Gift for bingeling by himundergreen (Life - US)

[fv_poster]

Title of vid: Another Place to Fall
Recipient: bingeling
Vidder: himundergreen
Fandom: Life (US 2007)
Music: Another Place to Fall by KT Tunstall
Summary: Charlie Crews and Dani Reese - both of them have stood so long on their own.
But they're stronger together.
Content notes: No standardized notes apply
Password: Festividz!
Signed length: 04:22
Signed URL: https://vimeo.com/199607000

Lyrics
Are you blind

Blind to me trying to be kind

Volunteering for your firing line

Waiting for one precious sign

The flicker of a smile

You should try it just once in a while

Maybe it's not quite your style

It's simply too easy to do

And you might not see it through



Find yourself another place to fall

Find yourself up against another brick wall

See yourself as a fallen angel

Well I don't see no holes in the road but you

Find another place to fall



Are you proud

To have founded a brand new behaviour

With hatred and hurt as your saviour

But nobody's choosing to follow

So you choke back the tears and you swallow

Men who have ruined your life

You consume them with minimum strife

But now you have got indigestion

The antacid comes as a question



Find yourself another place to fall

Find yourself up against another brick wall

See yourself as a fallen angel

Well I don't see no holes in the road but you

Find another place to fall



There isn't much more I can say

For I don't understand the delay

You're asking for friendly advice

And remaining in permanent crisis

Affection is yours if you ask

But first you must take off your mask

When you're back's turned I've decided

I'll throw it away just like I did



Find yourself another place to fall

Find yourself up against another brick wall

See yourself as a fallen angel

Well I don't see no holes in the road but you

Find another place to fall

No, I don't see no holes in the road but you

Find another place to fall

Comments

[d_generate_girl]

God, I miss this show, and this only reminds me how much. I love how you've given us such a complete look at Charlie and Dani's partnership, the way they aren't so different after all, and the self-sacrifice they constantly employ. Excellent vid!

[himundergreen]

Thank you! It's such a complex relationship, and portraying it with some meager measure of accuracy without (much) actor dialogue was a fun challenge. (I was immeasurably helped by how much both Sarah Shahi and Damien Lewis can convey with just a change of expression or a tilt of their features.) Glad you liked it!

[akamarykate]

This is incredible. You've shown why Dani and Charlie are so perfect together, with all their broken places that chafe and match and fit. Damn, I miss this show.

[himundergreen]

Me too, and yes, they definitely do!

[no_detective]

This is so, so, so lovely!!! What a wonderfully developed relationship they have; thank you for distilling it here. <3

[himundergreen]

Awww, thank you! I'm glad to hear that it came across well -- I did have more than a few doubting moments of "OMG, this is so not good, I should have spent more time, this needs to be better, gotta edit this again aaaaaaaaaaaagh" as go-live drew ever nearer -- and there really was a surprising amount to distill from for a season-and-a-half's worth of episodes. :)

[bingeling]

THANK YOU DEAREST FESTIVIDDER I love your vid A TON and I'm drowning in feelings and AAAAAAAH! I sadly don't have time right now to leave you a detailed comment, but I shall return WITH CAPSLOCK AND PARAGRAPHS AND MORE YELLING! Thank youuuuuuuuu!

[bingeling]

I have returned!

I want to thank you for making a vid that's such a thorough exploration of Charlie and Dani. The depth and detail is incredible and I'm very thankful to you for making this gift for me. <3

When I wrote my letter I thought I'd get a vid about Charlie or a vid about Dani or a vid about both, but I never imagined I'd get a vid about all three of those things.

"Find yourself up against another brick wall" with the shots of the prison was so great.

And then there's "men who have ruined your life" for Dani and I FLAILED because YES!

"See yourself as a fallen angel" and the next few shots of Dani were just beautiful editing choices, so pretty and so symbolic!

And then there was that whole last section of your vid and I made so many dramatic noises because I love them so much and they love each other so much and his plan was getting her out of that SUV and why are there not 50 seasons more of this?!?!?!

This was an incredible exploration of Dani and Charlie and their individual flaws and how none of them matter when they're working together. I love it so much, thank you!

[himundergreen]

Thank you so much! This vid went through a lot of flailing and technical difficulty on my end (replacing my laptop and being unable to find my install disc of Adobe Premiere for several weeks being only a part of it), and there were quite literally redrafts being uploaded to Vimeo all the way to the go-live date. Certain imagery immediately came clear with the lyrics in question, as well as the Charlie & Dani & both apart/together structure. Suffice to say, though, there were more than a few 12+ hour marathon episode binge-watching sessions of me looking for whatever clips I could find that were interesting because it had been a few years since I'd last watched my DVDs (that, and vidding for a show is so much more challenging to me than vidding for a movie just because of the near-overabundance of available footage).

Amusing side note: before I settled on the final fade-out titles, I had considered putting in "with 1+1=1, for bingeling" because I figured it was an in-joke that Life fans would get. Thankfully, sanity reasserted itself before the go-live date and I changed that. *whew* ;)

[himundergreen]

Other interesting side note: I hadn't realized until my massive episode rewatch, but there is a LOT of imagery in the various episodes where Charlie is filmed through bar-like structures: Venetian blinds, stair bannisters, fences, and so forth. There's also a TON of symbolism involving reflections and some fascinatingly intricate camerawork (at least, for a TV show), some of which I managed to work in -- I was trying in some ways to show the parallels between the parallel archetypes of Charlie and Roman, as well, towards the very end.

[kiki_miserychic]

Such a beautiful look at their relationship and how it functions in relation to who they are as individuals.

[himundergreen]

Thank you! I really enjoyed doing my best to sum up a lot of the complex characterization in such a brief span of time. I'm glad it came across well! :)

[amathela]

These two are SO GREAT and so it this vid <3

[himundergreen]

Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear it was well-received.

[serrico]

AHHHH DANI AND CHARLIE. This is such a great look at them both as individuals with their specific issues and hangups and as partners/friends. Very good. :)

[himundergreen]

Awwww, thank you so much!

[fairestcat]

This makes me wish there had been so many more seasons of this show.

[himundergreen]

Ohhhhh, you're so not alone in that. That said, I think the show creators closed it out on as reasonably good a note as they could have.

[thisbluespirit]

Ahh, this is lovely!

[himundergreen]

Awww, thank you!

[rabid_bookwyrm]

The Men who have ruined your life beat is fantastic.

[himundergreen]

Thank you! I'm quite proud of how that one came out.

[actiaslunaris]

Such an uncompromising and unsentimental exploration of them as individuals that nevertheless comes together into a beautifully tender exploration of how they are better together. I liked the use of spoken dialogue at the beginning and end, in addition to the subtitled dialogue near the center; I thought the latter was a genius but subtle way of getting some humor in there. (Dani's unimpressed faces slowly becoming amused ones is a lovely editing choice, too.)

[himundergreen]

Well, with a lyric that sounds almost like "the answer that comes as a question", how could I resist? ;) (Disclaimer: the actual line is "now you have got indigestion, the antacid comes as a question", BUT STILL I'M RIDICULOUSLY PROUD OF THAT.)

I did really enjoy showing Dani's development as a character, too -- and she undergoes such a shift from where she was at the very start of the series to near the end. So, SO many kudos to Sarah Shahi for portraying the character with such depth and nuance.

[sanguinity]

This is going to sound incredibly shallow, but: Sarah Shahi's faaaaaaaaaace!

[himundergreen]

I KNOW RIGHT.

It's interesting to me, looking back, that this was one of the very first shows I'd seen her in. I mean, she had that guest bit on Alias season 1, plus the cameo as the angry woman-in-white in Supernatural season 1, but I never watched The L Word so this was my first extended exposure to her and how communicative and evocative she can be with even just a change of expression or posture.

[anoel]

Awww very cute especially with the finger ending there and I particularly LOVE the Dani section <3

[himundergreen]

Thank you! I'm quite happy with the way that segment came together, showing in several ways her character development over the course of the show's episodes.

[astrothsknot]

i miss this show and that ship so much. you really caught how well they just fitted