I haven't seen any other vidder write about his/her vids the way I'm going to do about this one, though I wouldn't mind learning more myself about some other vidders' works. It's not like this vid is a masterpiece or needs explanation, I sure hope it speaks for itself to most viewers, it's just that making it was an important step for me and I wanted to write down my recollection of everything that went into it before the facts start to blur in my mind. If you have never seen this vid, I recommend you watch it first before you start reading about it, it will spoil your discovery otherwise. Anyway, here goes, a long story.

Introduction

I've had the CD of Fat Boy Slim with "Right here, right now" for many years now and I remember liking the way that track had been used in several commercials (particularly Adidas), mostly through its orchestral and trance-like qualities.

Then, one day, I decided to follow a technical course to learn the use of professional editing softwares for a potential change in careers (I'd never done any editing before that day). During that training session, I was asked, along with two other people, to do a short editing project in Jacques Tati 's distinctive movie style using WW2 archives. None of us could fathom how to reproduce Tati's style to our satisfaction and upon failing to find another common ground on which to work, we ended up with three individual projects and of course 1/3 of the time to complete them since we were all using the same computer.

I actually had no idea what to do with the clips that had been digitized so far and decided to let the others begin with what they had in mind, staying around to watch them work and realizing that whatever I'd come up with would have to use those same clips because I'd never have the time to go through the tapes again to get more material. Soon enough though, Fat Boy Slim's song started to unravel itself in my head, calling to mind parallels and oppositions, thriving on the abundant grey lines this war and its media representations called forth, where a similar looking crowd could be cheering for very different reasons, where signs had been posted all along and overlooked, where seats could have been easily reversed in many situations. But, most of all, I knew what I would open and close with and the direction of the path in between those two points. That's all I needed to get me started. I had only one short day at the computer to get it to work and in that day, I came up with most of the visual tricks I would later reuse for this Farscape vid.

Once the training session was over, I found myself faced with having to find work in that area (unsuccessfully to this day) while trying not to forget what I had learned in the meantime. I started thinking about doing one of those music vids I had discovered through online fandom (and my dear friend, ADSL, *g*). I wasn't quite sure which way to go about it but didn't feel like doing something similar to what was already being done, which was why using a mostly instrumental song like "Right here, right now" appealed to me. At the time, it seemed very few vids used instrumental pieces. There was also a complexity of character in Farscape, an exploration of the greyness of humankind/alienkind that reminded me of what I had played with in those WW2 archives.

It took a long time before I was finally able to really get to it, mainly because my computer wasn't equipped with the requested hardware and software and all the DVDs I needed weren't out. But then, I used the time to fastforward through the episodes and start taking notes. For the WW2 project, I had recut the song because a) it was too long and repetitive and b) I lacked footage and I didn't want to just fill in space on the timeline, so instead of a 6 min + song, I had ended up with a 2min30sec track. I also recut the song for this vid but it turned out that my recut was slightly different from the previous one, mostly longer and upon listening to it several times, I realized that it provided a general frame that resembled the development of each season and into the next. It had not been my intention at first to follow a chronological order, even though I knew what my opening and closing clips would be and the fact that it would revolve around the first three seasons (the fourth had just started airing when I first thought of this vid, it had the additional strain of the widescreen format not used previously and I also found it thematically easier to link the first three seasons while the fourth stands apart), but it seemed a good idea to follow the frame provided by the new recut, also because it would make the task a bit simpler. I had 66 episodes to take footage from for a 3min40sec vid only. Hard choices to make.

Some clips were chosen even before I started fastforwarding through the episodes though. Among them, those that truly came with the musical/seasonal frame of the track: starting with John in his module hurled inside the wormhole, having no idea what's happening to him, accidentally hitting the prowler that precipitates his agitated life in the UTs with encounters of aliens and alien worlds galore, then the introduction of each of the main characters in the story, belying their apparent singular dimension with a glimpse of density, whether past or future, using a rest in the music's beat before it starts again to lay in that glimpse, the apparent straightforwardness of the second season's storytelling until the 'did you pay attention?' moment and the clues all start to make sense, the frantic end of that season with the take-over of the clone and Aeryn's death on the drum rolls which ultimately leads to Zhaan's death and in the end, the last right here/right now duo with John and Aeryn attracted and repelled to come full circle with John alone in his module, like he started, but this time not frelling believing what's happening to him.

Because of hard disk space limits, I had to storyboard the vid, if not entirely before starting, then by season increment. The other advantage of the chronological vid was that once I was done with a season, I could delete any extra clips I had captured but didn't use to make room for the ones of the next season. Extra clips had to be captured either because I came upon new ideas while going through the episodes and wanted to try different options or because what I had thought of using didn't look like it would fit after all. I had a few bad surprises and some nice discoveries. Bad surprises included clips at the beginning of an episode dogged down with the credits, scenes totally re-shot in my mind so that when I'd actually come upon them to start capturing, I'd realize that I couldn't possibly get from them what I had meant to get.

I wanted to use one-shot clips as much as I could to make it easier for people to see what was going on and recognize the origin of the clips. The editing was meant to be fast-paced but not frantic and blurry. Another thing that I wanted also to try to stick to was the absence of transitions such as fades, wipes and the likes, I tend to think that if I can get the straight montage to work then it's for the best. The overlays in the third season part are there for a thematic reason, not a technical one.

Though the song had very few lyrics, the storyboarding was made easier by the repetitiveness of the song's motifs. Considering also that I was favouring one shot clips, I knew exactly how many 'spots' I had to select clips for and jotted down first the ones I was thinking about right away, regularly added others as I progressed through the episodes until my selection felt good enough to start actually capturing and editing.

Clip by clip overview

00:07:05 - 00:18:17

The circle starts with John in his module being hurled inside the wormhole, those clips (from the Premiere) and the flashing images that follow up also have the added bonus of setting up the vid in time and place, like a very short exposition in a story. It may look like the flashing images were a pain to do but actually it wasn't. I just opened another project in my editing software to work with a one-frame vision timeline that was more convenient for that and then imported the whole thing back into the main project. If you can do frame by frame on your media player, give yourself a treat and feel the visual splendour of Farscape once more.

00:18:17 - 00:53:10

Using the music's looping motif, I had nine repetitions at my disposal and it was just perfect: 5 for the main crew composed of John, Aeryn, Zhaan, D'Argo and Rygel, 2 for Moya and Pilot, 1 for Chiana who came in later but, to me, still belongs to the original crew and 1 for the main baddie at the time, Crais. It was a given to start with John and Aeryn was the natural second. I could have switched around Zhaan, D'Argo and Rygel but for whatever reason, that order felt more natural and since it worked visually there was no reason to play around with it.

The clips were chosen to illustrate two aspects of the characters' personalities, the first one being what they were introduced as, the fast flipping second what was later discovered about them or, as far as John is concerned, what he will discover.

So we have:

- John's wide-eyed wonder at all the new places and people around him (Premiere) /His experience of ultimate pain with a different kind of wonder in his eyes (Hidden Memory)

One other potential choice of clips in Premiere was from the discussion with Zhaan in the corridor when he asks all those questions about Moya but John was way too talkative in that scene for me to be able to use the clips effectively.

- Aeryn's life-changing decision to leave her world behind in spite of the death sentence on her head (Premiere)/Her desire to get back into it as soon as she gets a chance (PK Tech Girl), which will cause problems later on

Another envisioned possibility for Aeryn was the association of the scene in Premiere where she stands up for John before Crais and when she sends Crais spinning in the Aurora chair in Hidden Memory. However that felt more like a potential duo for the song's lyrics rather than an introduction to her character and the scene in Premiere was very talkative once again.

- Zhaan's ability to soothe pain (I, ET), one of the main aspects of her priesthood/Her potential for violent behaviour (Rhapsody in Blue) with the added bonus of the different eye colour between those two clips

- D'Argo's 'yell first, ask questions' later warrior cliché (PK Tech Girl)/His once peaceful family life (They've got a secret)

- Rygel's Dominar pompousness in action (Throne for a loss)/His fear of torture after hundred of cycles as a prisoner (PK Tech Girl)

The fact that the first clip here is a talky face clip, as was the one before with D'Argo, is not as bothering as it can be usually because it's not what's being said that matters here, it's the attitude of the character and as long as that is telling enough, the talky face is not a problem. MHO.

Given the possibility, I would probably change the flashing image used here as it's not clear what the expression on Rygel's face is in such a short time because of the lack of finesse in the puppet's expression compared to a human face. I would most certainly switch that clip with the one where Rygel snatches back his amulet in the same episode. The meaning of it is also one that's interesting for Rygel and the movement would be better than the frozen up face.

- Moya's starburst (Premiere), one of her defining aspects as a Leviathan/Her fierce protectiveness of her offspring with the help of her DRDs at the detriment of her duty to her passengers (They've got a secret)

- Pilot's gentle dedication to the crew, especially Aeryn (Exodus from Genesis)/ The complexity of his genetic nature to Namtar's delight (DNA Mad Scientist)

- Chiana's running for her freedom as soon as she can (Durka returns)/helping John in the next breath to win her place among the crew (Nerve)

- Crais' consummate Peacekeeper and perfect baddie entrance (Premiere)/his forceful drafting in the PKs along with his brother (That Old Black Magic)

00:53:10 - 01:08:15

I tried to put one CGI clip per season to showcase the special effects crew's work, in season 1 the choice was made easy. Even though I didn't mention it before as one of the clips chosen from the start (cf introduction), this one from I,ET with Moya plunging through the marshes was among that group. Even after four seasons, it remains among my favourite CGI shots in the show, if not my favourite, I just love the smoothness of movement and the colours in that scene and I really wanted to put it in a good spot. Besides, it was a private reference to that WW2 project where at the same place I had used a plane flying overhead.

I also tried not to make the vid into a John show, even though the vid opens and closes with him and his story is the one most focused on, I think of Farscape as an ensemble show and I tried to make it look like it in here.

So, we have Aeryn rappelling down, displaying her military training (PK Tech girl), John at a loss with the UT toys (Throne for a loss), D'Argo also showing his fighter's abilities (Till the blood runs clear). At first, for D'Argo and his qualta blade, I wanted to use the part in Throne for a Loss where he turns the blade into a rifle, except it was shot in a very uninteresting way and then I remembered the commentary of that ep where Anthony explained that they didn't have a working prop that could be turned from blade to rifle and vice versa and that they had had to cheat about it during shooting. Well, it shows. :-)
Then, we have Aeryn teaching John in what is probably the best solution against talky scenes, yay for charades! (Through the looking glass), John showing that he's learning fast with the explosive ball (Durka Returns), the whole crew fighting for survival (A bug's life), Chiana's scramble to escape death during Talyn's birth (Hidden Memory).

01:08:15 - 01:24:06

The Right here/Right now lyrics were meant to be used as a way to further showcase Farscape's moral complexity and point out opposing features involving the same characters or situations.

- Farscape's version of the little boy pulling the girl's tresses because he likes her, sorta. Well, in Farscape, it means the girl kicking the boy's ass, sitting on his chest to pin him down and then pinning him down too but for very different reasons.

- Mind power being used for violence with Zhaan killing Maldis (That Old Black Magic)/mind power being used to soothe pain with Stark helping John (Hidden Memory)

- John's technical knowledge being used to repair (Premiere)/Same knowledge being used to destroy (A Bug's Life)

- Threatening ship in the immensity of space (Premiere)/Threatened ship in the immensity of space (Family ties)

- Crew invaded by a blinding white light (Through the Looking Glass)/Crew hiding in cold darkness (Bone to be Wild)

- Crais killing Teeg to keep his power (That old black magic)/Crais being overpowered by Scorpius (Bone to be Wild)

- Jack giving John his goodluck charm (Premiere)/Ancient Jack giving John a poisoned gift (A Human Reaction for the timeline but clip taken from Hidden Memory)

- Scorpius and associate in crime spotting John (Nerve)/John laughing off Scorpius' attempt to turn him to cooperation (Hidden Memory)

The last three associations were put there to also reflect the first longer story arc of the end of the season, which ends with a flash of the explosion of the gammack base (Family Ties).

01:24:10 - 01:54:19

In the second season, Aeryn fights Crais over Talyn (Mind the Baby), unsuccessfully as the young Leviathan escapes with his first starburst (Mind the Baby), Chiana experiences loss (Taking the Stone), Zhaan has to fight more often than not, putting aside her peaceful aspirations (Out of their Minds), tempers fly high especially under influence whether it's D'Argo and Rygel (Crackers Don't Matter) or John, Aeryn and Pilot when the past catches up (The Way We Weren't), CGI shot of the season with the arrival inside the Budong (Home on the Remains), weird experiences continue to happen to the crew like exchanging bodies (Out of their Minds), Aeryn, D'Argo and John truly emerge as a fighting team (Dream a little Dream - BTW, I thought that clip, which appears in the opening credits, was at first from PK Tech Girl and I was a bit at a loss when I couldn't find it there until I figured out through a process of elimination that it might originate from Dream a little Dream. Ah, traitorous memory!), D'Argo starts to express his care for Chiana and goes all hero for her (Look At The Princess, part 3), Aeryn and John refine the Butch and Sundance team (Beware of Dog - I thought that clip could also illustrate the one step forward/two steps backward nature of their relationship but I didn't have enough time to let the clip play out that way so I used another J&A clip afterwards to help illustrate that dance), John and Aeryn experience rapprochement with some 'ship in the ship (Look At the Princess part 1), new enemies keep popping up out of nowhere (The Ugly Truth), Zhaan and Stark also develop a closer relationship and fuel each other's abilities (The Locket), D'Argo the fighter finds himself at a loss before a mysterious critter (Beware of Dog), John expresses the first signs of PTSD, leading toward growing insanity (Vitas Mortis).

01:54:19 - 02:09:17

The clips of John's growing insanity with his final understanding of what's happened to him are actually introduced by the previous clip from John in Vitas Mortis. That episode is not among my favourites and I didn't have many memories of it. When I fastforwarded through it, I came upon this scene and I just couldn't pass on the opportunity to use this clip of John, too much intensity going on there not to make use of it. At first, I had placed the clip somewhere else in the second season part of the vid and realized that John's hand motion was pretty much in sync with the music, which made the clip even better in my opinion and after a bit of shifting around, it found its logical spot just before the 'Did you pay attention?' moment where we go through the telltale signs of John's insanity throughout the season.

It starts with mere hallucinations under outside influence (Crackers Don't Matter), goes to hallucinations without outside influence (Beware of Dog), to overpowering mental blocks (Look at the Princess, part 3) and the source reveals itself for what it is, a neural clone implanted during the Aurora chair sessions (Won't Get Fooled Again). The repeated laid in glimpse in between those clips is a look into the future, John smashing his fist in the mirror, fighting against the influence of the clone (Die me Dichotomy).

02:09:17 - 02:25:03

In the second season, the final four episodes truly are part of their own arc and acknowledged as such.

Stark thinks he's found the Graal, well, the UT equivalent of it (Liars, Guns and Money, part 1), the plan will have unexpected happenings as usual and Aeryn and John get the Butch and Sundance running fast (LGM1), Scorpius nearly gets to John (LGM1), Moya suffers in a blaze of fire as a last ditch attempt to get her rid of the parasites (LGM2), more Butch and Sundance (LGM1), Moya helps in spite of her pain (LGM3), John's friends come to his rescue (LGM3 - and I particularly love that edit between Moya's flyby and this shot), John tries to fight off Scorpius' overpowering influence but Scorpius knows he's got the upper hand (LGM3).

02:25:03 - 02:40:12

Second season set of Right here/Right now lyrics:

- D'Argo welcoming his son in a bear hug born of pure joy (LGM2)/John hugging his daughter goodbye with a heavy heart (Look at The Princess, part 3)

- John trying to help Aeryn in a most difficult time for her (The Way We Weren't) /John finding himself in the reversed situation (Die Me Dichotomy)

- Vegetable Zhaan eating meat with delight for her body's survival (Home on the Remains)/Scorpius celebrating his victory with a taste of his opponent's brain (Season of Death - yes, I confess, I cheated, this clip is actually from season 3 but when I went looking for it, I was sure it was from Die Me Dichotomy and since it's at the very beginning of SOD which is in continuity with DMD, I thought I could get away with it)

- John dragging Aeryn on the floor for her own good (Crackers Don't Matter)/Chiana being dragged on the floor 'for the greater good' (A Clockwork Nebari)

- Pilot's claw choking Aeryn in anger and guilt (The Way We Weren't)/Pilot's claw caressing Aeryn's face (same ep)

- Kinky love between baddies, namely Natira and Scorpius (LGM1)/Kinky love between Chiana and D'Argo (Look at The Princess, part 1)

- Rygel being unnecessarily sadistic (Won't get fooled again)/Rygel being sadistic but for the good of the others (A Clockwork Nebari)

- D'Argo being there for John in a difficult time, making him laugh (Look At The Princess, part 2)/D'Argo trying to be there for John in a difficult time and failing (LGM3)...

02:40:12 - 02:43:17

...because on the lasting "Right here", the clone overpowers John. In what probably remained a blurry memory, John kills Aeryn under the clone's influence. (Die Me Dichotomy)

02:43:17 - 02:51:07

I came upon the third season having gone through 44 eps without quite enjoying them since fastforwarding while jotting down precise notes and keeping an eye on the display time isn't exactly the best way to enjoy an ep and I wasn't looking forward to having to do that with the season 3 eps, especially since I had less time for this season in the overall vid so there wasn't much I could use and the eps were the freshest in my mind. Instead of really writing down pretty much everything that was going on in the eps, I mostly sped through them to make sure I wasn't missing something interesting that I hadn't written down from memory only because I already had more than enough considered for potential use. The storytelling in the third season is pretty straightforward, even with the twinning in the middle of it, and more serialized than the first two seasons.

Aeryn's death ultimately leads to Zhaan's death (Self-inflicted wounds, part 2), John reveals himself as a now accomplished fighter much to D'Argo's surprise (Different Destinations), Jool makes her appearance (Eat Me - and that clip is privately meant to show my own reaction to the twinning of John, very worried and frightened, :-D) and stupid surfer dude John gets himself twinned (Eat Me)

02:51:07 - 03:00:20

In the twinning arc, the crew is also split in two and at times going through oddly similar situations. Overlays were used to enclose that particular arc and highlight it at the same time. I also made use of fast-motion shots in here to illustrate a change in the passage of time as the 'interlude' certainly felt very different for each John, one feeling time going too slow until he saw Aeryn again, the other ultimately realizing his time had been too short.

So, we have MoyaJohn alone, thinking (Losing Time)/TalynJohn alone, working on his wormholes (Green Eyed Monster - with the frelling dolby surround sign on the lower right corner nearly screwing up the shot for me to use, very close call), Aeryn discovering Talyn the way she's always wanted to (Green Eyed Monster), Stark levitating (Meltdown)/Chiana levitating (Losing Time), MoyaJohn lost in a noisy crowd (Scratch n' Sniff) while Ancient Jack calls up TalynJohn (Infinite Possibilities, part 1), MoyaJohn being hit by D'Argo and falling into what will be a near fatal coma (Revenging Angel)/TalynJohn getting irradiated to his death (Infinite Possibilities, part 2). I thought a lot about whether to put that last overlaid clip before or during the slight change in the music's looping motif, wondering about the thematic importance of either choice and in the end, it was mostly a matter of what clips I still could put afterwards and how much I could tell with them. Season 3 was just as dense as the other seasons, if not more and it was hard to have less time for it than for the other two, though in the end, I really think it forced me to go to the core of it and find rich thematic ellipses.

03:00:20 - 03:14:02

The following group of clips is I believe the best series of edits I've made in the whole vid. Through the frustration of not having enough time for season 3 clips, I found myself very satisfied with the result here.

The John that Aeryn calls (The Choice) is not the one who will answer her call, running to greet her (Fractures), but he's got to finish what the other started and go to war against Scorpius (Into the Lion's Den, part 1 - this was a shot I cared for from the beginning as a private reference to the WW2 project, I had to use it and it turned out beautifully with the previous shot of John in Fractures). Season 3 was the season of death and destruction and it deserved to be shown as such. John Crichton's childish destruction of the consoles set up for him (Into the Lion's Den, part 1) shouldn't make anyone forget that he's also capable of destroying an entire Scarran freighter (Infinite Possibilities, part 2 - the fact that the consoles explode into a small ball of light in the left hand corner and that the Scarran freighter's explosion originates from the same spot in the image was a stroke of luck for me, I had meant to use those two clips but I didn't realize before capturing that they were so well fitted together and certainly called forth their close association), when it's not his former enemies sacrificing themselves to help him in his task like Crais making Talyn starburst inside the command carrier (Into The Lion's Den, part 2) or his friends using their powerful ships to destroy dangerous threats, like D'Argo blowing the rogue Leviathan up to nothingness (Dog With Two Bones).

03:14:02 - 03:29:14

And now, the last pairs of clips on the Right here/Right now lyrics.

- John's hand going down to strip Cokura's mind of his wormhole knowledge (Into the Lion's Den, part 2)/John's hand writing down the equations pouring forth from John's mind (Dog With Two Bones)

- Chiana unable to face up to her twin's existence and running away (Eat Me)/John saving his twin's life (Thanks For Sharing)

- Aeryn letting go of TalynJohn (The Choice)/Aeryn joining MoyaJohn in his quest (Fractures)

- The two John playing rock, paper, scissors to prove their own identity (Eat Me) /The two John playing rock, paper, scissors to acknowledge their oneness (Fractures)

- Xhalax trying to kill her daughter (Relativity)/Xhalax expressing her love to young Aeryn (Thanks For Sharing)

- Scorpius and John as physically close as they'll ever be but emotionally as far apart too (Into the Lion's den, part 1)/ Scorpius and John separated by a physical chasm and yet perhaps emotionally closer than they'll ever be (Into the Lion's Den, part 2)

- Rygel spying upon Chiana and Jothee for his personal entertainment (Suns and Lovers)/D'Argo watching another vid with them unintentionally (same ep). I can't help thinking this association is visually weak but I didn't want to make season 3 the John and Aeryn fest. The others had to be represented as well.

- Aeryn welcoming John's crushing embrace (Meltdown)/Aeryn physically pushing away John (Dog With Two Bones)

03:29:14 - end

And we end up with John alone in his module, lost in the middle of nowhere, rejected by one and deserted by all.

I didn't remember the shot of him when he turns his head and I was happily surprised to find it upon capturing, it worked even better than what I thought I would find in this scene.

Voilà, that's it. This walk down memory lane turned into quite a ramble (sorry) but I guess, having read all that, you'll understand now why the following sentence in a comment about my vid made me really happy: "There aren't any filler shots."

It's true, there aren't.

Tazey
September 2003

P.S.: Thanks again to WalkingTheBeam for giving this a thrashing looksee. ;-)