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beccatoria ([personal profile] beccatoria) wrote2010-11-18 10:16 pm
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NaViMaMo Vidlet: This Chain of Days [Star Wars]

For [livejournal.com profile] such_heights!

This was a different experience than I was expecting. The thing is, I love Star Wars, epically. Even if I'm embarrassingly behind on the comics and latest novels just now. But dudes, Star Wars. Problem is, I was not hugely fond of the new movies, and a big reason for that - aside from the more usually cited, and just as true, and probably narratively more egregious instance of Anakin Skywalker turning out to be a creepy, creepy, child murdering stalker - is Padme. I was totally expecting her to be awesome. And...in theory a lot of the stuff is there in the first two movies. She's a ruler, a diplomat, an action girl in places. She's wise and strong and powerful. But...making this kind of reminded me how perfunctory this all is. I don't just mean because she had nothing to do but die of babies in the final movie, but because of the cinematography, because of the film. It's in how little of her we see compared to how much we're supposed to infer.

I had...ideas for this vid. The song wasn't one I initially knew what to do with, but I eventually settled on focusing primarily on Padme, with links forward to her daughter and backward to her mother-in-law to fulfill the remit of [livejournal.com profile] such_heights' prompt. I wanted something thoughtful and lonely. A sense of Padme as a single person in the midst of an enormous web, considering the pieces, the parts she is responsible for and those she cannot explain. A sense of her power and powerlessness simultaneously.

Honestly, I think only small parts of this come through and this is frustrating because some of it, I'm sure, is my own speed of vidding and/or unfamiliarity with the prequels to the degree I am familiar with the other movies, but another part of it is... I don't know there's much space in these movies for even more melancholy and perhaps deliberately passive pictures of the character.

Which isn't to say I didn't in many ways enjoy the prompt. It was interesting because it took me longer to work out where I wanted to go with it than usual, but the satisfaction when I did was greater. I am, of course, slightly disappointed that I don't think I succeeded in realising MAH VISION but the fact it gave me a chance to consider Padme's character - a character I was hugely invested in before she ever stepped on screen, and who was slowly eroded once she arrived there - in a way I have not in a long time, was also more interesting than I would have expected.

In sum, it was actually one of the most intriguing and rewarding prompts I had, but I'm not sure it's one of the better vidlets, if that makes sense. And for that, I apologise, but here, take a look anyway. ;)

Title: This Chain of Days
Video: Star Wars
Audio: At Last // Neko Case
Summary: Padme, Shmi, Leia, (Anakin), death.

Direct download available here. 9 megs approx. RightClickSaveAs.

Password: vidses


I will index and crosspost all vidlets at the end of November or when I've done all the prompts if I decide to keep going to finish them.
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[identity profile] grav-ity.livejournal.com 2010-11-18 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
That icon will never, ever fail to make me crack the heck up.

*waits impatiently to get home from work and watch vid*
such_heights: children flying from a cliff (default [trufflehog])

[personal profile] such_heights 2010-11-19 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
a;dlskjsa SO AWESOME. I love love love the way Padme is centred here, and the way the limits of her agency are abruptly highlighted. :( I think that sense of her loneliness and isolation came across really powerfully in such a short piece. And I love the last shot of Leia after the images that have come before, it's brilliant.

I apologise for the tricksy prompt, but I'm not too sorry giving the vid and notes it produced. *g*

I am behind on feedbacking your other vids, though I am squeeing over many! But this is so so cool, for it is a vague notion of a vid I've been carrying out for a long time, and now it exists and is perfect. :D

[identity profile] daybreak777.livejournal.com 2010-11-19 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
I really like Shmi and Leia here. You captured a great look on Leia's face that was reminiscent of her grandmother. Padme's the link between them but Shmi and Leia seem so much . . . older? Wiser? Something more than Padme here in this vid.

The cinematography in the first Star Wars (A New Hope) was very lonely!

[identity profile] sasha-feather.livejournal.com 2010-11-28 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
I LOVE NEKO CASE and I have been waiting for someone to make a vid to her music!!!!! <3 <3 <3

This is wonderful, I love seeing a SW vid about the women, thanks for making this. I had trouble downloading it but will try again later.

[identity profile] counteragent.livejournal.com 2010-12-01 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, that really gave me chills. Wonderful job.