New movie vid!

[hazelk]

Title: Rock Steady

Artist: All Saints

Movie: Gilda

Format: DivX

Size: 36.8 MB

Summary: Rita Hayworth gave good face

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

Feedback is a very exciting emotion.



Notes
Gilda is an odd movie. It’s also a queer one but the oddity comes more from the different types of film at war within it than the big gay love-hate triangle. The whole thing is shot and narrated like a noir but climaxes with a musical number that would make Minnelli proud and oozes melodrama like a classic woman’s movie. The eponymous Gilda has a lot in common with the anti-heroines featured in that much maligned genre, the women played by Joan Crawford, Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck who would spend most of the movie having a ball, ruling roughshod over the men-folk in fabulous frocks before unaccountably dying of cancer or otherwise seeing the error of their ways in the final reel. Rita Hayworth’s Gilda survives but isn’t even allowed the dignity of repentance, the movie ends with one of the male characters finally telling the hero that she was never really bad after all, that it was all an act.

I guess my main aim with this vid was to re-write that final reel and give Gilda the last word. At first the thought of vidding in black-and-white was scary but the movie does such wonderful things with light and shadow, the soft blur of the bedroom scenes contrasted with the harsh party-light of the casino, the way the slippery-when-wet sheen of Ballin’s sword stick matches that of the satin sheath dress Gilda dons for her performance of “Put the Blame on Mame.” The camerawork is quite traditional, no steadicam trickery, but the way it creates movement by blocking and lingers on the actors faces is to die for. Finally there’s the hair, this vid has the best hair of any I’ve ever made and has probably been worth making for that reason alone.



Rock Steady Lyrics

Years on the run
Boy I know I can take it
And now that I'm here
I know you can't stand the waiting, boy
Lets say no more games
No messing with the mind
Always room for change
Let's give it one more try
(Come on lets give it a try)

I got my bags packed baby and i'm ready to go
Look at my eyes rock steady and I promise you more
I got My heart back baby and it's skipping a beat
I got my ass in check, checkin' out, I'm ready to feel

It's all good to go
I'm right here for the taking
(oooh ticky ticky ticky)
Don't cross the line
I'll promise you no fakin', boy
(no no no no)
Its all understood
No messing with the rules
(the rules, the rules)
If I let you go
Boy I will be a fool
(What kind of girl wants to be a fool?)

I got my bags packed baby and i'm ready to go
Look at my eyes rock steady and I promise you more
I got My heart back baby and it's skipping a beat
I got my ass in check, checkin' out, I'm ready to feel

Tell me why we act so stupid, the games we're playing (oooh)
If life is the rule then we're heading towards the same thing
You are not worthless with love instead of the fighting (oooh)
Let's get together forever with no more hiding

I got my bags packed baby and i'm ready to go
Look at my eyes rock steady and I promise you more
I got My heart back baby and it's skipping a beat
I got my ass in check, checkin' out, I'm ready to feel

I got my bags packed baby and i'm ready to go
Look at my eyes rock steady and I promise you more
I got My heart back baby and it's skipping a beat
I got my ass in check, checkin' out, I'm ready to feel

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful!

I know a good deal about Gilda via my film school experiences and my insanely film-geeky friends, although I've still never managed to see it. Now I can't wait. (:

I love what you did with repeated clips -- the sword stick and the hair toss, both are deadly weapons. And the movement is just sensational. It can be very difficult to vid a traditionally-shot source, but you really make it rock. Lovely work.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Do see it, it's a wonderful movie, I think it was one they had on limited release at the NFT when I first came to London and I fell in love. Really interesting to vid, it's even more Freudian than I thought and the way it has the diferent character move is fascinating.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I can't wait to watch this. I'm at work now but am dl'ing for later.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

I caved! Don't tell my boss.

This is fabulous. Tons of movement and lots of awesome contrast-montage shots (weapons/hair, dancing/fighting/crying). I will need to rewatch more to get the full meaning.

I love it!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I hope the boss didn't find out :-)

[thedothatgirl.livejournal.com]

Super vid - I remember watching the film some years ago but this vid makes it bristle with energy, and I love how you have given the girl the last word.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I think she earned it.

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

Oh wow - I am so excited that there is a Gilda vid. Looking forward to a quiet moment to watch!

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I love that you decided to do a vid with an older movie--it is great to see something other than the hottest three shows of the year given some screentime. It is lovely to look at, and you're right... the hair is gorgeous.

The one thing that I had trouble with, I'll admit, is the choice of song. It just seems too aggressively modern to fit with the source material---unless you're doing something like AbsoluteDestiny did with his "Gone With the Wind" vid and really aiming to recontextualise the text. Still, this is just personal preference on my part so I apologise for being picky.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I actually put off trying to make this for ages having similar reservations about the song. I think I connected it with the movie originally because they both have a slightly comic book feel - Gilda is all about iconic imagery and the dialogue definitely belongs in speech bubbles (but I still love it) and the song has those squashy beats that feel like they need to be marked with a splash page coming up screaming KAWOOSH! My original idea (sadly not technically feasible) was to make that explicit with Sin City type colour effects and dilague pop-ups. When I figured I couldn't do that I put the idea on hold. Seeing AbsoluteDestiny's Gone With the Wind vid was one thing that made me change my mind, I was quite fascinated by how different the movement was from what you'd find in contempory source, but the thing that finally got the project back on the drawing board was coming across the All Saints video for the song on YouTube. They made a black and white faux-noir mini-movie to the song and it made me think that maybe it could work with the real thing. And sorry for babbling at such length.

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

I love this! :D I've never seen the movie, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from your vid. Loved how you used the repeated imagery, and how that second group of repeated images is used as a springboard for the last section of the vid in such a similar but differently effect way as the initial shots of them signaled a change in tempo for the second half. The movement is gorgeous and the source just sparkles under your eye. Combine that with the song choice (which I love) and I'm just completely fascinated. :}

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm deeply flattered that you felt the structure worked, the source is wonderful.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

Hi! I recc'd this at the_reel. Hope that's OK!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Very. Thank you. It was a really nice suprise when I finally got to log-in today :-) Now I have to download the superman/spidey vid you reviewed.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

I thought it was great. :D Hope you like it!

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

Wow. I love to see people vidding movies of the kind I watch (new TV shows, old movies is the way I swing), especially since my computer isn't displaying colour very well right now. This vid is wonderful! The way you keep up the movement -- it fit both the source and the song well, with the effect that the two never jarred at all. It certainly did have a more upbeat take on Gilda than the original movie did. When I watched the movie I expected Gilda to be a real bad girl, but she seemed such a sad figure, a mischievous wench, caught in the company of two darkly obsessive men and desperately trying to assert some control. In this vid I can believe that she always retains some.

Two of my favourite moments are around 2:10 where she collapses in front of him and the portrait looks on, and at 2:26, where the thrown guitar matches the impaling sword stick.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Yay another old movie fan! (is your icon from Shall we Dance?

I'm really glad the vid worked for you. I was watching the original trailers for Gilda on the dvd and they're all about what a manipulative Jezebel she is, which I've never seen. Making the vid one of the most striking things is how creepily predatory Ballin is portrayed, always circling around whoever he's in a scene with and how unpredictably violent Johnny can be, just eaten up with rage.

Two of my favourite moments are around 2:10 where she collapses in front of him and the portrait looks on, and at 2:26, where the thrown guitar matches the impaling sword stick.
I drafted the end to this vid early on in making it and having those two juxtapositions was what made me feel it was going to work out :-)

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

is your icon from Shall we Dance?

Yes! "Shall We Dance" is my favourite movie, and you made my day by recognizing it just from a 100x100 icon.

I was watching the original trailers for Gilda on the dvd and they're all about what a manipulative Jezebel she is, which I've never seen.

I suppose the trailers are also from Johnny's POV. It's something of a modernist thing (postmodern? I never know the terms) for the film to examine a character by looking through his eyes, but it makes for confusing trailers. On the other hand, maybe it's just that the Jezebel angle sells.

I got my bags packed baby and I'm ready to go

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

The song choice and source are surprisingly well matched, which I think is due to your editing style melding them. The repeated clip could get boring and tired, but here it's continually interesting with the heavy energy.

Re: I got my bags packed baby and I'm ready to go

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank-you :-) It's interesting, some of the repetions in the vid I planned but others just growed. The use of repeated elements (particularly dialogue but some visual) was also something I noticed about the movie while clipping it, I wonder if it may have fed into the vid-making process.

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

I was feeling shy when I first watched this, so I didn't comment at the time, but, oh, how I love it. Thank you!

Also, I recced it on crack_van a week or so ago. :)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Yes! Thank you :-) I spotted the rec a few days ago and was quite overcome by the company it was in. That's a great and horizon-broadening collection of vids.

[oyceter]

Oh, that's awesome! I love how you edit the movie so it matches the modern music, and I am just filled with squee because I love love LOVE this movie and never thought there would ever be a vid for it! And of course the dance goes at the end when the music is getting more frantic. Thanks for this!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's one of my favourite movies and the vid was a blast to make. Even the clipping stage was fun and revealing.