Haunted (Odyssey 5 vid)
| Vid | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Haunted |
| Creator: | Seah & Margie |
| Date: | August 2003; remastered: August 7, 2007 |
| Format: | VCR |
| Length: | 4:39 |
| Music: | Haunted by Poe |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Odyssey 5 |
| Footage: | |
| URL: | remastered version online (original version not available) title card for the vid "Haunted" |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
- "The world go boom vid."[1]
Haunted is an Odyssey 5 fanvid made by Seah & Margie. The vid premiered at the 2003 Vividcon show where it immediately created a convention meme of adding the phrase "....and then the Earth blew up" to the end of sentences to express wonder, amazement and shocked surprise.[2]
Surprisingly, the majority of viewers at Vividcon had never heard of or seen the TV show Odyssey 5 as it ran only for one season and was available only via subscription TV (HBO). Ready access to downloaded TV footage was still a few years away for most fans. The vid was notable in that the vidders chose a climatic set of images (the earth blowing up) and, rather than using them at the opening or at the end of the vid, placed them carefully mid-vid. This underscored the theme of the vid (going throughout your life, having something horrible and unexpected happening, and then having to deal with the repercussions, aka feeling "Haunted".)
It was, for many, the ultimate recruiter vid.
The vid was originally created with off-air tapes from two countries and digital source from at least one other country. It was remastered in 2007. From the vidder's notes: "The original mix of sources meant that we had problems with mismatched colors, uneven aspect ratios, different visual-quality levels, you name it. It was absolutely the best source we could get at the time, and we did the best we could with it, and we've always been proud of the results, but it was never as pretty as it should have been.." Read the notes here.[3]
Reaction
- "WOW. Even if you don't know anything about Odyssey 5, this vid will make you wish you had watched it. Amazing, the way the music and images just suck you in."[4]
- "So much has already been said about this vid that it hardly seems necessary to add my own thoughts, so I'll just say one thing: that part everyone's talking about, where the earth blows up? That clip is used so extraordinarily well, with a gorgeous build-up in the music and the clips leading up to it, that my heart just *screamed* when we hit that climax. There's a reason people can't stop talking about that moment."[5]
- "This is it, kids: the vid where the earth blew up. I have to say, though, that striking as that moment was, it's not the basis of my primary reaction to the vid. This vid introduced an ensemble cast and an exceptionally complicated story to roomful of people who in most cases had never seen Odyssey 5, and in some cases (::raises hand::) had never even heard of the show before that morning. And we got it. I have never seen a vid that made such complexity so accessible to so many people. I am in absolute awe of Seah & Margie's ability to choose exactly the right details to establish the five major characters and then to distinguish them from each other, so that each one has a separate storyline, a separate set of problems that are nonetheless linked both visually and thematically throughout the vid. Wow. WOW. I can't remember who was saying that Seah & Margie make the best vids to shows you've never seen, but I completely agree; last year, "Kryptonite" (for Invisible Man) knocked my socks off, and "Haunted" not only tops it but makes it look easy. Did I say "wow"? Wow."[6]
- "Margie and Seah's Odyssey 5 vid to Poe's Haunted was totally haunting ("what the hell happened to the earth?!") and made me wish more than ever I'd bullied my friends to tape it for me when it was on pay television, which I don't have, every time they forgot to. I had really wanted to see the show, and I felt they gave me a gorgeous glimpse into it that will stay with me for a long time."[7]
- "And speaking of vids that blew me away, what about the vid that blew the earth away?? "Haunted" left me and everyone else thinking "what the HELL happened to the earth?!" and motivated us to inquire about this strange TV show. I had never even heard of the show Odyssey 5, but now I really want to see it, and it's all thanks to Seah & Margie!"[8]
- "This Odyssey vid is The One Where The Thing Happens. If you don't know what The Thing is, don't read any other comments about this, just find it and watch it. I'm sorry that I never got to see it without being spoiled for The Thing, because wow. What a Thing it is. I have never seen the show, but the first time I watched the vid I found that I had tears in my eyes. The thing about The Thing is that it works because the climax is earned, by every clip that leads up to that point. I think that in narrative terms this is the most beautifully constructed vid I've ever seen - I had no trouble following what was going on, or getting invested in these characters despite my ignorance of the source.".[9]
References
- ^ hafital's I am so tired dated August 20, 2003;WebCite.
- ^ Vividcon was "One amazing vid after another - shocking, hilarious, moving, exquisite, bam, bam, bam, and then the Earth blew up." tzikeh quoted on the 2003 page.
- ^ WebCite for 2007 remastering notes.
- ^ VividCon vid comments by destina;WebCite.
- ^ Mondo Vividcon Report by Laura Shapiro; WebCite.
- ^ ~here's luck Part 2 Vividcon report; WebCite.
- ^ gwyneth's Drowning in songvids, Archived version.
- ^ kitkatbyte's report Vids ahoy!, Archived version.
- ^ andraste's How I Learned All About Vidding, dated May 7, 2005;WebCite