Here it is
I decided to crank through and finish up the last things that were bugging me. I got most of the big bugs out. A few small things are still annoying me, mostly because I have no slomo and am thus dependent on the way the clips work in real time, which is not always optimal. Nonetheless, I’ve uploaded it and would be grateful for your comments, especially critical ones (“don’t like the transition at x:xx”; “don’t think this scene is consistent with the story as I understand it,” etc.) as I will probably revise this eventually. I’ve also got to work on the “getting better quality input clips” problem. I ripped the season 7 stuff from DVDs, took the season 8 stuff from little chunks of .flv files I had, and took the season 9 stuff from .avi files. (In the meantime I own season 8 DVDs and have pre-ordered season 9, so don’t worry. I will pay for this stuff.) But I didn’t feel like reripping everything at a higher quality specifically for this project. I suppose if I do this again I’ll do that, too. And I would also need to start watching music videos besides the Armitage fan videos, I suppose. I see now that a lot of planning goes into the placement of these clips. Whew. Anyway.
I picked this song to start with because it is so melancholy, which is appropriate for Lucas, because the lyrics seemed to fit really well, and also because it’s amazing what a blue-toned show Spooks is — it’s not just that the actors are often wearing blue clothes at key points, it’s also that the interiors and computer screens are often blue. I first heard the song on the campus radio station, where it was in heavy play about a year ago. Here’s a little bit about the artist, Regina Spektor, whose work I really love.
And here’s the link to the video at vimeo. (You can guess why. Look at it quick, who knows how long it will be there.)
Me + Richard Armitage 
Good stuff Already commented on Vimeo.
LikeLike
Oh! It will have to wait till I get back home since my iPhone won’t let me watch Vimeo videos – I’ll look forward to it as my ‘finish work for the holidays’ treat.
LikeLike
Vimeo was not my first choice, but youtube wouldn’t let me post it with that song and suggested the weirdest alternatives. I’m not sure what the point would be of substituting some random song in a music video! I’d have been happy even to pay a little for the privilege of using the song, but that wasn’t the option. There must be some technological way of getting around this, but I’m not that smart yet.
LikeLike
That was AWESOME – well done!
LikeLike
Oh, this is wonderful, but so sad. Now I am weeping again. Normally I pretend series 9 doesn’t exist, or that Lucas was only concussed after the explosion, but for watching this one has to face the music and bear the pain. Beautiful, and a perfect song.
LikeLike
Thanks. I was often teary eyed when watching the clips for this video. But it was a good tearyeyed: love for the character as I understood him.
LikeLike
Servetus, you are really a story teller! Wonderful video and the clips fit so well to the sad music. Blue really plays an important part in Spooks. I had no issues about the quality of your snippets. They did turn out fine, even when I watched in full screen mode.
My video program (I use Pinnacle) hides the slow motion effect inside another effect, so it took me a while to find it. Perhaps it is the same with your program?
LikeLike
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll have to check, but I looked in the help section of the software and then googled for info and the internet seemed to think there were no motion effects in iMovie ’08. A new computer purchase is in the cards for me soon, so this is now something I will definitely take into consideration!
On the story — in a way it seemed to tell itself once I started moving clips around. It was interesting to me how many different plausible explanations of things there turned out to be once I abandoned the one the writers offered us.
LikeLike
I can’t comment right now. New wave of grief just washed over me. My poor, dear Lucas.
I have always been curious about the selection of blue for this series, its symbolism and deeper meaning, if there is one.
The song has a hunting quality, the words remind me of someone starving to breath, suffocating…hmmm..my Lucas.
LikeLike
and that should be Haunting not hunting (Ph.D. designatus my arse!) 🙂
LikeLike
I assumed it was a Freudian Slip. 😀
LikeLike
A wonder if Freud actually wore slips upon a time?
LikeLike
A lot of her music is like that — even her happy stuff is tinged with haunting sadness.
Series 8 was *especially* blue. I noticed this while watching it, but in comparison to 7 and 9, 8 was more blue. I didn’t include much of 8 here because it didn’t fit my story very well (it didn’t fit any story very well), except for the heroic moments. But it’s interesting all throughout the series how often a character will be wearing a sky blue sweater. For example, when Oleg rescues Lucas from suicide attempt, Oleg is wearing a sky blue sweater. I puzzled about fitting that in but decided i didn’t want to show the more graphic pieces of the attempted — I have a really hard time watching it and it was too much for me to see on screen.
LikeLike
Your vid made me angry. I thought I had put season 9 to bed, but seeing those clips from season 7 & 8 edited with season 9, just pissed me off all over again. You did a nice job, esp for your first time out.
LikeLike
I am so with you Rob
LikeLike
Let me clarify, your vid per se didn’t make me angry, season nine made me angry. Why they took this character that he worked so hard to create and just completely runied him…I just don’t understand!!! I will never understand!!! Is there Spooks season 9 group therapy available? Bec I need it.
LikeLike
Maybe we should start some Spooks Season 9 group therapy sessions.
LikeLike
I’m definitely in!
LikeLike
So am I!
LikeLike
Sounds like a grand idea, darlings. “Hi, I’m Angie, and I hate the Spooks writers with a passion.”
LikeLike
If I weren’t in denial, I couldn’t repeat the word I have for the Spooks writers.
LikeLike
I would join as well ;o)
LikeLike
And me.
LikeLike
Looks like there’s quite a few of us then!! We’ll have to have a meeting “place”? 🙂
LikeLike
I still get really riled up if I think about it too much–the debacle of Spooks 9, especially if I read reviews that paint it in such glowing terms as the “best thing on television.” Uh–no. So I generally try to forget it happened or toddle over to YT and watch Juliet’s hilarious Spooks Benny Hill Style video. Always makes me chuckle and reminds me of just how ridiculous the whole thing was.
LikeLike
@Rob, I understood!
LikeLike
Servetus! I love it. Great song, clips fit the mood and song perfectly. I’ve been in a state of Season 9 amnesia, so it made me sad and I still miss Lucas (not JohnB).
I tend to make videos for myself really, so I’m less concerned about the tech side of it, than the thought and emotion of “it”…and whether the main idea and emotions are conveyed!? But I do find making videos very therapeutic.
I would not have thought this is your first video at all, you’re already way ahead of the game. I really liked your mix of song, clips, and dialog and I felt an emotional connection to the video right away (doesn’t always happen for me with every RA video). I liked the pacing, all very well done. I’m impressed.
LikeLike
Yeah, @Musa, most first vids are not nearly as ambitious as this one was. She is indeed well ahead of the game!! Agree, immediate emotional connection, just as I felt with Lucas from the get go in S 7.
LikeLike
Thanks, Musa and Angie — it’s good to know that came across as I obviously felt a strong emotional connection 🙂
LikeLike
Two thumbs way up for your impressive first video, Servetus!
LikeLike
Okay, re-watched. You did a lovely job, esp syncing the images to the words. It is a lovely homage to LN, may he RIP.
LikeLike
Actually, I’m in denial and lovin’ it. I think Lucas will return at some point and redeem himself. 😀
LikeLike
Let’s hope. During Mr. Armitage’s break from filming in NZ in the summer perhaps he can reappear in Spooks 🙂
LikeLike
There’s a “in denial” thread on the Spooks forum for people who believe Lucas will return…
LikeLike
I finally got a chance to watch this and I must say I am truly impressed, especially considering this was your very first video. Of course, knowing you and your attention to detail, I really didn’t expect not to be impressed. The clips were well-chosen; you picked a great song with the melancholy and poignancy we saw in this wonderful, complex character (like the fact Regina is Russian by birth; it just seemed to fit in nicely) and yes, a fitting tribute to the flawed and beautiful hero we loved and still love, Lucas North (who is So Not Dead and getting ready to celebrate Christmas with the other Characters at LW’s house. Guy’s been sneaking about trying to shake the pressies, naughty boy).
You took the debacle of S9 and made something very watchable and moving when paired with the clips from the previous two series. Great job!!
LikeLike
Thanks for pointing out the stuff you liked; it’s helpful. I decided the only way to explain Lucas’s behavior in S9 was based on the problem set up at the end of S7 and never resolved (Lucas doesn’t trust Harry), which could have been addressed except that then Ros was killed on the job and he was the only person left who he had any emotional connection with. So he lost the tie to Harry that was keeping him ethical, and lost the tie to Ros who was keeping him human, and the only option when confronted by Vaughn was to descend in this weird maelstrom produced by images from the past.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
LikeLike
I’m very impressed, beautiful video, beautiful song, and obviously a great Richard/Lucas which I love, but show me someone who does not love him 😉 I can not wait for the next of your video
LikeLike
Amazingly done, Servetus. I really like your vid. The song and the fragments really blend well together and I like that you intergrated all 3 seasons the way you did. I really miss Lucas, looking at this vid. I hate what they did to the character, and your vid really highlights his vulnerability and himanity for me. Thank you so much!!!
LikeLike
Thanks. As a historian, I have an emotional need to have historical outcomes make sense. (As opposed to being a scriptwriter — they apparently do not have the same needs 🙂 )
LikeLike
Thanks for all the positive strokes, guys — you are so supportive! I was out of my office all day and came back to find this, really heartening. 🙂
LikeLike
Well, I’m late, as usual. Crazy day here at the farm. I just watched and yeah, you did good on this first venture in videodom! I look at the fanvids and wonder how the heck did they do that? It’s beyond my comprehension. That being said, my opinion isn’t worth a whole lot. I can say it made me smile! And I had never heard the song before so I am exposed to something else new. Wow. It’s been a good day! Thanks Dr.S!
LikeLike
The software makes it easier than it looks, I have to say. iMovie ’08 in particular seems to be designed for dummies 🙂
LikeLike
That vid is beautiful. Servetus, since Channukah and the end of the grading, your creativity has regenerated – explosively.
Thank you for the video.
LikeLike
very beautifully stated fitzg
LikeLike
Thanks, fitzg. I feel that way a little, too.
LikeLike
Ok, I steadied myself, prepared to revisit with Lucas and I tried to be objective about the video and keep it separate from my grief over the series. So here is what I thought:
I thought it brilliant in choice of song, it was appropriately haunting as I’ve said before, a touch of melancholy and sadness, and the lyrics paint very visual pictures which I think enhance the actual video images.
I thought your story was well told…I do wonder about the first clips of Maya which seemed out of sequence because they were followed by the “other” kissing scenes (except Sarah?). What I have concluded is that you are conveying something that I haven’t yet figured out! So they aren’t misplaced, I just haven’t yet fathomed why they are in the sequence they are in! I can say that I think this is a very well done video because it is one I have watched and will watch several more times (as long as it is up) to discover new meanings. For a non-Guy video that is the highest praise I can bestow. Excellent work, you should be pleased…what was the phrase? Oh, yes, “home run”. Yay!
LikeLike
Thanks for the honest critique, Ann Marie, it is really helpful. This explanation is not intended to sound defensive, just as an explanation of what was going through my mind while vidding. I probably should post a segment below on “things that dissatisfied me about my final result” so everyone knows it REALLY is helpful to me if you say something that didn’t work for you. But I don’t want to trigger a whole wave of reassurance, which seems to be what happens every time I criticize myself in public 🙂
And key to this for me is if there’s something the viewer doesn’t get, it’s my problem as creator, not the viewer’s problem as viewer. So if stuff confuses, it’s HUGELY helpful for me to know that, because it signals MY failure to communicate.
I should also probably write a post entitled “things I learned from my first attempt at vidding.” One thing was that the vidder is limited not only by the clips available (can’t make Mr. Armitage do things he didn’t do in the shows we have — or at least not with my skills and this software) but also by the choice of song (which is both positive and negative). One of the appeals of this song for me was the “the pictures in his mind arose / awoke and began to breathe / breed” refrain, which occurs three times. That seemed to be significant for understanding the Lucas character, who seemed to get his energy from his illusions — both the ones he allowed himself to think about and/or cultivate, and those he suppressed. That phrase occurs three times. The first time it falls in the opening sequence, before the drums start. (Incidentally, that chunk was really difficult to cue because Spektor is either intentionally or accidentally singing with a relative unawareness of rhythm — she sings out of sync with the speed set by the later drum part.) That first section is all about the story as we saw it. The building explodes, they have a funeral service for Ros, in the wake of that Vaughn brings Lucas back into awareness of his past — via pictures — Lucas seems disinclined to cooperate until he sees the pictures and has his illusions and memories reawakened by them — but to follow the narrative the way it was told to us, we have to see Vaughn as the catalyst, without whom, the show wants us to believe, Lucas would not have thought again about Maya. The upshot of that narrative is that awful final rooftop sequence (shot against a background of beautiful blue skies of various tints) and the presumed death of Lucas North.
A second recurring refrain in the song is “He stumbled into faith and thought / G-d is this all there is.” I tried to exploit this at the beginning with Ros’s funeral scene, not just in the sense of it being in a church, but also with the poem (Pope’s “Solitude”) echoing in my brain — Pope being a thinker whose intellectual stance assumed that humans could not divine the motives of G-d and that “this is all there is” in the sense of whatever happens in human life being “right” because it was ordained by an eternal plan that humans could not understand despite all their efforts and advances (see “Essay on Man,” the most famous line of which — “Know then thyself, presume not G-d to scan” — seemed like an obvious parallel to the Gnothi Seauton tattoo. But there’s also a more despairing reading of that — that human life is all there is, and so when it’s wretched, we can’t hope for more. That for me was the obvious reading of Lucas’s suicide attempt — the subject of violence and torture, Lucas can no longer believe in the possibility of his own redemption, and seeks to destroy himself. For me, something about that — a combination of the show and the song — had to be the main topic of sequence two, which begins with the fade to black transition that starts the second verse of the song and extends to the third verse. Here I focused on the traumatized Lucas after his return from Russia, and this is an attempt to compress the story of the show: he gets back (wearing a blue sweater and pants), tries to reestablish his identity as a spy, but it’s not the same. He can’t rest; when forced to return to Russia (blue shirt) he has to kill or be killed; even the people he saves are repelled on some level by his “ends justifies the means” ethic (Ashok’s shirt is a blue/grey striped pattern); he can’t save everyone (Sarah Mitchell has on a blue sweater); and the idea that kept him alive in prison (his life with Elizaveta) is hopeless as she’s moved on (he’s got on a blue shirt, Vieta is wearing a blue coat, and her child wears a blue blackpack). Verse three starts with the suicide attempt. This is the sequence I am most dissatisfied with for various reasons — but it exemplifies the “this is all there is, I need to end it before I suffer any more” idea as combined with the “pictures” theme, and here his prescient nightmares about Oleg fit best. At this point the song changes theme — about how no one responds to the needs of the “he” of the song, and chief among people who could have been expected to be concerned about Lucas but weren’t are Harry, so although that piece is out of sequence narratively in the show, it seemed to fit better with the song. It also echoes back to the previous verse, which is about trying to do his job at all costs but discovering he’s a different person: there’s no chance to talk this out but rather Harry forces him to reenter his ptsd memories in order to flush out the Sugarhorse mole. The only solution to the trauma and lack of understanding at work, which is everything left of his identity for Lucas, the song suggests, is another picture in his mind — this time the illusion of Maya, whom we see for the first time here in the video, is a stress response. (So that’s why it’s out of sequence with the rest of that segment).
At this point the song became hard to conform to the show. I picked up on the theme of “assembly line” — how the trauma piled upon trauma was an expected part of Lucas’s job that he had to process every day. Here the song becomes more notably rhythmic in line with its theme of “marching” and the phrases are shorter, so as vidder I can’t allow long sequences but have to show you quick flashes that are designed to awake your memories of certain moments in the storyline. I went back to the initial trauma that made John Bateman into Lucas North; the torture scene; the suicide of Marlin where those blood drops on Lucas’s face made a particularly vivid picture; the betrayal by Sarah, whom he trusted and wanted to believe in (no picture of them kissing, both because of that — she was never a real lover in the sense that the other two were — and because there was no really good kiss scene with her IMO); allowing Denise to bleed out as an abandonment of Lucas North’s ethics; and then the destruction of his illusion with Maya’s death; finally signaling again that awful rooftop scene with the beautiful blue sky as Harry climbs up to it. There the weird rhythm of the song actually helped me out.
I wanted to end the video on a reinterpretation of “blue,” both because the song ends up calling it “the most human color,” but also because I wanted to remind myself that despite awful S9, Lucas North was an ethical man who sacrificed himself for others and for what he saw as the good, and a man who hoped for better — not only for others, but also for himself. In every clip but one in the ending sequence Lucas is wearing blue of some shade. I had planned to put the Elizaveta kiss first, but the weird rhythm of the previous part of the song necessitated a fade to black transition (if I were a better vidder or had better software, I might have been able to negotiate that transition better — but I can’t edit precisely enough with the skills or tools I have yet), and once I had that foggy transition, the almost slow motion quality of the Maya kiss worked better there. I also felt like that kiss better represented the quality of illusion for Lucas — that by the time he gets there, he is so desperate for affection that when he sees the possibility, he falls into it like a star being sucked into a black hole. That’s a point where the length of the clips and quality of the kisses just made putting Maya before Elizaveta seem a better choice. I then went to Ros because of the theme of kissing connected the clip with the previous two, but also because here we see Lucas creating an illusion to help people. That connected it to the next clip (creating the illusion of the explosion to save Vieta and his legend). And then the video ended with the tragic flaw but most appealing characteristic of Lucas: that he refused to stop believing in his illusions — he had to see Maya again; while he breathes, he hopes.
Anyway, that’s really long, but that was what I was thinking. I realize I have probably taxed your patience by writing all of this but if you can think of modifications that would make this all clearer, I’d be interested in contemplating them for a revision.
LikeLike
Good issues, Ann Marie. The video will take considerable re-viewing to form our individual interprations.
While it is perhaps possible to make some class of dramatic sense (albeit a nihilistic sense) of S9, I still feel cheated. I can blame the actor of S7&8 for engaging my feelings too strongly – but not certain that he was altogether comfortable with the S9 finale. He did manage to save it from a cartoonish rendering of the character’s end. Which would have defeated a lesser actor faced with such a script….
LikeLike
I wonder about the same question: to what extent was Mr. Armitage comfortable with the S9 scripts. He’s certainly responsible for saving it — hmm, that could be a postmodern fanfic. Lucas saves the world and Armitage saves Lucas.
LikeLike
Servetus, is it easy to burn this fan vid, your Confessions vid and others to a CD? I would like to send some of these clips to my dear daughter for her birthday. Her computer does not work, she’s been laid off and is nearly destitute, her nasty, childish husband has been hurting her and the baby. She needs a pick up and Armitage fan vids will do the trick if I can figure out how to copy them onto a cd. Any ideas???
LikeLike
I’m sorry to read of your daughter’s troubles, and I will certainly pray for her and her husband. The ease of doing what you suggest probably depends on the age of your computer and the speed of your internet connection. It’s easy to get all the materials together — then it’s just a matter of burning the DVD. But if your daughter’s computer doesn’t work, I don’t know how she’ll view the disc. If you want to send me a private message (address in “about blog and blogger” on the sidebar with details of exactly which parts of her computer are working, I’ll try to help out.
LikeLike
Servetus, I thought she could play it on her CD player to the tv. Her computer is kaput. Thank you for your prayers, they certainly help. Your fanvid, Confession, is just wonderful. The saviour theme is there for all who have eyes to see.
LikeLike
I’m no expert on this, but I think you need a DVD player if you want visual output to a television set. A CD player is only going to play music. Can you email me off blog? You would need to check to see whether your computer also has a DVD burner.
LikeLike
[…] in learning about it. I never thought I’d be interested in editing video, either, and then I made a fan vid. So much for […]
LikeLike
No Armitage ADD « Me + Richard Armitage said this on July 7, 2011 at 8:41 pm |
[…] never thought I’d make a fan vid for people I’d never […]
LikeLike
Grateful thanks on the last night of the old year « Me + Richard Armitage said this on December 31, 2011 at 5:52 pm |