New Supernatural Vid - Deus Ibi Est

[charmax]

Video Title: Deus Ibi Est
Song Title/Artist: Deus Ibi Est by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Show/Character: Supernatural - John Winchester
Length/Format: 2:51, (Xvid, Stream)
Summary: John Winchester single minded soldier.

Download Xvid (720x400 - 35MB)
Download Xvid (480x272 - 25MB)
Low stream @ imeem

Thanks astartexx for the awesome essay. So, when you posting your vid then? ;)
This vid was made to premiere at winchestercon 07. The notes are quite lengthy so you may want to read them after you've watched the vid. I don't usually do notes and on the odd occasion when I have they certainly weren't this long but I thought, what the hell, go for it.



Credits/Titles/Effects
I’ve been leaning more towards simple ones lately and I really wanted to flex some of my muscles in After Effects. I did a lot of playing around with cameras in 3 dimensional space for this vid. Most of the ones in the body of the vid are meant to be invisible but the titles are supposed to be a nod to the fact that they are there.

Narrative
I felt it was important to get John’s back-story out of the way as soon as possible so that we know where he’s coming from without having to go over it all. So the intro is a montage of misery for poor old John, leading to him becoming a single minded man with a mission. Find gun! Get gun! Kill YED! If ever anyone were “Leaving Salvation” it’s John (the sign even has his initials) His sons are reminders of the past and also have become hunters in their own rights, something the sad man holding his kids close to him would not have wanted but he made them soldiers anyway. How can those not be sad shores?

There really isn’t “an unknown force” as such. He always knows what he’s doing and why even if it is against his will. The colt was made for demon hunting and over the years bullets have been used by John’s “ancestors”, his predecessors. The colt as the key to the Hell Gate is kind of a leap in logic that frankly, I still don’t really buy it but what the heck, it looks cool.

Even before he’s dead and in Hell, John is underground in the darkest, dankest places, trying to protect his sons from the worst that can happen whilst still being fully prepared to put them on the frontline.

The montage of mythology shots leads us to the colt as the solution. And here we have Dean looking at the gun with greedy eyes but its Daddy’s gun and he can’t have it, not yet. There are other hunters and they have families and they get killed and that’s really not John’s concern because there’s only one death that really mattered to him. Dean is surrounded by dead things and yet he’s still better off than his dad because yet again John is in the bowels of the earth trying to fix everything on his own.

It’s around the line “soldiers come and soldiers go” that John’s attitude to Dean changes he will sacrifice himself for his son so that he can complete the mission. So now Dean gets the colt. A gun and a mission isn’t much of an inheritance but it’s all the eldest Winchester son can expect. Sam is not necessarily to be trusted and certainly is not the right man for this job. John’s not there, in fact he’s never there he’s in a tatty old photo, a reminder of a life that got burned away.

The deal is struck, Dean is saved and John is damned and yet when you make a deal with the devil for the right reasons “God is present” or at least John thinks so. (I think Bobby would disagree.)

So it’s time for John to bow out and leave his eldest son to fight the battle. He leaves with a sense of calm, not so the YED who seems to wonder if he’s made a mistake. History repeats itself so Dean will sacrifice himself for Sam even though he knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of that particular chunk of guilt.

John breaks out of Hell and uses that one last chance to do just enough to give his son time to complete the mission. Dean learned love and sacrifice from his dad and now it’s payback time. The fact that the YED never saw it coming proves that John made the right decision that Dean was the man for the job. And we get the nearest thing to a happy ending that the tragic Winchesters are ever likely to have.

I think the decision to not show Mary but to choose clips that showed her absence was the right decision. She has left a void in their lives and so she is kind of the same in the vid, she’s a tombstone, a photograph, an empty space.

So this is a vid about John the soldier as much as it is John the father. The marching beat of the song emphasises this as does the matter of fact, determined delivery.


Deus Ibi Est by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan

Against my will to these sad shores
An unknown force has drawn me
Bound unto a future shaped by ancestors before me
Day on day I march the beat to someone else's drum
I have searched far foreign lands there's nowhere left to run

Impending storm rise up rise up
Oh demons I shall shame you!
Look down the barrel of my gun and one by one I'll name you
Day on day my brothers leave go marching off to war
Yet we never understand for what we're fighting for

Ubi caritas et amor
Ubi caritas
Deus ibi est

Worldly desires and worldly gains
Designed for worldly men
I'm a master of the heart with ears and hands to lend
Soldiers come and soldiers go some changed by love for thee
A circle in the chain of life all fighting to be free

Ubi caritas et amor
Ubi caritas
Deus ibi est

So come my lord and we shall dance
To God's own private drum
Sweet Jesus and the holy vine
The afterlife to come
Day on day I march the the beat to someone else's drum
I have searched far foreign lands there's nowhere left to run

Ubi caritas et amor
Ubi caritas
Deus ibi est
Latin translation: Where there is tender care and love, God is present.

Feedback in all shapes and sizes is very much welcomed.

Comments

[vaznetti]

I just got a chance to see this vid, and loved it. Thank you so much -- the song was a great choice, and some of the editing was brilliant -- especially in the second verse. Thank you so much for making this vid!

[charmax.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. The song was made for John (or could've been!) I feel I've been drumming that home quite a bit with previous comments but its true. I don't think I could have found anything more fitting. You've made my day by saying some of the editing is brilliant too. Cheers! *g*

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

Loved this. It felt like a breath of fresh air for the source. Partially because of the focus on John rather than just the boys, but I think mostly due to the way you used the objects from the show. The lights, photos, gravestones, occult items, weapons, and of course the Colt. And on that note, the camera work on those items is really great and really creepy. I wouldn't have ever noticed if you hadn't mentioned it in your notes on the credits. And the song is perfect--wow do I love how John goes out at the end.

[charmax.livejournal.com]

The song is just so perfect for John it could have been written by him. It's his narration, that's how is to me. Calm and brooding with everything bubbling under the surface.

The camerawork was satisfying in a painstaking, "OMG why am I even bothering" way. I really wanted it to look different without relying on something obvious.

Thanks again.

[oxoniensis.livejournal.com]

This was amazing - very beautifully, subtly done!

[charmax.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[sol-se.livejournal.com]

(I don't know how I missed this when you first posted it.) I loved this! Wow. You captured John so perfectly! And as a side note, those credits are pretty awesome. *g*

[charmax.livejournal.com]

Thanks. John is a character that's very dear to my heart so it's gratifying to know that you felt I'd captured him. I really wanted to do something a bit fancy with credits for a change because I'd had a run of doing very functional ones, glad you liked them.

[legoline.livejournal.com]

I just thought I'd let you know... stabbim recommended this video to me a while ago, and I've been trying ever since to come up with something coherent to say about it here but...I can't.

This is an amazing piece of work, the best video for SPN I have ever seen. Seriously, every time I watch a new video I always compare them to this one, but none of them have been matches for Deus ibi est so far. The atmosphere, the editing, the choice of music. It's pretty much perfection.

I love this video so much I looked up tutorials via google on how to transform avi files to files that work with my mobile, so I could take the video with me. That is how much I love it.

See? I'm still not coherent :)

[charmax.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. I think that's one of the most flattering comments I've ever had. There are some seriously great vidders in the SPN fandom so it really is a huge compliment.

[legoline.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome and every word is deserved. And on a possibly slightly more coherent note: I simply adore the way you edit scenes, and put them to music, it's just so...good. It really feels like the music and scenes form one big whole. (Okay, so maybe that wasn't really coherent :-) )

Also, I know there are many people who really can't stand John, and I think you just summed the entire character with all his shades and twists up beautifully into one video. Great job.

I could ramble on but I think I had better not :-)

(On a completely unrelated note, stabbim showed me the Christmas card you sent her. It's so pretty!)

[charmax.livejournal.com]

Trying to make music and video seem like a whole is definitely my aim as a vidder so thanks for that.

I know John isn't a hugely popular character compared to Sam and Dean but as far as I'm concerned you can't understand them until you look at the father, so much of who they are comes from him and the childhood they had or rather didn't have. So for me John is the most interesting character in SPN. I guess that's why this vid is closer to my heart than my other two SPN vids.

The Christmas card seems to have been well received all round. I'll have to come up with something for next year. :D

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

Shame on me!

I just rec'ed this vid as one of my top two favorite SPN vids ever to a new spn fan, and I realized I'd never left feedback.

I can't tell you how much I love this. I think it's flawless. The song choice is so incredibly perfect that I'd swear you'd somehow gotten John to narrate your vid.

The visuals are understated but relentless, just like the man. Marching on and on, tread measured by loss & pain and determination & duty in equal parts. You don't shy away from the dark parts of the Winchesters' story, but you let it play out in kind of a muted grandeur that really communicates its tragedy.

My favorite sections are probably:
**1:01 - 1:11 because it depicts John's isolation and bravery so well (the beat seems to be the water dripping down at 1:07).
**1:32 - 1:37 because it inventively shows how tangled the supernatural is with John's sense of family and the past (and the light blinking on the beat is creepily awesome).

Also? Loved the jaw clench to the beat on :55-:56. Now that's attention to detail.

ETA: I also really enjoyed your notes. I know you said you don't often leave notes, but I for one would love to read notes like this again from you.

[charmax.livejournal.com]

I always love it when I get feedback for a vid that isn't my latest. I get to go back and revisit it with a bit of perspective. That you would count it amongst your favourite SPN vids is high praise indeed because it's one super-productive fandom.

The song is so right for John it does seem as if someone handed him a microphone and said "talk/sing me your life story" kinda like the most depressing Karaoke, ever.

I think the lack of emotion in relating such an epic tale is really the key to understanding John.

1.32-1.37 is my favourite section and was totally inspired by Spike's "it's always got to be blood" speech in season 5 finale of Buffy.

As for the notes I'm glad you liked them and found them useful. I have a knee-jerk reaction to lengthy vid notes, but there have definitely been occasions when I've found notes and audio commentaries have helped me appreciate a vid more. I suppose I would consider doing something like this again if I felt the vid called for it.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

kinda like the most depressing Karaoke, ever.
Heh! Even more depressing than Angel's "Mandy," I agree.

1.32-1.37 is my favourite section and was totally inspired by Spike's "it's always got to be blood" speech in season 5 finale of Buffy.
Aha! Interesting--that makes sense to me.
The drawing of the shape on the floor + the same shape in the mobile = total creepy awesomeness.
That section is a great example of taking visuals already meant to be creepy and escalating them to a whole new level of commentary.

[oschun.livejournal.com]

I love Lanegan’s gruff growl as John’s voice. You really capture Papa Winchester perfectly here. I’m struck by the inexorable quality of this: the lyrics, driving beat of the song and the story telling – John’s so bound to his fate. And then he passes the whole thing on to Dean. The rhythm of the editing and matches on the song are so good. I’ve used this word before when commenting on another of your vids, but it fits, this is so COHESIVE. The whole thing works so bloody well together.

[charmax.livejournal.com]

I think it is a great compliment to say that the vid is cohesive, that it all pulls together as a whole. Thank you so much for that. As for the song it is just so right for John I can hardly believe it wasn't written for him.

Thank you so much for commenting.

[knittedshadow.livejournal.com]

Gosh I've never heard a song so perfect for John. And your vid certainly does it justice, beautifully driven by the marching beat, like John's weary will driving him on. Considering John technically doesn't have that many scenes (relative to Sam and Dean) it's amazing that every single clip you've used feels fresh and not over-vidded.

I love the sequence starting at about 1:33 like burning, the juxtaposition of John drawing the spell and the spinning mobile and the drops of the blood, the way John is making up for what went wrong all those years ago. And then that penultimate clip of John flickering out in beat to the music. God, could you be any more perfect?

[charmax.livejournal.com]

Exactly! That weary yet relentless quality that the song has is so very John. I'm glad you thought the clips felt fresh because, as you say, there aren't nearly as many clips to choose from as you get with Sam and Dean which can make things tricky.

The inter-cutting of the spells is one of the parts of the vid I'm most pleased with so thank you for singling that out for special praise. *g*