NaViMaMo Vidlet: a thousand goodbyes [Doctor Who // River Song]

[beccatoria]

For tellitslant!

Okay, this one ended up SUPER LONG, like barely under my own self-imposed limit of two minutes, which is nearly twice as long as my general aim. Sorry to future prompters but you're unlikely to get something as long as this is... *facepalm* I blame the song choice, which I just feel in love with. Seriously, I meant to vid one verse and a chorus, but I couldn't chooooose so I chopped up the song to keep the gorgeous final rendition of the chorus and ended up with this:

Title: a thousand goodbyes
Video: Doctor Who
Audio: 1000 Goodbyes // Captain Tractor
Summary: For every hello there's a thousand goodbyes.

Direct download available here. 22 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

[tellitslant]

OMG THIS IS AMAZING.

I love that you chose this song, and you used it so well - this is absolutely heartbreaking, as it kind of has to be! I love the clip choices throughout, but particularly for the "And things keep on changing for better or worse" verse, GAH. *makes whimpery noises* So brilliant! Thank you so much! :DDD Can I write you a ficlet in return?

[tellitslant]

I keep watching this and finding more things that I love about it! Like the sneaky little handholding scene being worked in! And the flash between Ten and Eleven over "any new verse" is AWESOME on so many levels. :DDDDD SO GOOD. (how are they so amazing.)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKE IT! :D I THINK I MIGHT BE A LITTLE BIT IN LOVE WITH IT MYSELF. Also thank you so much for the lovely rec. And the amazing song to go with the prompt of course.

The "better or worse" verse was the one that just seemed so heartbreaky to me, and was probably the verse I would have chosen if I'd cut down to just one, but some of the punch seemed to be lacking if I couldn't have the other one too; which is a convoluted way of gleeing that you liked it. Plus how could I not go for it with all the wedding symbology. ;)

Anyway, you're absolutely welcome and I of course would LOVE any kind of ficlet you choose to write, though if you want a specific prompt, how about, "River/Doctor, for better or worse"?

Finally I rather embarrassingly noticed a ghost frame during the section where River punches out Ten that I failed to catch before uploading. If you can see it/it bothers you, the download link now goes to a corrected version, although the streaming is still as it stands.

[tellitslant]

Ficlet achieved, here.

I STILL LOVE THIS, BTW :DDDD

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

Nope, perfect length. Which is to say it's very conveniently sized for me to watch it repeatedly and love it more every time. :) So, so gorgeous!! <3<3<3

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

\o/ YAY! :D Thank you so much - really glad you like it. (As noted above, alas I noticed too late that I missed a ghostframe in the streaming version, but as of a few hours ago, the download is to a corrected version.)

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, oh, oh!!!!!!!! I LOVE this!!! I love the song, first of all! I thought Captain Tractor mostly did Alberta-ified versions of Irish drinking songs. Huh. Maybe I need to give them more credit! Because that is a great song. And the VIIIID!!!!!!!!! I adore the opening, and I adore the "for better or worse" match (*flappy hands*), and "I'm older and wiser than you'll ever know" with the Dalek (*increased flapping*). But I think it's actually the stuff with Ten that I like the best (which is weird, considering how much better I like Eleven in pretty much every way), but there's something about that first/last meeting in the library that hits the exact same emotion the song hits, and, well, yes. Love it!!!

(Note to brain: things I need to do tonight do NOT include rewatching Doctor Song eps. Alas, since that's now emphatically how I would prefer to spend my evening.)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I'd never even heard of Captain Tractor before, but I agree, this song is just gorgeous. And I'm really happy that more than one person has picked up on the better-or-worse match, with the awesome illusions to weddings and stuff. And yeah, the way she took out the Dalek: shivers of awesome.

I think the first/last meeting becomes ever more tragic and poignant because we end up knowing River and her story more? From her knowledgeable perspective it keeps getting more sorrowful, and also, the more we know about all the things Ten doesn't know (but he must also understand the scope of what he doesn't know, and the weight of it), the more, in this, he begins to look...young/undeveloped/naive? Like, I still, and probably always will, find Ten deeply irritating, but in the context of this particular story, the way it frames him as a young idiot who doesn't know what he's just lost, but can, perhaps, see the edges of it; enough to know how much it mattered directly undercuts a lot of what annoyed me about him? OR SOMETHING.

The point is, RIVER. SHE BREAKS MY HEART. Thanks for the awesome thoughtful comment and I hope you did rewatch all those episodes. ;)

[chaila.livejournal.com]

LOVE. As always with you vidding River, I love the mix of epic with tragedy. Though I rather love that it seems like River is the one always saying goodbye, I really like the little POV switches in the verses. The first couple verses feel much like Eleven's view of River and have great flashes of joy amongst the world-saving--like on the "perspective" lyric--as he knows her better. Watching this, the differences in River/Ten and River/Eleven really strike me. River/Ten is where the tragedy is; I know it's because she "died," obviously, but the whole context, with him not knowing her, is just SAD. River/Eleven still has lots of goodbyes and tragedy, but it's overall so much more fun and joyful. So it's all so much SADDER after you've reversed the timeline into River's perspective, when the death comes after the joy and the developed relationship. OH RIVER.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

POV switches! You noticed! :D And yes, it was a deliberate decision to put the final goodbye firmly from her POV, because as you say, in context, it's such a sadder, more tragic moment now we know her story. I think it's always River saying goodbye because River is the one, at this point, with knowledge. She knows who she's saying goodbye too. The Doctor is still at the point where she drops in and out of his life like a whirlwind, but we're following his POV, so River says goodbye to us too. It'll be interesting, I think, if we ever see a situation where the Doctor knows more than River and has to say goodbye to her.

OH RIVER. <3

[tiredmomof2.livejournal.com]

Amazing vid. Love it.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

*makes high pitched squealing noises*

I LOVE IT!

I'm so glad you love them. Have I mentioned that lately? ;)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

:D! Thank you! I'm so glad you love them! ;) And thank you for the lovely rec!

[fahrbotdrusilla]

Oh, I loved that!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it!

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *flails*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! *flails with you* ;)

[such_heights]

RIVERRRRRRRR.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

RIVERRRRRRRRRRRR! :D

[gabolange.livejournal.com]

pellucid told me I had to come watch this vid, because it was awesome and the music was awesome, and of course she was completely right.

The music is awesome! And I love the way this looks at the story from River's timeline POV, with the first meeting being the last meeting, and the first goodbye being the last goodybe, and . . . yeah. Much love for this! :)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you, I'm so happy you enjoyed it and that the POV came through. And I agree, the music is just gorgeous, I was so lucky to get such a good prompt. :)

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I've watched this vid approximately eight million times now (give or take, obviously), and I wanted to make an actual comment instead of just running laps around my hotel room, flailing my hands like a lunatic. Because, really, this deserves comments. ;)

I sort of didn't read your comments the first time I watched the vid, and thus expected it to be over at a minute. And it kind of is over at a minute, because after Eleven flies into the sun, the story changes. And you've made basically two vids that are one vid, which is handy, because River and the Doctor have two stories. I also REALLY, REALLY adore the part where we get this version of the story (more or less) in RIVER'S order, because so far we've always come at it from The Doctor's.

I was unprepared for how much I liked the Ten sections, but when I went back and rewatched the library episodes (sometime after pellucid was converted, I think), I was struck by how much I didn't hate him (um...until the end, but we've talked about that), so I suppose it makes sense. He does give good sad face, and since we're following the story in River's Order, it's kind of the end.

I love the clip choices for "ten had been wrong" and "life looks much better in perspective" and the bit about the new verse. The whole first chorus JUST DESTROYS ME, particularly the bit where Eleven and the Fez materialize on the TARDIS, because I'm pretty sure if I wasn't already in love with him, that scene would have done me in the first time I saw it.

The shot with Rory's hand makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. I've never had much tolerance for dismemberment. ;) But the DALEK! *hearts that scene to pieces*

And then the last "thousand good-byes" is just beautiful and sad. RIVER SONG! She is too awesome.

And so is this vid.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you, detailed feedback is amazing to receive, and then I never know much of what to say except to jump around going OMGS YOU NOTICED THAT and EEEE WHAT AN AWESOME WAY TO SEE IT.

I'm totally thrilled that the going in River's order thing works, because I was also struck by how...unannoyed I was by him during the vidding of it. I think partly it's because Tennant is always more tolerable in Moffat episodes - he's not actually a bad actor. Another example of dissonantly not hating him was when I finally got around to watching that "Family of Blood" two parter where he thinks he's human? And the whole time he was playing a human I was like, "wait, I kind of like him, he's like...got flaws the narrative isn't trying to make me find romantic..." Um, which is a tangent. The point is, yes, I agree with you.

The "life looks much better in perspective" is a favourite part of mine too. And I'm sorry for the dismemberment! It probably says something about me that my first thought when thinking about that clip isn't "oh yeah the one with half Rory's hand" but "oh yeah, the one with the awesome focus-shift towards River!" ;)

River Song is too awesome, and you are for taking the time to watch this vid and then talk to me about it.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

That is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I may have cried slightly, ahem.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! And thank you also for the wonderful rec. :)

[tree_and_leaf]

Oh, this is gorgeous.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[elisi]

Utterly gorgeous! And the song really is perfect... *sniffles*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I agree the song is totally perfect - I can't claim any of the credit for that though, that goes entirely to tellitslant for such an awesome suggestion in her prompt.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

This is seriously amazing. I don't know where you found that song, but it's so them and wow. Beautiful.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I got that song from tellitslant from her fantastic prompt for this crazy vidding project; it's apparently a Canadian band that largely do drinking songs but this one is, I agree, so completely gorgeous and perfect for them. I'm so happy you think I did them justice. :)

[ghanimasun]

This is gorgeous. The song fits perfectly and you've managed to make the video seem longer than it is (which is a good thing!).

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The song is an absolutely wonderful suggestion from tellitslant and I'm so glad she gave me the chance to vid it - I'm also very glad I managed to fit a whole vid's worth of stuff into a vidlet. :)

[longtimegone]

Here via calapine!

This is without a doubt, one of the most effective and moving River Song vids I've ever seen. This song is amazing and you use it so well to tell this story! I can't wait to watch it a few more times to catch things I surely missed.

Thank you!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you very much - I'm so pleased you enjoyed it and that you found it effective. The song is, indeed, fantastic and was a suggestion from tellitslant for my current vidding project (a series of vidlets in a kind of...vidding nanowrimo thing!)

River is such a wonderful narrative character - she's all about the story, the spoilers, the fairytale blue book, I'm glad the vid felt narrative as well. It's the tale of River's life we want to seem mapped out in all its glorious complexity. ♥

Thanks again for taking the time to leave feedback.

[cinderbella333.livejournal.com]

That was fantastic!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[lady-with-cats.livejournal.com]

That... was amazing. :D :D :D :D

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :D

[rebellious_toes]

Here via your post at [Unknown site tag] (and I apologise in advance if I end up spamming your inbox a bit because of it).

This is just gorgeous. Such a wonderful song for them. I wish I could say more but I think you've broke me.

[oxoniensis.livejournal.com]

Oh, wonderful - what a perfect song for them!

[fantasticangel.livejournal.com]

Nice vid and an excellent song choice!

[tellitslant]

Raaah, I just came back because for some reason I didn't have this on my ipod and the file for download does not like my computer! It keeps crashing VLC and my conversion software doesn't even read it as a video file! Is the problem on my end or yours?

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Argh, how horrible, but how lovely you want it on your iPod. :)

I redownloaded the version that's on my website and tried it in VLC and it worked fine for me, so I tentatively suggest the issue is at your end? Maybe the file didn't download properly? Try downloading a fresh version and then if there's still an issue, I can try re-encoding it for you or temporarily uploading the original (biiiiig) .mpeg file?

[talulahk.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of vids, but DANG you may have changed my opinion.

And am off to purchase a bunch of Captain Tractor- brilliant much? Thanks I loved it.