Festivids reveals #1-3: Big Eden (Home, Jolene, Cooking Breakfast)

[bironic]

I actually added Big Eden to the list of fandoms I was willing to vid on my Festivids signup sheet after seeing kassrachel's Dear Festividder letter, because I had an idea about fulfilling her request for "quirky characters, chosen family, small town life, happy endings" with the song "Home." That ended up being my assignment, which was cool.

Less cool was when I rented the movie again and discovered that it is really not shot for vidding. The composition is often awkward. Some key conversations take place in the background. Shy Pike comes across as surly. Neither of the main characters smiles. Etc. Ugh, and let us not get started on the technical problem I never did figure out, where none of the Adobe Premiere exports would work with my usual avisynth/MP4 converter.

And so it transpired that while I wrestled with clipping and structuring "Home" and desperately brainstormed alternatives, "Cooking Breakfast" and "Jolene" happened. Because Pike doing anonymous cooking and running away is adorable and because Tim DeKay is hot. Eventually, with advice from synn and encouragement from cincodemaygirl, "Home" did come together, and I am quite happy with it.

So here they all are. Hope you enjoy(ed). kassrachel, it was a delight to think of you throughout the process and to give you a spread of vids & vidlets that were meant to cater to your tastes.


Title: Cooking Breakfast
Pairing: Pike/Henry
Music: Gelber & Manning (edited)
Length: 48 sec.
Content notes/warnings: None
Notes: Because you can't make a set of Big Eden vids without one that celebrates Pike, shyness, and winning someone's heart through good cooking. ♥ Originally posted here and here.

Streaming at Vimeo | Download mp4 (36 MB)

Edited lyrics:

The coffee is steamin'
Oh, boy, what I'm dreamin'
While I'm cookin' breakfast
For the one I love

My baby likes bacon
So that's what I'm makin'
While I'm cookin' breakfast
For the one I love

Oh, life has been so nice and charming
Right from the start
When I won his tummy
I won his heart

My baby is happy
No wonder I'm happy
While I'm cookin' breakfast
For the one I love





Title: Home
Characters/Pairings: Townsfolk/Henry, with Dean/Henry and Pike/Henry
Music: Phillip Phillips (edited)
Length: 3:37
Summary: They're going to make this town Henry's home.
Content notes/warnings: None, I don't think.
Notes: The first time I heard this song, I thought of vid fans and particularly of kassrachel. I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to use it to fulfill her festivids request for a Big Eden vid about chosen family and small-town life. Originally posted here and here.

Streaming at Vimeo | Download mp4 (160 MB—I know, I'm sorry, still trying to figure out how to fix this)

Lyrics:

Hold on to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you're not alone
'Cause I'm gonna make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons; they fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you're not alone
'Cause I'm gonna make this place your home

Ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh
Oh, oh
Oh, oh

[repeat second verse]

[repeat chorus]

Oh, oh
Oh, oh






Title: Jolene
Pairings: Pike/Henry, Dean/Henry
Music: Mindy Smith (edited)
Length: 2:05
Summary: Please don't take away Pike's man.
Content notes/warnings: Jealousy. Song implies infidelity, although the characters weren't together yet in the movie.
Notes: This started out as a silly idea and somehow ended up being sincere. I was afraid that made it a Lord King Bad vid, like the Sheppard/Chaya/McKay one, but a commenter or two said the sincerity won out. I think the honest, bluegrassy feel to the song helped; it felt like Pike to me, and the shot where Widow Thayer strokes his arm still makes me :,(. Originally posted here and here.

Streaming at Vimeo | Download mp4 (56 MB)

Edited lyrics:

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you, please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green

Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

[chorus]

He talks about you in his sleep
And there's nothing I can do to keep from cryin'
When he calls your name, Jolene

Now I could easily understand
How you could easily take my man
But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene

[chorus]

[instrumental]




Comments and concrit are always welcome as I try to improve my vidding.

"Home" was shown at Muskrat Jamboree 2013!

Comments

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

omg, it never occurred to me in a MILLION YEARS that you had made all three of them!

You have no idea how happy these vids made me -- they are all fabulous -- and they each appeal to me in a different way -- oh, I can't believe they are all yours! I suspected "Cooking Breakfast" might have been by you, but I am just blown away by the discovery that you made all of them. <3

I adore them. You are so awesome. I showed them to sanj and she said, "Wow, that 'Home' vid was clearly made by someone who knows you really well, or else someone who's been stalking your journal, because it has every single thing you love in it." You are AWESOME.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Subterfuge accomplished! ♥

And I only stalked your journal a little - I tracked down a post you made when you first saw Big Eden so I could check out what you liked about it that might not have made it into your Dear Festividder letter and so I could make sure not to put anything in a vid for it that you wouldn't like.

[sholio]

Oh, you made "Home"! :D It was one of my very favorite vids in the fest this year. It just nailed the found-family/community vibe that I loved so much in the movie (which is, of course, one of my biggest narrative kinks) ... and on top of that, it was nice to find a Big Eden vid that wasn't wholly focused on Pike and Henry -- which is entirely understandable, of course, since they're the main couple in the movie and they're adorable, but between my Tim DeKay obsession and my general love for family/community stuff, that vid just nailed my kinks hard.

[sholio]

On a side note, if you do figure out how to compress "Home" smaller, I am definitely interested, because that's one that I really want a copy of. <3

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I still don't know what's going on there, but it's on my list to try some more export options. The short-term good news is that if you go to the Vimeo page (http://vimeo.com/56178444), I've set it up so you can download the file, and that method yields an 18 MB version. Can't vouch for how good it looks, though...

[sholio]

Thank you! :D That actually worked great for my purposes - it's entirely watchable and enjoyable at that size. :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ah! Excellent.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I was and am so happy to see your response to this vid! Kassrachel of course gets the bulk of the credit for articulating her joy for found families and small towns so that I could apply it to Big Eden, but it's so wonderful to hear that that joy shone through in the final product for you both.

(And re: Tim DeKay: yes. Mmm. A little of that guilty pleasure came out in "Jolene," heh.)

Muskrat Jamboree

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User loneraven referenced to your post from Muskrat Jamboree (http://loneraven.livejournal.com/737153.html) saying: [...] and got everyone going; there was a sweet interlude of Home [...]

[qe2.livejournal.com]

"Home" was also shown at MJ13 and just hit a whole bunch of my buttons hard. Now I want to seek out the canon. Thank you!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Definitely recommend the movie! Parts of it are better than others, but it's so charming and quirky and fun and unusual and pretty much never fails to fill one's heart.

[pocky_slash.livejournal.com]

I think I commented on this during Festivids, but "Home" was playing in a coffeeshop this weekend and littledust reminded me that this vid existed, so I've watched it like, three times since yesterday afternoon. It continues to make my actualfax cry real tears. It's like a warm hug, everything good about Big Eden condensed together ♥

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay. Sorry about the tears, but so so glad to hear that it brings warm fuzzies. I liked that movie a lot (Pike ♥) and kassrachel had such a well articulated response to it / request for a Festivid that matched the song perfectly in my head, so it's great to hear when others watch the vid and feel feelings about it too.

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

Gaah, these are so cute. You made me remember how much I adored this movie.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Aw, yay. I felt similarly while rewatching the movie last year and making the vids.