One Way or Another (Smallville vid)
| Vid | |
|---|---|
| Title: | One Way or Another |
| Creator: | Hazy Wizard |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Format: | wmv |
| Length: | 10MB |
| Music: | "One Way or Another" by Blondie |
| Genre: | AU |
| Fandom: | Smallville |
| Footage: | |
| URL: | Right Click on Vid Title and "Save As..." to Download |
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"One Way or Another" is a Smallville vid by Hazy Wizard. The vidder classifies this vid as an AU.
Reactions/Reviews
This vid was reviewed by Jebbypal at the reel vidding community on March 9, 2007:
"Overall impression: One of the most entertaining AU vids in any fandom that I’ve ever seen. Lana stalking Lex is a classic and you can’t go wrong in downloading it.
Titles: The vid opens as if we’re reading Lana’s notebook and the words “Lana + Lex 4eva” set the stage. The actual vid title occurs at the end, 2:45, flying in on a pink background. Fits the tempo of music very well.
Music choice: The song is perfect and the tempo is well used. Light hearted and fun, this song will instantly become forever attached to the images you see in the vid.
Narration, Tone and Movement: Narration is from Lex’s point of view Lana’s always there and creative cutting even makes it look like Lex is running and hiding from a stalking Lana.
Tone is, hilarious. HazyWizard had fun making this vid and it definitely shows.
Movement is well timed to the fast beat and several cuts are timed and used to emphasize how disturbing Lex finds Lana’s pursuit. The sequence at 1:55 will make you laugh out loud. Several times, movement is sped up to time the walking with Blondie’s fast beat.
Cuts, Transitions, Effects & Colouring/Coloring: The cuts and transitions are all that fancy – simple cuts are often employed, though the vid starts with a series of screen fades from Lex to Lana. Hazy creatively splices different scenes together to tell her story of Lana’s relentless pursuit.
In reality, the story is the effect and it’s well done. AT 2:09, there is a dub from the show of Lana saying “What do you say, Boss?” It works, but it also slightly interrupts the flow of the vid since Lana says it seductively. But you’re pulled back in for the final sequence rather fast (which I refuse to spoil here – I will address it in the specific notes, so watch the vid before you read that commentary, please).
Color is played with the most during the intro sequence of fades and then in a couple of dream sequence. Again, the AU story is the star, no fancy vid techniques.
Specific vid & music notes:
- 0:03 Lana holding a white (wedding) dress starts the AU story off.
- 0:06 Fancy transition (not dissolve, more peel from center) to off contrast colored Lex – Lana daydreaming about her loverboy, undoubtedly.
- 0:10 Fade dissolve back to Lana and the dress. Boy, she’s determined
- 0:17 Lex watching Lana on surveillance footage --- MISLEAD. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s half of what makes this AU vid so delicious is that Hazy starts it off with the more canon expectation here of Lex’s obsession before twisting it around to make Lana the stalker.
- 0:20 Lana, with crazy hair before cutting to Lex
- 0:32 Lana hugging Lex
- 0:40 Lana talking to Lex in the Talon – she’s excited, he’s practically oozing away from her.
- 0:47 Lex asleep in his chair in his home. Woken and scared by Lana
- 0:55 Lex walking away from a sighing Lana. Lex in the background is sped up (actually, entire clip probably is – trick the eye. Very nice effect)
- 1:03 Lex bored with smiling and peppy Lana
- 1:09 First “scared” Lex shot we see
- 1:17 Stalking Lana hiding in the scenery
- 1:23 Sex kitten Lana. Hurry, hide!
- 1:28 Scared Lex backing away. Creative cut to stripper Lana!! Creative cut back to Lex – one of the few times I can honestly say I love the small talky face here: You can see Lex say “No’ and “please”. Stripper lana does suffer from talky face as well which is a tad distracting, but there’s no avoiding it to get this shot. And again, it’s not a crime since this vid definitely does not take itself seriously.
- 1:36 Lana walks into the mansion and there’s light effect to make it look like lightning.
- Cut to Lex running for his life down a dark hall and jumping out of window. Immediately followed by creative cut of Lana running out an emergency exit and down stairs in middle of lightning storm. Very well used effect to make this sequence seem in the same time frame when it’s several episodes strung together.
- 1:50 LOL!!! Seriously, tell me you didn’t laugh? Lex is in the barn with Clark and then he drops down to hide behind something. Creative cut to Lana walking up the barn stairs to the loft. Hee.
- 2:00 Lex chugging scotch
- 2:09 Lana talking to Lex “What do you say boss”. Again, as I rewatch this many times, I like this sequence less and less. I think Hazy is trying to imply that Lana finally captured Lex – definitely Kreuk’s tone here is disturbing and the look on Lex’s face is anything but enjoyable. But it disrupts the flow for me on repeated viewings. One of the few “problems” I can find.
- 2:13 Lex’s car – sped up to seem that he’s speeding away. Cut to jet flying away.
- 2:25 Beat up Lex laying alone on sandy beach on deserted island. The way his eyes are closed, it looks like relief that he’s finally alone and away from that crazy chick.
- 2:26 dissolve fade to colored nightmare --- Lana and Lex at church. Dissolve fade back to Lex’s closed eye.
- 2:36 Lex wakes with a start – purposeful cut of music and black screen – Lana appears “hey”. Lex leaps to his feet and starts running! Titles.
Final notes: This vid was so fun to watch and review. I think it just became my favorite comedy vid and it’s definitely a masterful AU vid. Kudos to Hazy for the great work.