VVC 08 Premiere Vid: BtVS

[hazelk]

Your faces, O my sisters! Your faces filled of light!


Title: Scarlet Ribbons
Artist: Sinead O’ Connor
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and a little Angel)
Characters/Pairings: Slayers
Format: DivX
Size: 44.8 MB

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

Major thanks to elynross for betaing a very hungry caterpillar of semi-digested ideas into something like a butterfly.

Feedback shops and sneezes and makes ready to be strong


I’ve vaguely wanted to vid this song for a long time. It has a fairy-tale creepiness to it that’s very evocative. Scarlet ribbons, red shoes, little rivulets of blood trickling down a girl’s face. Just after Christmas I was paying attention to the full lyric for once and for about 5 minutes I thought it could be a Buffy/Joyce vid (no, not like that). But it needed something less literal so Joyce became the mother of all Slayers/Sineya/that girl whoever she was and Buffy became Buffy and Faith and Kendra and Nikki and Xin Rong and Dana and Kennedy and Rhona and Vi and countless, nameless girls around the world.

The tag-line is the title of an Alice B Sheldon/James Tiptree Jnr/Racoona Sheldon short story. I haven’t found an online version but it’s included in the collection “Her Smoke Rose up Forever.”



I peeked in to say goodnight
And I heard my child in prayer
"And for me some scarlet ribbons
Scarlet ribbons for my hair"

All the stores were closed and shuttered
All the streets were dark and bare
In our town, no scarlet ribbons
Scarlet ribbons for her hair

Through the night my heart was aching
Just before the dawn was breaking
I peeped in and on her pillow
On her pillow lying there
Lovely ribbons, scarlet ribbons
Scarlet ribbons for her hair

If I live to be a hundred
I will never know from where
Came those ribbons, scarlet ribbons
Scarlet ribbons for her hair

Comments

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. That was so incredibly powerful, and so beautifully put together. Just a brilliant take on slayerhood.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much and for reccing. It's been such a long time in the making, I got really nervous about it finally being ready to post.

[charmax.livejournal.com]

Wow, just Wow. It's amazing how such a quiet song can support such an *epic* vid. The enormity of taking on the slayer mantle comes across so powerfully. I love your use of the first slayer and the way we see Buffy evolve from a scared kid to a strong woman and entwines that with all the other slayers.

Awesome! I will have to rewatch it many times.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That's so true about the song, I think Sinead is very much a less-is-more artist, when she's not belting it out there's so much more to play with. And Buffy as well, it's a very personal story but epic and politcal at the same time.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Wow, this was incredibly touching and so beautifully sums up the sacrifices of the slayer. What they must give up of themselves. Just... wow.. this one's gonna stay with me for a while. Thank you.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you for commenting! It's a wonderful feeling when someone gets what you're trying to say.

[tenar.livejournal.com]

this is so beautiful. so many powerful scenes of protection and sacrifice. i truly love the juxtaposition of the quiet, gentle (yet gutting) song with the violent images, without letting it turn into a slo-mo melodrama. i like sinead quite a lot though i'd never heard this song - it and the vid will haunt me for a while.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad it worked for you - it was a daunting song to vid technically but the emotion seemed so right I had to try. It comes from the album of classic covers Sinead did a while back but it's quite different from most of the other songs on that album, none of the big band production style, very stripped down, almost folky.

[thingswithwings.livejournal.com]

this was beautiful. I love that Tiptree/Sheldon story, and I think you've captured the essence of it here, with a more positive ending (but not ignoring the pain). You brought tears to my eyes! Such a gorgeous meditation on what it means to be a slayer, the losses, and the bonds that the slayers make for themselves, in spite of everything. Gorgeous.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I read the story so long ago but the title has always stayed with me and I think I had already started making this vid when I had the idea of appropriating it as a tag line. On re-reading it still felt right, although I'd forgotten the details, that story has such a contrast between the present day horrors the woman finds herself in and the future full of sisterhood and connection which you're never quite sure is a dream until the end. It was very like what I wanted to say about the slayer mythology although being a different kind of story they could make the future real. Uh rambling now but thank you. Yes.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

This was amazing, and TOTALLY blew the VVC audience away. Definitely one of the vids people were exclaiming about after the Also Premiering show. You are wonderful!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Blushes (and glows a little). Thank you! Really looking forward to all the vids and con reports as they come in. Sounds like it was a blast

[mishisama.livejournal.com]

Very nice. Powerful and dramatic. The songs somber tone just adds to the creep factor.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[kathyh]

Gorgeous vid. Loved the combination of the images and the haunting song. Fabulous work.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Haunting is a good word - those pipes and it's very much a dreamspace vid (I think I did start dreaming it at one point).

[ann1962]

You hold and carry the tone evenly throughout. Very strong and very cool.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And for the rec:-) I think deciding to put it in for VVC was the best thing for this vid, it forced me to take the time to step back and make sure everything fit.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Just saw this recced by selenak, wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. One of the best BtVS vids I've ever seen.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! High praise indeed :-)

[askye.livejournal.com]

That's an amazing vid. Just amazing brought tears to my eyes and took my breath away.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm a little verklempt with the reactions people are having - it's a vid that meant a lot to me.

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

This was one of my favorite vids at all of Vividcon. Thank you!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you ! Thank you very much.

[elishavah.livejournal.com]

You had people choking back (or just outright in) tears when this showed at Also Premiering, and after when we watched the vidshow again. Thank you for it.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Wow! I mean thank you! I so got tied up in making this I kinda lost perspective on it, whether it would mean anything to anyone not me. Thank you :-)

Scarlet Ribbons

[yourlibrarian]

It has a fairy-tale creepiness to it that’s very evocative.

That was exactly what I thought when I heard it. Yet the metaphor is such a great one for Slayers -- what they deal with and what binds them. Nifty idea and I like the way you put it together.

Re: Scarlet Ribbons

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you, elynross should take a lot of the credit for making it work. My first version had some of the elements intact but jumbled and with gaps. She really made me use the whole song.

[alchemise]

This is beautiful and with just the right amount of creepiness to tell the story of the Slayers. Wow, just really amazingly well done.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so happy people are seeing it as a Slayers vid. I love Buffy but I really wanted this vid to be about all of them, first to last.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

I love this as a meditation on slayerhood and womanhood and also as a piece of heartrendingly beautiful art.

People were definitely talking about this one at VVC!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

It's wonderful reading the reports coming in and I love your description of my vid. Thank you!

[goodbyebird]

Wow. Love the concept, and it's done beautifully. Thanks so much for sharing!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

I totally have chills now. Love the interplay between the quick cuts and shots full of motion and the quiet, slow, haunting music. Lovely work.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Your icon! That was a shot I so wanted to use but just couldn't get to work. Thank you!

[j00j.livejournal.com]

This was gorgeous, and I think the title really works (I love that story).

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Like I said upthread somewhere I read the story so long ago but it stayed with me - Tiptree gives title like nobody else - and the First Slayer POV in the vid feels very close to the woman of the story's.

[untrue-accounts.livejournal.com]

Very little brain for specifics right now, but I wanted to let you know that this was my favorite vid of the con. I'm glad you found this story to tell, and it's lovely and a bit sad.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I was glad I found it too, I thought I had nothing left to say about Buffy. I'd love to hear your specifics.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I love this vid beyond my ability to speak. Especially at the moment, as I am conbrained. (: But it was SO AMAZING on the big screen -- I loved it even more than I did when I saw it the first time. I am all verklempt! MY SHOW!!!

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Con sounds amazing. I'm downloading as fast as I can and it's like a torrent of awesome. Glad have contributed!

[eisakay.livejournal.com]

This video was amazing and beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting such a lovely comment.

I will never know from where

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

This is rather odd, but I somehow downloaded this vid and wrote feedback for it a while ago. Then when I went back, I couldn't find the vid. So yay, I can now post my comment after I rewatch. :)

I really like the slow and steady feel of the opening. The repeated fire images are beautiful. The stillness of the vid is what gets to me. The places were you decided to hold a clip and when you decided to cut are really interesting. There's a real sense of the mythology and power that is connected to being a slayer. At the same time the consquences of this power and the origin is fully realized to a startling degree. The blood images coupled with the fire feels like the true nature of the vid.

Re: I will never know from where

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

The oddity is all mine- I posted a first draft for about 7 hours on a Sunday night in March in a fit of social haploidy. Thank you for giving it a second chance:-)

Your comment about the stillness made me very happy, it was the pauses in the song that always got to me. And yes it's a vid of redness, blood and fire. And mythology but happening to actual people.

[jhava.livejournal.com]

This was exquisite. I've watched bits and pieces of Buffy over the years and all of Angel, but this vid just drew me in. Your imagery is utterly, utterly gorgeous. Thank you for creating this lovely piece.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you for commenting! I'm really pleased to hear it could work for someone without knowing all the source.

[danegen.livejournal.com]

I get all choked up watching this. It's so gorgeous, and I loved your use of the little girls interposed with the slayers.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Especially for mentioning the little girl usage, it really was a key part of the story.