New Vid: "Glass Coffin" (VR.5)
Feb. 7th, 2010 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
giandujakissCreated for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
halfamoon.
Vid title: Glass Coffin
Song: Blinding by Florence and the Machine
Fandom: VR.5
Summary: To sleep no more.
Length: 2:14
Download: At Sendspace
Password: labyrinth
Thanks so much to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
halcyon_shift and lcsbanana for beta-ing.
Notes: VR.5 ran briefly on the Fox network in 1995. Thirteen episodes were produced; only ten aired in the original run although the remaining three eventually aired on SyFy. The show starred Lori Singer as Sydney Bloom, a computer geek who discovers that the virtual reality computer system she has built enables her to enter other people's unconscious minds.
Unfortunately, VR.5 is not available on commercial DVD; hence the fuzziness in the vid.
When Sydney was a child, she was the only survivor of a car accident that took the lives of her father and her sister. After the crash, a botched suicide attempt left Sydney's mother in a state of permanent catatonia. These traumas have left Sydney shy and reclusive, and she has only hazy and shifting memories of the accident and her childhood up until that point.
Sydney finds that in virtual reality, she can form the social bonds she can't in real life. Because the people whose minds she enters remember nothing of the experience, in VR, Sydney can be everything she isn't ordinarily - glamorous, assertive, confident, captivating. But in VR, it is difficult for her to separate fantasy from reality, and often her own memories and emotions - particularly her memories of her family - distort what she sees.
Because Sydney's ability to enter VR is unique - anyone else who tries ends up in a coma, or worse - she is recruited by a mysterious organization called The Committee, and sent on various VR "missions." Meanwhile, it turns out that Sydney's unique ability may not be coincidental; as Sydney uses VR to gain more access to her memories, she discovers that her father was associated with The Committee before he died, and may have experimented with virtual reality.
VR.5 also starred Anthony Stewart Head as Sydney's Committee handler, and - in one of the show's many nods to classic television - David McCallum as her father, Dr. Joseph Bloom.
Why do I love this show? Let me count the ways.
First, VR.5 was visually stunning. Much of the action took place in virtual reality, with glowing candy colors and surreal landscapes - something of an art director's dream. The show also delighted in references to classic television and film, with homage paid to, among other things, Hitchcock, The Wizard of Oz, the Avengers, and the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Second, the character of Sydney Bloom was ... well, a fangirl. It's common in fandom to complain that in most mainstream entertainment, geekboys and fanboys get acknowledged and valorized, but geekgirls are overlooked. Not so on VR.5, where the protagonist was, essentially, us. She was an electronics genius, spent most of her life on the computer, and formed her most important social relationships in an internet fantasy world. (She was also, hilariously, extremely sexually frustrated - which was explored in a perfect, low-key manner on the show.)
Third, Sydney was an incredibly well-drawn and admirable heroine. Though she was outwardly shy and meek, she turned out to have a will of iron; in her quiet, introverted way, she absolutely never followed any instructions given to her by anyone, including The Committee, unless they suited her own purposes. In fact - in a nice twist on the innocent-person-recruited-by-shadowy-organization trope - her relationship with The Committee was more symbiotic than exploitative; Sydney wanted an excuse to explore VR as much as The Committee wanted to her to do its bidding.
In short, Imissmyshow.
Comments nuzzled.
(Cross-posted to LJ)
halfamoon.Vid title: Glass Coffin
Song: Blinding by Florence and the Machine
Fandom: VR.5
Summary: To sleep no more.
Length: 2:14
Download: At Sendspace
Password: labyrinth
Thanks so much to
halcyon_shift and lcsbanana for beta-ing.Notes: VR.5 ran briefly on the Fox network in 1995. Thirteen episodes were produced; only ten aired in the original run although the remaining three eventually aired on SyFy. The show starred Lori Singer as Sydney Bloom, a computer geek who discovers that the virtual reality computer system she has built enables her to enter other people's unconscious minds.
Unfortunately, VR.5 is not available on commercial DVD; hence the fuzziness in the vid.
When Sydney was a child, she was the only survivor of a car accident that took the lives of her father and her sister. After the crash, a botched suicide attempt left Sydney's mother in a state of permanent catatonia. These traumas have left Sydney shy and reclusive, and she has only hazy and shifting memories of the accident and her childhood up until that point.
Sydney finds that in virtual reality, she can form the social bonds she can't in real life. Because the people whose minds she enters remember nothing of the experience, in VR, Sydney can be everything she isn't ordinarily - glamorous, assertive, confident, captivating. But in VR, it is difficult for her to separate fantasy from reality, and often her own memories and emotions - particularly her memories of her family - distort what she sees.
Because Sydney's ability to enter VR is unique - anyone else who tries ends up in a coma, or worse - she is recruited by a mysterious organization called The Committee, and sent on various VR "missions." Meanwhile, it turns out that Sydney's unique ability may not be coincidental; as Sydney uses VR to gain more access to her memories, she discovers that her father was associated with The Committee before he died, and may have experimented with virtual reality.
VR.5 also starred Anthony Stewart Head as Sydney's Committee handler, and - in one of the show's many nods to classic television - David McCallum as her father, Dr. Joseph Bloom.
Why do I love this show? Let me count the ways.
First, VR.5 was visually stunning. Much of the action took place in virtual reality, with glowing candy colors and surreal landscapes - something of an art director's dream. The show also delighted in references to classic television and film, with homage paid to, among other things, Hitchcock, The Wizard of Oz, the Avengers, and the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Second, the character of Sydney Bloom was ... well, a fangirl. It's common in fandom to complain that in most mainstream entertainment, geekboys and fanboys get acknowledged and valorized, but geekgirls are overlooked. Not so on VR.5, where the protagonist was, essentially, us. She was an electronics genius, spent most of her life on the computer, and formed her most important social relationships in an internet fantasy world. (She was also, hilariously, extremely sexually frustrated - which was explored in a perfect, low-key manner on the show.)
Third, Sydney was an incredibly well-drawn and admirable heroine. Though she was outwardly shy and meek, she turned out to have a will of iron; in her quiet, introverted way, she absolutely never followed any instructions given to her by anyone, including The Committee, unless they suited her own purposes. In fact - in a nice twist on the innocent-person-recruited-by-shadowy-organization trope - her relationship with The Committee was more symbiotic than exploitative; Sydney wanted an excuse to explore VR as much as The Committee wanted to her to do its bidding.
In short, Imissmyshow.
Comments nuzzled.
(Cross-posted to LJ)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 01:51 am (UTC)Now I want to see the show!
no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 02:00 am (UTC)Then my work here is done!
Seriously, I'm delighted you liked the vid. I really do have to post the eps ... I'm just lazy and I haven't figured out how to compress the files down to those internet-distributable .avi things. Maybe I'll just put up the raw .vob files - they're big but you can play them on VLC like anything else.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 09:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-05 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-05 09:25 am (UTC)... yeah, that works :-).
I made only .wmv files for this one because the source is fuzzy and I figured it would look marginally better in .wmv, but here's an .avi just for you.
And, umm, if you're interested in the series, you can click the vr5 tag to see the, umm, stuff, that I've posted under FLock.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 04:10 am (UTC)Anyways. BRB. Most likely, long long long comment to follow.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-17 08:06 am (UTC)Again - awesome awesome vid :D
no subject
Date: 2014-07-17 09:05 am (UTC)