The Dance (vid)

[deird_lj]

So, here's a vid...

I've been working on this one for ages. It's... not exactly the standard kind of vid. It's kinda different.

(And yes, it's all in order.)

</lj-cut

Comments

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

That. Was. GORGEOUS. So many favourite moments and worked in so perfectly that I almost didn't see the dancing hippos behind it all. :-) I'm crowning this the video of the year (yes, on January 2nd, what of it?)

[deird1]

I'm so glad you like this!

*accepts vid-of-the-year crown*

[gillo]

Beautiful work - you timed the extracts to perfection, and so many wonderful memories are in there.

[deird1]

Thanks!

[libco.livejournal.com]

Oh I miss watching Buffy so much. I love this!

[deird1]

Thanks!

[sarian71]

*applauds*

There's no words to convey how much I loved this! BRILLIANT!!!

The timing with the music (an excellent choice in itself) was superb throughout the whole video! And I loved how the mood of the clips and the mood of the music went hand in hand. It's hard to choose the best part, but I'd say my favorite part was the fast-paced S6. Or maybe the later half of S5.

I'm so going to save this to my Buffy video archives.

[deird1]

I'm so glad you like it!

[snowpuppies]

Fantastic.

[deird1]

Thanks!

[mymatedave.livejournal.com]

So very cool. I 5 starred it over on youtube.

[deird1]

Thanks!

[darkpoole.livejournal.com]

Brilliant vid! Great concept, beautifully executed. Thanks for doing this.

[deird1]

Glad you like it!

[rozk.livejournal.com]

I loved the way that you planned it out so that the narrative beats follow the sections of the ballet music. Much as I love the Fantasia section that uses The Dance of the Hours, this is actually truer to the way the dance scene in La Gioconda is a microcosm of the whole opera's blend of the happy and the sad; some good people get to walk away from the situation but others have to sacrifice themselves to bring that about. Which is closer to BTVS than it is to hippos and ostriches and crocodiles.

[deird1]

Glad you like it!

I was surprised at how well the music matched up with different parts of the show - like Joyce's death. It just seemed to fit...

[jen-nsync-landl.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was fantastic! I'm literally at a loss for words on account of the awesome. :)

[deird1]

Glad you like it!

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Wow! So wonderful. I was getting a little worried when the madcap section started: how would season 6 & 7 fit in? But it was marvelous, and sort of echoes my experience of watching, which was to watch faster and faster (on DVD) as the story drew to its exciting conclusion. Whew! I am still a little breathless!

[deird1]

I'm so glad you liked it!

sort of echoes my experience of watching, which was to watch faster and faster (on DVD) as the story drew to its exciting conclusion.

Mine too...

I did rather enjoy getting to use some of the sillier parts of the later seasons, too. I think people tend to forget how much fun stuff happened then.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Omigod, THAT WAS SO COOL.
(And I get the "it's in order, I can't explain!" thing now. My hatred lessens a bit. :P)

For some reason I really loved specific moments going in time with the music - Darla fanning out her skirt, Spike raising his eyebrow, stuff like that. And then just how you arranged the speeds and pacing and everything - so awesome.

[deird1]

Thanks!

And I get the "it's in order, I can't explain!" thing now. My hatred lessens a bit. :P

Just "a bit"? Ohhh...
(You can see why I was having issues, though. How the heck do you explain this vid?)

Darla fanning out her skirt

Heh. That one was actually an accident - I meant to cut it down, but when I watched it to see where to cut the clip, it matched up exactly, so I kept it in.
I'll take full credit for Spike's eyebrow raise, though.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Welll, until my magical pony comes in the mail...:P

Heh. That one was actually an accident - I meant to cut it down, but when I watched it to see where to cut the clip, it matched up exactly, so I kept it in.

Ha! That's funny.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

It was already brilliant, but it went to another level at 5:38 when Buffy sees the light and knows and then the switch to the frantic pace of her resurrection.

Brilliant! *applauds*

[deird1]

Thanks! *bows*

JL tries, unsuccessfully, to praise Mez' new vid

[jl-in-the-lane.livejournal.com]

Well.
I watched this this morning and went, "Um. Well, it was nicely timed, and lots of ...stuff... happened. Yeah."
Then I tried to show Matt, who is vaguely familiar with the source material and who might, therefore, be able to appreciate it a bit better.
And even though the whole thing was downloaded completely, the stupid computer kept stopping the video every ten seconds or so. So he didn't even get to see ANY of the timing.
However, he diligently sat there to the end, even though it took, like, 15 minutes to watch.

So, um.

I'm glad you've finished it, and I hope lots of people enjoy watching it and I hope you get lots of compliments better than this one.

Mez tries to summarise her vid for a non-fan...

[deird1]

1) Opening credits.
Lots of shots of characters looking at the camera and doing nothing. (Actually quite hard to find.)

2) A fancy-schmancy title. Look at the words moving in slowly...

3) Season One begins.
- Buffy, Giles, Xander, and Willow all arrive, followed by Darla (a blonde vampire), and The Master (a very ugly vampire). Then Buffy stakes people, and our heroes are victorious!
- Cheerleaders, and a villain getting trapped in a trophy. Also, Buffy drinks juice, which is extremely amusing.
- An evil insect lady takes over the class and almost kills Xander! Oh noes!
- Buffy spends time patrolling with Giles. (And trying to date people.)
- Hyena people eat a very cute pig, and also the principal.
- Angel is a vampire! Shocking revelation! Then he makes out with Buffy.
- An evil computery thing happens. And Jenny Calendar smiles at Giles, which is by far the best part of the episode.
- The school talent show happens, with many shenanigans.
- People's nightmares start coming true. (Including evil clowns and Willow having to sing.)
- Invisible girl attacks Cordelia, who promptly turns to Buffy for help.
- Buffy finds out she's going to die, puts on a pretty dress, dies, and then saves the day. Hooray!

4) Season Two begins.
Buffy is upset with the world, and cries.
Then Spike and Drusilla arrive, and many shenanigans happen.

5) Angel loses his soul!
...accompanied by lots of shots of Drusilla being Drusilla, and Buffy in tears. But then the rocket launcher makes an appearance, so that's alright.

6) Late Season Two - the broody era.
- Angel watches Buffy sleep (because he's evil and creepy), draws her (creepy), kills Jenny (evil), and leaves Giles flowers (...weird).
- Buffy and Angel are haunted... sort of... and make out for a while, until Angel remembers that he's evil now.

7) And finally...
Big season finale!
- Kendra (another Slayer) gives Buffy her favourite stake, Buffy and Spike have to work together, Drusilla does stuff, Willow does stuff too, Buffy fights, Buffy makes out with Angel again, and then bursts into tears.
(This time, the tears are because she has to kill Angel. Which leads to her running away and sitting on beds holding unopened baked bean tins.)

8) Season Three begins.
- The Scooby Gang are now equipped for vampire fighting, Principal Snyder is nasty, Faith (the new Slayer) arrives and starts stealing Buffy's food, Oz is angsty, and Angel is back (and chained up).
- Buffy's boyfriend (yes, another one) breaks up with her, and Willow and Xander start kissing (bad plan).

9) Gwendolyn Post (Mrs).
Evil Watcher of DOOM shows up, and starts using a funky glove of lightning powers. Faith is upset, because she was tricked.

10) The Wishverse.
Cordelia discovers that Xander has been cheating on her with Willow, and promptly wishes everyone into Bizarro!Sunnydale, in which Willow and Xander are vampires, Buffy has long hair, and everyone dies.

11) Magic snow!
...just what it says.

12) Faith goes evil.
- First, she accidentally kills someone.
- Then she teams up with momentarily-evil!Angel.
- Then she threatens Willow.
- Then Buffy stabs her.

(And then they blow up the high school.)

summary continued...

[deird1]

13) Season Four: the college years.
...Buffy's at college.
Also:
- Willow and Oz break up.
- Spike gets experimented on by the government, and can't hurt anyone anymore.
- The Gentlemen steal everyone's voices.
- Evil governmenty lady gets stabbed by her own Frankensteinian monster.
- Faith pretends to be Buffy.
- The Scoobies fight the goverment.

14) Dreams.
Everyone falls asleep. And weird stuff happens.

15) Dawn.
For some reason, Buffy now has a little sister. This is extremely odd.

16) The many tragedies of Season Five.
Joyce (Buffy's mum) gets sick, Riley (Buffy's boyfriend) leaves, and Joyce dies.

And then there's a few nice touching moments, before...
17) Buffy dies.
Big epic battle of epicness, which involves Dawn tied to bits of scaffolding, big shiny things floating in midair, and Buffy leaping to her death.

18) Season Six begins.
...with Buffy's resurrection. Which she's not very happy about.
Especially because she's now stuck with crappy plumbing, unsuitable clothes for fighting, geeky guys who want to take over the town, and big demons with wings.

19) Zany antics.
- Dancing. (Because having money is just that awesome.)
- More dancing. (Because Joss wanted to write a musical.)
- Screaming. (Because amnesia has caused vampires to be unexpected and scary.)
- Green smoke and bunnies. (Just for fun.)
- A rat gets turned back into a girl (and discovers she missed the last three years).
- The geeky guys try out a freezeray.

20) Much smexing.
Buffy and Spike make out. A lot.
...and then break up. (It's a long story.)

21) A few more zany antics.
Buffy is a bridesmaid in a horrible dress, and then a mental patient (long story), Spike and Anya have sex, Dawn squees (epically), Buffy is attacked by big spinny things, the geeky guys get jetpacks, and then...

22) Willow goes evil.
...because Tara dies.
(Rule of thumb: black hair means she's evil, red hair means she's back to normal, and we've reached the end of the season.)

23) Season Seven begins.
There's a new high school, Spike has weird hair (and a soul), and girls are getting hunted down by evil guys in robes.
A creature who sort of looks like Gollum paralyses Dawn (who is now poseable), Anya flashbacks to being Swedish, and then they all fall in love (cue funky looking spells and Spike stealing Buffy's rocket launcher).

24) The real action starts...
...with Buffy getting therapy from the evil dead, Dawn destroying the house, and Spike killing people (although it's okay, because he's being hypnotised).
Then the Potentials arrive (lots of girls who were being hunted) and do training in the basement.
Dawn is all encouraging, Willow buys a gun and almost kills her girlfriend, the principal has lots of funky knives, Xander's latest love-interest tries to kill him, and Buffy gets tied up and attacked by evil smoke.

25) Andrew.
Who is a formerly evil nerd, and very odd.
He has exciting Olympus-themed fantasies, cries his little eyes out (but not literally), and turns off his video camera.

26) Smackdown!
Robin Wood (the black guy - also the new principal) attacks Spike. Who attacks back.

27) More intriguing developments...
- Faith returns (now no longer evil - although Andrew's pretty sure she kills Vulcans).
- Caleb (who looks almost exactly like that guy from Firefly) snaps lots of necks.
- Dawn hugs a now one-eyed Xander.
- Buffy leaves the house, and is comforted by Spike.
- And then she gets a shiny new weapon.

28) The final battle.
It's a big battle. At the high school.
And there's a spell, and lots of vampirey things, and much fighting, and a magic necklace, and the town collapses into a big crater.
And at the end, Buffy smiles. Which is just awesome.



(Watch it again, and see what you think...)

[lyr]

Awesome! You have such a sterling sense of timing and pace here.

[deird1]

Thanks!

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

This made me so happy! It's wonderful!

[deird1]

Thanks!

[silveronthetree.livejournal.com]

This was great, I love the combination of the many funny little moments that I hadn't thought about for ages but make up the heart of the show, and then all the really major events. Wonderful timing.

[deird1]

I'm glad you liked it!

[ohwaluvusbab.livejournal.com]

Just had to drop by to applaud this video! Definitely saving to my computer. I LOVE how you used the ironically spastic cheerful section for S6 & 7.

[deird1]

Thanks!

[next_to_normal]

That was BRILLIANT. I laughed, I cried (no, seriously, I got a little misty in spots). *hands you cookies*

[deird1]

I'm so glad you liked it!

[dreamincolor.livejournal.com]

1. Wow.
2. That massive comment where you explained it all? You're thorough. Very, very thorough. Must be what makes you such a lovely beta.
3. Your timing was amazing (The switch from quiet to loud around 5:50 - perfect), and the beginning was just full of lovely shots.
4. I really, really need to watch Buffy again. It's just so good. And everything you make or write reminds me of that.

Anyway darling, beautiful work. Now, on to your other gems!

[deird1]

1) Thanks!
2) *smooches* (Seriously, I think I know this entire vid off by heart, I had to watch it so many times...)
3) Yay! Thanks!
4) You really, really do.

[librain.livejournal.com]

Nice.
It was, at times, a little hard to keep remembering what each scene was from before it had moved on, but ignoring me not having seen the earlier seasons for a while, I liked it.

I approve of the end of season 5/beginning of season 6. I think the change is good, and the music fits it well. While I generally thought the faster pace worked for seasons 6 and 7, it just seemed kind of wrong for Tara's death. I saw that for the first time only a few days ago, and it kind of hit me a bit. I don't think the vid did her death justice.

Other than that, no complaints, it was a very well put together vid, and I enjoyed it.

[deird1]

Glad you liked it!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, this was a really beautiful! Excellent choice of music, and I just adore the way the images work to the rhythm. Great choices for shots. I really, really enjoyed watching this; it really captures so much of the show!

[deird1]

Thanks!