5th Element Vid - Open Up (for festivids)

[boomqueen]

Title: Open Up
Song by Leftfield and Lydon
Vid by boom_queen
Summary: A highly dancey recap of the film The Fifth Element for festivids 2010 (originally posted here). Made for wyomingnot. "Open up, make room for me."



Download the shiny mp4 version here (49 MB).

Streaming at BAM and Youtube

Vidder's Notes:

I had so much fun planning for this one you guys!

Once I had my match on a fandom, I started brainstorming songs that would work well for the actiony-dancey recap vid that I had in mind. Besides the Leftfield song, other top contenders were Let's Go by Wang Chung, Private Idaho by the B-52's, and Le Disko by Shiny Toy Guns (how hilarious and ironic would it have been if I had vidded that song, since that's the song my gift vidder chose for me for my Neverending Story vid!). I was listening through each of the songs and seeing if any specific visuals/scenes from the movie jumped out at me. The clip/visual pairing that inspired me to use Open Up was the idea of the blue diva lady singing and dancing to the "blah blah blah" lyric, and it kind of unfolded from there.

The vid is mostly linear and follows the movie narrative, though I did fudge the order of somethings if the beats or the lyrics worked better that way. The hardest decision I had to make was cutting Zorg (Gary Oldman) out of the vid. He's one of my favorite villains, and I LOOOOOVE him in the movie. However, when I was clipping the source I realized that he talks a lot and he affects other characters, but he doesn't actually DO much, and he doesn't interact with my main characters Leeloo or Korben at all. I wanted to keep the internal movement high, and avoid talking heads/static shots, so I cut him--poor Zorg!

Oh and the mugger (better known for his turn as Nino Quincampoix in Amelie)! I love the mugger scene too, and it has great physical humor, but it didn't fit in the final version. Y'all should go watch him right now in all his spastastic glory anyways :)

That's pretty much it. My main focus for the vid was on maintaining a cohesive visual narrative (for both people who had and hadn't seen the movie before) and keeping the beatwork + internal movement strong. I had conflicting feedback from betas: civilian betas tended to say "too fast, too confusing!" and vidder betas tended to say "faster, more inter-cutting and energy!", so I tried to balance out the two and make it friendly for both vidders and viewers.

I'm really happy with the finished product though. It's not deep meta or anything, but it was fun to make and it makes me smile when I watch it.

Also...feedback is <3 and sunshine and cupcakes y'all!

Comments

[latteaddict.livejournal.com]

*loves* I d/loaded the shiny version and it looked glorious! I forgot how fun that movie was. And I can't believe you managed to capture the entire story in under 4 minutes. I noticed the lack of Garry Oldman (he's like a secret crush of mine) but you're right about his story not actually affecting the main story's through line. Very pretty, my dear, and I think your music choice was perfect for such an upbeat and bizarre crazy space story. The relentless pace was exactly what was needed. :)

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

It is SUCH fun movie! So pretty and crazy looking (which makes for fun and crazy vidding times, yay!). Gary Oldman is a not-so-secret crush of mine as well, but *sigh* it just didn't work out for this vid. I'll make it up to him some other time ;)

Thanks for watching and commenting M! I'm so pleased you enjoyed the upbeat pacing and crazy space story line :D

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! I was so happy to find out that some of my festivids recs were made by my friends, so it was totally unbiased that I recced this one. So good!

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

\o/ For the record, I appreciate BOTH your unbiased rec and your hey-my-friend-made-that happiness in different ways :D Thanks K!

[dr-ninjapants.livejournal.com]

That is AWESOME! I love love LOVE John Lydon (*points to icon*) and I love this song and I freaking love 5th Element. And this is a good vid -- you clearly chose the song well and edited it well. Totally sweet, awesome job, well done!

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I have loved this song for FOREVER and I was so delighted to discover that it would work well with Fifth Element. I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for the lovely feedback :D

[goodbyebird]

Fun vid! Reminded me it's been a while since I last saw it. Thanks for sharing :)

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you thought it was fun! Thanks for watching/commenting :D

[zutulu42.livejournal.com]

Wow, I loved it! You did a great job with editing to balance out the quick energy yet maintaining the comprehensibility. It's been a very long time since I've last seen this movie, and I tend to remember more "ooh, shiny colors!" than "ooh, plot!", but I followed this perfectly well ;) I declare this vid a keeper!