(no subject)
Aug. 12th, 2018 07:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretTitle of vid: Nightswimming
Vidder:seekingferret
Fandom: Fringe
Music: Nightswimming by R.E.M.
Summary: Olivia/Tank OTP
Responsible for lack of consistent title block from vid to vid:seekingferret
Content notes: Fast cuts, needles, body horror, violence, child abuse
Acknowledgements: Thanks tosanguinity and kerithwyn for beta and brainstorming discussion.
Premiered at: Vividcon Premieres 2018
"Nightswimming" is a part of CTY Canon, the songs played at all of our summer camp dances. This is because of a precocious and absurd self-reflexive streak in the people who designed Canon, right? Nightswimming is a song about being a grown-up looking back and remembering your teenage years and how vivid they seem in memory in contrast to the paltry record they left on the physical world. Being a bunch of teenagers living through those vivid moments in the present and gathering in a circle to listen to "Nightswimming" is silly. None of us really understood "Nightswimming."
But I have deep affection for "Nightswimming" anyway because I associate it with those fierce teenage memories. Like I implanted a trigger for the time when "Nightswimming" would actually be able to speak to me? I dunno, it's hard to explain.
I was relistening to it, as one does, and I was in one of those vidder phases where you free associate every song you listen to with the vid it could be. And bam, you get to the lyric "September's coming soon" and obviously, it's a Fringe vid. I relistened a few more times with that in mind and it became really clear what it could be as a Fringe vid- The nightswimming of the song, the reckless skinny dipping of the song, reimagined as Olivia jumping recklessly into the tank. It almost vids itself.
Well, not really. The visuals of the chorus are perfect, but "Nightswimming" is an empty shell of a song. "That bright, tight forever drum / Cannot describe nightswimming". It's a song about memory, but what memory? It's a song about bravery, but which bravery? Setting the choruses to Olivia entering the tank required almost no thought, but once I'd filled out the frame, I needed to give a lot of thought to the narrative to hang on the frame. Who is Olivia Dunham and why is she the person who will always risk herself to find the truth? What does she see when the enters the tank and why is she willing to engage with that memory-space no matter how much it costs her?
And so I slowly infilled the pieces: John the lost love, ever faithful Charlie, lost mom and sometimes distant Rachel and Ella, constantly intertwined Peter, demandingly loyal Broyles. They are the reasons why Olivia throws herself into the pain of past memories... not just to save the future, but also for the sake of the memories themselves.kerithwyn gave me useful feedback about emphasizing Olivia's relationships with her family as a way to access the emotional heft driving her decisions.
It got a warm reception at VVC- people liked the nostalgic look at Fringe and Olivia Dunham after a few years had smoothed out some of the ragey edges of their emotions, and people appreciated my doggedly on the nose lyric matches.
Vidder:
seekingferretFandom: Fringe
Music: Nightswimming by R.E.M.
Summary: Olivia/Tank OTP
Responsible for lack of consistent title block from vid to vid:
seekingferretContent notes: Fast cuts, needles, body horror, violence, child abuse
Acknowledgements: Thanks to
sanguinity and kerithwyn for beta and brainstorming discussion.Premiered at: Vividcon Premieres 2018
"Nightswimming" is a part of CTY Canon, the songs played at all of our summer camp dances. This is because of a precocious and absurd self-reflexive streak in the people who designed Canon, right? Nightswimming is a song about being a grown-up looking back and remembering your teenage years and how vivid they seem in memory in contrast to the paltry record they left on the physical world. Being a bunch of teenagers living through those vivid moments in the present and gathering in a circle to listen to "Nightswimming" is silly. None of us really understood "Nightswimming."
But I have deep affection for "Nightswimming" anyway because I associate it with those fierce teenage memories. Like I implanted a trigger for the time when "Nightswimming" would actually be able to speak to me? I dunno, it's hard to explain.
I was relistening to it, as one does, and I was in one of those vidder phases where you free associate every song you listen to with the vid it could be. And bam, you get to the lyric "September's coming soon" and obviously, it's a Fringe vid. I relistened a few more times with that in mind and it became really clear what it could be as a Fringe vid- The nightswimming of the song, the reckless skinny dipping of the song, reimagined as Olivia jumping recklessly into the tank. It almost vids itself.
Well, not really. The visuals of the chorus are perfect, but "Nightswimming" is an empty shell of a song. "That bright, tight forever drum / Cannot describe nightswimming". It's a song about memory, but what memory? It's a song about bravery, but which bravery? Setting the choruses to Olivia entering the tank required almost no thought, but once I'd filled out the frame, I needed to give a lot of thought to the narrative to hang on the frame. Who is Olivia Dunham and why is she the person who will always risk herself to find the truth? What does she see when the enters the tank and why is she willing to engage with that memory-space no matter how much it costs her?
And so I slowly infilled the pieces: John the lost love, ever faithful Charlie, lost mom and sometimes distant Rachel and Ella, constantly intertwined Peter, demandingly loyal Broyles. They are the reasons why Olivia throws herself into the pain of past memories... not just to save the future, but also for the sake of the memories themselves.
kerithwyn gave me useful feedback about emphasizing Olivia's relationships with her family as a way to access the emotional heft driving her decisions.It got a warm reception at VVC- people liked the nostalgic look at Fringe and Olivia Dunham after a few years had smoothed out some of the ragey edges of their emotions, and people appreciated my doggedly on the nose lyric matches.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-08-14 04:22 pm (UTC)