My First Fanvid

[seekingferret]

It is not true to say that I have never created a fanvid before. I drafted a CJ Cregg vid awhile ago, and then let it languish because of vague dissatisfaction with its unclear message and frustration about technical problems with my editing software. I made a short vid of Erik Lehnsherr to Remedy's "Never Again" , but kept it in my drawer because it's probably offensive and I only made it because I had complicated and very personal feelings I needed to work out.

This is the first fanvid, though, that I think is good enough and says the things I want it to say, that I am proud to share it with the world.



title: A New Day In New York Town
fandom: Fringe
music: "Everything'll Be Alright" by Joshua Radin
length: 2:41
summary: A love song for New York -- the New York that is, the New York that was, the New York that never was

Spoilers through season 3, hugs from season 4 and 5. Content warning probably the same as canon. There is violence and gore and gruesome imagery in this video.

Thanks to sanguinity and kass for helpful comments and suggestions and discussion.

Password: fringe

Lyrics

Way down, in New York town
Thinking about the way she loved me
There's a hole in my pocket
That's about her size
But I think everything
Is gonna be alright
Yes I hope everything
Is gonna be alright

The smiling face, straight in LA
The gifts are found at the bar
But I wish my car
Could drive to her tonight
Then I'd know everything
Is gonna be alright
Yes then I'd know
It'll be alright

The rain in New Orleans, forgot to end
But the mouths of the people are dry
And we watch and wait
And do nothing but sigh
And hope everything
Is gonna turn alright
But I don't know
If it'll be alright

But I look at you, warm in your dream
While your mobile dances above
And I think to myself
It's a beautiful night
And I know everything
Is gonna be alright
Yes now I know
It'll be alright

Comments

[sanguinity]

Oh, that came out real nice. :-)

[seekingferret]

Thanks. :D

[zandperl]

Pretty nifty! I don't know that I'd have the patience to create an AMV (well, not anime, but you get the point). Out of curiosity, what software did you use? Someday I should watch Fringe, T$ was watching it and occasionally I'd catch an episode and ask him all about it, but I can only watch so many serieses at a time.

[seekingferret]

I used a nonlinear editor called KDenLive to do the editing.

You should watch Fringe! It's wonderful. The characters are great and the show trusts them with difficult choices. It's definitely a show that benefits from watching it in order instead of just catching random episodes here and there.

[icepixie]

Very nice! I would never have thought of a vid about all the various NYCs of Fringe, but this totally worked, and was very affecting. I really liked the uses you made of the various chyrons in the middle, and of the flips between universes. The melding of the blue, red, and amber credits at the beginning was great too.

[seekingferret]

Thank you!

It's not all the NYCs of Fringe- when I get the season 5 DVDs I really want to do a vid about Season 5's version of New York. But New York is a city I know deeply and love passionately, and Fringe asks fascinating questions about the stories that we tell about New York in the aftermath of disaster. Both sides look at the other side's New York as the dreamland where all their problems are fixed, and only after spending more time do they realize that dreamland is equally broken.

[cofax7]

Oh, that's really lovely.

[seekingferret]

Thank you!

[duffy]

Just lovely! Great job. And it also reminded me that, in addition to oh-so-many other things, Fringe was one of the *huggiest* shows on TV!

[seekingferret]

Thank you!

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that it was one of the huggiest shows on TV. The Bishop Boys are very huggy, but Olivia and Broyles are very hesitant about physical contact, and I had to really work to get certain important relationships into the video because Olivia and Charlie never hug and Olivia and Broyles only hug in Season 5. And Astrid and Olivia never hug, as far as I could tell.

The show on the whole, though it isn't really all that huggy on the whole, clearly values hugs very highly. All of the hugs that I do show are important, crucial moments.

[chaila]

Oh this is a really cool idea. I feel like there's a lot here about New York and resilience, or, maybe even more so, as a symbol of resilience, how and why New York was the symbolic place the show used to center the universes and mark the differences and the constants (or the differences we used to think were constants). Especially since, like you say above, Fringe really isn't a huggy show, so the hugs and other connections really struck me. Like how New York makes you make connections with strangers in extreme situations. Or the stories and myths we tell about New York doing that. Not that these characters are strangers obviously, but they're stoic and professional and not typically affectionate. But the myth of New York makes them hug! The last section was kind of gut-punchy in an interesting way, when you started with the memorial and then put the towers back, and I'm still kind of mulling that over, and what that stood for on the show.

[seekingferret]

Thank you!

Yeah, I don't know, it's ten years since 9/11 and I still can't fully articulate how it changed me. Right after, we had vigils and the whole town came out! The Priests spoke and the Rabbis spoke and the Ministers spoke and the Imams spoke and the Mayor spoke, and it was a way of relating to the people around us that we'd never really done before. And mostly, haven't really done since.

But the New York on Fringe is definitely a myth. It's all about that donut shop we went to that one time, and that old theater that used to be an opera house, and it's not a real place, not a place that people actually live in. It has a geography, but that geography is the geography of tourists- Madison Square Garden and the Twin Towers and the Federal Building and Chinatown, not hanging out in Washington Square Park on a cold spring day or sitting on a stoop telling stories with friends. It's not my New York, it's the New York you watch on television. But that's blurry- A few years ago I lived in an apartment above a pretty well known store, and one time I was sitting in my apartment watching a Seinfeld rerun when suddenly the Seinfeld rerun showed my apartment. And 9/11 was a blow to both the real city and the city of myth.

I don't know if it's resilience, or if resilience is the myth. I still slow down every time I walk past Ground Zero. I still struggle every anniversary with feelings, and I'm not someone who was very directly affected. The City was reshaped by the attack in pretty significant ways, in ways we can't ignore. And I understand wanting it to be back the way it was before. I understand Donald Trump saying that we should rebuild the Twin Towers, one story taller, I understand wanting to plant our feet in the sand and declare that we are unmoved, that we have bounced back, but that's not who we are.

I told sanguinity that I didn't set out to make a video that actually reassured people that everything really was going to be alright. Instead, my point was that everything might not be alright, the world might be falling apart for real, but perhaps the Fringe team could redefine alright by being there for each other when the chips were down. Those hugs could maybe substitute for things actually turning out okay, the way the vigils tried to after 9/11.

[china_shop]

This is really lovely! The song is so gentle and gives it all so much heart. Are you planning to provide a downloadable version?

[seekingferret]

Thank you! I believe it's possible to download it from the vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/57989327 . Unfortunately my laptop was stolen yesterday, so I no longer have access to the original files.

[china_shop]

Ugh, so sorry to hear about your laptop. :-(

(Download from vimeo worked, yay! Thanks!)

[goodbyebird]

I really enjoyed this. Thanks for sharing <3

[seekingferret]

Thank you!

[kerithwyn]

Oh, my. Belatedly, this is exceedingly lovely.

[seekingferret]

Thank you!

[purpleyin]

A good vid and pretty good for a first one too. So nice to see people still vidding for Fringe.

[seekingferret]

Thank you! I am nowhere near finished vidding Fringe... I've almost finished an Etta vid, and I have all the Walter vid ideas. I still have a lot to say about that show.

[purpleyin]

That's great to hear. New Fringe vids are few and far between it feels. I'm hoping to vid for it sometime myself too, but not yet got to ripping my discs to use.

[monanotlisa]

Great stuff! New York, and hope; those are definitely Fringe themes, and I love how you added all those moments of warmth: hugs and touches.

[seekingferret]

Thank you!

[wendelah1]

I love New York, too, as a tourist, of course, but also because my best friend lives and works there.

I am amazed that this was your first vid. It's so good. The different skylines--I remember that catch in my throat when I saw that the towers were still standing on the Other Side.

I hope you're inspired by the rewatch to make more vids for us.

[seekingferret]

:) Thank you!

[wendelah1]

I just rewatched your vid in light of the revelations of season two. Excellent stuff there. I hope we'll see you back at fringe_rewatch.

[seekingferret]

:) I keep meaning to catch up. And finish my Etta vid.

[wendelah1]

I think there a lot of season one episodes you can skip entirely. And yes, definitely finish that Etta vid!

[selfindulgentbitch]

Lovely seems to be the perfect word. And I love to think that everything would be all right for them.