Vid: Cosy Prisons

[przed.livejournal.com]

Here's my first Mistletoe offering. It's a bit on the sombre side, but byslantedlight encouraged me to claim a day for it. I hope you all enjoy it.

The vid can be found at my site: przed.com/vids.

The site is password protected, and instructions for obtaining the password can be found on the site. Please DO NOT pass this password around on any other forum.

Title: Cosy Prisons
Vidder: P.R.Zed
Artist: a-ha
Notes: Thanks to ancastar for perceptive beta comments.

Comments

[elizabethoshea.livejournal.com]

Love it! There's a lot to be said for sombre when it's done right. It's amazing how even the most unlikely songs can turn out to apply perfectly to Pros in the hands of someone with the imagination to make the connections. Thank you!

[przed.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm rather fond of sombre myself. And I seem to have a knack for picking unlikely songs. It's a curse. ;)

[eveningblue.livejournal.com]

Great vid! I like the pace of it, and the theme (if I'm getting it right) of normalcy vs. the life they lead.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Glad you thought the pacing worked. And yeah, I was trying to convey how the life they lead makes them almost incapable of having a normal relationship, with each other or anyone else, and yet they keep trying.

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

Drat and triple drat...I can't get it to play. Tried Quicktime and VLC but neither worked.

Help!!

[przed.livejournal.com]

The only suggestion I can make is to try downloading the most recent version of VLC. I've had no problems playing it with that player, on either my Mac or my PC.

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

Uninstalled and reinstalled VLC - no good. Did the same with Quicktime - SUCCESS!! Don't know what was wrong, I've been watching other things with both Quicktime and VLC with no problems...

Anyway - the vid is beautiful! It really tugged at the heartstrings. Inspired choice of music and clips that matched the song perfectly. Wonderful stuff, P - thank you!

[ancastar.livejournal.com]

I owe you an honest to god email, but I had to pop in here and say hurrah!! This is such a terrific vid. I would never have thought to pair up A-Ha and the lads, and yet this song works so very well for them. The piano line is compelling and really pulls you into the story of two men who want so much more than they're allowing themselves to have. Well done.

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'll send you a proper response later, but for now I'll just offer my heartfelt thanks. The vid wouldn't have been nearly as good without your input.

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's marvelous! Sombre, yes, but...I guess I like sombre. I loved the line Every perfect moment is a hidden warning, and the images that you put to that. Wow. This is definitely a vid for inspiring stories! Oh, the poor lads.... *g* Thank you!

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like sombre, too. And that you liked the hidden warning line. I knew from the start how I wanted to end that line, but finding the shots to proceed it was fun.

This is definitely a vid for inspiring stories!

I'm going to hold you to that. *g*

[empty-mirrors.livejournal.com]

Oh! Sad. Poor poor lads.

Great clip choice. They go beautifully with the lyrics and really create an evocative atmosphere. Thank you!

[przed.livejournal.com]

I feel like I need to immediately turn around and make a happy vid, just to make it up to the lads.

So glad you enjoyed it.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I feel like I need to immediately turn around and make a happy vid, just to make it up to the lads.

Well.. drat. But y'know, if you really feel you have to... *g*

[agentxpndble.livejournal.com]

Augh! I'm broken into little bits - That was so outrageously GORGEOUS! Awesome, fabulous, augh!

[przed.livejournal.com]

Is it bad that I'm proud to have broken you into bits?

So pleased you liked it. (Gorgeous means you liked it, yeah? *g*)

[myrebelcat.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! This is one I'm going to want to watch over and over - beautiful pacing and the way you've tied the clips to the lyrics is perfect.

Thank you so much!

[przed.livejournal.com]

Yay, you liked it! And it's so great when someone tells you a vid is worth re-watching. Thanks!

[blackmushroom.livejournal.com]

I've downloaded VLC with no results and reinstalled Quicktime and finally I've been able to watch it but just some parts. I've been trying again and again but the vid images are getting cut off all the time. I don't know what's wrong; Quicktime always works on my PC.
Anyway the pieces I've watched are wonderful! Thank you

[przed.livejournal.com]

londonronnie had success with reinstalling QT. You'd probably need it to be the newer version.

I've spent a couple of hours this afternoon trying to get a decent looking copy using an older codec, with no success, so I'm afraid we're stuck with this version for now. Good luck with it.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well, you know what I think of this. And I think it more each time I see it *g* Vids like this just make me fall in love with the lads and Pros all over again - the story to it, the feeling to it... This is beautiful, thank you so much!

Quicktime being a bugger, but it played on VLC!

[przed.livejournal.com]

Thanks for twisting my arm into posting it today. Not that it required much twisting.

So, when are you going to jump on the vidding bandwagon?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee... well I have a strange feeling I'll be absolutely rubbish at it (less good at the visual, me) but I do wanna have a go (as ya know). So - just as soon as I get a computer with the memory and the speed to run a vidding programme! That was my problem last year, nothing gelled, technology-wise...

Not that I need more fun fandom stuff when I should be reading dusty old tomes about sailors and stuff... :s

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Absolutely gorgeous editing. Beautiful vid. Thank you for sharing it.

(Mad props for "One of God's Better People," too, if I may say so.)

[przed.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I was rather pleased with it, once I figured out how to get it all to work.

And you have no idea how much it mean that you also like One of God's Better People. Especially since the hubby was telling me only yesterday that he thinks it's one of my less successful vids. (He thinks my Withnail vid is my best, so I don't always completely count his opinion.)

[paris7am.livejournal.com]

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
What a pleasure to watch and experience.
I cannot get that image of Bodie and "The sun must never touch your skin it could expose the dark within" out of my mind... brilliant.

[przed.livejournal.com]

You have picked up on my favourite line in the song, and one of my fave bits of the vid. That line is just so Bodie, I knew I had to make the vid.

Thanks!

[andreathelion.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for that wonderful Vid !!

[przed.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

Cosy Prisons

[carla36.livejournal.com]

I like the vid immensely, I can see that you had a great time making it and I will surely watch it again and again.

Carla

Re: Cosy Prisons

[przed.livejournal.com]

It was fun, if occasionally trying, to make. Very glad you like it.

[metabolick.livejournal.com]

Oh, so poignant! Especially those last lines and final image. The look on Doyle's face accompanying the line "Every thought you never dared to think" is haunting. Thanks so much.

[przed.livejournal.com]

ancastar helped me nail that final image. I had a few shots I'd tried that were almost, but not quite right, and then she reminded me about the end of Heroes.

The Doyle section was the hardest part to get going, but once I got it started, there was no stopping it. The "Every thought" line was one of the first bits I nailed.

fab icon, BTW

[metabolick.livejournal.com]

Kudos to ancastar for the suggestion.

Thanks. Yours are all beautiful.

[ancastar.livejournal.com]

She's being generous. I just sat back, watched it and said things like, "Ooh, I like this" and "Oh! I really like that!". In my experience, Ms. Zed needs very little help. :-)

[przed.livejournal.com]

So glad to hear you finally got it to play. (I've got to find an easier codec.) And that you liked it. It was interesting trying to get the narrative arc and small movements within the vid just right.

[diegina.livejournal.com]

Funny thing about this vid is that - as well as many others - I wasn't able to play it in VLC, BUT I was able to play it in the old windows media player:D

And now to the vid itself.

One does not have to understand the words, the music itself connected with the vid is very convincing about the bit desperate and hopeless mood. In the end, when I looked up the lyrics the exact references, I was glad that at first I had been able to turn on my language mode "I don't understand" and enjoy the vid without any notice of something unfitting about the song like some others mentioned above. But of course, I was able to understand the lyrics when I decided to:-) I liked especially the beginning and the very end. To be specific:
There's another life out there
And you should try it
Doyle playing football with children, so carefree and uninhibited...
And:
So if you're careful
You won't get hurt
But if your careful all the time
then what's it worth
Especially the last two lines and the very last shot of our gyus, standing so close yet thousads of miles away from each other. It's heart-breaking.
Well done!

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'm relieved you got it to play. And happy you liked it. (I have to admit that some of the lyrics were a bit challenging to work with, and there was one bit in particular where I all but gave up on trying to match the words and just went for creating a mini-narrative with the footage.

I'm kind of fond of the bit with Doyle playing football. I was very pleased when I found the shot of him watching the kids playing from the balcony, since I knew I could work it into the football game from Backtrack.

And I kept trying to make a vid that would earn those last two lines. Hopefully I've succeeded, just a bit.

[diegina.livejournal.com]

I never tend to complain that I can't play a vid once I download it. I always find a way, and it's usually quite easy. I was just surprised what player was able to play it :)

Yes, you definitely succeeded :)

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Finally got to watch with updated player - well worth the effort. Moody and yes, sombre. Fortunately I like that sort of stuff :-)

Great lyrics to work with, and I loved the close:
So if you're careful
You won't get hurt
But if your careful all the time
Then what's it worth?

Awww...

[przed.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who likes sombre. *g*

And those last lines are delicious, aren't they? I'm just glad I found shots that worked with them.

[crimson-37.livejournal.com]

I know this feedback is very late and for that I apologise. I did download the vid when you posted this but as I was vidding at the time, I hadn't watched until today. I don't like to let anything influence me while vidding.
Wow! I think you have done an amazing job. A brilliant choice of song, both lyric and music. Perfect timeing and pacing throughout. Very moving, and I love a video that can stir the emotions. This has done that perfectly. I really felt sorry for them by the end.
Our boys lives never run smooth. It's such a shame, but you have brought it all together and pointed it out so wonderfully and I for one would like to thank you. Well done!

[przed.livejournal.com]

I completely understand about not watching when you're vidding.

I'm so glad you liked the vid. I've been wanting to vid this song to Pros since I got the album last January, so it's nice to have others tell me it wasn't a crack-addled idea. And it's so great to hear that I've stirred your emotions. (I'm always pleased to have created effective angst.)