New Vid - Stargate SG-1, Flagpole Sitta (aka A Decade Of Whump)

[littleheaven]

It's been burning my brain for ages, and I've finally managed to get down to it and vid this song. I had a rather irksome issue with corrupting files to overcome (thanks to my DVD's being region decoded as I was trying to edit the vob files) and some very time-consuming RL stuff, but it's finally finished!

Firstly, I have to say that I can't believe the song hasn't been used for this subject and fandom before. Perhaps it has (and if so, I honestly didn't intentionally pinch anyone's idea). But I Googled and searched Kawoosh and no dice.

Secondly, a huge thanks to obsessive24 for a really helpful and thorough beta. I learned a lot from you, although it almost killed me in the process!

By way of notes... the premise is simple. Dr Daniel Jackson - has any character in Sci-Fi been maimed, tortured, driven insane and killed more often? That he's still around after 10 seasons of whumping is incredible. And he's still pretty :o) As far as the technical side of things goes, I wanted to do a very old-school (to use obsessive24's description) style of editing. No flashy effects, just clean cutting. At the same time, I was conscious of trying not to be too metronomic. Hopefully I succeeded.

Downloads are Windows Media (you'll need version 9 or higher, I believe). Please do not hotlink, take clips, claim as your own, upload to MySpace or YouTube (or similar sites) or pass on to the artists or television companies involved. This is just for fun. No profit is made.

Dedicated to the Time Turners. See, I can finish something! *g*

Download at my website.

Comments

[obsessive24.livejournal.com]

Yay! I love all the new little touches you put on it, especially in the endgame. So much movement - I love it!

Just a couple of points in your email, which I'm too lazy to separately reply to so I'll just pop them here.

1) Your hubby vids, too? I didn't even know that. Would we know him?

2) I actually got called out by a vidder who said my clips were too
fast, once. They said it made a serious subject look too comical.
That's probably true. Certainly I just recently read somewhere that sped-up clips never seem to work particularly well except in comedy vids. I can see how a serious subject needs more time to mull over certain shots or the general mood. But this vid is just soooo full of the funny!pain and the action and the GLEE that I think pushing for faster really paid off. I just hope you agree! :D

The audio is now very normal from my end. :)

I hope you're pimping this vid around. As you said yourself, not many of your friends-list knows SG1, so while we appreciate your awesome editing we really can't appreciate all the context and in-jokes; and I want to see you get as much happy feedback as you rightly deserve. :D

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Hee! Glad you liked it. I went through and fiddled with some off timing on a couple of clips, too. One slap and also the sneeze. I was so obsessed I ended up trying to edit with the baby on my lap bashing the keyboard. *g*

1) Your hubby vids, too? I didn't even know that. Would we know him?

I doubt it, he's pretty under the radar and doesn't really care for the conventions of vidding. He has some interesting methods, though. His vid page is here: http://www.littleheaven70.com/griffsvids.html I think Garden State is pretty good. Just Dropped In isn't bad, either. And Three Libras has some interesting effects in it.

But this vid is just soooo full of the funny!pain and the action and the GLEE that I think pushing for faster really paid off. I just hope you agree! :D

Yep, totally agree that faster clips work well here. The song has a kind of out-of-control runaway feel that suits them. :o)

[brihana25.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't worry about getting this around to SG1 fans, because with your kind permission, I'd like to pimp this one as much as I did Walk the Dinosaur.

LH, this is AMAZING! The lyric-matching is beyond awesome, the speed and scene changes are fabulous, and you managed to use one of my favoritist scenes *ever*, which I've never seen in a vid before at all (which would be the gun-to-the-neck thing from In the Line of Duty).

I applaud you, standing ovate you, and fall at your feet.

~ bri ~

vid

[(Anonymous)]

Bri-you were absolutely correct -this vid is brilliant - and funny.

[brihana25.livejournal.com]

And now that I've watched it again (and again) I just have to comment on your internals. Hopping on the crutch to the "amputee God damn you!" line (and you sped that one up *perfectly* to match the beat!) made me giggle like you wouldn't believe. The zooming scenes in and out and sliding them around is just fantastic - such an amazing touch that you didn't have to do but that added so much to the overall presentation. The final chorus, whether intentional or not (and I'm leaning toward yes), the color matching (all orange and flamey) is astounding. And you got the water gun shot right on the beat, and to top it all off, you end with him just falling down, and the look on Bill's face, kinda like a "Whoa!"... okay, I swear, I'm going to shut up now.

But please, please let me pimp this. And *please* send it to Creation. He needs to come on stage to this at the next con.

~ bri ~

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Bri, you have made my day! Thank you so much for the kind words :o)

You would not believe how many bits I had to cut up that crutch-hopping scene into to get the timing right (about five or six, LOL).

obsessive24 is to thank for all the motion and zooming - she quite rightly picked me up on pacing issues in the first draft and it's due to her persistence that it flows as it does now.

I did try to get the fire theme all together in that chorus, so I'm glad that came through.

Of course you can pimp it, please do! I would be honoured. I was actually planning to send it to the video comp at the Burbank con in November (I guess we'll be adversaries *g*). If they used it for Michael's stage appearance, would he see it? I would just die! I remember at the con I went to in 2005 he and Chris were joking that someone should make a video of Daniel getting injured to Queen music, and I guess this is partway there... :o)

[phantom-queen.livejournal.com]

Loved it! Love the song, love the shots you chose to include, everything fit so well. I know it was a running joke on the series but there were a couple of times I did a double take because MS looked so much like BB.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hun!

I just have to roll out this icon for your comment :o)

[whisper99.livejournal.com]

Brilliant vid! LOL! I loved it!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I am so pleased you enjoyed it :o)

[switch842.livejournal.com]

I got here by way of brihana and let me just say that I am so glad she pimped this. This was amazing. So perfect. Clips were spot on. It's been awhile since I've been this entertained by a video. Great job!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the feedback! I am glad you liked it :o) I've been wanting to vid Daniel like this for so long.

And the scary thing? I had whump left over. Poor baby.

[nikki-dichotomy.livejournal.com]

Wow, that ROCKED.
The scenes matched with the lyrics perfectly.
I especially love the "sin" lyric matching with Vala biting an apple. *giggles*

GREAT job!!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thank you! :o) I'm so glad someone got that bit - when I first saw the ep I thought how very "Eve in the Garden of Eden" it all seemed. And of course Vala would be the one to be tempted. *g*

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

Wow. This is fantastic. What a perfect song for Daniel and whumpage. *g*

I particularly like that bit in the middle where the music slows and the lyrics are 'you kill my brain' (or something like that) and there are all those graceful, beautiful shots of Daniel getting his brains fried.

My god, so much whumping! I also like seeing all the different Daniels, the young one, the buff one, the bearded one...and all those different reactions he had. I've watched this four times now (it took me that long to ID each cut) and it seems to me that Daniel didn't have a standard reaction to his myriad of travails, which is very cool.

Thank you for sharing this with us!

BTW, would you mind if I posted this LJ url to the SG1HC list on yahoo?

Again, thank you!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Squeee, thank you! It *is* the perfect song, isn't it? I was so sure someone would have beaten me to using it.

I pretty much used all the whump - I used the fab Stargate Wiki at Solutions to find all the eps where he was injured. There was a little I couldn't fit in or just didn't work for vidding, but 95% of it is there.

I would love you to link me! Thanks :o)

*friends back*

[jd-junkie.livejournal.com]

Here via Bri's rec and, damn, but she was right! This is an excellent vid and made me realise all over again why I adore whumped Daniel!
The choice of clips and timing are both spot on. As an occasional if not very competent vidder msyelf, I know how much pain, blood, sweat and bad language goes into these things. So a huge round of applause from me.
Send more!!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. There was indeed both sweat and bad language involved in the making of this - although I think Daniel came out of it in worse shape than I did ;o)

[zats-clear.livejournal.com]

that was great! and you know, now I am going to need to rewatch Holiday to figure out who jumped on the gurney and straddled "Daniel"...hehehe

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

LOL! I think (from watching that jolly clip about a zillion times) that it's Jack. *g*

[paian]

Got here via tenaya. This is so fun! Thanks for making and sharing. Enjoyed it like crazy. :-) :-)

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased! Thank you :o) :o)

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's fabulously funny and perfectly done!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[netbyrd.livejournal.com]

This was wonderful! I don't know any of the vid lingo so bear with me, but I love love love how your lyrics matched up with the visuals. You used a wonderful variety of clips which I really like, and all the seasons are mixed nicely. And I like how the music itself matches up too. Excellent work! Now I'm going to have to check out all your other vids!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The lyrics were so perfect for Daniel, that's what gave me the idea for the vid. Every time I heard it I could just see him getting bashed around, LOL.

Ooh, and I see you're a Quantum Leap fan. *loves Sam Beckett*

[cofax7]

Oh, that was very fun; lots of movement and energy, and just snarky and funny, too.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I do enjoy the snarky side of SG-1.

[iamrosalita.livejournal.com]

Well done! So funny. One of the best SG vids I've seen in awhile.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

So glad you liked it :o) Thanks for the feedback!

[oxbastetxo.livejournal.com]

ROTFL...very cute!

Hee..as the original whumper, you've got the whump stamp of approval!!!

Smile,
Bastet

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome! Thank you :o) I am embracing the whump like never before.

[kuwdora.livejournal.com]

OMfg

*squeals and flails*

I will leave coherent feedback for you at a later date, but OOoOH eeeeeeee ahhhh~ love lovelovelooooooooooooooooove

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

LOL, thank you so much!

[jillsjourney.livejournal.com]

Ha! That was awesome. Poor Daniel.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thanks! He did get a rough deal, didn't he? I spent a lot of my vidding time wincing.

[damnskippytoo.livejournal.com]

See?! I told you. That was sooo bloody awesome I definitely would have thrown mine in the trash.

I'm not a Stargate fan, but I think that's my favorite video of all time right now. I've always enjoyed Daniel whenever I do watch Stargate, but I had no idea the poor guy was the Giles/Xander/Wesley of the SG world. *pets him*

Your synching was impeccable. I LOL'd so many times, but especially with the amputee bit and the food. But then there were all the head bashing parts and...gah!...it was just all frickin' amazing.

And the damn rendering quality was top notch. I hate the way mine rendered, but it took me 3 days just to get something decent enough that I finally gave up trying. Maybe the SG DVD's are just so much higher quality than the Btvs/Ats ones, but I'm just stunned by the clarity.

THAT has to win any contest it's tossed into. You are still the queen of the video, babe. *hugs*

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

See?! I told you. That was sooo bloody awesome I definitely would have thrown mine in the trash.

Thank you! And it would have been a crime if you had, because your vid was great.

I'm really flattered that you downloaded this even though you're not a Stargate fan. *hugs* Actually, Daniel and Wesley are a good comparison. Daniel was thrown out of academia as a laughing stock, and Wesley was thrown out of the Watchers' Council. Daniel is perhaps not quite as bumbling, but hoo boy he got smacked around. And he died about 5 times. In the end it got a bit silly.

Your synching was impeccable.

Ta, hun. I tried really hard with it, but it wasn't much of a stretch in most parts since the song was a great match. The "pierce my tongue" and "trivial sublime" parts were hardest.

With regards to the rendering, I'm not sure if the DVD's are any better quality. Maybe the latter seasons, I think they did 9 and 10 in hi-def, but the others aren't great. But I found a while back that if I rendered my project file directly to wmv or whatever, the quality was dodgy and the effects fell apart. Now I always render straight to a full-quality avi of the same format as the source - so for this one I rendered to NTSC DV Widescreen, which gave me an 850MB file. It's not such a drain on the system because you're not trying to encode to a different format. Then I made my smaller versions from large, complete video file. That way the software is not trying to render all the transitions and effects and compress it at the same time. Rather than use my editing software (Sony Vegas) I just imported the big file into Windows Movie Maker and used that to create the lower-res versions, because it had way more options with regards to variances in filesize and quality. You might want to try that and see if it helps. I know how heartbreaking it is to work on something so hard and then find it won't render in decent quality.

Thank you so much for the lovely feedback. It gave me the big happy :o)

[alicambs.livejournal.com]

I am so impressed by your vid. I think it's the best one I've seen. The lyrics and the clips mesh so well together it's incredible! I've watched it ten times, grabbed daughter - who is a DJ fan as well - and made her see it (she's impressed) and even drooled about it on my LJ! Thank you so much for all the time and effort, and for giving me the pleasure of me seeing Daniel, who manges to look scrumptious even when whumped!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the lovely feedback! I am really pleased you enjoyed the vid. Somehow Daniel is at his most lovely when he's being whumped *g*

[dossier.livejournal.com]

that's totally and completely brilliant--really great clip choices, what a wealth of wonderful whumping to choose from!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you! There certainly was a lot of whump to choose from :o) I managed to squash almost all of it in, but sadly there was some left over.

[ejcaldera]

Wow! This is one of the best fanvids I've seen in a long time. You've perfectly matched the lyrics with pictures, and tempo with scene cuts and actions. And you avoided one of my big pet peeves - lots of talking heads (using clips where the character is talking but there's no sound other than the music). That can be a really tricky pitfall to get around and highlights how much work you put into this. You had me laughing out loud at how appropriate some of the clips were in matching the lyrics! Really good stuff.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

Talky-face is one of my big peeves in vidding. When I make a vid, I want it to look like all the footage was created soley to go in that vid, not a big honking reminder that they actually came from somewhere else entirely :o)

[bradcpu.livejournal.com]

That was terrific! Hilarious(!) and endlessly entertaining, yes, but you also have just an amazing sense of musicality.

Fantastic use of source effects and motion to express the music here. Loved every second. My absolute favorite moments were:

-The "shocking" opening scenes. :)
0:32 - The little eye flash on beat there.
-The "hells"! Loved'em all.
-"Only stupid people are breeding". Ha!
1:14 - The little on-beat dive there makes me happy
1:21 - The rock!
1:48ish - Apple bite on beat, turn on beat, lookup on beat. Nice attention to detail
3:02 - Love how the crash through the glass launches you into the chorus
The whole ending, but especially the watergun.

Loved it!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Eeee, thank you, Brad! I'm so glad you liked it :o) I am actually a musician and my instrument of choice was bass guitar. I married a drummer. So rhythm and timing are super-important to me, and I find I hear the rhythm instruments well within a song - I often find myself humming the bass line instead of the melody.

Fantastic use of source effects and motion to express the music here.

I like to not rely on cutting alone to express beats in the music. I have a particular fondness for people getting punched on the beat, LOL (aka Passive).

1:14 - The little on-beat dive there makes me happy

It makes *me* happy that you noticed. I loved making the back hit the bed in time to the splash symbol.

Thank you for the lovely feedback, I so appreciate it.

[cyren-2132.livejournal.com]

Hi, I found this by way of bradcpu, and it's fabulous. Seriously, everything about it is awesome. My pound-the-table-with-glee moment was the Bra'tac grin-and-nod. Ah, Bra'tac, you old slasher, you.

Other moments I particularly liked:

• The cretins cloning and feeding
• ...amputee; goddamn you. (the little hop! how cute)
• The hell where Vala and Daniel are being burned alive
• The examples of living well. Mmm. Food. and
• raging against machines


Also, I had never realized just HOW MANY TIMES Daniel's been hit with the ribbon device. Anyway, wish I had more insightful things to say, but thanks for the incredibly fun vid!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the feedback!

Bra'tac in that scene always made me go "huh?" with that little grin on his face. I had to use it!

I'm so glad you liked the amputee hop. I had to cut that darn piece of footage into about 6 or 7 bits to get the timing anywhere near close. It was the first scene I edited and it almost killed me dead before I'd gotten the thing off the ground *g*

And, yes, poor Daniel, he's been ribboned quite a lot. I think I included them all there. Or did Seth get him too? I just can't believe that I still had whump left over after the vid was done. Some of it was unusable for various reasons, but, still... poor wee fella ;o)

[hangebokhan.livejournal.com]

I cannot begin to extol on the sheer awesomeness of your vid.

I do have a question about a clip though: There is one where someone is being taken down by the cops, is that Daniel, and if it is, what ep?

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

The clip you asked about was from Holiday (season 2). It's actually Machello in Daniel's body being thrown over the bonnet of the police car. I figured that still counted *g*