Zombie (Firefly vid by afterThought)

Vid
Title:	Zombie
Creator:	afterThought
Date:	June 2006
Format:	WMV
Length:	4:59 minutes
Music:	"Zombie," by the Cranberries
Genre:
Fandom:	Firefly
Footage:	Firefly/Serenity
URL:	offline; vid announcement, Archived version
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Zombie is a River Tam focused Firefly vid by afterThought. It was reviewed by shati on September 29, 2006 at the reel. It was one of three vids created for the 'Zombie' challenge over at the sff_vidding LJ community (wiccanslyr's vid also focused on River).

Vidder's notes: "This vid is about the pervasive conditioning and control of society by a corrupt government. River realizes her part in it - what she has become and struggles to deal with it."

It won for "Best Editing" in Round 3 of the No Frontiers Video Awards and "Best Video", "Best Editing", "Best Character", and "Judge's Choice" at the Buttmonkey Awards.

Reactions and Reviews

Overall impression: River the (made) monster; the vid carries a strong theme, but could have benefited from (more?) beta work for timing and streamlining/focus, and possibly from cutting the song's length.

Titles: At the end is the regular title page: simple white on black. Also, two long stretches of the vid are composed of moving text over still frames, a la the X Files opening credits. I would have preferred that these be restricted to a shorter section of the music (for example, 0-0:28) -- as is, it drags.

Music choice: The vid was done for a challenge, so I guess the question would be "fandom choice." While it's not in the same musical genre as Firefly's or Serenity's soundtracks, the song's lyrics are a good fit, and the vidder mostly matches the music's shifting moods.

Narration, Tone and Movement:

Narration: The vid isn't labelled AU, but it does build a narrative that isn't actually there onscreen: the vid's conclusion regarding River's humanity and ultimate fate is considerably grimmer than the movie's. The sequence from 3:33 to 4:03 follows River's collapse with a string of clips given a soft, dreamy focus, followed by a shot of River waking up. It's a constructed dream (or dream-like) sequence; the intrusion of the HoB guys is followed by reaction shots of River taken out of context. This is very effective at building tension, but it took me a number of viewings to figure out what was going on. The presence of the Hands of Blue guys confused me at first, since I associated their intrusion more with the fear of being hunted in "Ariel" and not the horror of being a monster in Serenity (which has a similar dream sequence, I've just realized, with a Reaver intruder instead). The similar sequence at about 4:20 worked better for me in that regard.

Tone: The vid's tone is consistent -- it moves from mourning to horror, and while the final clip shows an ending the movie definitely didn't, it makes sense in the context of the vid.

Movement: The vidder did a good job of timing internal motion to strong drum beats (er, or cymbal clashes), but a number of the cuts themselves were disorienting. The cut at :54, for example, may have been intended to jar, but it distracted me in the process; and the stray motion at the end of it throws off the cut at :57.

Cuts, Transitions, Effects & Colouring/Coloring:

The vid didn't have a consistent palette, but it would have been extremely difficult (if possible at all) to make footage from the movie, the show, and the grainy black-and-white viral marketing clips look all of a piece, so I don't blame the vidder. Tricks like the dreamy soft-focus of the 3:33 to 4:03 sequence helped link the clips. I did find the bright solid blue of the text jarring against the more muted palette of the images.

The effects I noticed -- zooming and scrolling text, a morph, some masks -- were the ones that jarred me. The masks worked best; they were more smoothly executed, and used to link clips and suggest that others were taking place in River's mind's eye.

The aspect ratio is off, which will probably be a problem for some viewers and no problem for others.

Specific vid & music notes:

I found the final stretch of the vid beginning starting at 4:36 the strongest and most coherent. There the vidder uses the mismatched color/saturation to the vid's advantage, to strengthen the contrast between River revealed in bloody silhouette, and River flinching away. The next pair of paired clips reinforce each other: River turns, preparing to attack, as River is dragged back among the Reavers -- one of them, willing or not.

I liked the use of the clips from Serenity Valley, and the clips at 4:00 of Book flashing into the Operative in River's perception, but I think they would have been stronger if Mal and Book had been introduced earlier on.

And the sequence beginning at 1:49 might be my favorite for editing: River flinches as the singer moans, and the camera glides work well with the music.

Final notes: My main suggestion is to keep an eye on where clips begin and end, and on the effects of different cuts. A beta, or another beta, could be a lot help there.

What I see here is someone who has become so fluent in the language of vid that you are effortlessly using effects, transitions, overlays, text, and intercutting to tell exactly the story you want.