Vid: Landsailor [multifandom]

[raven]

This vid was made for silly_cleo's wonderful Aims vid project, in which a group of vidders are each making one vid for each song on Vienna Teng's new album. I highly recommend it. I am very grateful to such_heights and purplefringe for their kind commentary and technical advice on this vid, not to mention many glasses of wine and their sofa to sleep on!

A small fact which may aid in your enjoyment of this vid, if you did not already know it: in Europe, India, Australia and most of the rest of the English-speaking world, the standard voltage for mains electricity is between 230 and 240V.

[vid] Landsailor [multifandom]
by Raven
We're gonna need a bigger boat.

music: "Landsailor", Vienna Teng feat. Glen Phillips, from Aims
content notes: none standard; some disturbing images of fire.
password to stream: 230V / download from mediafire, 100MB

landsailor from Raven on Vimeo.

Sources in order of appearance:

Swades (We, The People); Master and Commander; 3 Idiots; The Dish; The West Wing; Parks and Recreation; Flight of the Phoenix; NASA archive footage; Apollo 13.

lyrics:

landsailor
landsailor, sail on time
rain or shine, I know you can

cloudraker
cloudraker, share your finds
all your wonders at my demand

lightbringer
tamer of night
blossom of hours unleashed

make me a lawbender
all equalized
saved from the chill and heat
your power flows through me transformed
here’s where I was born

landsailor
deepwinter strawberry
endless summer, ever spring
a vast preserve
aisle after aisle in reach
every commoner made a king
earthbreaker
noble and prized
feed me beyond my means

hello worldmaker
never denied
build all my wildest dreams
but there’s a storm outside your door
and I’m a child no more

headless and faceless
tireless and seamless behind these walls
this is my progress
when you don’t notice my lines at all
I split the world open
delve ever deeper in my alchemic arts
I crack the ciphers to free up your mind, your life, your heart

oh landsailor I’m your landsailor
in the bed that we’ve made in the bed that we’ve made
may every nail be shown may every nail be shown
great lifebringer great lifebringer
the price that we pay the price that we pay
time that you made it known time that you made it known
I want to be your bride in full oh be my bride in full
shield my eyes no more shield your eyes no more
oh I am altered now for good altered now for good
shield these eyes no more shield these eyes no more

Comments

[jb_slasher]

I love this effect of going through time, the astronaut beckoning the sailor to come with him on this journey of discovery. This is beautiful and it feels somehow festive.

I am bad with words. Simply, this is beautiful!

[raven]

Thank you very much! I'm so pleased you liked it and it was, indeed, meant to be celebratory. :)

[usuallyhats]

I love this vid, especially how you've used the voltmeter all the way through, and the water images, and all the movement. And it's so moving, even though I don't know most of the fandoms. ♥

[raven]

Oh, I'm so pleased! Thank you. :)

[cosmic_llin]

This is gorgeous. I feel like I'm going to need at least a couple of rewatches to take it all in. <3

[raven]

<3 <3 thank you, lovely!

[chaila]

Oh this is really beautiful and interesting. I only know a couple of these fandoms, but the themes that tie them together are really clear. I love the focus on exploration and discovery, human innovation in different ways, and accomplishing big goals.

[raven]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad it came through clearly for you. :)

[alwaystheocean]

This is BEAUTIFUL, and simultaneously everything I was hoping for but also nothing like what I was expecting! Definitely going to need some re-watching but eeee, it exists! And it's lovely! <3

[raven]

It exists! <3 <3 thank you, my dear.

[sophinisba]

I enjoyed this very much. <3

[raven]

Hurray! Thank you. :)

[opusculasedfera]

I love how everything you make has an intense affection for people trying hard and doing even little things. It's very satisfying. This was beautiful. I don't feel like I have the right vidding vocabulary to talk about it, but the way the clips moved and motion went through them all was breathtaking.

[raven]

That's such a nice thing to hear! Thank you, I'm really happy you liked it. :)

[livrelibre]

I love your belief in the human project <3 Well done!

[raven]

What a fabulous turn of phrase! Thank you, lovely. :)

[lizbee]

THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL. And positive and joyous. I loved it.

[beccatoria]

Oh, man, I looked at those fandoms - and I don't know them all - and I wondered what your take was going to be, and then, *flails* it's about engineering. It's about the beautiful, optimistic, problem-solving wonder of engineering. And of course there's no line between building a spaceship and building a community. What a beautiful use of the song. ♥

[raven]

I described it elsewhere as "an ode to building infrastructure". :) Thank you so much - I'm really pleased you enjoyed it!

[raven]

Thank you very much. :)

[hedda62]

This is really really lovely. The transitions work surprisingly well, because the theme is thought out and consistent with the music. Building and functionality and progress and people, making light and reaching for the stars.

Also, you sold an album for Vienna Teng. It's gorgeous.

[raven]

I'm very pleased you liked this! And thank you for the rec, which I just saw. :) "Aims" is my favourite album of the year, possibly the decade. Gosh, I love her.

[goodbyebird]

I know very few of these sources, but you made that not matter at all. And what a lovely topic for a vid <3

[raven]

Aww, thank you! I'm really glad you liked it.

[revolutionaryjo]

So gorgeous and moving. Really, beautifully made!

[spiderwolves]

Oh, my - this is absolutely beautiful.

[purplefringe]

Iona, you already know how much I love this vid because I flailed at you about it when you were here. But I'm going to tell you again, because I just rewatched it and it literally gave me shivers down my spine. <333 It is the most graceful, awe-inspiring thing. The way you seamlessly mesh all these disparate sources, pulling out the common themes of hope and industry and community throughout history and effortlessly move from one to the other (that clip of the soaring hands that links The West Wing to P&R!) - it's really beautiful. You use the music perfectly, particularly with the repeated water shots, and when it builds up to its crescendo. Obviously I always flail over Leslie and Ben, and over the clips from Three Idiots (<333) but I can't really get over how you have created a vid that's about something so much bigger than the small list of sources initially suggests. It's prefect.

[raven]

Oh, Phoebe, thank you so much! I said so at the time, but I'm so happy you liked it, and that it spoke to you the way I meant it to. <3 <3

[anehan]

I watched this, inspired by your post on Vidukon to do so. I wish I had something intelligent to say beyond "I loved this", but I don't. So I'll just leave you with this thought that I had: this makes me want to vid. ♥

[raven]

Oh, wow. Thank you so much! :)

[brainwane]

I don't have the words for how deeply I love this vid. I tweeted about your vid in May, and I still can't be coherent about it, it's so good.

I already loved the song. I'm Indian-American, diaspora, and seeing desi representation in this vid about engineering and infrastructure, things that I care about a lot, well, now I'm crying again. And the "Apollo 13" clips are always guaranteed to get me. You illustrated the things we make together, and the work that goes into that, and the grief, and the joy.

Thank you for making this.

[raven]

You're very welcome! I'm delighted you liked it, and I'm particularly delighted that the desi perspective in the vid spoke to you; it's something that's very important to me, too. :)

[luzula]

I am just really happy to see a vid (and a song!) that engages with these kinds of questions! I really like what you did here.

There's one bit in the vid that struck me with "I would totally have gone with something different here": on the line "but there’s a storm outside your door/and I’m a child no more", you have the failure of a high-risk space project. That isn't something which impacts ordinary people's lives. I mean, the main positive image that stayed with me from this vid is the hydroelectricity and people working together to make it work, and the celebration when the voltage meter reaches 230V. For the negative image, I think I would've gone with some negative impact of hydroelectricity (people losing their homes and agricultural land to a dam, fish not being able to migrate, etc). I think that would've been more true to the problems of technology/civilization?

But you know, this isn't really a criticism, just a sign that the vid made me think. : ) Ha, also a sign of my background in the environmental movement.

[starlady]

This is really great, and I'm glad that you made it, because I feel like the combination of sources and the themes is something that only you as a vidder would have come up with. Which is all to say, it's really great and really interesting, and I'm really glad you shared it with us!

[raven]

What a lovely comment! Thank you - I'm really pleased that you liked it. :)

[esteefee]

Oh, lovely. I loved following the voltmeter like hopes rising, and the matching themes of all the images (the bringers of wonders and dreams). The final image was just perfect. <3

[esteefee]

I come back to watch this vid whenever bad news gets me down...it never fails to inspire me with hope.

[brightlywoven]

I've just played it 3 times with actual shivers and that hollow feeling I get in my chest from something so perfect.

And Iona! You have Tom Long and Kevin Harrington in your vid about enormous human achievement. Oh, this hits me where I live - I want to talk all about Seachange and home and land and The Dish and The Castle and a time 20 years ago when my homeland was headed on an entirely different path.

You are such a clever, talented artist, with so much heart.

(Whyyyyy didn't I watch this before?)

[raven]

<3 <3 it means so much to me that you like this vid, so much.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, this is so lovely, even though I only know about half the sources (& of course Vienna Teng). Thank you.

(Pettiness: auuuugh how are you so good at EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH I am so jealous. But also so happy to know you. <3)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

<3 <3 thank you, wonderful you. (Also, true story: I wrote that summary, and immediately thought of you! How could I not. :))

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Indeed, HOW COULD YOU NOT? :D

[tearful-eye.livejournal.com]

oh, this is absolutely lovely. i enjoyed the way the vid progressed & travelled through the different versions of discovery/exploration SO MUCH <3
(i was wondering if you posted this to tumblr by any chance? or if you would mind if i recced it over there)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you so much! I didn't post this to tumblr, but I don't mind you reccing it there, not at all! I'm really pleased you liked it.

[sophia_sol]

I've rewatched this vid a fair number of times over the years and just wanted to stop by and finally tell you how much I love it. It's so beautiful and optimistic about the things people do, and the meshing of the themes you're pulling out of the source material with this song is perfect

Here thanks to @sophia_sol's rec

[jesse_the_k]

as part of fandom vids all of Aims and I actually cried. I needed some hope today from the middle of a very hard time and you supplied it beautifully. Infrastructure is my primary fandom. You captured why engineers do what they do!