Fringe Vid: Small Blue Thing

[beccatoria]

FINALLY I CAN POST IT! My vidukon premiere! :D

Title: Small Blue Thing
Video: Fringe
Audio: Small Blue Thing // Suzanne Vega
Summary: Olivia: thrown against the sky, raining down in pieces, small blue (red) thing.
Notes: vidukon 2011 premiere.

Direct download available here. 48 megs approx. RightClickSaveAs.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Cross-posted to vidding and fringe_tv.

Other vids available here.

Comments

[carawj.livejournal.com]

Hello! I am doing the ritual post-con -stalking, have friended you, if that's ok? :D

Also, I ADORED this vid. I've never actually seen Fringe, but people keep telling me to, and this vid went a long way towards persuading me that it's a really good plan...

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Hi! *friends back* :D

Thank you! I'm so happy that people liked it let alone thought it a good reason to check out the show. In all honesty, there are some aspects of it I like less than others but OLIVIA DUNHAM is pretty much too epic to be ignored and I love her greatly. It's also a show that - again, in my opinion - has some genuinely interesting storytelling and set up in it. So you know, yay, watch it and let me know what you think.

And also, thanks once again for letting me know you liked the vid. :D

[cosmic-llin.livejournal.com]

This was so gorgeous and made me really want to watch Fringe!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Do it! DOOOO IIIIIT. ;) And thank you - I'm really pleased you liked it and it was lovely to meet you at the weekend!

[theanonsisters.livejournal.com]

That was fantastic! And I loved the hue shifting :)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad the colour changes worked for you - they were super fun to do.

[nam-jai.livejournal.com]

That was gorgeous. And I loved the ending.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I knew how the vid would end from the first time I got the idea, so it's nice to know it hit home. :)

[usuallyhats]

I love love love this vid. The sequence from 3:04-3:22 is just amazing.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The sequence you mention is one I actually spent quite a lot of time angsting about because I wanted to use so much the looooong shot of her collapsing face when she hears about Altlivia and Peter, but wasn't the best way to intercut with it, so it's really nice to hear that it resonated with you when I finally decided on An Approach. ;)

Also, I love your icon. <3

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

This is SO AMAZING.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[serrico.livejournal.com]

This is such a strong, well-put-together character study; I feel like what you're saying about Olivia comes through very clearly even though I'm not all that familiar with Fringe. And the technical graces of your editing are *fantastic*--I especially love how you used the colour shifts.

Great vid!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. It's really gratifying to hear it came through clearly even to someone not overly familiar with Fringe. And yes, the colour shifts were SO FUN to do - very glad they're going over well.

[lunar47.livejournal.com]

O_O damn that was good.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

this is superb. i love the flashing from red to blue and vice versa that happens throughout the vid. oh, olivia. so much struggle and heartbreak.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it and the colour changes were super fun to do so I'm glad they're working well. OH OLIVIA INDEED.

[gorgeousnerd]

Ouch, my heart. That was absolutely beautiful.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[alissabobissa.livejournal.com]

Wonderful and fantastic and an absolutely lovely character study of Olivia. :)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :D

[icepixie]

This is beautiful! Your timing is impeccable. I also really liked the way you swapped the colors of objects from blue to red in the various clips.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it, and that the colour shifting worked for you - that was a lot of fun to do, so it's nice to know it worked for people. Thanks so much for letting me know you enjoyed it.

[beerbad.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this... and still have only seen six episodes of the show!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

YAY! :D I'm really glad you liked it and I've probably totally spoiled you for all kinds of shit now! ;) I think the show really starts to hit its stride towards the middle of season one and then especially at the end of the season with multiple awesome revelations, even if it's always a little bit too standalone for me (because it should always be ALL ABOUT OLIVIA'S JOURNEY OF EPIC MANPAIN. ♥)

[heyiya.livejournal.com]

Oooh... This is just so wonderful, so perfectly thought through and timed and so perfectly Olivia. I adored the way you shifted the worlds with colors, how Fauxlivia was a threat but also part of things, the way each time the song quieted I would think it was over and then be so happy it wasn't, and the way you show her constantly threatened and hurt yet living through it with poise and power.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! That's some awesome all-the-right-things feedback there. ♥ The colour changes were difficult but really rewarding to do, and I'm glad they're working here. After my last vid for her was so full of angry fighting, I wanted to pull back and focus more on, well, as you say, her poise and power. When the show does it well it pulls that off with such tragic understatement. Thanks for such an awesome comment.

[such_heights]

I watched this vid again as I was packing this morning, and I love it EVEN MORE now. It's such a lovely character study of Olivia with a really original perspective, and the song choice is perfect.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you so much! I'm so thrilled you like it!

[nemo-r.livejournal.com]

I loved this at the con and I love it even more watching it at home. I've watched one ep of Fringe and then gave up on it, but the vid is singlehandedly making me change my mind. Clearly this is something I need to watch.

The red/blue changes were brilliant. I love that a lot of them are very small and to the edge of the screen, so rewatching lets me see all the ones I missed the first time.

Obviously not knowing the canon meant I missed out on some of the emotional kick, but in general I love your choices for Olivia's close-ups, there's a lot of angst/emotion/pain coming through there that makes her both relatable and sympathetic.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you - I['m so glad you enjoyed it enough to reconsider the show. I'll be honest, it's a bit standalone heavy at times, for my tastes, but there is some great stuff in there as well, and it really starts to hit its stride in the back half of the first series.

I'm really glad the red/blue shifts are working well and yeah, I wanted some of them to be large and obvious so people would be sure they were there, but there are a couple of very minor shifts hidden in there too - I'm so glad the vid merits rewatching to find them. And the fact that the emotional tone of the vid is clear.

Thanks so much for your awesome comment, and it was really fun to meet you this weekend!

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. This is gorgeous. I love your use of color, and I love the motion in this vid -- the motion and the stillness. Olivia curled up in the corner, then and now -- and Olivia fighting, leaping, coming apart.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it, particularly the colour changes and the shifts between her stillness and more active stuff. The last Olivia vid I did was her in almost constant motion and I confess I was a little nervous of pulling back and making this slower for long sections, but it seemed necessary so it's really gratifying to hear that it works for you. Thanks so much for your comment and your last line - and Olivia fighting, leaping, coming apart - is gorgeous and so very, very Olivia.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Obviously I am going to have to watch this about a million more times before I catch all the amazing details properly, but let me just say: HOLY CATS, WOMAN! THE DETAILS! This is absolutely stunning. I love the way the song keeps stopping and starting, and the way the vid kind of fell into chapters around that, and the way you chose to exploit it. And I really, really loved the red/blue. Because: Fringe. And also: You are awesome.

*rewatches again and again and again*

...I should own up and watch the back half of the season.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you so much! \o/

It's really awesome to hear you enjoyed it so much (and thank you for the fabulous rec, too!) Originally I was actually nervous of the way the song kept stopping, but in the end I decided to just go with it and let the vid stop a little too and I'm super pleased that it turned out to work well.

The back half of the season is...I don't know. In places it was worse than I was expecting and in places it was better. I think I'd sum it up as being that they're going places with the plot I'm not sure I like (but aren't yet unsalvageable), but they are annoyingly consistent in their characterisation of Olivia. I guess we'll see? The last four episodes start airing this Friday so I suppose you could wait a month and see if fandom explodes from the weirdness? ;)

[emmaorgana.livejournal.com]

This is gorgeous and amazing and beautiful and I love it.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[theoret.livejournal.com]

Obviously we talked about the interesting technical things you did with the colour shifts in this vid at Vidukon, but I do like this vid a lot beyond going "Oh, hey, how cool" at the effects. It really evokes a very strong feeling of lostness in me (having rewatched it a couple of times, I think amongst other things I'm reacting to all the turning - Olivia turning her head, or turning around, or the camera circling around her. There's this feeling I have of not quite knowing where things stand/searching for something), but there's something about Olivia in the face of all of that that's really engaging. I have a very strong emotional impression of the character that I can't quite put into words. I think it's to do with the way she seems to think about things. The whole vid has a very pensive tone, to me. It makes me want to peer in and see what's going on inside her head. Or at least actually get around to watching the show so I could see if my emotional impression of her without context is different from the impression I'd get with context.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Hi! Thank you so much for such a thoughtful and detailed response. It was great fun to talk about the technical side of things, but I'm really glad that it works beyond that too - that's something I find especially gratifying given you're not familiar with the show. It's really interesting to read your impressions of her because they're a lot like mine, really. I mean another aspect of the character, which really only comes in towards the end of this vid, is that she's just tough as nails and beats the crap out of people a lot of the time (I have a whole OTHER vid about that :p), but as a character, Olivia got a lot of flack from fandom in the first season for being too...distant and quiet I guess, and it's been really fun to watch those early preconceptions get totally smashed by kickass acting, and awesome storylines that explain why she is the way she is.

Olivia actually has a lovely subthread of emotional development that runs through the series about needing answers to questions about the past, herself, things that have happened, what people believe, and never being able to get those responses (because she can't believe people, because she can't remember, because they can't remember) and having to live with that uncertainty. It's subtle but really heartbreaking.

And now I'll stop pimping a show that I spend half my time worrying is gonna turn out sucky in the end. ;)

Thanks again for such a great comment.

[flipside123.livejournal.com]

This is really amazing. You make such great Fringe vids! I loved all the moments when the colours shifted.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :D And thanks for letting me know you enjoyed the other vids too. The colour shifts were very fun to do.

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

Wowwww I don't have much to say about this because I'm woefully not watching Fringe yet (I know, I know, I'll get on it) but this was just stunning to look at. Also broke my heart for Olivia. Also you ADDED the blue/red things? Whoa!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

It is enormously woeful that you have not yet started watching Fringe. I DISAPPROVE, YOUNG LADY. But, thanks so much for watching the vid anyway! And yes, Olivia will break your heart many, many times. And keep on getting up. And having it broken again. Why is manpain so attractive on girls?! ;)

Also yes, I did add the blue/red stuff. It was kind of fun to do, actually, though super fiddly. I used a few different techniques to do it, but mostly what I did was to use a chromakey to mask out a colour (like they do with blue/greenscreen?), then under that put an identical clip but with a supercrazy colour filters over it. If that makes sense? I have accidentally turned a bit techy in my old age... ;)

[colej55.livejournal.com]

So well done! The editing - including the color shifts - did a wonderful job of telling the story. Your choice of music is so haunting and you've dealt with it perfectly. I'm a big fan of Fringe and you've done the character(s) justice!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked it and especially happy to hear that you thought the colour shifts enhanced the narrative; I wanted there to be a reason to use them beyond the "Oh cool!" factor. Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know you enjoyed it.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

This is amazing, gorgeous, sad, and awesome.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :)

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Yep, still love this. I really enjoy the thoughtful almost quietness of this one, especially as compared with your furious, angry Intelligent Design. The color shifts are a fantastic framing device and so well done, and the parallels between points earlier in the show, and thus in Olivia's story, with Olivia in the altverse are really effective to show her whole journey. I love how it ends on a couple of shots from SO EARLY, one of badass Olivia and one of sad Olivia (oh honey!), as the point at which everything changed irrevocably. Also she just needs so many hugs, and never gets them, and both of those things are so Olivia.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! :D I'm so pleased you still love it!

It's strange for me to do a vid so quiet - I feel more at home, in many ways, with vids like Intelligent Design, but it was really rewarding to be able to give space to, well, Anna Torv's faaaaaaaaaaaaace.

Plus I'm super glad that contrast between her recent altverse adventures and her earlier life came through; it's not just that it's OH OLIVIA HONEY it's that it never stops. Dear lord I want to hug her.