[SCC] VID: Riot Act

[thuviaptarth]

Title: Riot Act
Fandom: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Music: Alina Simone, "Riot Act"
Length: 2:35
Beta: Thank you to geekturnedvamp, laurashapiro, par_avion, and rivkat for beta.
Feedback: All feedback welcome. Thank you!

Summary: Riley character study. "Sweetie, there is no out."

"SCC - Riot Act" (Watch on YouTube)

Download: AVI 848x480 (47MB), AVI 640x360 (33MB), Subtitles (2KB)

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"" (Watch on YouTube)

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Lyrics
Upper West Side, Central Park view,
But you don't feel quiet inside
Suddenly conscious of just how high up we are

Now it's so loud it's quiet
Ready or not
They're shouting, "Quiet, quiet"
into the starry night

Did you believe the hype, the lines?
'Cause we could foresee the fall, the crash,
the crowds, the crowds, all the crowds

Now it's so loud it's quiet
Ready or not
They're shouting, "Quiet, quiet"
into the starry night

Can you tell me tell me
where's the safe house
tell me tell me
where to hide out
tell me tell me
where's the safe house
tell me tell me

Comments

[oyceter]

You finished EEEEEEEE!!!!!! Cannot wait to watch.

[thuviaptarth]

:) So excited to have finished a vid in five weeks instead of six months!

[shati]

I love this so much.

[thuviaptarth]

Thank you so much! (How goes the Jesse vid?)

[shati]

(Hah. Slowly! I sort of tucked it into bed to rest while I mourned the show. But now I feel reinspired!)

I was going to say "More feedback later" last night, but since I always say that and never manage to actually leave more feedback later, I didn't. Apparently that was the key! Because I'm back.

I'm really impressed with the editing and musicality in this -- I love Low Red Moon too, but the editing here feels even more sophisticated (and organic). Love the varying clip length, and long clips can be tricky, but the shot of Jesse brushing Riley's hair works beautifully, with the camera moving up with the singer's voice. Some other favorite parts:

:48 The cut that keeps the motion of Riley turning her head at the music changing key (is that what it was doing? well, whatever it was doing). And that whole section of Riley (and the music) relaxing, and then you bring in the crash.

I love that the music kicks into gear at 1:54 with Jesse kissing Riley (Jesse hitting Riley), bookending the first clip of the mirror shot. And 1:56 with the motion of the dance following into Riley and John. And, well, all the flashes after that. The toy robot she made John to Cameron's broken hand to Jesse's gun, the snarling bear from "Allison from Palmdale" and Riley's fish poster, the flashes of dead families between the scenes in the present, the weird symmetry of starting the vid with a shadow and ending with Jane Doe.

I mean, I am kind of biased I guess because I loved Riley from the start, but -- all the closeups of Riley's happiness whenever someone shows her a little affection, ahhh. The vid reminds me why I liked her even before the reveal, because she was so emotive and bubbly (well, or so emotive and upset) when everyone else on the show is a cipher (I love them all too, but it was refreshing), and with all the different lines of fire she's in lined up like that -- well, now I'm kind of amazed she lasted as long as she did.

*combs Riley's hair, feeds her soup, does not kill her*

[thuviaptarth]

(Feel free to ping me if you need a beta. And yeah, I think one of the reasons I ended up doing the Riley vid first, instead of one of the SCC vids I've been planning longer, is that I didn't have to rewatch the last three or four episodes with the knowledge there wouldn't be any more. Because it still breaks my heart.)

That is such delicious feedback! I am thrilled. Thank you so much.

I felt very protective of Riley from the start, because I was convinced the audience would hate her and John would break her heart; and he did, too, if not in the way I expected. She is so brave (I go back and watch her facing off a terminator with John Connor on her hands and no weapons at all and I am amazed), and she may be the most alone of a really lonely bunch of characters, because no one is on her side at all. There is nobody in the world who puts Riley's well-being first--especially the people she cares about most.

She does talk a lot! I wish I could have used more of that, because there are all these great bits where she's saying one thing and looking another, or her mouth and hands do one thing and her eyes do something else, or where she does lightning-quick changes depending on who can see her or where she's looking; but alas, talky-face. :( The only character in the series who has that problem so much, I think, because they are generally a closed-mouthed lot.

[laurashapiro]

Yay, you posted! ::downloads final version::

YAY GOOD VIDS.

[thuviaptarth]

Thank you for the beta, and the rec!

[laurashapiro]

My pleasure!

[crypto]

Very cool. I like how the clips shuttle back and forth between different narrative/relationship threads and points in time, all fatally converging in the end.

[thuviaptarth]

Thank you! I think Riley was trapped by many circumstances and multiple intersecting choices, some but by no means all of them her own.

[hazelk]

Oh Riley. This cuts at you with her fracturedness but also celebrates her courage and capacity for life. There’s a great chaotic momentum to the final section that reflects both her circumstances and the scattershot quality that, in a different world, could have been her charm. She was an everywoman, not a hero, a Hiroshima shadow on a wall.

[thuviaptarth]

I love your commentaries so much. Thank you for offering a mini-one for this vid.

[salinea]

wow, beautiful portray of Riley.

[thuviaptarth]

Thank you!

[were_duck]

This vid made my week. Seriously, what an incredibly gut-wrenching look at one of the best characters from the show. Wow. Perfect song choice, too!

[thuviaptarth]

This comment made my week. :) Thank you.

[vehemently]

Oh, this is cool! I will need to watch it 10 more times to get it properly, but I can tell it is cool. I mean, for one thing, Riley, and the ugliness of her arc. In that final fight, when it was obvious she was drastically outmatched, I pulled so hard for her. Her resourcefulness almost got her through.

[thuviaptarth]

:D Yay! I consider this a win in the increasing comprehensibility front.

What I got out of that fight was how close it was. She really was trying to kill Jesse.

[goodbyebird]

Very good vid. Thank for sharing :)

[thuviaptarth]

Thank you!

[halcyon-shift.livejournal.com]

eeeeeee that's my Riley! Very awesome <3

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

:) Thank you! And thank you for the rec!

[elz.livejournal.com]

Oooooh. That is so cool! Poor Riley - I loved the way her story played out, as depressing as it was. The last shot is just perfect.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! And yeah, I had the ending very early and never changed it much -- it was always clear that was the right clip. Riley, nameless, killed by John Connor's famous name.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Yay vid!

I will watch it when I go home.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

:) Thank you for trying it! (Do you watch SCC?)

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I'm partway through first season. Have had large watching gaps between each couple of eps, as well. But I did BUY first season, so I have it all. Just have to sit and watch.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

You may not want to watch it! It has lots of spoilers for Season 2.

[serrico.livejournal.com]

Aww, *Riley*.

This is *very* good. You really put across a sense of how overwhelmed Riley was by Jesse's "mission", how she was, ultimately, very much a pawn in a game much, much bigger than she could handle. That final clip is *perfect*.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I am so happy -- I didn't think there were many Riley fans.

I didn't have the final clip before I started, but I found it very early and knew it had to end there. Oh, Riley. She deserved so much better.

[proofpudding.livejournal.com]

I really need to watch this series. I'm always clicking on fanvids and picspams for it.

This is stunning.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for watching anyway!

And yes, I highly recommend the series. It's my favorite series in years, so smart and so beautiful and so thoughtful. I am still mourning its end.

[dyinganthem.livejournal.com]

This is awesoooome! I ♥♥ Riley. I loved the video. =D

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it.

[chaila43.livejournal.com]

This is great! Riley needed her own vid. I really liked the great visual cues you connected throughout this, like the sequence of Cameron touching Riley’s hair to touching her wrist to Riley looking at her phone, then Cameron in front of her, then Cameron in Cromartie’s picture towards the beginning. And everyone turning away from each other around 1:48 and the dancing mixed up with the fighting in your ending montage. Really gorgeous!

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I am really glad you liked all that.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

This is deeply, deeply awesome. Scary as hell, and so tragically tender, too.

Also, I think it represents a new level in your editing--this feels quite effortless.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I don't know if it was me or the idea or the nature of the series, but I certainly felt a lot less like I was struggling against a recalcitrant source.

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

Nicely done. I'm just finishing up the second season (already know what happens), and her character is pretty fascinating. I especially enjoyed the final section where everything starts whirling together--gorgeous connections there. :)

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am really glad that worked for you.

[hapex-legomena.livejournal.com]

You know I keep thinking to myself 'hapex, you should really get around to watching TSCC sometime, it has a good portion of the things you like in your skiffy.' And then for some reason I don't. I'm sure there's a lot of context in this vid that went over my head, but I'd like to say you've more than doubled my interest. Consider me pimped. :)

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

That is so flattering! I didn't think of this as a recruiter vid at all. I definitely recommend the series.

[shrift.livejournal.com]

Oh, my god, that was fantastic. And I clearly need to buy some Alina Simone.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

:) Thank you! I haven't heard Simone's first album, but I really like her second, Placelessness, and her third, Everyone Is Crying Out to Me, Beware, which is a set of covers of Yanka, a Russian punk singer who died young and whom you might also like. Let me know if you need help getting any of it.

[aoftheis]

This is absolutely amazing. ♥

[thuviaptarth]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.

[amnisias]

215 Love Meme

This is a fandom I'm not familiar with, but this vid pulls me in right from the start and keeps we watching til the end. It has such a strong emotional core that it doesn't matter I don't know the characters, I'm invested and intrigued. This is one of the few vids that actually makes me consider watching a show.