VID: With Blood [Mass Effect] [Vidukon Premiere]

[beccatoria]

Title: With Blood
Video: Mass Effect 1 + 2 + 3// Bioware
Audio: Bleeding Out // Imagine Dragons
Summary: All Shepards choose to save you.
Vidder's Notes: Vidukon 2013 Premiere!

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 85 megs approx.

Cross-posted to vidding and vidding and masseffect and bioware. So basically everywhere...?

Other vids available here.

Comments

[violace]

A MASS EFFECT VID AT VIDUKON. :D This makes me so happy. One of my top 5 favourite fandoms since I finished the series last month and I've been catching up on all the ME fan vids - the really good ones are rare, I find, but this is definitely one of them. I love the way you incorporated the various Shepards.

[beccatoria]

YAY! :D I'm so glad you enjoyed it - and I completely agree with you that it's hard to find good ME vids, but the ones that are out there are the best. So pleased you think this is one of them. Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it!

[obsessive24]

I really enjoyed watching this! Had absolutely no idea what's happening but I loved the editing and how crisply you put it together, I was absolutely fascinated by what was going on. I must have pretty much missed all of the plot points, but still, I loved that sense of parallel universes and events playing out the same way regardless of the specifics of the protagonist. I thought it was very cool. :)

[beccatoria]

Thank you! I'm glad it was fun to watch even without an understanding of the series. The idea of playing with the shifting nature of the protagonist was too fun to pass up when I got the idea to play with the identical animation - very glad it ended up working, visually. :D

[jetpack_monkey]

I cannot breathe right now. Cannot. Breathe.

Just... capturing the multiversal nature of Mass Effect. You don't even start from the same place in every game, but every choice you make leads you to the same inevitable fate.

She/he/I/you make a final choice in a cycle predicated on the destruction of choice.

The switching between Shepards of all varieties, the flashing between Ashleys and Kaidans, the heartbreaking sacrifice of Thane or Major Kirrahe. Mordin being assassinated or sacrificing himself.

Ugh. So much emotion. I love this. Thank you for making it.

[beccatoria]

Aww, thank YOU for letting me know how much you enjoyed it. I'm so thrilled it spoke to you and this line -

She/he/I/you make a final choice in a cycle predicated on the destruction of choice

- Man, what a spectacularly succinct yet perfect way of putting it. I need to remember that line; it captures so much so perfectly. ♥

Thank you again for your comment.

[ryuosen]

Breath taking...!!!

Lovely how you managed to include all the various decisions made over the course of the games and show how they still lead to the very same end.

Great!!

[beccatoria]

Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it - thank you for letting me know!

[darkmoon]

That was absolutely brilliant!!! HOLY CRAP! I loved it so much!

[beccatoria]

Awww, yay! Thank you! And thank you for letting me know!

[chaila]

This is so gorgeous, just an amazing concept beautifully executed. The epicness is everywhere, and the switching back and forth between different characters is such a brilliant idea and just visually works so well. The sense of choices leading to different stories and characters, weaving in and around each other, is really great, and makes this seem like a really interesting meditation on being the person in charge of the story. This really feels like a vid about gaming and fandom, and how being the person making the choices controls the story, and knowing how other choices spin the story off in different directions makes it all richer.

[beccatoria]

♥

Thanks - it means a lot to me that the message seems to be coming across so clearly even to people who aren't familiar with the game. I wanted it to work on a meta level as well as an emotional level within the narrative(s) itself, and I think that's coming through. Your point about how the game feels richer for knowing all the other choices that sprawl out before you is absolutely spot-on.

*flails*

[caramarie]

This is fantastic – I have to watch it a bunch more times now because there's so much detail, and even just watching a second time I noticed so many more (heartbreaking!) juxtapositions.

Now I'm going to go hide in the corner being all emotional about Mass Effect again ...

[beccatoria]

\o/ I would apologise but I'm not sorry. :p I am, however, really glad you liked it and think it's worth rewatching - that's incredibly gratifying to hear. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment.

[laurashapiro]

Whoa, so meta! I love it! Beautifully done.

[beccatoria]

Thank you so much! :D

[goodbyebird]

So so happy you got this up in time so I can take it with me and watch it a bunch more times :D

[beccatoria]

:D No problem! I probably would have gotten it up before you left anyway, but I was actually aware that you were going away and wanted the download.

I'm so glad you liked it!

Also, I miss you already. :( I will have to do another Vidukon JUST SO I CAN MAKE YOU COME TO IT.

[walkthegale]

I have maybe mentioned to you once or twice how much I love this vid, right? ;D

It's just absolutely gorgeous on so many levels! And I have to play all the games and then come back and watch it a whole bunch more times...

[beccatoria]

Aww, yes, you did let me know, and thank you so much. <3

I'm so thrilled you liked it even without knowledge of the games, and yes, you MUST try to find a way to play it. It's...well, honestly, it's frustrating in places, both in gameplay and story, but looking at it as a whole...canon, a whole story, it's just breathtaking and left me feeling satisfied on narrative and character levels in a way very few stories ever have. Plus it's full of creepy awesome science fiction social commentary ideas. Which I think somehow a lot of gamer dudebros missed in amongst the speechifying and the Big Damn Guns, but that's their loss.

At which point I should probably stop holding you hostage while I yell about a game you've never played, but seriously, thank you; I'm really very, very happy it went over so well with people.

[purplefringe]

This vid is just SO GOOD. I don't think I can properly express that to you, even via the very expressive medium of CAPSLOCK.

SO GOOD.

I am not, and never have been a gamer. I know NOTHING about Mass Effect (or rather - knew nothing. I may have just spent half an hour googling, after my 3rd viewing of this vid...I feel more clued up now) and this vid still gives me ALL THE FEELINGS! It's just so epic and so well cut and the blurring in and out between the different versions of the characters is amazing. Even to someone who has never played this game, it manages to completely sweep the viewer up in the story, it is totally accessible, and gives the wonderful feeling of an adventure playing out across many parallel worlds....

Have I mentioned that it's really good?

[beccatoria]

I DUNNO, MAN, CAPSLOCK IS VERY EXRESSIVE (AND APPRECIATED!) :D

I'm not really a gamer either - mainly because they don't make many of the types of games I like to play, but if you ever have the chance to play Mass Effect, I suggest you sling it on an easy difficulty setting and give it a go. Before this I never even really liked the idea of a branching narrative; but there's something powerful about that...knowledge that you're playing one of a million variations of the same story, but that it is, in a tangible way, the same story. (And I literally mean a million; by the time you get to the third game, if you've imported over each time, there are over a thousand variables, some of which only ever matter mechanically, behind the scenes, some of which are acknowledged in a single line of passing dialogue, some of which cause massive divergences in plot).

Anyway, I'm sorry, I'm rambling. The point is, I've been incredibly gratified by the positive response this has gotten, especially from people unfamiliar with the series. It's just...exactly how I wanted people to feel, and making a vid and seeing people get what you meant is the best feeling in the world.

So thank you.

[concinnity]

This is amazing. SO GOOD. So meta. Such great clip choices. And the music. Oh man. The vid itself could've been gory, but letting the music do that work for you, letting it be us and Shepard at once...SO GOOD. I LOVE IT A LOT.

[concinnity]

I came back because I wanted to leave better feedback, but I still am nothing but *handshandshands* Mass Effect 1 was my first video game (a few years back now) and I was blown away by it. This vid just does such a fantastic job showing what it feels like. I just. *hands*

[isweedan]

NICE

[beccatoria]

THANK! :D

[merlose]

Watching this made me feel sad and proud and also want to learn to vid? Basically I loved it A LOT, thank you for making it. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

[beccatoria]

Good lord, how did I miss this comment?! I'm so sorry - it must have gotten lost in my inbox. But thank you so much! What a wonderful comment to receive! And you absolutely, totally should learn to vid.

Thanks so much for letting me know you enjoyed it! :D

[anenko]

This is really gorgeous.

[beccatoria]

Thank you! :D

[cyborganize]

aaaaaaah metasplosion! I wish so many of the plot subtleties didn't go over my head -- I gather this references the controversial ME3 ending? but what is absolutely clear and striking is what another commenter called the multiverse -- the experience of different first-person characters existing within identical stories. the visual gesture you used to toggle between Shepards is so distinct and so unique to video game footage! superb pacing with the buildup to the epic polysexual makeout scene, omg. I would definitely screen this if I ever need an example for teaching video games.

p.s. is there no masterlist of VidUKon premieres anywhere? vidukon_cardiff?

[beccatoria]

Thank you! :D I'm really glad that the meta experiential aspects came through.

Answering your question about the ending is a little tricky because it does reference it, but not...entirely directly. It's quite strongly rooted in some of my feelings about the ending and the fan reaction to it, but I think (hope?) it would be inaccurate to characterise the vid as entirely concerned with it. Essentially I wanted the vid to work as a celebration of the diversity of experience we all had, that was still unified by playing the same game, the same broad story. An attempt to grab that...sameness-difference. What makes it interesting is how different things can be, but we can only compare that because there's a core that always remains the same.

So much of the disatisfaction around the ending boiled down to people yelling about how x choice was bad/stupid/wrong (oh invocations of Godwin's law...) or that the final choices in the ending didn't "mean" anything at all. So my personal agenda was, yeah, to sort of...refute that and say, shut up, all of us played a hero, and of course the choice you made mattered.

But, I didn't want it to be preachy (cus I have planned other vids for that MWAHAHAHAHAHA). And I didn't want the message to be overwhelming. Like if a soul exists who DOESN'T know about the ending controversy, I didn't want them to "not get" the vid. I didn't want anyone watching it to go, "OH GOD THAT ENDING DRAHMAH" either because that's...not conduicive to the experience I wanted?

So I tried to vid the message I wanted to convey by, like, celebrating the infinite number of amazing Shepards rather than arguing against the haters who try to keep them down?

I hope it worked, anyway. Though the fact I got a youtube comment saying, "And THAT'S how you make everyone happy!" (it took all my self control not to reply saying that I literally vidded the events of the game) suggests I may have missed the mark.

Then again, that comment was from a dude who watched the vid and rememebered all the great feelings he had when playing the game. Which was the point. I shouldn't be a cynic. ;)

EPIC COMMENT ENDS HERE. That was probably way more information than you wanted... :p

As to vidukon, ugh, yeah, we're still short a few playlists, and some of those I know are actively incoming. I'm not sure the status of premieres but certainly at some point it's something that should get done. I'll see if anyone else was planning to do it...

[noldo]

Having just watched this for about the eleven billionth time since the con, this is still really awesome, I am utterly blown away by your elegant editing, and also so many feelings.

[beccatoria]

Awww yay! Thank you so much! I'm so thrilled you liked it and thanks so much for letting me know!

[erinna]

This is the best mass effect vid I've ever seen, and possibly the best game vid. Such beautiful, smooth, seamless editing, great song choice, and a wonderful idea perfectly executed. Such a pleasure to watch.

I admit, I teared up!

[frith_in_thorns]

This is astounding and beautiful. I downloaded it last night, and have watched it at least five times so far. Gorgeous.

[thirdblindmouse]

I saw this a few months ago with laura47. I've never played Mass Effect so at first all I could tell for certain about what was happening was that it was epic and sad and beautifully edited, but I could tell something even more was going on with all the shifting visuals. So at the end we turned to Laura, since she's played Mass Effect, and we found her flailing and unable to produce language. When she finally got her words back she explained what you were doing with the source and all the different versions of the characters, and holy shit. I am so impressed.

[thirdblindmouse]

Five years and far too many hours of Mass Effect later, this vid remains my platonic ideal of a Mass Effect vid. *_*

[jb_slasher]

Never played the game so I know next to nothing about it but this is Awesome!

[curiouscorvid]

I don't have much to say that hasn't been said already, but thank you for this. I tear up every time I watch it, and it just summarizes my feels about MY Sheppard, and her journey. Thank you.

[curiouscorvid]

Gahhh. The details! I just can't believe how much you for into every second of every frame. I need to reward this a hundred times.

I'll be reading your mass effect recs after. :p

[jetpack_monkey]

I just watched this again after finishing the first Mass Effect game and it remains *stunning*. I'm honestly overwhelmed. I want to make my own ME vids, but... man, I don't know if I could ever make anything that's as good as what you've done in this fandom.

[beccatoria]

So firstly, sorry this is so late! Secondly, wow, thank you, that is incredibly high praise, but also, your vids are wonderful and I'd love to see what you could do with the games... I hope you do make something at some point, because I'd love to watch it! :D

[mswyrr]

I keep watching this over and over (and forcing my friends to watch it lol) because it is *so fucking gorgeous* and centers Femshep and her epic awesomeness as a character, in all her variations. Also, your vidding skills are freaking midnblowing!

Thank you for working in this fandom!

[beccatoria]

Wow, somehwo I think I didn't get notified of this comment! But thank you so much for such wonderful praise. I'm really glad it works for you and um, sorry not sorry about your friends? ;)

Thank YOU for taking the time to comment! :D

[alwaystheocean]

I felt the need to re-watch this after the clip at Vidukon this year and holy shit. It's just as good as I remember and I think I do have to play Mass Effect. o.o

[beccatoria]

:D! YES PLAY IT, PLAYYYYYYY ITTTTT. <3