New Supernatural Vid: God Says Nothing Back

[morgandawn]

Premiered at Vividcon 2006

Song: God Says Nothing Back
Artist: Wallflowers
Fandom: Supernatural
Size: 33MB DivX AVI

Sometimes the universe answers. But is it a message Sam wants to hear?

Watch a streaming version on Youtube Blip.TV. Scroll down for a download version and vidder notes.

God Says Nothing Back was one of the first Supernatural vids shown at Vividcon 2006.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

 

Click here to download a high quality version of the vid. Please note that my site requires a password for access.
Just follow the instructions on the main page, and I'll send you the password ASAP

Thank you to maygra for suggesting the song and for sharing with me her ideas. A big thank you to my betas [Bad username or unknown identity: killabeez, ]paraviondeux, and permetaform. And last (but not least) lierdumoa for coming up with suggestions for bloody and supernatural external source.

edited to add: at a friend's request, I add (somewhat tongue in cheek) vidder's notes.

I normally don't post notes. But here is the short version:
POV = Sam Winchester. He is asking the universe: "why me? why do I have to live this life? why did my mother and Jess die?"

The universe (not being into direct communication - kinda like a passive agressive SO) uses the people in his life to answer back:
Mom - God says nothing back
Dad - Time says nothing back
Dean - Love says nothing back
Jess - Death says nothing back.

If you haven't picked it up yet: the universe (the bastard) isn't answering Sam's question ("I told you so").

Which leaves Sam, in the end, poised between hope (fire/doves & burning Madonna) and the demon. Gasping, out of breath, caught between fear and determination.

additional in-depth commentary from a viewer of the vid here: http://alchemise.livejournal.com/1210.html

Comments

[femmenerd.livejournal.com]

This was just such a beautiful, lyrical view on Sam's journey. I really liked the way that even though you dealt with so much of the weighty stuff the vid had an almost breathless quality, if that makes any sense.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

thank you for sending me feedback. I really enjoyed making the vid and trying to capture Sam's relationships with each of his family members.

[amalthia]

I really enjoyed this video.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

thank you. beams.

[alethialia.livejournal.com]

This was such a gorgeous look at Sam. Really, really beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I am glad you liked it. Sam had such an interesting character arc the first season (actually both of them did).

[anashi.livejournal.com]

This was a stunningly well put together vid. My favorite part has to be the 'love' section of the vid. This vid's imagery just kept building and building to this emotional peak, and I almost started crying when the Jessica part was shown near the end...Beautiful. Thanks for sharing. ^--^

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

The 'love says nothing back" was my favorite part as well. Thanks for the feedback.

[stungunbilly.livejournal.com]

Awesome.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

thanks!

[gemstone86.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was so beautiful! The effects were amazing. I haven't seen a vid like this one before. I really really enjoyed it! Thankyou!!

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

Good to hear the effects and the vid came across as unique. I was aiming for that.

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

I did what I usually do when I like a vid - I watched it, read the lyrics, and then watched it again. The first time, I thought it was a very good vid. Reading the lyrics made me go "ouch", and the second time I watched the vid I had difficulty keeping the tears down. You've captured the angstier side of the show really well, and as usual with your vids the technical aspects are brilliant too - you really have an eye for visuals.

And since the topic is being debated at the moment: I'm not updating my vidrecs site today, but next time I am, would it be okay if I recced this vid?

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

sorry for the delay in responding. I'd be delighted to be included in your vids recs.

Knowing that the lyrics were complicated/somewhat hard to hear, I am happy to hear that the vid worked on the first try - and that it held up well after you read through the lyrics.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful, complicated vid. This one's gonna take several viewings for me to wrap my head around it. But I really, really loved it. The non-SPN bits that were inserted gave it a unique, dreamy quality that was a welcome spice to the usual visuals. Gorgeous job :)

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I am glad the vid worked so well for you. After viewing it a few times, did you get any more from the vid?

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

I've put it on my iPod and I just watch it from time to time - it's so haunting and beautiful at the same time!

I really feel Sam's frustration and hopelessness, through how you portrayed everything he's had to go through. Mary's death, Jess's, how saving Dean's life killed another person, having to shoot John. I love the verse about his relationship with Dean (love this line: "I hallucinated that you were in my arms"), because while it's slightly more hopeful, there's still so much conflict and pain there, despite the clear love they feel for each other. Sam opens his heart to loving Dean, and all he gets in return is suffering - Dean nearly dying several times (Faith, Nightmare, Devil's Trap) and Sam just feels that anything he invests in gets snatched away.

I think my favorite part of the video is when the music briefly modulates into a major key and the images are so triumphant and heroic - it's a heartlifting moment that is then dragged back down into the mire that Sam has to struggle through.

I think this entire concept (and the song - God, what a song) is particularly poignant because while Dean and Sam fight the supernatural every day, they have yet to encounter anything supernatural that's good. (Well, except for Mary's spirit.) So while they believe in all this evil, you might think that that would lead to a belief of higher powers in general, i.e. God - but as this video shows, "God says nothing back." They don't get any help from above, no recognition or reward for all the sacrifices they have made for the greater good. The "I told you so" is particularly heart breaking, as I see it as Sam speaking to Dean - saying, I told you this life wasn't for me, that I wanted to get away from it, and now that I'm sucked back into it look at the tragedies that happen in my life. It's all about their journey being one without a happy end in sight. It's one tragic downward spiral.

So in short, yes, I got a lot more from it. Absolutely gorgeous study of Sam as a character. Thank you for sharing it :)

(I have a question - the clip at 1:18, where the boys get in the car in perfect sync, what episode is that from?)

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

(I have a question - the clip at 1:18, where the boys get in the car in perfect sync, what episode is that from?)"

for the life of me, I cannot remember. (stares at it......

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

*giggles* That's okay, it's not important! I just thought I might like to use it for my own vid :)

Did anything I say jibe with what you were going for? I'm curious to hear what you think about my interpretation.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

yes you caught a lot of what I was saying. To add another layer, each of the people you see in the vid are speaking to Sam - God = Mary, Time = Dad, Sam = Love, Jess = Death. They are telling him (each time) that God/Time/Love/Death says nothing back, that when you ask these questions (is there God, will I have time, is there love, will death claim me), sometimes the universe answers - but the answer may not be one we want to hear.

I did bury some hope in the answers - when you see Dean on the line "love says nothing back" and you think of the context of that clip - Dean lying in the back of the car bleeding, Sam arguing with his Dad that sometimes choosing family over revenge is the right choice - you get the feeling that perhaps Sam *is* hearing the message that Dean has been telling him from the pilot.

And as for Jess - when you see her on the line "Death says nothing back" she is dying, but then you see her ghost again.

So Sam is still waiting for the final response to his questions. Like we all are.

[tabaqui]

Finally got to see this and wow, wow, wow. Totally lived up to maygra's pimp - really enjoyed it! I have a hard time commenting on vids - my brain is better geared toward the written word but...

Emotional without being over done, and not *literal*, with the clips lock-stepping with the lyrics. Just - good stuff. Thanks for sharing!

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

This vid was gorgeous. I love the way it's both a universe vid for the show, but also a character vid--I love the monsters of the week in SPN, and they don't get included in vids very often. I also loved the angel in the graveyard and the birds in the sky, and it's a sign of how well you used outside footage that I have no idea if any of that was not from the show. (The one bit of outside footage that *did* throw me a little was of the drop of blood falling from Dean's mouth into water--but I think that's just because I've obsessed over that clip so much for one of my own vids that seeingt something different happen was just jarring.) Oh, Sam. He needs hugs.

[elz.livejournal.com]

I loved this - really gorgeous and evocative. It's funny - I was just reading your more recent post about song length, and honestly, I love the length of this vid, and the subtlety and the layers and the fact that it pulls you into the story instead of just being "This is my vid, and this is the point of my vid. And these are the closing credits of my vid. Have a nice day." Not that short and sweet isn't nice sometimes too, but viva diversity!

Also, I may have turned into a big puddle of goo on the "making angel wings" line. Awwwwww.

[alchemise]

Hello, I wanted to tell you how much I love this vid, but I had many many things to say about it so I ended up posting a very long review in my journal. It's here if you'd like to read it. I also linked back to this post if that's ok?

Oh, and I friended you as well. :D

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

helpless flailing. You got it! (not that there was a secret message or decoder ring needed for this vid). Still it really makes a vidder happy to realize that some of the things she put into the vid came through. Thank you!

and yes, linking back to LJ posts are fine.

PS. one word: "angel wings". killa's and my favorite scene - and she gets credit for not letting me take it out (I was worried that people would find the ghosting effect extraneous - that they would not be able to follow that it happens only when Sam is looking at the people he loves and is caught in time/the moment).

[alchemise]

Oh I'm glad you enjoyed the review. And thank you for making and sharing such great vids with everyone. :D

Yeah the ghosting was a really nice touch without being used so much that it felt overdone. It took a little while into the season for me to fall for Sam, so I really enjoy anything that offers a look into his head and makes me appreciate him more.

[kernezelda]

This is gorgeous, lyrical. You show Sam's journey vividly with the attacks from without and the doubts within. I like how you use clips from outside the show to enhance certain sections, giving a dreamy quality to the whole thing. I also very much like the way characters represent the different qualities in the song - time, love, death, God, and how Sam has to find his answers, if any, in how he interacts with the people he loves.

Oh, and the fluttery bits when Sam is with Mary and Jess and Dean and John, those are interesting, like he's lingering in their presence, or just keeping a part of them with him when he goes. I wasn't sure what Dean's blood dripping into water meant, but it was a lovely image, nonetheless.

This is a beautiful vid.

[brynnmck.livejournal.com]

This is really just a placeholder, because I have been wanting to properly feedback this vid for weeks and I just haven't had the time, but I do want to at least say, for now, that I love this and I've watched it probably twenty times and it gives me chills every time. And hopefully I will be back with something more coherent. :)

[fenlings]

Wow, I don't know how I'd missed this, but I just watched it, and honestly I think it's the best Supernatural vid I've seen so far. I especially like what you did with the jump additive dissolves, and just a lot of it made my eyes happy.

[jissa.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've been wondering around lj and the internet at large looking for good supernatural vids, and randomly found yours.

This is absolutely amazing! You managed to give a beautiful, deep look into Sam's psyche. I don't think there's a single part of this vid that I don't love. The way you identified each section/"character" of the song with a character of Supernatural was really well done, and I love your choices. From Mary standing for God to Jess standing in for Death they fit perfectly and make me go "Oh, Sam . . ."

This is definitely amoung my favorite SPN vids that I have seen (right now I would say my favorite, but I'm worried that I'm not being fair to Astarte's "Hey, Pretty," lithium-doll's "Too sick too pray" and a few others. Plus, I suck at making decisions like this.), and without a doubt my favorite Sam vid.

Thanks so much for sharing!

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

thank you for the feedback. I just posted a streaming version up on iMeem http://morgandawn.imeem.com/video/XLkt3l5V/spn_godsays/
(but hope you like the quality of the large downloadable vid better). And since I love all the other vids and vidders you mentioned, I am glad that you found them.

I have a few SPN vid recommendations listed in my tags under http://morgandawn.livejournal.com/tag/spn+vidrec

[jissa.livejournal.com]

Oh thankyou for the vidrecs! I shall definitely look through them! Particularly since the most recent post has one vid (http://sockkpuppett.livejournal.com/367238.html) that I've found and love and one more (http://killabeez.livejournal.com/195322.html) that I've yet to see! Yay!

Really, thanks again for the recs, they'll make my day week!

[jade-kadir.livejournal.com]

This vid is gorgeous, and I loved the way it was put together. I do have one question though. Is all the visual material from Supernatural? I was wondering, because that last bit with the fire and the dove and the Madonna statue looks like a clip from the end of the film Stigmata.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

you guessed it, I pulled in extra footage - some from stock footage and some from Stigmata.

[jade-kadir.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! I'm super cool. I wonder how many other people caught it. It was pretty awesome though and totally fitting.

[stormcloude]

Such a great video. I love how the images fit to the lyrics. Thank you for sharing.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I watched this vid on imeem before I'd seen any SPN (but had read some fic) and I loved it. I just DLed it and watched again, having seen most of S1, and I'm in tears.

This is why I love Sam so, so much. Thank you.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I am glad you got more out of the vid on second viewing. And yes, Sam deserves a hug.....

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Technical note:

For some reason, the version I DL'ed has "hiccups" in it -- I get a smoother, better-synced experience watching the imeem version. It's probably a function of my grossly underpowered computer, or something.

I think the framing shots of lightning, the way they move to the beat and overlap other images, is exceptionally powerful.

I love you and Sam a *lot*.