Vid: If I Wrote You

[lierdumoa]

Title: If I Wrote You
Artist: Dar Williams
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Summary: Season 1 retrospective. Fear, grief, strength and hope among the members of the Atlantis expedition.
A/N: Thanks to permetaform, tv_elf and z_rayne for the wonderfully thorough beta's. Thanks also to goluxexmachina for cheerleading and to spaggel for listening to me bitch.
Extras: Making Of(coming eventually)

[large version] 624x352|Xvid AVI.zip|28.7 MB
[small version] 320x240|WMV 9.zip|9.55 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

I never thought you were the letter writing type
So now I see the words you chose the way you write
So I started to write back about the trees in the snow
And I saw a bird, couldn't say what it was but I thought you would know
You always surprised me

And if I wrote You
If I wrote You
You would know me
And you would not write me again

And when the spring came and flooded all the streams
It's like how you got the night you told me all you dreams
And when the barn roof sagged after an icy bout
It's like how you shrugged when you knew the truth was the only way out
But not the only way (oh no)

And if I wrote you
If I wrote you
You would know me
And you would not write me again

We drew our arms around the bastard sons
We never would drink to the chosen ones
Well you know the way I went was not the way I planned
But I thought the world needed love and a steady hand
So I'm steady now

And I'm so happy
I had to tell you
And I love you
And you will not write me again
You will not write me again
You will not write me again

Comments

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

You made me cry. The song creeps up on you - it seems deceptively quiet/personal - but by counter-pointing the images (particularly at the end "And I'm so happy/I had to tell you/
And I love you") with sadder images against the lyrics made the struggles the Atlantis team are facing universal and turn the last lines ("You will not write me again") even more poignant. I also loved how you handled the tonal shift in the song - going from small/intimate/personal to an expanding scarier yet exciting/larger universe.

But more importantly - you made me cry.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeeeee. ::flattered::

I don't know whether to feel bad that I made you cry or ridiculously pleased with myself. And the recc you gave me in your journal! That's just *exactly* what I was trying to get across with this vid and I'm so glad I managed to communicate that. I think the song worked because it was so intimate and personal that it managed to say something about each individual character as well as tying the characters together with their common experiences.

Thank you for your thoughts, and for the reccommendation!

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

for me - crying is always good. so is laughing. even the vid that made me naseaus made me happy.
if the vid puts me to sleep - that is bad.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

just showed this to xlorp and he got the message/tone you were conveying. he also said it picked up some current themes from today: the things we have to do in the name of exploration/war/survival - and if people sitting at home knew what was happening to their loved ones, their world would change.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! I hadn't thought of it in those terms, but *yes.* I know a big theme in season 2 is the friction with the new military because they'd been trapped on this other world for a year with little hope of returning home.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Yes. Any reaction better than none.

::nods::