Vid: Calling the Moon (BtVS; Willow, Willow/Tara)

[butterfly]

Calling the Moon
by Dar Williams

Summary:
Love, magic, and a moment of grace.
(spoilers up to Buffy the Vampire Slayer 7x22 -- Chosen)

(divx file 42.6 MB; zipped
smaller zipped wmv file available here)

Many thanks to paraviondeux for lending space and to jic for support and advice. Feedback is always appreciated.

I know what it's worth
to tug at the seas
and illumine the earth.

Comments

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Snagging! You know I love all your character insights, so I have no doubt this one will make me understand Willow in a new light.

[xenacryst.livejournal.com]

Oh, *sigh*. You are fast becoming one of my favorite vidders, you know that? Another gorgeous vid to one of my favorite singers with probably my favorite people in the Buffyverse. There's really not much else to say besides "wow!"

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

WOW! You're brilliant. I just loved it. This is definitely a vid I will save forever. As always with your vids, it evoked a strong emotional response. Congratulations on yet another wonderful creation.

[obsessive24.livejournal.com]

The emotional connection in this vid is so deep and wonderful. I loved the way you drew the W/T love into what she did at the end of Chosen, a broader expression of that love. The moment where the scythe gets all glowy is so shiver-inducing. Tech-wise I really liked what you did with the added external motion, a lot of small pushes that stop halfway into the clip, it looks fresh stylistically and enforces the emotions. Lovely work!

[sol-se.livejournal.com]

I loved that so much. You did an amazing job with POV, structure, imagery...everything was perfect. Tara's the moon. You just made me cry. I loved the whole thing, but I have to say that the ending really blew me away with Willow in "Chosen" gathering strength from Tara and giving it out. I always love your videos, but I really just absolutely adored this.

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

That was incredibly beautiful. I especially loved what you did with the season 7 scenes. It felt so right for Tara to regain a strong prescence in them, even without being visible. The structure you created was perfect for pulling that off in a wonderfully light-handed way.

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

That was fabulous - you made me cry.

[bell]

It took me a while to formulate a response to this.

I haven't watched many music videos, and the ones I have been mostly of a humorous nature. So I think my... inexperience with this media format has influenced my reaction, because I'm not used to 'reading' them. For example-- am I supposed to make an immidiate link between the words of the song and the images? How much of the video's source material should I take into consideration when watching? And so forth.

The reasons I downloaded this video was, in order, because: a) you'd made it and I know how much effort you put into your creative endeavors; b) CALLING THE MOON; c) Willow/Tara!

Let me be honest. The changes you made to the song for the purposes of your video threw me off. I honestly can't say if the changes weren't perceptible to anyone who can't recite the lyrics off the top of their head because to me the modifications were extraordinarily jarring. Each time, with every viewing, it takes me out of the video for a few seconds.

I was also wryly amused that you introduced Oz (the werewolf!) into the video, given that you associated the moon image most strongly with Tara (with Willow following in her footsteps after her death?). Especially because you included a clip of Willow, while with Oz, looking up at the moon-- reminding the viewer of Oz's werewolfness! Or was that more of a, Willow is looking for Tara (the moon) even when with Oz? I don't know.

I also thought it was interesting that for the lyrics "I can see so much from this cold height" you chose to use clips from Restless. The scenes where Willow walks throw the sea of curtains always felt like a moment of confusion on her part, so the linking of the two was mildly ironic for me.

That aside, you have done a beautiful job putting these images of Willow and Tara while doing justice (or at least so I felt!) to one of my favorite songs of all time. The three times I've watched this, tears did not fail to spring to my eyes at the transition of the warm oranges to Willow in black, "don't make sense of me, night." Willow's grief comes across so clearly... and I think I liked the changes in coloration that you did with the segments of Tara after she died (to highlight the fact that she's gone)-- it certainly made me feel all the sadder.

I also like how you put Willow's spell in Chosen in the context of her love for Tara. This not being text the reasons for that aren't entirely clear to me... perhaps she was able to do that spell because of what Tara had taught them during their time together-- because Tara had transfered her moon-ness to Willow? Perhaps she was able to "illuminate the earth" because she had overcome her grief (though the clips of her screaming & crying before the glowing-hatchet don't indicate that) and embrace her memories of Tara? Like I sai, I don't know.

I'd be interested in hearing why you made the choices that you did for this video! :D

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I love the way this vid slowly builds Tara to be the moon of the song and Willow’s guiding light even after her death. It works especially well in the context of the goddess clips from Chosen, imbuing that whole sequence with extra meaning. I hadn’t thought of things that way before. Thank you for showing it to me.

[kitkatbyte.livejournal.com]

Aww! Willow's emotional journey... that was so moving! It looks like you modified the saturation to enhance the mood of different parts of it... very nice!

[incidental_fire]

What a beautiful and heartbreaking vid. As I was watching, I kept hoping you weren't going to include Tara's death, that it would just be Willow and Tara happy together. And yet. Including that made the ending and the resolution much more powerful, and the connection between Tara and what Willow was able to do at the end of Chosen made me a little bit more at peace with her death.