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' This vid went really, really fast. It visualized itself and most of the time, I didn't feel like I was working at it at all, that it was just there and I was discovering it. This is a wonderful (if slightly creepy, at times) feeling.
Discovering the song went like this:
A song plays. Scarborough Fair. I have never heard this song before in my life, but it catches at me. I press rewind on the player, trying to pick out the words. jic mentions that she's had the occasional thought of vidding the song to Stargate: Atlantis, but was probably never going to get past a couple of images. I press rewind again. The thought of Atlantis pings at me. borg arrives, but I keep hitting rewind. She knows the song from before, and the two of them sing along to the words, while I mutter under my breath, trying to catch the places where the song folds over. When jic inquires, I say that I want to hear it on headphones, that it's making me think of something. We go to the store, and I keep thinking about the song, running it over and over in my head, and the idea is there, before I know to think about it. The song is about Atlantis, but about Atlantis the place and Atlantis the idea, not the show. It's not about Rodney or John or Elizabeth or Teyla. It's about Daniel. It's about not being the one going to Scarborough Fair. It was fairly simple, from that point. Daniel didn't go to Atlantis, but he was instrumental in so many of the steps that led to the chance to go there. He wanted to go, but he was held back. Once I knew that Atlantis was Scarborough Fair, it was fairly obvious what Daniel's 'true love' was -- knowledge. More specifically, the knowledge about the Ancients that led him to discovering Atlantis in the first place. The very first clips I placed down are the first clips in the song: Daniel discovering the tablet that talks about the lost city (Full Circle). His realization of what the connection between the Ancients and the Ascended is. This is Daniel hearing about Scarborough Fair. At first, I thought that 'parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme' were going to be specific Atlantis people, but that idea almost immediately shifted to a more time-related approach, mostly because of the decision that the only Atlantis episode that I would use would be Rising (this decision was, of course, made after I'd already decrypted Hide and Seek and 38 Minutes. such is life). The Rising clips were the next to be placed, and they were all pretty much set down at the same time. Like I said above, this vid knew the shape of itself, and once I had the pieces ready, it just settled into place. The first verse, the initial inquiry, takes place before Atlantis is reached, but for one line: the one who lives there. Because that is Atlantis (also, that is such a gorgeous shot, that shot makes me want to die in sheer vidder joy). Then there are three verses that start with 'tell her'. The first verse is all Rising and was completed almost immediately. The second one has Atlantis on the 'tell' sections of the song and SG-1 on the overlay, while the third verse is reversed. This happened for three reasons: 'tell her to find me an acre of land' absolutely had to be that shot of Atlantis on the water. Too perfect not to use. Also, the red-headed Wraith was the 'scarlet battalions' from the very beginning, and 'generals order their soldiers to kill' couldn't be anything but John killing Summner. The last verse, the repeat of 'are you going' was also mostly in place by that point (missing, of course, everything that wasn't Rising or Full Circle). Here, we parallel right back to the beginning of the vid, with intentional visual echoes. Not just the matching shot of Elizabeth in front of the wormhole, but also calling back to the drones and the chair and the universe. Then, I went through the Stargate episodes and plucked out the Ancient-related episode from each season (excepting S6, as I already had Full Circle in the vid). Then, I started with Lost City and went along finding appropriate clips. Now, of course, to me, the clip choices feel obvious -- they're what jumped out at me, what felt right. The first 'true love of mine' is Daniel revealing the Ancient database that ends up leading them to the Antarctica Base (and thus to Atlantis). What I adore about this shot is the way he touches the letters, the way Sam very protectively grabs his arm, the way Jack pushes him away from the database. Desire thwarted. 'tell her to make me a cambric shirt' is the first approach to Atlantis, the way the city welcomes the people (who are not Daniel). He doesn't get to see it, doesn't get to experience it. All he can do is hope for the knowledge to eventually be passed back to Earth. 'deep forest green'. I love this shot. I love the way the color extends and lasts on the word 'green', precisely where I needed it to. And, of course, the color green was something new for the Atlantis gate, something that said 'this is not your own galaxy'. Atlantis is in green, forest and not water. And then here is where I realized that I didn't want reaction shots on the herbs sections. I wanted them to be important 'boom, boom, boom, and boom' moments for the vid. So, here -- plans of the city, energy shield, DHD, and the gate all show us what makes it all different from the sgc. 'tracing a sparrow' with Sheppard in the chair just feels right. This is what Daniel's doing -- bird-watching, seeing someone (a pilot) who will go where he won't get a chance to. 'without no seam' is, in some ways, not as thoughtful as many of the choices. It didn't feel wrong and it worked really well with the shots that it was going to be laying underneath. Also, it's a good example of the kind of thing that, again, Daniel would have loved seeing. 'blankets and bedclothes' definitely had to be the people lining up to leave for Atlantis, with all of those boxes and crates. And Sheppard is absolutely the child of the mountain. No question. 'then she'll be' and 'true love of mine' show the vastness between what Daniel wants (to be there) and what he gets (to do the work that lets other people be there). 'sleeps unaware' which is, in lots of ways, the summing up of the vid. Daniel longs for Atlantis, for the knowledge resting there, but it has no clue about him. It's calling him and it has no idea. 'acre of land', again, what Daniel wants. But then we go to the first journey clip -- Torment of Tantalus, the room of knowledge, the room that Daniel was willing to risk death to study just a little longer. This is the first place that we saw got a hint of the Ancients' existence. The universal language as 'a sprinkling of leaves' is an image that delights me. Teyla is the focus of the next herb set. Meeting and greeting the locals, being friendly with the planet friendlies, is completely and totally Daniel's thing (also, if he'd been the person to Atlantis, you just know that the writers would have had him be the one to accidentally alert the Wraith. His luck always works out that way). The season two clip that overlays with 'silvery tears' is of Jack getting up close and personal with another (with his first) Ancient database. Here, you get to see what's going to happen to him in the beginning of the vid, when he takes Daniel's place at that other database. The ocean shedding off of Atlantis was perfect for 'sea strands', plus Sheppard looks very pretty. I knew that the soldier (who 'cleans and polishes a gun') was going to be Oma, but it wasn't until I was placing the clips that I realized that Daniel, not the lightning bolt, was the gun. In this 'true love of mine' section, I wanted to connected the seasons, and connect the Ancient drone to Oma's powers. Also, Daniel touching books! 'a sickle of leather' is, of course, Shifu's arrival, connecting the powers of ancients to nature (again), but this time, it's harder, not as welcoming. This is, in many ways, a warning of danger to come. Danger blossoms in the Atlantis overlay, as we see the scarlet battalion, the Wraith. The next herb set brings the threat of death to the conclusion -- the reactions to Daniel's next step to (not) going to Atlantis, his ascension in Meridian. Here, I fall a little in love again, because the overlay of Jack over Sumner kills me in all the best ways. Not to mention adding up the 'eep'ness of Sumner urging John to kill him, that we see that the Wraith are so horrible that's in better to be dead than in their clutches. 'to gather it all', we see Daniel (and the others) going forward, regardless of the danger. We see the choice made to continue. Then, with 'a cause they've long ago forgotten', it's a retreat on the Atlantis side, one that quickly then moves onto SG-1 discovering where the Antactica Base is and how to use it. To seeing the drones overwhelm a supersoldier (the first time we saw a drone, it only lit up, then we saw it burst out of the Atlantis dome, now we see it as a weapon). The question again, but there's no urgency in it -- it's certain. They're going to Scarborough Fair, they're leaving at this moment. Another quick run-through of why Daniel wanted to go and what he went through for that knowledge, and then we end, again, on the certainty of him not going. Which never broke my heart until I made this vid.
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