New BSG vid

[hazelk]

Title: Babies

Artist: Pulp

Fandom: Battlestar Galactica

Spoilers: Miniseries through to S3.01 (Occupation)

Characters/Pairings: Yes

Format:XviD

Size: 32.7 MB

Summary: Love is the plan, the plan is… Shameless plagiary of James Tiptree Jnr, sexual conflict, evolutionary theory and gratuitous space porn.

Download here (Right or control click and save target as/download file)

Feedback is also the plan


Oh I want to take you home
I want to give you children
You might be my girlfriend
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

When I saw you next day
I really couldn't tell
Cos you might go and tell your mother
And so you went with Neve
Oh yeah, and Neve was coming on
And I thought I heard you laughing
When his Mum and Dad were gone
I listened outside, I heard you - all right

Oh I want to take you home
I want to give you children
You might be my girlfriend
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh yeah

Well I guess it couldn't last too long
I came home one day and all her things were gone
I fell asleep inside
I never heard her come
And then she opened up the wardrobe
And I had to get it on
Oh yeah - listen
Oh we were on the bed when you came home
I heard you stop outside the door
I know you won't believe it's true:
I only went with her cos she looks like you - My God!

Oh I want to take you home
I want to give you children
You might be my girlfriend

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh-oh
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah





This is a slight departure for me so critcal comment would be really welcome. Technically it's very straightforward but it's not a single character piece in the way my other stuff has tended to be. In some ways it's the most structured vid I’ve ever made, in others the most incoherent. I mean it starts all Carry on up the Galaxy and ends up somewhere closer to Altman’s Three Women, which wasn’t in the plan.

The original idea for it came from hearing the song for the first time in ages and getting hung up on the “ I want to give you children” line in the chorus relating to the whole BSG cylon/human hybrid plot. I laid the clips for the three choruses first, one line per couple, and filled in the verses before getting the idea of starting all male and ending all female. The final section was the part that changed around the most, having not used Starbuck for either verse she kind of took over the ending. My Kara has issues but I like her for that.

Comments

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. Unfortunately right-click, save-target-as isn't working for me right now. It's probably just my computer acting up. I'll try again to download it later.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

The file download isn't working. It looks as if you pasted in a link to the file on your desk computer rather than the file on your web space.

[obsessive24.livejournal.com]

Ditto what the others said. Dying to watch this, however. Hope you have real link up soon. :)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

No it was me thinking I knew how to use Dreamweaver :-) I've put a direct link up on the journal entry and will fix the site one asap.

(Note to self: Must remember not to suck)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Doh! And I was so happy when it worked for me.

I've put a direct link up on the journal entry and will fix the site one asap.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Aaargh! Punishment for running off with shiny new software. I've put a direct link up on the journal entry and will fix the site one asap.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Lovely work!

Now of course every time I see vipers or raiders I will mostly picture spermatozoa ;- )

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

My work here is done :-)

[projectjulie.livejournal.com]

fascinating! it's fabulously dark brain-bending, what with the perversely upbeat song and your provocative juxtapositions with the lyrics. plus, I appreciated all the sexing. ;)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-) Now I feel all twisted and dirty. Good times.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

I love, love, love this vid SO MUCH. For starters I love the song (Pulp fan from way back) and the fact that you vidded the Cylons and their children-obsession to it is just genius. The vid managed to both amuse and move me--it moved me in the creeped-out way that the Cylons and their reproductive agenda do on the show. But I also enjoyed giggling at the frakked-up-ness of Gaius and Six and Helo and Eight and Kara and Leoben, etc, etc.

I thought it worked well as an ensemble piece--it painted the overall picture of the Cylon obsession. And I loved your use of the explosions/space dockings and other phallic or fertile imagery to support the mood/theme of the piece. Much praise!

I hope you don't mind me reccing it? I think the fact I watched it four times in a row straightaway means it warrants much reccing... ;-)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Wow, what fantastic feedback ::fans self:: You really got everything I was trying to do. And Pulp fan. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And rec, please do (is flattered).

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! It's been a real highlight of my week. Oh, and I forgot to say I really liked the darker twist at the end with the images of Kara in the pregnancy-farms on Caprica. I love that you included that imagery!

[obsessive24.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, this was so creepy, but in such an amusing way. The way you used the upbeat song is just genius (reminiscent of sdwolfpup's "Fix You"), and I think this is the greatest number of space-phalluses I've ever seen in a 2:46 minute period. :D Tech-wise I loved the way it moved, the pace is excellent and the editing is flawless. Great job!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

"Fix You" is the vid I really wished I could have made from the first time I saw it. Well there are lots of vids I wish I could make but definitely that one. Irony always irony ::sighs::

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

This vid was just...neat. Kookily offbeat, but in a0 fabulous way.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! (tries womanfully to type while hypnotised by icon - which episode did James do the birdy dance in? Is he singing at the same time? Noooo!)

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

I can't take credit for it. It was made by paddies, who is both prolific and talented on the icon front. The clip is from Colonial Day, when Starbuck catches Baltar masturbating in the lab, and he tries to cover by pretending he was doing wrist exercises.

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

I actually managed to figure out what to change in your link when you first posted this, but it's taken me a while to get the feedbacking part which is kinda sad. ;)

This is just awesome. :D The metaphorical imagery, ship and otherwise (hee!), mixed with the creepy single-mindedness of the Cylons is fantastic, but you don't vid the Cylons without sympathy and that's the icing on the cake. And the creepy-factor that kicks in with the crescendo of the nuke going off and moving into Sharon and Kara hits perfectly. I also adore the pacing in general with all the swoopy ships and camera movement intercut with the character shots.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Smart people are cool. (Unlike people who think they don't need to work through all the Dreamweaver tutorials *g*)

This one was a blast to make, very different from Buffy, less metaphor but so much movement to play with. And I had to re-watch chunks just to remember when things happened and fell in love with S1 all over again.

[oxoniensis.livejournal.com]

I mean it starts all Carry on up the Galaxy and ends up somewhere closer to Altman’s Three Women, which wasn’t in the plan.

It's funny reading that after watching the vid, because at first I was laughing, and then as the vid went on it all seemed so much more serious and desperate, and that the Cylons would go to any length to fulfill this longing. And I loved that aspect of the storytelling in the video, that it grew into something so powerful by the end, because the humour at the beginning and in the tone of the song made the horror of it all seem so much worse. Gorgeous work.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I was so hoping people might get that from the vid, it felt like a natural progression as I was making it even though I hadn't quite planned it that way from the beginning. Sometimes it's good to go with your instincts :-)

Babies

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Disturbing and funny. That's what I keep coming back to, and man, is that a hard mood to put off.

I had some trouble with the song, because it was hard for me to hear the lyrics, and I kept getting the sense that the words were really important for this vid. Thanks for providing them on your post; made a big difference on second viewing.

I love the Three Women approach, love how this is both about Cylon-Human romances and still, fundamentally, about women and strength and sexuality and childbearing and the clueless men bumbling through it all -- even Leoben is powerless in every clip of him you used. Nifty.

Re: Babies

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you:-) It was great fun to make, lots of associations, probably too many and I did rather butcher the song beyond the point of making immediate sense. Damn you Jarvis Cocker for writing too many words! And that's an excellent point about the men, the inherent slight ridiculouness of the male definitely in there.

Re: Babies

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Argh, that should have been "hard to *pull* off", not "hard to put off". Sheesh.

And I'm glad you had fun with it. It shows. (:

[grapefruitzzz.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Pulp! That was fun... and disturbing. In a good way.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Excellent:-)

New link?

[(Anonymous)]

The link doesn't work for me, but the vid sounds awesome, so would you mind uploading it again?

Re: New link?

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that. I've changed the link on the page to one for my site and uploaded a copy to sendspace here (http://www.sendspace.com/file/yyp1o2).

Re: New link?

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh, late again! Re-upload to send space? Again..? Sorry.

Re: New link?

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Done (http://www.sendspace.com/file/v0d084)

Re: New link?

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks! And OH MY GOD. This is so great, and kinda creepy, but YAY! You're really talented.

[fahrbotdrusilla]

Hey, do you mind re-uploading this? The computer I had it on crashed...

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

No problem (soon, I will get myself some proper webspace, soon).

http://www.sendspace.com/file/n83w81 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/n83w81)

[fahrbotdrusilla]

Thank you :D

And yes! You need proper webspace, when I do my rec page this is defiantly going in it.

[projectjulie.livejournal.com]

I'm back again, after spending the interim immersed in reproduction as a theme in BSG -- we're talking an epic academic special-issue-editing dissertation-chapter-writing obsession. This is the best (and probably only) vid so far focused on this trope. Just, this vid OWNS me.

First of all, it mobilizes one of my favorite vidding modes: the perverse juxtaposition of an upbeat song with violent and disturbing imagery. You've done it with special subtlety and complexity in this case -- because you perfectly captured the subtlety and complexity of how reproduction operates in BSG. Hera, in particular, is simultaneously the profound miracle of love that the song implies, and the harbinger of the post-human apocalypse. And, as the song implies, she's the biological product of Helo and Sharon's love making, but just as much the techno-spawn of Gaius and Six's Cylon future. I adore how you structure the vid around images of (bio)technology (like Gaius's lab and the resurrection ship), and including Kara and Leoben's anti-romance in parallel drives home the death drive that runs uneasily within these couplings. It's the PERFECT rendition of what heyiya calls "antihumanist reproductive futurity"!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

God to see you back! And will the fruits of the obsession be made public some time?

I'm a biologist so the reproductive aspects (sex and death are very much linked in evolutionary theory as well as by Freud) of BSG have always held a particular fascination and making this vid only made it worse. The pervasiveness of reproductive imagery in the show is really striking once you start to look, BSG space is like a giant womb. I'd love to read a proper analysis of the theme.

[projectjulie.livejournal.com]

oh lord, I've been going on about this in public WAY too much. probably the one not to miss is the FlowTV special issue (http://flowtv.org/?cat=127) I worked on, which includes not only my original essay but a bunch of others on the topic (plus the Mary McDonnell event report and interview (http://flowtv.org/?p=1015)!). there are a number (http://cyborganize.livejournal.com/10649.html) of precursors (http://cyborganize.livejournal.com/8981.html) to that on my acafan LJ, plus the entire dissertation chapter (http://01cyb.org/node/888). and then there's the special reproduction vlogisode (http://cyborganize.imeem.com/video/uGHyS9gj/of_kinship_and_croutons_exodus2_battlestarz_444_tv_vi/)! in the course of working (and obsessing) with my advisor (the teddy bear) and friends, I've become convinced that EVERYTHING on BSG is about reproduction.

[heyiya.livejournal.com]

So I'm writing this Cylon meta post of doom which includes links to my personal BSG vid canon, several of which I never quite got around to leaving feedback for, often because they were actually given to me by the friend who got me into BSG rather than me finding them for myself. (that would be projectjulie.

And now I feel a bit bad that I never told you yet that I love this for PULP and REPRODUCTIVITY and, as Julie says, antihumanist techno-spawn; but I see that you linked it with James Tiptree Jr, and I apparently unwittingly plagiarised you in doing that with Sons and Daughters! Or shared a thought process and perspective on BSG, anyway. I'd prefer to think of it as commonality, and I hope you can forgive me. :)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Commonality definitely, we all have our hands in the datastream. I loved your meta post by the way - it really got me thinking.

[luzula]

Oh wow. This vid really grabbed my attention. I love all the technological imagery mixed up with the biological stuff, and it simultaneously made me snicker and get all thinky. For example, the explosions: they're kind of like orgasms when you mix them with the sexy clips, but they're also destructive, and you've got all that Kara/Leoben destructive stuff, too. Hmm, suddenly it's like Kara is one of those female insects that eat the male after having sex... Ahem, sorry. I might not be making sense here, but I loved this, and I will definitely be rewatching. Thanks for sharing!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Definitely a sex death connection all through the vid - sex is dangerous stuff biologically speaking. I hadn't thought how it specifically applied to Kara in the vid but I think you're right it's there.

[chaila43.livejournal.com]

I just found this through some old recs lists and I love it SO much. It is creepy and yet slightly hilarious throughout and it just works. The juxtaposition of the phallic and sexual imagery of the machinery with actual sex with, um, machines was so deft that I can’t help but chortle with glee at your skill while simultaneously being disturbed by the overall theme of the vid. I also completely love your choice to end with all women, because that’s still how it always works, isn’t it? Very glad I stumbled across this!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you found it :-) I'm very fond of this vid, it's a little insane but it was a blast to make and it's wonderful when people get it.

[futuransky]

Hi again... I'm involved with the Vid Party at Wiscon (http://wiscon-vidparty.dreamwidth.org) and would like to show Babies as part of the introductory vidshow, "Vids with a Message." The reproductive themes and the Tiptree-ishness are so very appropriate for a feminist science fiction con.

If it's okay with you we'll just use your download copy so you don't have to do anything––just let me know if there's any problem or you would rather we didn't show your vid. Thanks again for making this. :)