Zombie (Firefly vid by wiccanslyr)

Vid
Title:	Zombie
Creator:	wiccanslyr (Moosecat Productions)
Date:	April 2006
Format:
Length:	5:09
Music:	"Zombie" by the Cranberries
Genre:
Fandom:	Firefly
Footage:	Firefly/Serenity
URL:	YouTube; vid announcement
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Zombie is a River Tam focused Firefly vid by wiccanslyr. It was one of three vids created for the 'Zombie' challenge over at the sff_vidding LJ community (afterThought's vid also focused on River).

Vidder's notes: "The neural striping does tend to fragment their own reality matrix. This vid features the broken, Alliance tampered, weapony River. This contains clips from The Series, The Movie and the Tams Sessions."

Reactions and Reviews

The vid was reviewed by jebbypal on July 17, 2007 at the_reel.

Overall impression: While I love the beginning of the vid and the rest is very stylistically pretty, it fails for me on a certain level. Partly due to it's length and occassionally losing focus, but also because I feel it would benefit more from additional scenes from the Firefly series instead of the 2-3 brief cuts that there are currently.

Titles: There are no titles, unless I'm completely missing them (I am using the high res version.)

Music choice: The music choice is great. The vocals in Zombie match the eery feel that Wiccan sets up with River and beat of the instrumentals melds very well with the fight scenes.

Narration, Tone and Movement: The tone in the vid is both pained and eery at the start before slowly cutting to world weary and violent during the fight scenes in the later portions of the vid. Movement throughout the vid has some spectacular moments while failing at others. The intro through 1:12 is brilliant on almost every level and the fight scenes flow brilliantly with the instrumentals. Narratively, the vid starts out very strong before faltering somewhat around 2:30 --- It seems like there's a loss of River's story versus the events of the movie. Also, at times Wiccan adheres strongly to matching the lyrics and visuals while at other times completely abandoning it. However, a five minute tight vid using almost exclusive source from the movie is challenging. I think it could have benefited from shaving the music (although easy for me to say when I have no clue how vidders alter song length).

Cuts, Transitions, Effects & Colouring/Coloring: Overall the cuts in the vid are generally straight cuts from one scene to the next with no special transition. When transitions are used like at 0:30, I generally dislike them (though a later bright fade works well tat 1:17). Other than coloring, with certain scenes washed out to black and white, I'm not spotting many effects and they're not really needed as River's story, and Joss's directing, is rightly the star. The one effect that I truly thought did nothing for the vid is at 1:20 with the words overlayed on River's face. It's not used again and doesn't add anything for me.

Specific vid & music notes:

0:00 - 0;35 We start with the viral video releases of River. It works brilliantly and may be some of my favorite seconds of firefly vidding ever. It matches the instrumentals wonderfully and sets up a great tone for the vid.

0:36 - The one transition effect that could be done with out. But the scene it puts us into of River with the teacher and then having her head pierced with the needle is worth it.

0:52-1:05 - Great sequence with movement and continues the eery feel.

1:10 - I have to just say, this is an instance where talky face does not harm the vid at all. In fact, it makes the vid better!

1:22 - This is where the vid starts to fall apart for me. After this is when I feel like River the character and the things in River's head are competing too much before the actual events (like fights) seem to take precedence. I get what Wiccan is trying to do and I can't put my finger on exactly what is wrong, but it definitely falls off from the brilliant opening.

1:36 - 1:50ish...-We get a look at the things in River's head. Lyrically, the scenes on Miranda interspersed with crazy distressed River work very well.

2:00 - 2:08 - Okay, movement wise this works. But coming off the Miranda sequence, it feels like filler.

2:10-2:12 - Brilliant rapid flash of scenes that makes you fall in love with the vid again. The slow down for narrative movie plot elements though then jerks me out again.

2:26 - This is a sequence that I felt could benefit a bit from stricter lyric matching, as well as perhaps from more Series source work. I like the images and the pace works, but when hearing the lyrics, I can't get rid of the discordance between the lyrics and the images.

2:37 - Great use of the scene of Simon getting shot and I like the sequence it leads into.

2:56-3:00 - "With their tanks and their bombs and their guns" -- Okay, image wise I love this sequence and it fits the music. HOwever, narratively wise, it gives me pause and this is one of the reasons I said I feel River's story loses focus in favor of the movie plot story. While this fits well into the continuing fight of The Alliance's fight w/ the individual, it's not a firm part of River's story -- I think scenes from war stories or even safe might have been better.

3:07-3:54 I love the montage with long sequences of fighting interspersed. The three scenes from the seiries though make me wish that more scenes from the series were used throughout. The vid also reclaims the tighter narrative focus on River here IMO.

4:-4:14 -- Feels like filler and is another example of how shaving the song might have tightened the vid a lot.

4:36-4:43 Another tight montage scene.

4:55 - We return to the earlier haunting tone with the scene of River standing victorious over the Reavers. A beautiful sequence and imagery.

Final notes: Overall, this is a very good vid that shows moments of absolute brilliance. However, due to song length, it tends to lose narrative focus in places. But definitely one of the better River vids out there.