BSG Vid: Trapdoor Trigger

[beccatoria]

Ironically, my first occasion to use my shiny new icon for a vid post and it's not even about the Cylon. I'm sure the subjects of this vid would disapprove mightily. ;)

Title: Trapdoor Trigger
Video: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Audio: 90-mile Water Wall // The National
Spoilers: Through 4x14 Blood on the Scales.
Summary: The arbitrary brutality of civilian life.
Editor's Notes: As always, my thanks to cyborganize for the beta. Also I used Pinnacle to edit this, which was an...interesting experience. I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it.

Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 33 megs approx.

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

Cross-posted to galactica_vids and vidding.

Other vids available here.

Comments

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Ooooohhhhh!!!!!!!!! I love this!!! The senseless violence, the lives of the few sacrificed for the many, to the point where there's hardly a "many" left. This show has never been terribly good at telling the stories of the fleet, yet they're such a key part of what is going on in this show. I utterly adored all the cutting between Laura and the violence, because just...yes. I'm not feeling very thinky this morning. But this is wonderful!

[heyiya.livejournal.com]

I still love it! It's really wonderful to see BSG from these neglected perspectives when the show is so much about justifying/explaining the behaviour of those in power. As I said to you before, the inclusion of Gaeta and Dee works really well. It's telling that we don't have a nongovernment civilian character that we have the level of empathy we do with them, but their fates are really part of the fate of the civilian fleet anyway, I think. I loved the way you presented the mutiny. And the last shot really packs a punch.

[charmax.livejournal.com]

This is a wonderful vid so powerful and surprisingly moving given it's focus on minor characters. I love the way the violence is spinning around Laura and her obliviousness/indifference to the "everyman" and "woman" characters of the fleet the ones who do all the work in oppressive and shitty circumstances while the military and government types get all the glory.

I think you worked Dee and Gaeta into this really well because although they are part of the military they are so utterly taken for granted quietly getting the job done until they just can't take it anymore.

Like I said, wonderful vid.

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is so powerful.

I'm impressed that you got so far into the perspective of the everyday people in the Fleet, (or pre-Fleet, counting that first shot of poor dead-baby daddy), particularly because you managed to make me temporarily hate all your favorite characters!The shot of Caprica and Boomer from the civilians perspective is haunting, following those scenes from "Sacrifice."

I'm a little in awe of how you made "The Woman King" so poignant. ;)

Raia! The thing is that all (or at least many) of the incidents you focus on, when we saw them initially from the main characters' perspectives, we could sympathize with Helo shooting the civilian off the raptor-wing or Laura issuing the blanket pardon or banning abortion, but to the people on the ground it all seems so heartless. Similarly, I still think there's at least some difference between the Galacticans and the Pegasoids, to the their victims, maybe not so much.

Everything with Dee and Gaeta from about 2:00 on is just... ouch. And that final image of the whiteboard.

Oh, and thank you so much for showing me Seelix having one of my favorite characters pulpified and making me, like, approve. ;)

SO well done!

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

Civilians! Yay! I love civilians.

*sucker-punch*


It's a gorgeous vid, especially how you've used Laura and all my favorite Cylons, who I now want to inflict violence on. Apparently the mutiny didn't cure my bloodlust, since none of this has ever, and probably now won't ever, be resolved. It makes me so angry. They keep bleeding away, and Roslin marks their passage as just numbers on the board.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

SQUEEEEEEE!!!! YOU DID NOT VID THIS SONG!!!! I have been wanting a BSG vid to this song for-ev-er and here you've gone and made it! Okay, initial flail over so I'm going to go, er, watch it now. . . [saves space]

As always, this is gorgeous. Really, really fabulous use of the song and the metaphor of the arbitrary violence as a tidal wave is really kind of awesome. I also love how you've used Laura here, as others have said, maybe not as oblivious to the indiviudal members of the fleet, but certainly apparently so, seemingly less concerned for them than as the fleet in the abstract. It's hard to show the Roslin cabal from the POV of the fleet, as we get so little from the fleet's eye view in the show, but the way you've edited this deftly gets that across. From many of their points of view, I imagine she IS a straight-up dictator and your intercutting with her and the violence gutted me for that reason. Really great tie-in with Gaeta and the mutiny too. I have a feeling that I'll love this more every time I watch it.

[cylune9.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You just hit a sore spot I have about BSG and that's the people's point of view is ignored and dismissed so easily. It must be so hard on those poor civilians to live with the consequences of other people's decisions without having any power to change anything. You live in tiny prisons and your faith is completely at the mercy other people. You have no say. Your video perfectly showed their pain and suffering.

Great, great video. Thank you so much for making it.

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

This is lovely and very poignant. I especially liked your attention to the changes some of the smaller regular characters have undergone. And I thought the end was just perfect. :}

[chamalla.livejournal.com]

Very powerful. My feelings are really conflicted right now. Even though you had almost every storyline in BSG about people in the fleet in this vid, instead of making them, their lives and deaths look important, it made me feel their despair and futile effort to find a meaning and purpose in their lives.
One thing is for sure, I'm going to think about it for some time.
And the editing is perfect!

[malfeasanceses.livejournal.com]

The civilians! I've wanted this level of caring for them for so long on the show. Thank you!

Now I just need someone to care about the Centurions...

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Yay, secondary characters! I love when people vid them. They've seen such violence too. Such people Laird, Seelix, Jammer. Look at them now. Even people like Kendra and Felix. It makes me wonder how such events can ever, ever be reconciled.

My favorite part was the freeze frame explosion. I haven't gotten freeze frame to work like I've wanted it to yet. How is it using Pinnacle? Any thoughts yet?

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Oh, beautiful and heartbreaking and OUCH. I love the minor characters (Gaeta is my especial pet, and that shot of Lee walking right by him without a word was just... OUCH.), and I wish the show gave a little more weight to their perspective. I also loved the Kendra and Laird sections- that was just heartbreaking. and the cyclic aspect... funny in a not-haha sort of way.

Gorgeous stuff!

[falafel-musings.livejournal.com]

This is such a unique and powerful vid. The suffering of the little people. *sniff* I agree with everyone who said it was appropriate to highlight Felix and Dee. I think those two are very representative of how this journey took its toll on the best of people, how life in the fleet can push the powerless to desparation. Very thought-provoking work.

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is a weird vid to suddenly stumble onto years later - like, I don't even know what I thought it was before and what made me not watch it then. But OH MY GOD, I'm so glad I found it now. Perfectly done and somber and poignant (even The Woman King! even Sacrifice!) and I love the use of the whiteboard because for once it almost feels dehumanizing to have these suffering and dead reduced to numbers. Just love the overall POV of this and how these minor characters blur together but also seem like real individual people to mourn. (Plus SEELIX, my heart.)