Playing the small roles and letting them go off and change the world. So I'd agree - it's more his role got fulfilled than he got left behind. But I still wanted to show that it was the earlier days that formed the quiet, sidelined (but not in a bad way?) man he was by the end?

Either way, yay, vidlet! :D Thanks for the feedback, and yeah, I think it would have been too sad to go into the Hera kidnapping/Best friend yelling/Wife not talking plot. *hugs him*

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

oh wow, i feel like i just watched all of bsg in a minute. this vidlet also reminds me how good the early seasons were. i think what you were trying to do with emphasizing the early eps worked in terms of highlighting that those were the most important days/months for helo, not all the head-spinning revelations that came later.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'm glad I managed to get that sense of scope, and that the idea of highlighting the earlier seasons worked for you. Thanks for the feedback!

[such_heights]

Oh, this is so wonderful! Helo and his girls and their epic destinies, yay. And I love the jump-cutting here, especially the moment with the scattering of ashes, that is so striking.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D I'm really glad you like it, especially the ashes because I had WARS over the timing of that bit, so it's nice to hear that I pulled it off in the end.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelo! *hearts him*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

HEEEEEELO! :D *hearts him too*

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like this!!! My feelings about Helo tended to waver between generally positive indifference and mild irritation, all while thinking he was awfully hot, but this condensing of his story puts it into a frame that makes him, for me, easier to connect to. I like the effect of the piano music, as well; it doesn't impose as strong an interpretive lens on the vid as lyrics tend to do, and it ties nicely back to the whole piano music as important mytharc thing (which I will pretend did not fall so roundly on its face in the show itself--see, ability to pretend! I think I'm making progress!).

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad that the song choice and approach worked for you. I always fell more on the side of positive indifference when it came to Helo, but I don't know how much of that, during later seasons, when much else was failing, was down to the fact he used to punch Tigh and give Adama the metaphorical middle finger. ;)

And don't worry, I'm also definitely on the track of creative avoidance when it comes to the mytharc piano thing. ;)

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Basically: what pellucid said. I never had so much interest in Helo. He tended to disappear behind my interest in the girls in his life, but this does a really good job drawing his story out of the background for me. The last couple shots really make your point that all of this was essentially set from the moment Boomer left him on Caprica. Plus a gorgeous piece of music!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad the final shot works for you - that was the thing I had in my head from the start, really. <3 And yes, the music is gorgeous. The Piano has the most beautiful score. Insofar as I ever did any musical composition (which was to say, not much, under protest and at high school!), I was always big on the rolling bass arpeggios, which was pretty much entirely down to this score, which I discovered about the same time.

[impatient-dream.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's best that I didn't read your notes before watching it? Because I interpretted it a little different, I think? Like, here are these three women that are the most important people to him and he's the tie that binds them. So, I kind of got that it was a little more about them instead of him? Either way, it was still really awesome, especially the sweeping movement of the clips following the pacing of the music. (Helo, I think, because he's the steady, quiet one, has to be harder to vid. I would think. Not that I've ever vidded.)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely think people should interpret their own way, and seeing what people think is one of the more interesting things about releasing vids.

I definitely concur with what you're saying about Helo acting as a bridge between these three women, even though I wasn't specifically setting out to make a vid about them. But it's certainly not coincidental, I'm sure, that I veered towards them in my interpretation of Helo given that I always found them all more fascinating than the guy himself. Who I did like plenty, just my heart in that show belonged to the creepy, mystical Opera House. ;)

Anyway, thanks for such thoughtful feedback and I'm really glad you enjoyed it and that I managed to convey some of the sweeping, rolling pace of the music in the editing.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous. Your cutting is fantastic, and I really like the pacing of it. I'm new to BSG and this makes me really excited to keep watching!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I feel I have to be honest, I eventually hated what the show did with it's final ten episodes, but...there are plenty who disagree with me, just be prepared! But it's amazing for it's first three and a half years and it does okay by Helo, at least. :)

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

Oh, Helo! I do see what you were going for here, and I love how much story you condensed into this short instrumental.