Doctor Who Vid: When I Was A Boy [Amy, Amy/Rory]

[beccatoria]

I originally planned to post this today in order to get it out there ahead of the new series premiere, but it feels wrong and conspicuous to do so, now, without mentioning Elisabeth Sladen. This is not a vid about Sarah Jane, but it is a vid about a show that would have been much lesser without Elisabeth Sladen. The universe, both fictional and real, is a worse place without her in it.

Title: When I Was A Boy
Video: Doctor Who
Audio: When I Was A Boy // Dar Williams
Summary: Amy Pond was a boy too.

Direct download available here. 51 megs approx. RightClickSaveAs.

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

Cross-posted to vidding and dwfanvids.

Other vids available here.

Comments

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Aww that's pretty awesome! :)

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Now I just can't decide whether I want to vid the Amy-rewrites-time theme, or try to find something that's about her fucking with all the fairy tale conventions, because the song I already have does the former but not the latter.

him directly acknowledging the Doctor's habit of getting 'em while they're young and then ditching them back before they're too old, before they've...well grown up with him I suppose, and how this season part of what he'll have to deal with is that he has gotten properly involved with Amy and Rory now.

OMG BECKA I AM SO EXCITED AND THINGS LIKE THIS MAKE ME HOPEFUL FOR THE WHOLE THING AND EXPECTATIONS ARE SCARY AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?

Two sleeps! One for you, by the time you see this. :D

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Yay! It's actually really interesting because I was thinking about Amy earlier today. While I did always like her and enjoy watching her, she did not make me flaily with either meta or character love until her arc came together with all the epic themes at the end of season 5. While I quite often adore female characters that subvert metanarrative expectations or conventions (like River), usually I am still primarily all about the characters in my connecting with stories, in terms of, I don't much care how well the story structure or metanarrative or themes are being set up if I'm not connecting with the characters or identifying with them in some way, emotionally or intellectually. Yet Amy (and River too, to a certain extent, who I obviously LOVE SO MUCH yet who in many ways is not all that much like the characters I tend to fall this hard for) has really become an exception for me; she's a character I actually love SO MUCH MORE because of her role in this metanarrative. I wouldn't say I identify or particularly connect with Amy even, but meta about the themes of the season and the way her particular arc embodies them and makes the whole metanarriatve work makes me just ADORE her. (And I'd very much like to vid her if I could find the right song for any of this!) This whole show really is an exception to all my rules in terms of drawing me in almost primarily with the metanarrative. Prior to the season-ender last year, though I like Amy and Eleven, I was still really watching always and only for River. But when the themes all came together for everyone, I retroactively loved the whole thing with new eyes.

By which I actually mean that River is about the whole show.

Oh, that is such a good way to state it.

[deaka.livejournal.com]

Ooh, this is very awesome. And it pretty much captures the essence of everything that makes Amy and Rory so wonderful. <3

[promethia_tenk]

I find Moffat's writing for Who pretty unique, at least amongst the TV I've watched, in how much attention and importance it does place on that meta narrative--on all the layers of narrative, really, in a very traditionally literary way. Symbolism, allusions, all the layering of tropes and themes does contribute substantially to the story, and I find that much of the characterization and character development does happen on those levels just as much as it does on a more realistic level. All of which I suppose makes it more difficult for some people to make a connection with but I know that I love it to teeny tiny bits. So, yes, I am with you in that normally my connection to characters has to be, first and foremost, personal in that way you describe. And yet I'm loving having this new way to engage with them as well.

Interestingly, I'm sort of the opposite from you in respect to how I got into River and Amy. With River I watched the Library episodes just a week or two before the Angels ones, and while I liked her quite a lot and was very intrigued by her, what really grabbed me and prompted me to write about her was the symbolism around her. That balanced out and I became more and more invested in her character as a character as we went along and it became easier to see who she was and to piece together her motivations, but a huge chunk of my involvement with her has always been with that symbolism, which was just more accessible. (ETA: I'm making it sound like I wasn't excited to be watching River during the last season, which is patently not true and I have the squee posts to prove it. But my interest in her meta has always been there and always been deeply ingrained in my understanding of the character.) Amy, on the other hand, I just immediately liked in that personal way that one normally connects to characters and while I enjoyed looking at her storyline and some of her symbolism and themes and discussing them, at the end of the day it kept coming back to "Amy Pond is fantastic, simple as." And I can't say that my fundamental approach to her has changed all that much; I've mostly just deepened in my appreciation.

That said, I would love to see any and all discussion or vids you cared to produce about Amy--I'm a great fan of your perspective on most things.

Prior to the season-ender last year, though I like Amy and Eleven, I was still really watching always and only for River. But when the themes all came together for everyone, I retroactively loved the whole thing with new eyes.
This makes me very, very happy. I find it an astonishing show in almost all ways, and unlike anything else I've ever seen. I am embarrassingly evangelical about it *g* And then I joke sometimes that Steven Moffat has written me a television show and is just being nice in letting the rest of y'all watch it too ;)

[scintilla10.livejournal.com]

Like some of the comments above me, I was a little hesitant about the song choice, which I have loved for a long time, but you completely, absolutely sold me. I especially adored the opening sequence, but the entire thing was just utterly beautiful and I was tearing up at the end. Lovely lovely lovely.

[youraugustine.livejournal.com]

That made me cry. In the good way.

[masakochan.livejournal.com]

Came over here from the rec by such_heights.

To see a video that goes into how Amy and Rory's characterisations practically point and laugh at gender stereotypes- YOU HAVE CREATED CANDY FOR MY BRAIN. <3 SO MUCH LOVE FOR THIS KIND OF META.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you so much! I'm so happy you liked that verse particularly as it was the verse I had most trouble getting "right", editing-wise, so it's really gratifying to know it succeeded in the end.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! :D

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm especially thrilled that the conversation element you mentioned came through; that shift is something about the season I find really lovely.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so pleased you enjoyed it and that it works for you on all those levels. That's really gratifying to read.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. It seems this is a song of great import to a lot of people here and I'm a little glad that I didn't know that ahead of time because I've been on the other side of that skepticism and would hate to fail to allay it for someone else. So it's really wonderful to hear that it worked for you, especially if it worked on a deeper emotional level. Thanks so much for letting me know.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :D

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I'm really thrilled to know that so many people entered the vid with trepidation on the song choice but left it convinced - that's an incredibly gratifying thing to hear. Thanks for letting me know you liked it - it means a lot to me. :)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Aww, wow, thanks. :)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! What an awesome comment to receive! :)

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Glad to!

And yeah, I know what you mean. I prefer to work with really obscure songs for just that reason. (:

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

Hi. Here from such_heights's rec. A lot of fanvids are just pure fun, but this one actually has Important and Fascinating things to say about gender roles.

[kazzy.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favourite songs, and I'm so glad to see it used so well! Taking and keeping.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Lovely vid, and the song is amazing and perfect for Amy (and Rory)!

[silverhare (from livejournal.com)]

Utterly beautiful.

[elisi]

Just wanted to say that I love this! ♥

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

that's exactly what i got out of the vid! at first i felt my attitude toward rory confirmed--that he's one of the people who's holding amy back. but then there was this shift and i thought, huh, maybe he isn't. so, yeah, that totally worked for me!

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

It was so, so wonderful to watch - a very complex and clever on Doctor Who as a children's fantasy fairy-tale. I had lots of ruminations on Amelia Pond and Peter Pan, but chaila43 said all the stuff far better than I could, so I'll just give you lots and lots and lots of love for this vid:

♥