vid - so say we all iii (Rise) - Battlestar Galactica

[kiki_miserychic]

vid title: so say we all iii (Rise) music: "Rise" from The Flobots source: Battlestar Galactica duration: 3:20 notes: Made for challenge 02 - scripture at thearchive2. Third in my so say we all series, the first and second being Handlebars and It's All Part of a Bigger Plan.

summary: If you believe in redemption. Season 4.5 of BSG.

download: 30mb xvid avi

lyrics
So much pain we
Don't know how to be but angry
Feel infected like we got gangrene
Please don't let anybody try to change me
Me
Just me
In the middle of a sea full of faces
Full of faces
Some laugh, some salivate
What's in your alleyway
Recycling bins or bullet cases
It's not equal
It's not fair
We're different people
But we're not scared
We ain't never scared
To pave a new path
Make a new street
Build a new bridge
Say can you see by the dawns early light
Free slaves running
Songs words weren't right
Now a new day's coming
The few stay stunning, while the many are handsome
Your soul is alive, but they want it for ransom
The base drumming is the anthem
We step to the heartbeats of our granddaughters and grandsons
And

Lost hope and found need
Grounded by our surroundings
Did the walls scream universities
Or you and I verse the tees
React automatic and we burst when squeezed
And make 9-11 each emergency
Urgency amber to red like the turning leaves
Oh please let the hurting cease
Don't let apathy police the populace
We will march across
Those stereotypes that were marked for us
The answers obvious
We switch the consonants and
Change the sword to words and lift continents

Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise

Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise, together we
Rise

If you believe in redemption
I'm calling to you from another dimension (from another dimension)
(Rise)

If you believe in redemption
I'm calling to you from another dimension (from another dimension)
(Rise)

If you believe in redemption
I'm calling to you from another dimension (from another dimension)
(Rise)

If you believe in redemption
I'm calling to you from another dimension (from another dimension)
(Rise)

Comments

[kuwdora.livejournal.com]

oh god you posted it! Yesssssssssss

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

ABBEY!

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Wow! There's so much that I like here that I think I'll sit down, have a cup of tea, and watch this a few times as I comment. :-)

First off, I think the Flobots, BSG, and you are a great match! My first reactions and the images that stay with me are Helo lifting Hera on the lyric "Rise," which is kind of echoed later with Adama carrying Roslin on Earth 2. Then there is Ellen rising from the tank and the quick montage (I love montages!) at minute 1:53 and the slow, quiet part at minutes 2:07 - 2:16. This is one of the best post-finale vids I've seen. It just reminds me well of why I loved this show so much. I also like the hugs at the end too.

You told so much story in three and a half minutes! And it also gives us, the fans . . . good-bye. Thanks so much for sharing this. I will keep watching it and finding terrific moments like that pan at the end from Ellen to Leoben or the way the camera pans around Felix's face during the mutiny arc. Just great! I'm glad that this is a series! That means there will be more!

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I can't get into tea. I've tried many times, but I can't seem to finish a single cup of tea. That was random.

I've said it before, but I think The Flobots are the voice of BSG. Every song can fit so well with the show. I have other vid ideas for their album and there are other BSG vids to them out there.

I was trying to be subtle and obvious with the lyric interpretations at the same time. I'm not sure if I pulled off what I wanted to do. I don't think I can adequately judge it for a while.

Thanks!

[sol-se.livejournal.com]

Whoa, that was amazing!!

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

:) Thanks.

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

*BOUNCES*

Gorgeous, epic goodbye the show. <3

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Yay, I hoped it came off as epic, but I was thinking for a while it was a piece of poo, so thank you much!

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

Jesus christ, what is it with BSG and Flobots songs??

Awesome vid.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

LOL, The Flobots are the voice of BSG!!!!! :)

[chaila.livejournal.com]

I...don’t know what to say about this! The editing is smashing, quite literally. I love the discord of the first three-quarters of it, particularly the way that opening with Hera making the ships collide set up that idea (what a great opening <3), and the way that theme is reflected in the form of the editing, the quick jumps and disorienting motion. And I thought the lyrics (of which there were many awesome interpretations) were actually really discordant as well, both in showing the various discontented groups and the general chaos, but also in how they're really not that hopeful? They're grim, and so much of it is about death and desperation.

But that handshake around 2:05 feels like a turning point, and from there I am of two minds and, first I'll go off on what may be a totally ridiculous interpretation. But I found it interesting that you went back to some of the same scenes on the “rise” lyrics, but they have a different, almost Establishment, context. And I sort of feel like the revolution didn’t win, and nobody with any power had to change in any way that mattered and all those deaths didn't do anything at all. But on the other hand, I realize that that’s probably not your intended interpretation and do see the "saving Hera together yay!" that's probably more logical than my interpretation, and I do like the way that fits so neatly with the opening on Hera smashing the ships together.

I...just have such a visceral reaction to pretty green Earth shots that I can’t accept them on their own terms and want very much to interpret almost everything after the handshake as ironic—there was no revolution, the status quo won in the end, there’s no redemption, suckers, you learned nothing—just because of my subjective feelings about the end. But also, none of that really fits with the last section about Earth 2.0, so I have to give up and just say that I can completely see that you’re making this a song about growing pains, and the way this ends is the way I wish I’d felt about the show at the end! So...have my random thoughts?

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, this vid was the longest I've ever taken to edit. I started it in May or so of 2009, but lost the notion to finish it because I had so many issues with the show. Then I started vidding for VVC and the project was left to rot halfway done. I'd really wanted to finish it because it felt like something that would help me come to terms with season 4.5 of BSG, so I started it back up toward the end of December. A lot of my own feelings clogged up the vid to the point where I didn't know if the vid was supposed to be hopeful or grim. I thought the series was going in a different place when I conceived of the vid, but the show gave me a twisted version of what I'd wanted. I have the original meanings that I'd wanted to bring out, but then there's the little me in the background chanting, "but it all turned to shit" or "but that's not really what happened" because I'm evil.

I liked the bookend idea of Hera crashing the two display ships and them actually crashing together in the end. The clip at the end doesn't show as well as I envisioned, but I think the other clips sell the point.

I like making a clusterfuck of lyrical interpretations. It's fun.

I enjoyed your random thoughts and thank you. <#

[gigglemonster.livejournal.com]

This is truly outstanding! I feel like I need to rewatch it a gazillion times just to absorb all the awesomeness. I loved it! :D

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

LOL, thank you!

[hollywoodgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yup. Still awesome. ;)

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Hhehehehe, yay!

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

Wow, I loved this. I'm very short on time, but wanted to let you know that. You managed to show the trials od 4.5 and still have the vid feel hopeful (and not make me want reach thru my tv to throttle RDM.)

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Thank you for taking the time to comment and YES to throttling RDM and his pretty hair.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

This vid makes me heartachy because you show me the finale I wish we'd gotten, and this vid makes me heartachy because of all the quiet nods to that in the lyrics of the verses. Sam's soul for ransom will always stick with me, as will that incredibly brief but creepy shot of Chief with the wrench, Adama getting executed on the "new day coming", the way we move from Baltar's peaceful goodbye to his crazy cult's empty quarters, backwards in time to his incitement to nihilistic, disillusioned anger and violence, to name a few.

Seeing the happy, green shots of Earth is a complicated emotional experience after watching the rest of the vid; but it leaves me thoughtfully sorrowful. I know that you wanted to make a 4.5 vid and you do succeed on that level, and for those who enjoyed that stretch of the show, I think this probably works fantastically, but I hope it's not out of place to say that I enjoy it on a different level; as a poignant vid that reminds me, surprisingly delicately and eloquently, of the meta-tragedy of the show.

I would talk to you about the moments of editing I found most awesome, but that would end up being, like, the entire freaking vid. Seriously, you + spinny cameras + rap with a hard beat = I would love it forever for the editing alone. <3

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Everything BSG-related comes with a tingle of hurt these days, which sounds dramatic, but it's kinda true. You were there for all my emo and flailing.

Tyrol killed that random 8 and scrambled her brains for Boomer. I feel so sad for her and I have a love/loathe relationship with the 8s. I strongly disliked Athena, but I came to adore Boomer (until she got redeemed and shit. I know that Hera is adorbz, but geez).

I wonder how the series would have ended if Gaeta had killed Adama. If there had to be a balance, he should have died "in place" of Anders.

I feel the same way about the earth bits. I almost want to pretend it was a random blue and green planet and not Earth. I said above that lot of my own feelings clogged up the vid to the point where I didn't know if the vid was supposed to be hopeful or grim. I thought the series was going in a different place when I conceived of the vid, but the show gave me a twisted version of what I'd wanted. I have the original meanings that I'd wanted to bring out, but then there's the little me in the background chanting, "but it all turned to shit" or "but that's not really what happened" because I'm evil.

My relationship with BSG is too complicated to be summed up or concluded in a less than 3 and a half minute vid.

<#

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is brilliant and even two re-watches later my brain is still stuck on askdhsdfj!!!1! The opening shot of Hera is perfect and I really like the sense of a violent, messy hybridization that carries through the whole thing. And all of the choices and consequences of that in the amazingly good lyrics matches you're working here. And your editing is just stunning to watch.

Flailing bits that I stopped before listing the whole freaking vid, seriously:

- Felix at "infected like we've got gangrene", OUCH, and yes.
-I cheered for Ellen at "don't let anybody try and change me", because this is simultaneously her flaw and why I love her.
-Sam at "soul is alive, but they want it for ransom" just hurts my soul.
-Adama's shooting on "new day's coming"
-Kara on "the end is obvious" makes me grin, because my brain goes to a Kara as Daniel's daughter sort of place and I just won't let it go, ever. ;)
-First Hera lifted and later the Hybrid on "Rise"
-I really love the thing you're doing with the flashes of light through all of it, it's pretty visually and thematically too. :)

I have such complicated, messy emotional responses to the finale itself that my thoughts on pretty, green Earth are scattered, but it gave me a odd kind of emotional catharsis to watch and also left me deeply sad. Especially with that final shot of Cylonized Galactica which feels kind of weirdly evocative of everything they built and then destroyed (for that something new?) all at once to me. *fuzzy brain logic*

Serious, serious love for this vid though.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks!

Hera is cuteness times twenty.

I'm so glad to hear that the lyric interpretations are working. I was trying to be witty without turning pretentious, which I tend to do. :) The lyrics you mention, like "infected like we've got gangrene", "don't let anybody try and change me", "soul is alive, but they want it for ransom", "new day's coming", "the end is obvious" and "Rise" being some of them.

BSG has such pretty source to play with for vidding.

I love fuzzy brain logic almost as much as insane troll logic. :)

[cyborganize.livejournal.com]

HELL YES CYLONS, RISE!!!

OK, it is ridic that it took me so long to watch this. I needed to make the huge space that it deserves in my life. and premiere it with heyiya, which happened yesterday. I have promised to wait for metatxt to watch it a second time! so there may be more *specific* flailing to come. but so far it just completely took our breath away. plus we were all like, CVM is getting so self-reflexive nobody else will be able to understand our vids. but I loved the intertextuality of it like burning, the references to our collective fanon (which is obviously RIGHT).

I know it took you forever to find the headspace to make what could seem like an "upbeat" vid after FAILNALE. but I must say I think in the end this strikes the perfect tone. it's hopeful, but it's an in-your-face hope for OUR world, the hybrid robot world, the world flying off into the sun. the ending says FU-RDM while still acknowledging what happened, that it was the future among the many possible futures. and above all I adore that Laura gets to be a Cylon in it!

it strikes me as the counterpoint to Moon vs. Sun and Order in the Sound that tells the CYLON story. and that doesn't turn away from the arc of the finale while still asserting our interpretation. it makes me feel like BSG can go on...

put it on the YouTube!!

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

I'm sure most of the context is unintelligible for people outside of the Cylon Internet, but I think it plays ok without it.

I can't even tell if it's upbeat anymore. I can see little ways I undercut what I was trying to show. I wanted it to be genuine, but I kept sneaking in little jokes that point out the bullshit.

We're all Cylon.

I'll put it on the 'tube later this week. :)

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, that was gorgeous. I didn't think I had this love of BSG in me still, especially for season 4.5, but you totally pulled it out. Some really gorgeous transition cuts, and I love how you used the "together we rise" refrains.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I lost a lot of BSG love and didn't think I'd finish the vid because of 4.5, so it great to hear someone got some love out of it. :)