VID: 'Blackbird' [SPN, Sam]

[zimshan]

Oh, man, there are no words for how fulfilling it is to finally finish a vid whose song has been staring at you on your ‘to vid’ play list for years...

‘BLACKBIRD‘
Sam Winchester in Season Four
Song/Artist: ‘Blackbird’ by The Beatles (both original and Across The Universe) versions
Vidder: zimshan
Show/Character: Supernatural/Sam Winchester
Length: 2:29
Summary: Into the light of a dark black night, you were only waiting for this moment to be free
Links: MPEG (640x320) (29 MB) | AVI (640x320) (26 MB) | BAM Vid Vault (Streaming)
Disclaimer: All clips property of Eric Kripke, WB & The CW. I claim no ownership of anything in this vid other than the editing I have done myself.

Find more videos like this on BAM Vid Vault


Special thanks to dev_earl for taking a last minute look at this and helping me frame the vid‘s overall tone!


CONCEPTUAL & TECHNICAL NOTES
No joke, this song has been sitting on my ‘to vid’ playlist waiting for its source FOR YEARS. At least since Season Three maybe even before that, I can’t even remember anymore. For so long, it was a simple, one-note idea, a somewhat sinister take on an otherwise hopeful song. Instead, Sam’s story progressed into one that grabbed me by the heart strings, and so the idea has morphed slowly with time. He’s a damn hard character to capture, and I’ve had a hell of a time getting a song works for him. I can’t tell you how many Sam vids I’ve scrapped over the years. But the guy just breaks my heart with how hard he continually tries despite it all. And I just wanted something to finally capture that.

For this vid, in my mind, the black bird referred to here is a raven, recognized by multiple cultures to be the bringer of both death and wisdom. And so just like the bird, there’s a duality in the song of the dark and light, sadness and hope. While the real author’s intent on this song is pretty widely known, there have been many personal interpretations over the years derived from it as well. For me, it has always captured the desperate will to push forward, the risk you take in always trying, and the wisdom you gain after an inevitable fall. So it’s slightly hysterical that only now after completing this, do I fully notice just how much it captures Sam, especially recently.

I applied on the song here a slight double displacement, an old producer’s trick to achieve a thicker, fuller sound. In this case I was interested in highlighting the song's inherent duality by making a physical disconnect as well. So double Paul McCartneys for you all! :)

This is also my first non-Ulead video. Working with Vegas instead was an interesting challenge and the main reason this thing didn’t get finished this summer. It was definitely a learning experience, right from the first clip laid. But in retrospect, had I known what I was doing when I first started this, my approach would have been different and probably would have resulted in a very different vid. In this case, I think going into the dark black night only helped it. I did have trouble retaining the quality of some clips after coloring and effects, some of which I fixed, others of which I'm still wishing I could have fixed. But I love the freedom of pretty credits now, and wouldn't go back for anything. ;)

And yes, that is the Across the Universe version in the beginning and ending. I wish the two versions flowed into each other better, but I tried to supplement the change as much as I could with an audio bridge (stolen from Andrew Bird‘s [ha!] "A Nervous Tick Motion From The Head To The Left" if you're having a 'where have I heard that?' moment).


LYRICS:
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

[Bridge]

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Comments are like cake and cookies with frosting on top. :)

Comments

[afrocurl.livejournal.com]

This is gorgeous. I really think that Blackbird can be the start of something bad, just as it tries to ring hopeful.

Your clip choice worked so well, too. With the quick looks at John as well as the parts with them as kids.

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

YAY! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I really think that Blackbird can be the start of something bad, just as it tries to ring hopeful.
It really is a special song that can vary so greatly from hopeful and inspiration to sad and melancholy, depending on when and where you listen to it.

With the quick looks at John as well as the parts with them as kids.
Oo! I'm happy to hear you noticed that! I wish I could have fit more of John and them as kids, if only it was a tad longer song. But that image retrospectively haunts me in watching S4, with the idea that Little!Sam had no clue what was even going on there. It's easy to discount but imagining the total mindfuck of finding out you've been kept out of something so big for eight years of your life? Is just ridiculously horrible. UGH, Sam, why do you gotta be so tragic?!

[cinco-series.livejournal.com]

Very good job. Thanks for sharing!

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting! I'm glad you could enjoy it!

[janglyjewels.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is just amazing! I will be reccing this on my LJ.

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

Aw, you really are too kind. There's actually a lot I would like to fix in this technically, but the tone was what I was really working for, what I needed from it personally, so once I achieved that, I was satisfied. So I'm overjoyed to hear this worked for you! Thanks for taking the time to comment! :)

[spiniform.livejournal.com]

I love this, the song just fits amazingly well. Thanks for sharing. :)

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

I'm so delighted to hear this works for you! I've been so unfocused when it comes to vidding SPN the last two seasons, starting with so many songs that I just could not get to work right. But after the finale, this song really started to embody everything I wanted and needed to say about Sam. A lot of which, while it has been there, it's been placed in such small pieces. Generally, I feel like the show has overall missed the boat on hammering it home, and has made many viewers distant to Sam in the last year. But this is the way vidding can be downright therapeutic!

So thanks for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate the feedback! :)

[egotists.livejournal.com]

Lovely job. Really nice and simple but still with a definite edge.

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear the simplicity came through! I tend to get too bogged down with trying to do too much, but the simpleness of the song called for something more understated. So I'm delighted to hear that worked for you! Thanks for taking the time to comment.

[paceyringwald.livejournal.com]

janglyjewels recced your vid and I came here to say that you made an awesome vid with my favourite Beatles song. :D Thank you so much. :)

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

Aw, it's always nice to hear from someone who loves the song and enjoyed the vid. I'm not sure I could single out one Beatles song as my favorite, but this is definitely up at the top for me as well. So I'm glad you could enjoy it! Thanks so much for coming to comment! :)

[dev-earl.livejournal.com]

YAY! It really is amazing, hon. :)

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

Ah, it's just so nice to finally have the Sam that's been in my mind for the last year down into an organized 2 1/2 minutes now. It's like all these thoughts about the show that were kinda driving me nuts I can finally put aside. Vidding is totally therapeutic when it wants to be. :)

[atlantisgrrrl.livejournal.com]

Okay, so a) awesomely made, very purdy, nicely bookended and you make me feel for Sam here, which I don't do so often *shifty eyes*. But I have ulterior motives for my comment, so b) what's that slight double displacement thing you mention there? Inquiring minds really, really want to know *hopeful*.

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

you make me feel for Sam here, which I don't do so often *shifty eyes*.
Oh, that's actually really awesome to hear! I definitely can understand distance toward Sam in the last year but it's neat you thought the empathy came through for you here anyway. So, thanks!

what's that slight double displacement thing you mention there? Inquiring minds really, really want to know *hopeful*.
Oh, actually it's nothing really complicated. Just if you take two copies of the same audio and line them up on two different audio tracks so they play exactly together? Then shift one copy over a millisecond or so, and when you play them together, it will thicken the sound. After a point, the further your shift is, the less you'll get the fuller sound, and the more you'll hear a disconnect instead. Of course, you can do this trick to thicken the sound even more, with as many copies as you want, but it all depends on how small your increments are on the program you‘re using. I’ve found it helpful with older recordings that sound thin in comparison to modern recordings [which almost all now employ a similar (if way more complex) technique of overlaying sounds as the producing standard].

Err, not sure if that was what you were looking for, but hopefully it was somewhat helpful!

[atlantisgrrrl.livejournal.com]

That was exactly what I was looking for, AWESOME! I thank you for the explanation! And yeah, I have a couple of older songs with *exactly that* problem lying around, so this is fantastic. Thanks again!

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

Oh, then AWESOME! Glad I could help out! :D

[cosmicviolet.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was amazing! I see nothing to fix here. As you say, Sam is a hard character to work with, but your vids are always great at capturing that intangible something that I can't quite put my finger on. :)

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for your generous comment. It's kinda fabulous to hear that any of my vids capture an intangible element you, since it's sometimes hard for myself to see them as anything more than a bunch of succeeding clips after staring at them all for so long. There's nothing that bores me more than watching a vid that looks like 'Every Other Vid Ever'. And while I always work with the idea of battling against this syndrome, I still always have this momentary panic halfway through every vid I work on that it's become exactly that. So I'm overjoyed you could see an added element! Glad you could enjoy this one!

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

This is really lovely. Blackbird is one of those songs that ALWAYS makes me emotional, no matter what. It's one of my favorite Beatles songs, and I like the way you used it here. There is a certain sense of hopelessness and hopefulness all at once for Sam, and it strikes a good note in the middle of that for me. Like, this idea that he tries and tries and tries and all the things he tries come out wrong despite his efforts. But he keeps trying.

So, I enjoyed it very much, and at end said, 'Oh, Sammy', which I think was the right reaction. :)

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

OH TI! I totally missed replying to this comment months ago! FAIL FOR ME!

But it's always AWESOME to hear what you think, so thanks so much for your comment! I'm delighted to hear you enjoyed it, especially after your personal affinity for the song. :)

And I love that you felt it struck this middle note for you because it was a balance I was working for. "But he keeps trying" is just, yes, exactly. He has tried so much and so furiously hard the last two years, and still to end up where he is now, it just sends me into sputters to think about. UGH, TI, WHY DOES HE HAVE TO BE SO TRAGIC?? WHYYY?