Also, thank you to everyone who's been posting such varied and interesting perspectives on Prowl.
It all started a few months ago at 2AM on a deserted stretch of I-64. Although I first heard "On the Prowl" sometime in 2007, and began mapping out the vid idea in my head shortly after that, lack of source and general lack of time meant I put the project off indefinitely. But it was on I-64, as
She listened to the song intently. "I can see it," she said. "Play it again." And after the second repetition of the song: "I'll vid it with you!"
And thus was born our self-portrait. We spent a few weeks making lists of the source we would need, and keeping an eye out for anything new that might help enrich our vid --
(and none of our friends thought these sorts of questions were out of character for us.)
-- but we both had other projects going on, so we didn't meet to start on the vid until maybe a week and a half before the deadline -- and I was going to be out of town during most of that time.
Oh, and I'd like to mention that the general criteria we used for the sources/fandoms in the vid were that they be either formative or meaningful for one or both of us, be really important to the vid, or simply manage to make us go "Oooh" for a moment. (For instance, neither of us has really seen The Covenant, but we scanned through it looking for sweaty boys in shower scenes and omg now we really want to see the whole thing cause that shit looks AMAZING.) There isn't a single source used in the vid that doesn't come from a "this really gets/got to me" place for either or both of us. It's a self-portrait for sure, and we found a surprising amount of overlap in the things that made us go "...yeah, that's going in the vid," even if one of us wasn't previously familiar with the clips in question.
Because it was vital that we get our project file up and running and some of the timeline filled before I had to head out of town, I basically lived on
Structurally, we set a few rules for ourselves.
a) No dead bodies. We decided that was too much of a line even for us. (We also didn't castrate anyone! But that was more incidental.)
b) No blood spilt before a certain point in the vid (1:08) -- everything before that can bruise but not break the skin.
c) Must hold off on the full-on torture until 2/3rds of the way through the vid.
We only broke c), and that was due to me getting a little overenthusiastic when it was my turn at the timeline. I'm also to blame for daring
Finally, we had a rough draft/outline that contained some clips here and there and title cards that we'd inserted to map out the rest of the structure. (Some of these included "Fucking Beatdowns," "Where is your god now??", "Hearts and Minds torture (also regular)," and "Dean WInchester is tongue [sic]".) I went on vacation and
And at around 1AM, the mental faculties started to go:
But by 3AM, the vid was almost complete. We'd survived
OUR VID WAS HAUNTED.
The majority of the vid was fine, but the last ten seconds of the vid's audio had become corrupted. Every time Jared Leto's mangled face from Fight Club popped up on the screen, the music would skip and warp. Someone was speaking through the music, directly to us! Because we are reasonable adults, we immediately came to the conclusion that not only was our vid haunted, but Jared Leto's face would come after us and eat us if we left the vidding computer to go to the bathroom -- and after consuming mass quantities of Diet Mountain Dew, we REALLY HAD TO GO.
Most of that night is a haze, but we tried everything we could to get rid of the distortion, then exported again -- and then again -- but it was still there. Finally, at our wits' and bladders' end, we ripped the audio from an earlier export and used that instead. It was the most terrifying vidding experience I've ever had, and words can't really do it justice.
But we survived, and we got the vid uploaded on time, and we somehow managed not to blab the secret before the challenge show was over! We're both really proud of this vid, and we hope you've enjoyed it -- or thought about it -- or found it interesting -- or found your own line -- or whatnot.
A few final notes:
The woman in the last clip of the vid is Marion Ravenwood, from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. We both wanted to be her when we grew up.
The first clip in the vid (on "young boys") is Jacob from the Twilight franchise. At the time of filming, the actor was only sixteen or seventeen. We put him there originally as a laugh and then realized no, he kind of had to stay where he was. So it was kind of an auspicious beginning.
We deeply appreciate the unaging face of Keanu Reeves and used multiple clips of him from two different sources -- Point Break and Matrix Revolutions.
And lastly, we'd like to thank
And now:
Sources used, in order of first appearance:
New Moon
Memento
I, Robot
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Saltan Sea
Starsky & Hutch
Quantum Leap
American Psycho
Doctor Who
The Outsiders
Supernatural
Point Break
Man on Fire
Smallville
Merlin
The Matrix: Revolutions
Say Anything
The Boondock Saints
Burn Notice
Casino Royale
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Terminator
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Farscape
Lethal Weapon
Bones
Heroes
The X-Files
Fight Club
Sherlock Holmes
Life on Mars
Bladerunner
12 Monkeys
Terminator: Salvation
The Covenant
The Crow
Star Trek: Reboot
Due South
Roadhouse
Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Firefly
The Vampire Diaries
Lost
Legend of the Seeker
True Blood
Torchwood
Angel: The Series
The Empire Strikes Back
The Davinci Code
Dexter
Wise Guy
Die Hard
Spiderman
The Princess Bride
Criminal Minds
Stargate: Atlantis
Near Dark
China Beach
Star Trek: Next Generation
Carnivale
Invisible Man
Wolverine: Origins
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
This entry is also posted at http://sweetestdrain.dreamwidth.org/240384.html (
