Vid: Machine [Mass Effect]

[beccatoria]

This premiered at the WisCon Vid Party last night! :D

Title: Machine
Video: Mass Effect // Bioware
Audio: Machine // Regina Spektor
Summary: The war is in your body. The future is here. The future is a machine.
Notes: Spoilers for all three games. Vid features close variations on the default FemShep model from ME1 & ME2 (due to impossibility of using prior footage with the default from 3). With many thanks to cosmic_llin for the song inspiration.

Direct download available here. 94 megs approx. RightClickSaveAs.

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

Cross-posted to vidding and masseffect [link]

Other vids available here.

Comments

[eponymous-rose.livejournal.com]

Just stumbled across this now, and holy crap this is good. A lot of things I'd always been uncomfortable with in the games' narrative suddenly clicked into place (including the ending), and now I'm looking at the series from a totally different perspective. Thank you for that! I'm often frustrated by sci-fi depictions of technological/biological struggles, because it's the future and there's not so much a sharp dividing line between organics and synthetics as there is a messy, constanty evolving techno-biological soup. This vid made me sit back and go, "Hey, Mass Effect got it right!"

Gorgeous editing, too. The "my eyes are bifocals" line is a fantastic hook in terms of editing, I love the little shudders on the low notes just as the kid is introduced, and the subtle little zooms here and there are really brilliant (loved the completion of the N7 on Legion especially). I think my favourite juxtaposition of shots would have to be that flash of the Reapers approaching the galaxy right next to the flash of Shepard approaching the synthesis beam. The song choice is so perfect, and your matching clips to the lyrics is flawless ("who just lacks my perspective", "pre-war/post-war apartment", "who covets my defects" are my faves). And I am always a fan of FemShep/Liara.

Anyway, yes, loved this very much, thank you for making it!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you - seriously, thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and detailed comment. This is just fantastic to receive. The idea that I helped provide a new perspective on the game and its ending is humbling and incredibly gratifying. I adored the ending, essentially for all the reasons you state, the way the universe embraces the messy, diverse, contradictory, continuum of the relationship between biology and technology without offering clear answers except that it's an issue that is unavoidable and important? But - obviously - a lot of people didn't see it such a positive light, and I've been on the other side of this kind of situation too - painfully, horribly let down by the end of something I loved. So, anyway, tl;dr, the point is, the idea that I helped anyone take another look at the ending with a fresh perspective is pretty much the best piece of feedback I could ever get on this vid. So thank you.

Also, I'm so glad you liked the editing. You basically picked out everything I loved! :D You're right, the lyrics and the song are just so perfect, I almost feel I can't take credit for the vid! I spent ages trying to work out how to handle the "low note" judders you mentioned. I didn't have anything there for a long time and it didn't look right. Ultimately I went with a shifting zoom-blur to mimic unfocused camera movement. I wanted subtle, but noticeable - so thanks for noticing! And yes! The N7 on "covets my defects". That was one of the earliest things I knew I wanted to do in the vid because it was too perfect not to try, but I was really unsure if I'd be able to pull off the masking. It was a little tricky but actually easier than I'd feared, I think partly down to the uniformity of computer game graphics. I actually used the N7 from Shepard's hoodie in a different shot to composite over the chestplate (resized, and stuff).

I also saw you recced this over on the dreamwidth vidrecs comm - thank you so much, it was a totally awesome rec. ♥