New Vid: The Boy Was A Puppet (Harry Potter)
Video Details
Title: the boy was a puppet
Song Artist: Rob Thomas
Video Artist: Fabella (wistful_fever)
Summary: One day Harry will be a real boy. Gen. Harry. Angst.
Source: Harry Potter: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF
Length: 4:31
Format: avi, rm
Image credits: The Leaky Cauldron and Stock.xchng
Download Details
Real Media, 22.1mb, zipped @ obsessive24.net (right click, save target as)
51mb AVI @ megaupload
Watch On-Line @ Imeem
Links Last Updated: 05/17/08
Feedback
Yes, yes, and yes. I really enjoy hearing what you think.
Brief Vid Notes
I've been working on this video in my head since before I even knew what song I would use or had seen the GoF movie, but it needed GoF footage to make sense. Obviously, having read all the books helped me out in the pre-editing process, because I knew basically what scenes the would pick to include and what ones I could definitely count on not being there. I think having planned the video so in advance of my ability to edit it actually hindered me, because the video had a very certain shape in my mind, and it was difficult to separate myself from what that and what the video wanted to be.
Picking the song was an issue for me this time around (yet again), because I've used a lot of popular music in my vidding-history, and more than that, I've used Rob Thomas' vocals from Matchbox20 before, but when something clicks for me, I can't usually pull myself from it, even if I know I'll never ever show anyone the finished product because I'm sure it won't click for *them*. Luckily, here, I think the popular music was the right choice. If not, I'll take my bad feedback in stride.
My last real HP vid, "Golden Boy" was also a Harry vid, but from the pov of another character, the outside looking in. I like that video, the irony of it, but I really wanted it to be a more intimate look at Harry, and it turned into something more distanced and delicate than that. Delicate might be the wrong word, but it's what the video is translating in my head as. "The Boy was a Puppet" fulfilled my wish to drop the 'world on his shoulders' anvil, and I focused on his sort of love/hate relationship with the wizarding world. From the inside looking out, this time, he keeps trying to please, to make a place in that world, but he's a puppet on strings for most of them, even the ones that love him, and that will probably get him killed eventually.
The green coloring was a nod to the Killing Curse, and what might be Harry's inevitable fate and is already his shadow. I feel like a tool for even mentioning it, because most of you will get it.
My favorite bit from the vid is a really simple part within the water sequence, the clip where Harry is underwater holding the egg and it's singing to him, shining with light to the 'all that I am'. Like I said, I had a lot of ideas going into this video, about how it would be filled with action and Harry being a hero, but that's not really how I think of him, even if he kind of IS a hero in my head. He's... just a boy. And he's very lonely, despite having found great friends in Ron and Hermione. There's just always something separate about him and his interactions with other characters in the books. That underwater clip, Harry holding a beautiful secret in his hands where no one but him can hear it, it encapsulates pretty much every ache I've ever had while reading the books.
I had compression issues again. Very bad, very painful compression issues. I've done as much as I'm able. *facepalm*
Oh! And since I can't seem to do vidding commentaries any more, and I feel like I'm neglecting the audience in some ways, feel free to ask me any questions regarding clip choice, how I did something, why I did something, etc., etc., and so on.
*
Whee! I'm back in the game. Finished this video, wrote a crap load on various different writing projects, actually did my vidder_weekly article and am planning future ones just in case I get like this again, and I've begun going through my back log of comments and reading the f-list again.
Imagine, actively participating and not ghosting through.
What's really amazing is that I managed to not alienate my friends while doing all this stuff. Usually they get kicked to the curb so I can be insular, creative, and a social outcast despite their best efforts at, you know, *including* me.
*waves*
Hi, guys. I have so much stress off my chest right now.