Scarborough Fair (Highlander vid)
| Vid | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Scarborough Fair |
| Creator: | Katharine Scarritt |
| Date: | 1997 |
| Format: | |
| Length: | |
| Music: | "Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkel |
| Genre: | gen |
| Fandom: | Highlander |
| Footage: | |
| URL: | streaming on the Internet Archive |
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Scarborough Fair is a 1997 Highlander vid by Katharine Scarritt.
From a 2015 interview with its creator:
I had seen other people's vids. The California Crew were the ones who impressed me the most, because they were very good at keeping with the rhythm of the song, and their cuts were good, and stuff like that. And to me, I felt that that was something that, if you didn't do that, what was the point, right?...It was about the music first, and exactly what images you used were second. If it didn't fit the music, if the music didn't create the right mood, and if it was completely inaccessible, as some people's vids, music vids were, if the music itself was something that was a huge acquired taste – then you weren't going to have a successful vid.... But at the same time, you had to do something that was unique, or specific to that particular show, you know?... Instead of doing something generic, or something that was, I can't remember what they call it, there was a phrase they used to use for that. But against the actual content of the show. You could take something that was implied, or under the surface, the same way you did with fanfic, and pull it out. That we appreciated. But something that was completely opposite - And my sense now is that there's no, the stuff isn't tied to the shows the way it used to be, in that very sense, you know? [1]
And I remember, Morgan told me, asked me about “Scarborough Fair”, which, once I, you know, those first vids I did were extremely successful. I mean, people just loved them way more than I expected. I mean, I thought I was amusing myself. I did one for, you know, I used songs from musicals, I used whatever, and people just loved it. And I guess I really felt like I just nailed the characters in each of these. And I tend to do character studies. And then later on I went, very shortly after I gotten The Professionals, and I got the same thing, the same sort of reaction. So I was just, God, I don't know, “obsessed” is not the right word, but I wanted the technology, the better equipment, because I wanted to control those cuts. And that's one of the things Sandy and I bonded over, is we were both really good with our finger. We could get the cuts, you know?... Right on there, where you didn't have the flashes, you didn't have the whatever. We just bonded with our video machines. [laughs] Because I thought there were so many things you could do, if you only had, you know, access to this equipment.So when I got into Highlander, again, first thing I wanted to do was vid, and I'm a person, I always go by the song. The song is always first. If I'm looking around, and the song isn't there, then, there's no vid. I will not just find something half way. And so I found the song “Scarborough Fair” that was perfect for Duncan. Well, as you know, “Scarborough Fair” by Simon and Garfunkel is actually two songs that are layered together....
And the voices are layered. It's beautifully done. So it, one of them's about war, and one of them's about love. And so it was like, I should, I want to be able to layer the video together about Duncan, war and love, same kind of thing.
Well, eBay was brand new then, a couple years old, and I think, invisible to most of us, digital was taking over in the professional industry. The beta, whatever it is, some kind of HD beta was what was used for broadcast at that point. They weren't using three-quarter any more, they weren't using some of these kinds of things. Well, equipment that had previously only been available to professionals, price-wise, was now available on eBay for something reasonable. So I got a, I was able to buy a mixer, for seven hundred dollars at the time, and it would mix two video streams together. And it was a real mixer, too, it wasn't just a color thing like they talk about. It wasn't just a thing, but it would actually mix the two video streams. But you had to do it live. So you had to have the two things coming together. So basically I had to make one whole vid to the one song, and another whole vid for the other, for the other part of it. And then I played them, and I mixed as I went.
But, you know, it came out beautifully, and, I mean, it was done, it was very successful. What year was that? 1997, I think. And I had three other Highlander vids that were just done traditionally, with the, you know, tch-tch-tch-tch.
I would have loved to have done more digital vidding. About the time, unfortunately, when it came out, I think, I got cancer, and I got, basically, I missed the leap to LiveJournal, and Facebook, and all that, and never never caught up. I never had a fandom that I was so crazy about - [2]
When the vid was released on the Media Cannibals' Songtape #3 Katharine wrote:
Once I started doing vids again, I thought about them all the time. I heard [the song] on the radio, and thought, what a perfect Duncan song- maybe I can do the video to the counterpoint tune. Then I realized how cool it would be to dissolve between the two melodies—and I became obsessed. I went in with a friend on a mixer (thanks, Brad!) and drove myself & everyone else nuts (thanks, Renael) learning how to use it But it was worth it.