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Artist/Song Title: Garbage - Metal Heart
Subject: The X Files, Scully PoV, Vid-Challenge Season1: Paranoia
Summary: ’But now that we know for sure they're telling lies when they say, no one gets hurt and therefore nobody dies.‘ Paranoia is knowing all the facts.
Length: 03:59 | Size: 64 MB | Format: 720x400 - AVI - zip
Links: megaupload, mediafire, permanent link
While in the mists of vidding 'Matches to Paper Dolls' I said to
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xandra_ptv, 'We should do a TXF vid-challenge. One vid per season.' Xandra being who she is said, 'Sure.' Because this is the stuff I randomly throw at her to see if something sticks. Finding the right song on such short notice was an hair-pulling experience I will repeat in about, uhm, NOW. The season itself holds up pretty well when you consider it was filmed 1992/93, they had some really cool scenes for TV back then. So this vid happened, mostly because I found S1-Scully precious and her hair wasn't as bad as I remembered, which can only mean that S2 will be hilarious in that department.
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And I was positively surprised by how well that show aged, questionable fashion choices aside, they really took care directing and filming. Okay, enough rambling, I'm thrilled that you loved the vid and the challenge behind it and thank you so much for your feedback.
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I'll stop nattering now! No need to respond to this. :) I'm just so glad you made it.
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Thanks for sharing that. :)
I love your vidding aesthetic, so much. I've been a huge, huge fan of yours ever since your SPN vid "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost," which is still my single favorite vid of all time. (/apropos of nothing except fangirling)
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Hehe, I loved making 'To be a Ghost' - it was a vidding high. I tried the alpha mask in one scene, after that I suddenly had enough room on my timeline to include clip alternatives and the song worked fantastic with the effect and Dean. Good times.
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Great lyrics, too, for this show.
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- Over the lyric "world is round", everything from Scully scanning old newspapers to Scully in the woods during the pilot, holding her gun on the sheriff.
- The clip of Scully and Mulder giving each other wary, intense looks during 'Ice'.
- The entire second repeat of the chorus, especially Scully squinting and looking closer at [whatever Mulder is showing her], and the arial shot of Mulder and Scully standing in the crop circle at the end of 'Gender Bender'. I wish you'd held on that a little longer. I don't know, it just feels so right the way the tempo of the song kind of slows at the exact moment we get that arial shot. I would have loved another second to really feel the impact of that shot.
- I also like the way the crop circle and the stop watches play literally on the word "round" in the chorus.
- Scully looking at Mulder in the hospital during 'Beyond the Sea', over the lyric "for I think I'm done". Good emotion.
- Scully in her bright red suit giving Mulder a coy look as they walk along. I can't remember which episode that's from - 'Shadows'?
I think this is a pretty sophisiticated vid, and a fairly challenging one for the viewer as well. Conceptually it's very rich and complex. It's rapid and relentless, and it doesn't seem to have a clear, simple narrative or any key emotions, which makes it feel quite murky - but in a deliberate, moody sort of way. I think you captured Dana Scully's character in S1, and her experience of S1 incredibly well. You're like the Scully-whisperer where vids are concerned. Plus the song is a truly excellent Scully track (and there are very few Scully tracks I really like).
I'm surprised that you took such a serious, somber look at S1, because in contrast to the later seasons it's easy to see S1 as the "light" season. But I'm really glad you took a darker approach, because really, there was a lot of frightening and foreboding things that happened in S1. I think this vid captures Scully's youthful innocence and vulnerability, while also illustrating the beginning of her transformation as a character, and the ominous events that sank the hook in her, ensuring that she would be drawn relentlessly forwards into the darkness.
And I love how much conspiracy and paranormal material you used. That's another sophisticated thing: focusing on what the characters are focusing on, and creating a sense of the characters through their work, rather than always focusing on the characters themselves. I love that.
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The thing is it didn't even cross my mind to do a lighthearted vid, probably because Xandra already had it covered with 'Teenagers', but mostly, because I felt Season 1 was a very gloomy season for Scully. Hence the reason why the first clear shot we see of her in 'Metal Heart' is the one in which the lights go out for Mulder's presentation. The darkness engulfs her. All these connections to her former FBI life, dating and friends are getting severed - sometimes painfully and other times with much deliberation on her part. She chose the darkness, because she was so curious what was lurking in it and Mulder offered her to show her things that would blow her mind. I mean that is part of why I love her, she could have walked away after the pilot or any other ep and nobody could have blamed her. Not Skinner, not her other superiors. But she didn't, instead she formed a bond with Mulder within two cases and trusted him completely on his sincerity. That he seriously believed that the truth was out there and given the right tools it was ready for discovery and answering the right questions would set it free.
I talked with Xandra about this and I honestly think that Scully instantly fell in love with Mulder's mind, the way it worked and how it approached cases from a unique and slightly crazy angle. Because it was completely different from her position and she just has this delighted 'I can't believe he is saying what he is saying'-expression on her face all the time in S1. He entertained her immensely and her own scientific curiosity was equally challenged and satisfied while working on the x files. I mean watching her bored out of her mind teaching in the beginning of S2 in Quantico did settle this point for me.
Okay, to touch on some of the points you mentioned. I had the longer version of the arial shot for the longest time in the vid and I agree it did look awesome. The way it grinded the vid to an halt. But as always with vidding, I get to the end of my time line and I really want to use some shots in the vid, even without the open room for them. So often the shots that are purposeful long will have to yield some of their magic. This was the case here, I agree it's hard to say, if it was the right decision to cut, but I liked it better this way otherwise I would have undone it. But I absolutely get what you're going at. I just loved cinematic atmosphere of the crash site and stop watches, too. Sometimes Vidding is hard - Heh.
I adored her expression on 'I'm done' - it's one of my favourites in the vid. She looks so utterly tired and defeated. And her smile in Shadow was so cool, it was a scene I had to keep. 'Ice' is so intense, one of my favorite eps. And yes, there were really awesome shots in S1, that I couldn't resist. It just gives this wider scope on their world and if they are beautiful I love to use them. I agree, I don't think they are visual fillers and instead wield the viewers attention to what the characters are doing, seeing, working on. It just adds in my opinion and it's something that really did work great with the season overview theme Xandra and I had going.
Uhm, thank you again, for this feedback love letter, I feel like snuggling up with it and it was wonderful to read your thoughts. Thank you for taking the time.
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I didn't notice that before, but it's a really great detail. Very appropriate.
She chose the darkness, because she was so curious what was lurking in it and Mulder offered her to show her things that would blow her mind. I mean that is part of why I love her, she could have walked away after the pilot or any other ep and nobody could have blamed her. Not Skinner, not her other superiors.
It's little wonder I love your Scully vids so much, as I tend to agree emphatically with pretty much everything you say about her. And it's no wonder that we both reject IWTB so completely. It has always infuriated me that Scully's taste for and iron-clad commitment to the work seems to have been the most clearly characterized in the earlier seasons. She didn't leave when, in her first month on the job, Tooms tried to rip her liver from her body. She told Mulder in 'Beyond the Sea' that she loved her job. It was only S1, but already she knew her priorities and her values.
You'd think that would have solidified still more in the later seasons, and on into the second movie, but instead her resolve, passion, and curiosity for the work seemed to erode and weaken over time. It was as though CC couldn't think of Scully as someone who was strong and professional and passionate about her work, while also thinking of her as a woman. As soon as the show started to acknowledge her as a woman, it also started to stereotype her, and to undermine the character she'd always been.
I talked with Xandra about this and I honestly think that Scully instantly fell in love with Mulder's mind, the way it worked and how it approached cases from a unique and slightly crazy angle. Because it was completely different from her position and she just has this delighted 'I can't believe he is saying what he is saying'-expression on her face all the time in S1. He entertained her immensely and her own scientific curiosity was equally challenged and satisfied while working on the x files. I mean watching her bored out of her mind teaching in the beginning of S2 in Quantico did settle this point for me.
YES.
My doggedly rationalist side absolutely doesn't believe in love at first sight, but I agree anyway. There was something strong and wise and passionate in Scully that hadn't really had any use before, but when she walked into that basement office, it suddenly had a use, and it started to grow in her like a seed. So while I don't believe in instantaneous love, I believe that she loved that feeling of purpose in herself - so it was inevitable that she also loved whatever beautiful thing it was in Mulder that had set this dormant part of herself to growing.
Not that I think it took very long for them to love each other more pervasively.
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I'm just not sure, why her commitment to the work wasn't enough on its own as a drive for the writers, considering the losses she faced over the years to harden her resolve to fuck this conspiracy up to the ninth degree. It became personal with her abduction and then Melissa's death, her cancer and why on earth, did her infertility take center stage in the season in which she already was pregnant? Such repetitive storytelling. I really didn't need to see her asking Mulder to be a sperm donor, if it wasn't in the context of her taking him against a wall and have her wicked way with him. Season 8 was in ways the worst offender, because it felt so uninspired. The writers didn't take risks - none and the risks were what made the earlier seasons so great, especially on gender roles and stereotypes. Plus half of Mulder's S8 appearances were completely wasted in my eyes. Trying to reproduce the chemistry with a male partner did backfire and in retrospective I would have loved watching a season of her and Monica Reyes kicking ass. (I only seen S8, Xandra told me they fucked her character up in S9, but I cover my ears and go lalalalala.)