Vid: 98 Points

[lierdumoa]

Title: 98 Points
Artist: Arlene Bishop
Fandom: Numb3rs
Summary: Don Epps, the trials he goes through, and the people that motivate him.
A/N: This vid is dedicated to boniblithe, who helped outline and beta and was a wonderful cheerleader. Additional beta's by permetaform and absolut3destiny. This was made for the VividCon 2005 vid auction.
Extras: Making Of (coming soon); vividcon

[large version] 640x480|Xvid AVI.zip|28.5 MB
[small version] 320x240|WMV 9.zip|12.6 MB

If you have problems playing either file you may refer to this guide. If you want to recc this vid to someone, please do not hotlink it or upload it to your own server, but refer back to this journal entry.


Lyrics

Man the wind really blows my mind
I must be made of wind chimes on the inside
Tiny bones, tied up in a line
Holes for wind and some sunshine

Or maybe I am made of tin
That explains my metal grin
With spaces where the birds come
And little fishes stretch their fins

Flesh and blood
98 points water
Flesh and blood
98 points water

I know that I'm not made of wood
Else I'd crack like I know I should
Else I'd burn like I know I could
'cuz even though the world is good
There are those who've crumbled where they've stood

Flesh and blood
98 points water
Flesh and blood
98 points water

Days like these It's only gravity
Days like these It's only gravity

I fear that I am made of stone
To hear some others cry and groan
To see the fallow I have sown
Remember things I have been shown

Flesh and blood
98 points water
Flesh and blood
98 points water

Days like these It's only gravity
Days like these It's only gravity

Let me go
let me go
Let me go

Comments

[quitesparkly.livejournal.com]

A Don vid! Will download it when I'm back home. Look forward to it:D

[wolfling]

Oh lovely. :) I've been looking forward to seeing this one and the wait was worth it.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Yay! boniblithe was like, "Don is hot, especially when he's holding a gun. I want you to share this with the world," and I was like, "Sir, yes sir."

:P

Thanks for the feedback!

[thistle90.livejournal.com]

GUH! Just guh! That was so bittersweet and flawless and gorgeous! Rob Morrow is so gorgeous! Beautiful job!!

Also, many, many thanks for the link to the codec stuff. That has been vexing me for quite a while.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! I'm so glad you liked it! Rob Morrow is indeed a gorgeous, gorgeous man.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Huh. Now I want to go back and look closer at the equations. Though I only got through single variable calculus, so I don't know how much would be comprehensible.

Yay! I'm glad you liked it!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mixed_media_/]

Numb3rs vid!! Numb3rs vid!! Numb3rs vid!! This is so amazing!!!

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

It is an awesome show. Glad you liked the vid!

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Wow! This is beautiful. I'm totally unfamiliar with the fandom but now I'm interested in seeing some episodes. Great job. :-)

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! boniblithe will be pleased. She's been wanting to get more people into Numb3rs.

Thankyou for the lovely feedback!

[logovo.livejournal.com]

Downloading now! Thank you!

[logovo.livejournal.com]

This was very, very good. I've watched it twice now and I love so many little moments you have included in the way you unfold Don's POV. The images and music mesh so well, the pacing and the way you used the shootout from Uncertainty Principle for the intense part of the song, wow.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad the style worked for you. You can thank boniblithe for my putting the shootout where I did. She gave me a rough, but extremely helpful outline before I started and I think at *least* half the credit for this vid's success goes to her.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Maybe 1/3. You did all the hard work :)

[missmollyetc.livejournal.com]

Wonderful job. I loved the clip choices, and the smooth way you underscored the emotion with the music was very powerful.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Thank you! boniblithe helped immensely with the clip choices. I'm glad I got the proper mood across. I appreciate your taking the time to comment on it!

[isilya]

Mrrr, I really enjoyed watching this. I'm not a vidder so I don't know how to feedback other than to say -- it gave me goosebumps.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Yaaaay! That's exactly the mood I was trying to get across. Thankyou for taking the time to comment!

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Is it not awesome :) Are you watching Northern Exposure yet?

[wistful-fever.livejournal.com]

I can't download this now, because I've got to go to woooooork, but I certainly will later. I'll let you know my thoughts... as if, um, they matter, or something.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Everyone's thoughts matter! Feedback is crack to me!

[wistful-fever.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm just. Blown away. Seriously.

I plan to give more coherent, detailed feedback when I can really look through this without losing my breath. But that's my first reaction to seeing it.

And I know what you mean about feedback. I never feel... satisfied. Maybe that's just the creative temperament.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Awwwww.

::flattered::

Wow I...wasn't expecting that reaction. I'm so glad you liked it!

[mcfeste.livejournal.com]

Wow. You've chosen a slow song and longer clips than I usually like, but in this case, those two things combine to create a really awesome tension for Don. Fantastic work, exploring what Don is "made of". My favorite parts are the shot of the dead woman from the pilot against "tiny bones" and around 3:08, the strings against the shootout. Really, really good vid. Thanks.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

You can thank boniblithe for the song choice. It was also her idea to use that shot for "tiny bones" and use the shootout for that section of the song. She's great with scene selection and mood.

It's a lot slower than the music I usually vid, so it was an interesting experience for me. I clipped as fast as the song would let me, as I'm used to faster cutting myself. I had a lot of fun with this vid, and I'm really glad the end result worked for you.

Thanks for commenting!

[wistful-fever.livejournal.com]

First off, I want to apologize for not sending feedback sooner. I meant to, but alas, forgot to. Also, I'm horrible at feedback. I have a hard time explaining what I really like/dislike about a vid. Or a story, for that matter.

Next, the song itself—it's a gorgeous choice. It lends a certain fragility to this video that kept me in a state of sharp awareness. It's an intensely personal song, I think, and that's something that is needed for a Don video—because he's not going to let anyone see inside him without it, whereas Charlie, I feel, will just kind of throw himself to the audience. In that sense, Charlie's way easier to vid.

Moving on, your clip choices were unexpected and interesting. The internal motion, us following Don around the screen was especially done well in this one, and I'm not always the biggest fan of that kind of thing—it worked here. It's like we're trying to catch Don, pin him down and see into his head. I like that.

At 00:39, that clip with Don looking around as Terry is getting coffee; for some reason, this really got me. It's such a simple, unexpected clip, but in it Don is looking outward, distracted, searching for something, and that is just so GOOD. So subtle, but so perfect.

I also appreciated that you used Charlie in this video. It gives us a perspective of Don's world, I think, rounds it out. A lot of character focused videos that I've watched, and heck, MADE—forget that we are what we are half because of the people around us. What's that rule that Charlie talks about in episode two? No life subject remains unchanged once it's observed, or something.

...and spaces where the birds come in...

The clips you used there, the way they were put together. Oh, man, this probably moved me most. Okay, I'm lying, a lot of this vid moved me. I might secretly be a Don girl, and not have realized it. But when Don peeks through the gap, the side of his head moving into it—you know that fragility I mentioned? This drove it home. And then following that with the choreographed movement of the team? This made my day.

...and little fishes stretch their fins...

Guh. That was perfect. And matching the beat with the shots to the chest was an especially nice touch.

This really FELT like a Don vid. You didn't overemphasis how this life probably hurts him, as you could of done, but that's a GOOD thing, because Don wouldn't do that, that's more Charlie's scene. You just showed him going through the motions that this life requires, and the one that really is TRULY messed up by it are the people around him: Terry, Kim, Charlie, the victims at the crime scenes, they're the one touched by everything, and Don is this guy with a metal grin. I love it.

Around 2:11-2:12ish, the way you used the grunge yellow/green from the show, and the clapping hands was a nice touch. It makes me hear the music more, actually, instead of focusing solely on the visuals.

....days like these, it's only gravity...

You killed me here. I'm a not so secret slasher of these two, and while this is by no means a slasher vidder, I'll still see the subtext no matter what, and this just. Yeah. Guh. I won't go into detail, in case it offends you. :) Not everyone's cup of tea.

2:40-ish; the basket ball clip. It appeared almost completely after the "gravity" lyrics, but I still associated it with what I heard before I saw it because obviously there was gravity being defied and then accepted there. And Charlie comes back down on the drum, which was just cool.

3:03–>3:23(ish)

The faster clips here kept the video going. I like slow-cut vids as much as I like fast-cut vids, but when they're mixed, it keeps my interest better. Of course, it also felt right with the music, but since you made it, you know that.

(cont.)

[wistful-fever.livejournal.com]

(cont.)

What else?

Ah, the clip-jumps, cutting further ahead within the same scene was something that was visually interesting. I don't see it done a lot on purpose, so it was a nice change. To me that meant... time is inevitable. You can't hold onto things. It drove that home with the lyrics: let me go. Or maybe I'm just over analyzing again. I've gotten into a bad habit of doing that.

The only thing I could say that felt off was the ending. I liked the use of credits (beginning and ending), but with the music, I think a fade out would have been less jarring and would have fit the music better, even if it's a very simple method of ending a video.

This video is in my favorite folder.

Okay, done rambling.

yay vid

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

What she won't tell you because she's too modest is that she'd never seen the show until I won her services in the VVC auction, and she mainlined the DVDs and came up with this vid in like a week *g* That makes it all the more fascinating to me that it's so GOOD!

I'm a total Don fangirl, and she did a great job filling in the space around him in this vid with exactly who he thinks he is.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

The ending was interesting. I'm not sure I'm really happy with it either. I feel like the vid petered out a bit at the end, and made the credits feel a little tacked on.

I'm really glad you enjoyed the vid. I watched all the episodes in about two days and hadn't spent much time in the fandom, so you can really thank boniblithe for her support and for her vision because I swear I spent most of my time in Premiere thinking to myself, "What would Boni do?" and going from there.

Again, thanks so much for commenting! Feedback like this is a rare gift.

:)

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Agh, now it's my turn to apologize for not replying sooner. This was such an unexpected treat!


It's like we're trying to catch Don, pin him down and see into his head. I like that.

I like that assessment. One of the first things I vidded was the scene with Charlie trying to learn about Don's first case -- trying to reach out to Don, but always at kind of a distance. The internal motion was an instinctual aesthetic choice, but I'm glad it worked with that theme.


I also appreciated that you used Charlie in this video. It gives us a perspective of Don's world, I think, rounds it out.

When boniblithe originally gave me this song she told me she wanted a vid about Don, and his life, and also how he wants to touch his brother in the naughty way.

:P

I knew Charlie was going to play a big role in this vid before I'd seen a single episode of the show.


The clips you used there, the way they were put together. Oh, man, this probably moved me most. Okay, I'm lying, a lot of this vid moved me. I might secretly be a Don girl, and not have realized it.

Yaaaay! So glad you liked this. boniblithe gave me an outline to work with, but this was one of the parts of the vid she hadn't really made any notes on, so I'm glad the choices I made worked.


This is the slowest song I'd vidded since I'd started using Premiere, so I was used to faster cutting and had to restrain myself from going too fast in the slower parts of the vid. It was fun to hit that part of the song and get to play with hard, fast cuts again.