That vid I did I was talking about

[salinea]

So yeah, I did an X AMV.

Title: Back in Bethlehem
Fandom: X
Music: Muhammad My Friend by Tori Amos
Summary: It's time to tell the world we both know it was a girl back in Bethlehem.
Download: Back in Bethlehem (50 Mo avi file, archived in rar)
Thanks: To ngblog for betaing.

@Imeem

Back in Bethlehem - Etrangere


Muhammad my friend
It's time to tell the world
We both know it was a girl back in Bethlehem
And on that fateful day
When she was crucified
She wore Shiseido Red and we drank tea
By her side

Sweet sweet
Used to be so sweet to me

Muhammad my friend
I'm getting very scared
Teach me how to love my brothers
Who don't know the law
And what about the deal on the flying
Trapeze got a peanut butter hand
But honey do drop in at the
Dew Drop Inn

Sweet sweet
Between the boys and the bees

And Moses I know
I know you've seen fire
But you've never seen fire
Until you've seen Pele blow
And I've never seen light
But I sure have seen gold
And Gladys save the place for me
On your grapevine
Till I get my own TV Show

Ashre ashre ashre ashre
And if I lose my Cracker Jacks at the
Tidal wave I got a place
In the Pope's rubber robe
Muhammad my friend
It's time to tell the world
We both know it was a girl
Back in Bethlehem

I always enjoy feedback, especially on a first try with a medium. And I enjoy concrit as well.

I tried putting it on YouTube, but apparently that was bad timing for me to try you tube. If someone has a better idea for alternate means of distribution, I'm all ears.dealt with. Also on where to crosspost this.

Comments

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

Lots of vidders seem to be using Imeem these days as an alternative to Youtube, though I'm not sure if you'd want to sign up for an account just to upload one vid.

I can't watch this until I get home from work, but I'm eager to see it. And you should get congratulations for finishing it in the first place--vidding is hard.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

*nods* I noticed about Imeem, but whenever I try using it to watch stuff, it never works for me (for whatever reason) or is way slow; so I'm prejudiced against it, but I'll probably try it anyway.

And you should get congratulations for finishing it in the first place--vidding is hard.
Heeh. Thank you. I think it's very lengthy, methodical and technical and requires a lot of patience, but I don't think it's difficult a such (I'm not sure I make sense, but it's much more difficult if you try to do something complicated and more sophisticated than the simple stuff I did). It's funny, I think at the point I was at, emotionally, I found it much easier to do than writing. Because the technical process allow you to distract yourself from the soulbaring part, so it's only now that I'm feeling all upset and anxious.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

and the second attempt at uploading to imeem was a success, yay! Thanks for the suggestion :)

[cryptoxin.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your first vid! I liked the song choice, and how evocative it made the images. My favorite part was where the edits started coming faster towards the end, around the 2:50 mark, mixed in with longer clips -- it had a nice rhythm & build-up which fit well with the music.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

OMG feedback! Thank you so much ♥

[sakanagi.livejournal.com]

I liked the AMV. I'm not expert about those things, but it seemed good. :) I liked the bits with Kotori especially, and the beginning.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying so. I don't think you need to be an expert to appreciate fanvids ^^

I always liked Kotori a great deal yet never had any occasion to explore her in fic form so I'm glad I had this one. :D

[luminaire.livejournal.com]

Dude, this was good for a first try at vidding. I would never have associated this song by itself to X, but the clips you chose synced up well with the lyrics and it did just fit.

I really liked the beginning, and I liked how you focused on Hokuto, Kotori, and Karen each in turn.

*thumbs up*

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Thank you :D

Hehe, it's a song I always associated with Karen from wayyy back. Then I had a WIP songfic with Karen/Hokuto for years until I lost it in a computer breakage.

[mithrigil.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's powerful as a commentary on the treatment of women in X--and in X fandom, where they are more or less neglected and overshadowed....

Fabulous editing, by the way, would not have guessed it to be a first vid!

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!! I'm so happy you liked it. Hehe, it's a couple of discussions about WiR and how it related to TB/X at the root of this vid, I think I wanted to be both critical and celebratory at the same time; and yeah, the fandom, also it's not specific to X at all.

Sweet

[michel-islor.livejournal.com]

Tender and impressive indeed for a first!!

Congratulations!

I don't dare imagine how much time you've spent
on it <80)

A bit surprised by some stuff (double opening...)
and by the thoughts generated by this vid (by the
song and its association with / and the alternance
of these particular women)

Re: Sweet

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Yeah vidding does take a lot of time lol I didn't take count, but between the ripping and selectionning clips and then the actual process of making the vides, and then of coding it for distribution, it's kind of funny :D


A bit surprised by some stuff (double opening...)
and by the thoughts generated by this vid (by the
song and its association with / and the alternance
of these particular women)
What do you mean?

Re: Sweet

[michel-islor.livejournal.com]

Double opening through the feather and then
the door... Details but I was just wondering
about little things like that.
My spirit likes wandering a lot I guess <80)

Tori's song link with the characters is still
echoing that's for sure. I was especially
surprised to see Kotori here though. I tend
not to consider her in the same group: not
the same state of mind... Of course, she
fits with the sweetness and love images yet.

Re: Sweet

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Double opening through the feather and then
the door...
Haha, yeah, I was following the music so I needed something to fill this large blank.

I was especially
surprised to see Kotori here though.
I agree that Kotori is a very different person from Hokuto and Karen in terms of personnality. However from a narrative point of view, she's put in almost as much the same position as Hokuto (sacrificing herself to try to prevent her brother to kill her childhood friend/crush) That's why I had to put her there, since I wanted to talk about the female characters in X who die in sacrifice, with agency, for what they hold dear.

Kotori's sacrifice?

[michel-islor.livejournal.com]

Well, you're more familiar with X than
me, therefore you tell me if I'm wrong.

It seems to me that Kotori is killed and
then does try desperately to prevent her
brother to kill Kamui.

If it is the case, she does not sacrifice
anything, since already dying (she does not
choose to do some self-sacrifice herself. She is
sacrificed/killed and then decide to do something,
having nothing to loose or to do anyway)

Well, I am not sure if I am not totally
re-imagining the story here, you've got me
confused... I may have to re read/view that
part again...

Re: Kotori's sacrifice?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

No, you're right that Kotori would have died anyway, if we believe Hinoto (she tells Kamui that all futures had Kotori dying, regardless of Kamui's decision, I think); but there's a great deal of interpretation. Why does Kotori die? Which is to say, why does Fuuma kill her? There's of course a great deal of mystery about why Fuuma (once Kamui of Earth) does anything, but we know he acts in accordance to people's wishes. Pragmatically speaking, killing Kotori makes him lose the time that allows the Seals to arrive, and thus prevents him from killing Kamui. So, I guess I read it as, having been warned by Kakyou about the future, Kotori makes the wish to be killed by Fuuma before he kills Kamui, so that Kakyou can use her body to prevent Fuuma from killing Kamui. But it's very muddled and a great deal of interpretation from my part.

Well...

[michel-islor.livejournal.com]

... I see your point here, though I am not
too sure about that still.
Actually, I suspected something like that.
Some thoughts begun with your vid, indeed...
Well, that's fun <80)

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

That was really interesting--I love both Tori and X, and would never have thought to juxtapose the series with that particular song. ^^

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

hehe, I love Tori Amos and tend to associate with wayyy too many thing (I made an all Tori Amos Utena FST after all >_>;), but I hope in this case it worked somehow. It's a song I associated with Karen for the longest time, then it became about Karen/Hokuto, then about Kotori, and Tohru, Tokiko and Saya, and BAM I had to do a fanvid.

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

I find I associate her very, very strongly with the Fruits Basket characters I fic about most often, but not with much else. (Except some Utena things, which is part of why I was so taken with your FST.) I'm always interested to see what my favorite singers make other people think of, though!

Anyway, I've now wandered off and recced your vid. ^^ Perhaps some of my f-list will drop by.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Ooooh Furuba, that's interesting. Now I'll definitely have to look at your fics (once I'll be done with the hundreds of fics I need to read, argh)

Thank you so much for the recs :D

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of a one-track Furuba fic-writer (mainly Haru and/or Rin-centric, although I like the way they each interact with other characters), for the record. ^^ And fic backlogs are scary--my "fic to read" category in my Memories has (*checks*) almost 200 posts in it, and a lot of those are rec posts with multiple stories. I'm never going to catch up. *_*

(And since I've actually been meaning to add your LJ to my list for a while, I just did. ^^)

[wingblossom.livejournal.com]

This is an excellent vid.

I wouldn't have expected the song to work half as well as it did, but it you really pulled it off. All the different story threads segue in so nicely, and the lyrics echo that repetition. I especially like the ripples and the shot of birds flying on the first bit of "sweet, sweet, used to be so sweet to me."

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much; I'm so happy you liked it. The seagull were one of my favourite bits too (and the ripples lol).

[a-white-rain.livejournal.com]

I'm not good at reading vids, as it were, but I really liked this one. Especially the bits that focused on Karen and Kotori.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Thanks for watching! And I'm glad you liked it :D