New Vid! (Angels in America)

[f1renze]

I was considering sitting on this one for a while, but the realization that my interests change every five seconds made me decide to post now.

Song: Prayer for the Dying
Artist: Seal
Location: website link // direct link (DivX, 23.3 MB) [free player download link]
Summary: Just say die, and that would be pessimistic.

Many, many thanks to sisabet and sockkpuppett for constructive and creative feedback, tzikeh for making me change a weird part and sharing her AiA knowledge, and kitkatbyte as always, for being there.

Comments

[-alantie.livejournal.com]

ah! ::freaks out with delight:: oh Angels in America. How I love thee.

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[estella7.livejournal.com]

It's been awhile since I'd seen 'Angels' but it all came back to me through the scenes you chose.

Well done--your vids are always top-knotch. :D

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Thank you Estella! :D

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Ahaha I thought your icon was from Lost but I was wrong. Pls ignore me.

[sweetestdrain]

I am seriously choked up. Great vid - I especially loved the beginning part with the angels. And I really liked how you used Belize, with the confetti... and the overlay of him with the cigarette, and... yeah. Great vid, I'll go be nonsensical somewhere else now. :)

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Aww! Thanks so much. So glad you liked it!

[poodles-m.livejournal.com]

OMG, it's downloading right now. I finally taped this awesome series last week. I was an idiot not to have taped it last November. it was on HBO last week, at 1a.m. in the morning for 2 nights @3hrs a night. I can't wait to find the time and watch this again.

It was awesome !! Meryl Streep as Ethel Rosenberg was.. there are no words. I can't wait to see this vid... will let you know. :)

[poodles-m.livejournal.com]

Flo.. this was absolutely amazing !! A real treat of a video. Thank you for making a video for Angels in America. Now, I can't wait to watch this again. Tomorrow is sunday, I think I'll spend a few hours and sit and watch this again. I haven't seen it in almost a year.

wow, thanks ♥

[luminosity]

Well, you know you made me cry. sniffle. still. again. now...

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Oh Lum, thank you! My goal in life is to make you cry. :D

[zosha2003.livejournal.com]

the video is amazing ...

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much!

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

thanks for making this. The editing and imagery meshed well with the series - and more importantly, the story you are telling. wow!

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Thank you for watching and dropping by! I'm so glad you liked it.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

I have not seen the mini-series, but I love the song and I love your vids so I decided to give the vid a try.

Wow. That was...wow. I want to see the show now, only I don't because I worry it's not nearly as pretty and heartbreaking as this vid. You rock, woman.

[luminosity]

It's just as heartbreaking as the vid. :)

[shape5.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was great. Also reminded me to tape AiA today, if I can manage to get home on time...

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. Hope you'll get home on time and enjoy it!

[sandstorm63.livejournal.com]

OMG Flo. I cried the whole time. This was beyond fabulous. I loved it. Very nicely done, excellent choice of song. *weeps some more* Thank you!

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Aww thanks Andrea! So glad it moved you. :)

[permetaform]

wow. I got shivers like, CONTINUOUSLY, while watching this...

reactions:

cover? huh...this is interesting...

ooo, like the blue -> black/white

neat with the push in effect and the angel head turn.

love the arm motion at :27

love the astonished expression

great character intro's here

LOVE the kiss at :35

the head turn at :59

the ducking at "spoken"

the removal of the wig at 1:10 (taking off covers?)

LOVE what you did with the pic at 1:32!!

the glitter at "space"!

nice seque of motion at 1:56

WHOA. Burning book?? WHOA, disappearing person??

ooo, nice with the falling

nice with the motion in this whole following sequence

2:44, arm motion at "light through that window"!!

and the walking away to the snow

And then to the church scene and the fire and the zoom out...oooo and the whole angel sequence with the bridge of fire upwards...niiiiiiiiice, lifting scenes, uplifting scenes, watching and hopeful looks and smiles and strength and reaching out to people and connecting with people...

OOOO, neat with the getting on the bed sequence...

And I love this end sequence! You bring it all together, full circle.

Wow, that was beautiful! Gorgeous stuff, I don't know the source and yet I'm touched and I got shivers through most of it, just *chills* with the way you've told the story. Intro, conflict, climax, resolution; it's all there and all fully developed and you pulled my heart along with you.

::GLOMPS:: GREAT WORK! ::mad applause::

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Yeah, okay. Um, excuse me? Please give fair and advance warning if you were gonna totally make my day--no, my WEEK!--like this. EEEE!

::glomps, buttprint, and everything else::

Thank you SO much for watching and commenting, especially at this level of detail. You just got it, dude. *sob*

WHOA. Burning book??

Not sure how much you want to know about the source, but the book basically contains the message for humans to stop progressing...

WHOA, disappearing person??

This one is more at the micro level: the main character dreaming about the lover that abandoned him.

You bring it all together, full circle.

I don't feel deserving of this, since the *show* offers this perfect circle that anyone could easily pick up on, but thank you so much.

And you noticed so many little things I didn't think anyone would, in particular my current favorite: the walking away to the snow.

So yeah. Thank you. You're too kind. ::blushes::

[heresluck]

Ack! I'm trying to download, but the site's gone! Did we break the bandwidth?

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Ack! here's_luck is trying to get my vid and she cannot!

We just spent a long time yelling at our provider. It's a misunderstanding that is now fixed, but the site won't be up for a little bit yet (within two hours).

How about I let you know when it's up? Thanks so much.

[javelle.livejournal.com]

It made me cry, but in a good way. You've made me want even more to watch the source now. Thank you very much for sharing.

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. And thank you watching and letting me know what you thought. Go watch the show now! :D

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Oh, WOW. Came here via permetaform, even though I didn't know the source, and...wow. I'm just blown away. Fantastic vid. I absolutely must find copies of this series so I can see it. It looks amazing.

Many of the specific things I loved have already been mentioned in this thread. Your use of motion...*happy sigh*

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch! I'm glad you let me know what you thought, especially with the motion. It means a lot.

And the DVDs are out just recently. Go get! :D

[sarismchee.livejournal.com]

Wow. I saw this when you first posted it, and loved it, even though I had never seen Angels in America. Last night, I finished watching AiA, so I decided to go back and watch this again. I loved it a million times more. Every second of it is so perfect that I can't even pick out my favorite parts, but aside from Affirmation(which I think is truly untoppable), I think this is your strongest vid yet. Yay!

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much Sarah, especially for coming back here after you'd seen the show. I'm glad knowing the source made it more enjoyable, yay!

Affirmation(which I think is truly untoppable)

OMG really? I just can't get over this. Really?!

Anyway, I really appreciate you taking the time, thank you! :X:X:X

[lornelover.livejournal.com]

Er, hello. Got here originally from sisabet, but finally just now found the link again. Just wanted to say I really, intensely enjoyed the vid. The first time I watched it, I knew pretty much nothing about Angels, but still found it very nice. I just got back from watching my college's production of part 1, and now, I can go, "Oh, THAT'S what's going on!" And... it's so much more powerful. I'm going to be watching this several times this week. Thank you.

(I've already made a couple of my suitemates watch, too, and they, too, were impressed. Kudos)

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Hello to you too! Thank you so much for watching and letting me know what you thought. I'm glad you liked it, and that knowing the show makes you enjoy the vid more. THAT'S what's going on, indeed. The show's message is just so powerful and heartbreaking, isn't it?

And aww..you showed the vid to your suitemates. Please thank them for me! :)

[altersonality.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to tell you, finding your vids was like finding gold. :) I absolutely love them (my faves being this one and [QAF] Such Great Heights)! I love your style and choice of songs.

Just wanted to tell you that. :)

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I appreciate it.

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

Awesome, beautiful vid. I loved the way you showed the flashes of surrealism jumping into the reality. Very cohesive and complete is the only word I can think of.

(added you to my flist, just to keep an eye on your creativity)

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

Yay, thank you so much! And nice meeting you :D

[ghost_lingering]

Ok, I feel really weird commenting on a post from two years ago, but I just wanted to say that, after downloading this vid a few weeks ago, I decided to finally watch Angels in America. I had heard of it, but didn't know much of what it was about--AIDS, Roy Cohen--that's about all I knew. But I watched this vid, and, wow. I loved the visuals, the characters seemed so real and happy and sad all at once; I completely fell in love. Granted I got the narrative wrong (I thought that everyone had AIDS, for one, and was convinced that Belize was actually an angel) but I got the basics enough to know that I had to see this miniseries now.

So, anyway, now that I've seen the source material, I'd just like to say that I love the vid even more. I'm terrible at writing coherent feedback, but, suffice to say, it has the same...joy, for lack of a better word, that the miniseries does, even at the moments when it seems like life it at it's worst. It really handles the shifting relationships and hurt beautifully, drawing connections between Prior and Louis, Harper and Joe, and Louis and Joe, as well the other characters. And the song choice...absolutely perfect. Anyway, yeah. Just wanted to say thanks--if it wasn't for this vid, AiA would probably still be on my "things to watch...eventually" list, and that would be a terrible shame.

[f1renze.livejournal.com]

I feel really weird commenting on a post from two years ago

Please don't! I don't know any vidder who wouldn't be particularly grateful when their older work is appreciated. And you definitely made ME happy.

I'm so glad the vid made you watch the show. I remember my first time watching -- I was completely Broken. Mind-blown. Inspired. I really think that show is a requirement. ;)

Thank you for your kind words on the vid. With my vid context intro and everything, I get how anyone could construct the story you did. And you weren't completely wrong! Not only did you get my main message, but Belize is *so* the positive force in the show. The true "angel". Also? Those other characters are so broken in many ways that lines start to blur in terms of who's really sick...

now that I've seen the source material, I'd just like to say that I love the vid even more. I'm terrible at writing coherent feedback, but, suffice to say, it has the same...joy, for lack of a better word, that the miniseries does, even at the moments when it seems like life it at it's worst.

::happy sigh:: I always want my vids to move the viewer, no matter how small the impact. And you're wonderful at feedback, because "hopeful joy" is a great description of my intent, *and* my experience with the show.

It really handles the shifting relationships and hurt beautifully, drawing connections between Prior and Louis, Harper and Joe, and Louis and Joe, as well the other characters. And the song choice...absolutely perfect.

I'm glad you think so! But really, these beautifully moving, complex relationships? The show handed them to me. Silver platter.

I found the song after some time had passed since I first watched the show, so I wasn't sure if everything would fit the way it did in my head. But even then, it felt like this big, heart-racing epiphany. I immediately rewatched the mini with the song in mind, and my jaw dropped from their perfect fit. Lucky, I say!

Just wanted to say thanks--if it wasn't for this vid, AiA would probably still be on my "things to watch...eventually" list, and that would be a terrible shame.

You are most welcome, and thank *you* for taking the time to watch and comment. I'm so glad that through the vid, you got to experience the heart-wrenching beauty that is AiA.