New Vid: "A Charming Man" (Supernatural) - Remastered!

[giandujakiss]

This vid was remastered on October 19, 2009 with shinier footage.

Vid Title: A Charming Man
Song: The Wondersmith and His Sons by Astronautalis
Fandom: Supernatural

Summary: Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Characters: Castiel, vaguely Dean/Castiel

Sizes: 36.7 MB (540 x 360 .avi), 16 MB (420 x 280 .wmv)
Length: 3:20

Download from Sendspace: The .avi file is here and the .wmv file is here.


Streaming: YouTube, or embedded:

Watch on Vimeo

Password: wings


Thanks so much to my betas kiki_miserychic, loligo, rivkat, and yhlee. And thank you to halcyon_shift for introducing me to Astronautalis with her awesome T:SCC vid, Lost at Sea.

Comments would be very appreciated.

(Crossposted to LJ)

Comments

[eisen]

Okay I haven't even finished the vid yet but can I just say I don't think I've seen an SPN vid ever that made me jump out of my seat with the shivers as effectively as this one did with the slow grrrroooowwwl into the lightning strike on "hah!" and I just wanted you to know that was well played, goddamn.

eeep.

(And it sets the tone for what I suspect the rest of the vid's going to be doing really well, too.)

[eisen]

Well.

Well.

I don't really have words other than "that was an amazing vid", so:

THAT WAS AN AMAZING VID.

Angels as con men for God. Yeah, it works.

That was incredibly disturbing and raw, and it captured everything vicious and almost-merciful about the SPN angels - as well as illustrating the Winchesters' troubled and distrusting relationship to the very concept of a hand of God, benevolent or otherwise, acting on the universe because of the world they have to survive in. (There are no "good shepherds" here.) That Castiel is capable of appearing merciful in the face of the world he helped create - a world of hostility, bile, and slick, cool violence - is either a testament to his divine presence or the ultimate act of arrogance.

I like that I'm not sure the vid ever provides me with an answer to which view of him I should believe.

(Caveat: Uriel being played as a Scary Black Man nauseates and disturbs me too much for me to feel anything other than disgust at those scenes, though. To be fair, I don't think those scenes were there to make Castiel or the Winchesters out to be the good guys for killing him; it's just another act of violence, another person's blood spilled - and ... for what, really? Nothing, just nothing but more violence eventually. But seeing that awful racist cliche perpetuated on-screen still pisses me off too much to get past my visceral reaction to it when the footage shows up in vids. But other than that, I had no trouble getting the point - and that one stumbling block isn't really your fault.)

[delurker]

omg this vid is totally awesome! The song really fits the canon, but more than that I love the movement and pacing of this vid. Excellent flow. It's also a nice look at Castiel, and his relationship with Dean, and the mythos of Supernatural.

[darkemeralds]

Holy...

God! That's just...

I'm still stuck for words. They're all good, and stunned, but I can't find 'em. I'm going buh-buh-buh. Wow! I'm never very articulate about vids anyway, but this one is one of the clearest, most exciting, most storytelling ones I've ever seen.

*downloading to watch over and over*

[giandujakiss]

Hee - awesome! I'm really glad it affected you so much - thank you!

AMAZING!

[(Anonymous)]

*gapes* OMG hon!!!! I've watched literally hundreds of SPN vids, and there are some brilliant ones out there, but yours just took top honors!!! Holy crap dude! I have never seen such a brilliant use of lyrics to clips - EVER! It was incredibly fast-paced, yet never lost coherency or flow to the story. Each word and scene packed a punch, without becoming an overwhelming jumble. I am a multi-media specialist, and I gladly bow to your brilliance as a storyteller. Talk about tight editing, and hours spent pouring over source clips! You rock beyond the telling of it!!! Thank you for sharing your talent with us. I only hope Kripke sees this!!!!

Re: AMAZING!

[giandujakiss]

Oh, wow, I'm glad you enjoyed the vid so much! And I'm delighted that the story and everything came through - there's so little footage of Castiel, really, that I had to pull from a lot of different kinds of scenes, so it's wonderful to hear that it all came together for you. Thank you so much!

[gnatkip]

Oh, really nice. Very pretty circling movements with Crossroads Demon / Dean / Castiel. "They hand me the key," "you know my family," ungh, his creepiness really comes through. Unghh.

And great song choice. I'd never heard of this guy.

(Also: "obsessively clean." Hee!)

[giandujakiss]

I'm so glad you liked it! I never heard of Astronautalis either - I only learned of him when Lithium Doll used one of his songs in a vid. But I loved this song for Castiel precisely for the lyrics you mention - they just struck me as ideal.

Con men getting conned: brilliant.

[imbir]

My knowledge of Supernatural comes from the fannish cheat sheet, but it doesn't matter; this vid is clearly and accessibly fantastic. There's no part that doesn't impress me, but I particularly like linking the first and last "is rendering his heavy hand obsolete" with lights (I'm not sure if they're halogen lights but either way, the pun's still there) and the whole "the brother's born a wondersmith, we started as a team" verse is beautifully cut. Also, the song is not only apt but really enjoyable.

Re: Con men getting conned: brilliant.

[giandujakiss]

Oh, thank you! I'm delighted you were able to enjoy the vid even without being an SPN fan! (Halogen, hah! I didn't think of that ). And - hee - "the brothers born a wondersmith" is one of my favorite sections, too!

[dodificus]

That was amazing. I love how menacing and ambiguous Castiel appeared for much of this. I loved the cuts back and forth between the demons and angels.

[giandujakiss]

Thank you! Yes, menacing and ambiguous Castiel works a lot better for me than some of the other ways we see him on the show - I'm glad you liked how he came across in the vid! And, thank you so much for the recommendation!

[not_sally]

Dude.
This vid was amazing. I love fast paced editing, and I think I'll need to rewatch it a billion times before I get every detail, but that was simply superb.
The song is just wonderful, and I love how you made it fit the vid.
I'm still in awe, but I loved it beyond reason.

[giandujakiss]

Oh, wow, thank you so much!! And yes, it's kind of an awesome song, isn't it? I'd love to take credit for "making it fit the vid" but as far as I'm concerned the song was written for SPN and I just had to follow the dotted lines :-). I'm so glad you liked it!

[nataliadarimini]

OHMYGOD.

This vid is absolutely amazing. I am downloading the song right now to go on my SPN playlist. I am in utter awe of your skills.

[giandujakiss]

Oh, thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it - and yes, the song is so wonderful, isn't it?

[aeria]

Awesome, awesome video XD And the song matched the mood so perfectly. *loves*

[giandujakiss]

Oh, thank you so much! I'm glad you liked!

[nam_jai]

I watched this on nataliadarimini's rec, and then downloaded it, and then went to iTunes to buy the song, which I listened to on repeat, four times in a row, all the way on my drive to work this morning. Enough to formulate a thought, anyway, and that's how the narrator of the song seems so much more self-aware of the destruction he can cause than Castiel generally is, and that makes for an interesting contrast in your vid.

Aside from that, it's just a joy to watch, the way your editing captures the rhythm of the song.

[giandujakiss]

that's how the narrator of the song seems so much more self-aware of the destruction he can cause than Castiel generally is, and that makes for an interesting contrast in your vid.

See, that's interesting - because to me, Castiel often seemed to be aware of at least the pain he was causing Dean, if not necessarily Jimmy and his family, and he always adopted a certain aspect of regret, but it didn't really stop him from acting.

Anyway, I'm delighted you enjoyed the vid - thank you!

I'm not sure if this is a compliment or a complaint

[sqbr]

This vid is so awesome it made (made!) me start watching season four even though I gave up on the show in disgust mid season 2.

I really, really like the idea of all the angels and demons being one big family of con artists.

I made my husband (who is a fan of the show, but usually doesn't like vids or slash) watch it and he really liked it too, though he did note the lack of Sam :D

Re: I'm not sure if this is a compliment or a complaint

[giandujakiss]

Hey, thanks! That's awesome that you were able to enjoy it even before seeing the season! And, umm, I'm sorry? :-)

I'm glad your husband enjoyed it, too - but there's Sam! He's just not as much the focus, but he's in there!

[fiercelydreamed]

I can't recall if I replied at the LJ crosspost back when I first found this, so I'm replying at this one. I only recently caught up on S4 and S5, and this vid captures everything about the last season that's sucked me in. You have the sharp-edged noir, the violence, the crisply beautiful cinematography, the byzantine mytharc, the betrayals, and oh yes, the profound moral grayness. Now that I'm familiar with the sources you used, what I really love about this vid -- the thing that had me mouthing yes, yes, yes -- was the equivalence you create between the angels and the demons. Exchanging Castiel and the crossroads demon in visual sleight-of-hand, interspersing the ranks of Heaven and Hell over "You know my family." It's exactly the thing that's made the current mytharc so compelling to me: that the angels are no better than the demons, and that Castiel himself is thoroughly complicit.

Really. Bravo.

[giandujakiss]

Oh, wow! Thank you so much! I am so happy that you think it captures the season, and that you liked the demon-and-angel comparison - I was so excited when I realized I could intersperse the footage that way :-). And I'm so glad you think it did justice to the cinematography, as well. Because yeah, exactly - the angels here are indistinguishable from the demons (I loved how in Sympathy for the Devil, the angels tried to torture Dean into submission but Lucifer just persuaded). So I'm so happy it all came through for you!

[yakbite.livejournal.com]

"THEN THERE WAS ME"

I can't get over this vid. It's everything I love about Supernatural chopped up and strung together so precisely. Of course, it also reinforces the extreme white dude aesthetic of the show, which is very good to be reminded of.
The focused urgency of this vid was truly awesome.

[giandujakiss]

Oh, wow, I'm delighted you liked it so much! I'm so glad I could capture the parts of the show that you love! As for the aesthetic, well ... yeah, that is true :-). But I'm glad you enjoyed the vid!

[everysecondtuesday]

I am terrible at reviewing lately, but I wanted to say that this vid is amazing. I've come back to sit several times, and it only manages to suck me in more with each repeat viewing. The timing is phenomenal and the entire tone of the vid matches the song, then brings something more. I can't say enough good things about it.

[giandujakiss]

Thank you so much! I'm so delighted to know that it stands up on repeated viewing! And I'm so glad you felt the vid did justice to the song - I think the song's so perfect for him!

[stultiloquentia]

I just rewatched this and realized I'd been parsing, "Too much grease can break down a machine," as, "Too much grace." Which, considering the subject matter, is actually quite a fascinating reading! (Howdy!)

[giandujakiss]

Heh. It's funny, you're not the only person to say that - someone at the LJ crosspost made the same comment. And I admit, that mistake never occurred to me, but you're right, that it works both ways :-).

[variance]

Ok, so I'm coming way late to the party here, but WOW, this vid is amazing! Wonderful job!

Great music choice, and I really feel you've nailed the avenging angels aspect of the show perfectly!

[giandujakiss]

Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it - and thank you so much for the rec!

[aithine]

I misheard the same line others have commented on (grace for grease) exactly the same way the first time I watched this vid, too. *vbg*

The clips you chose and how you handled the editing make the whole thing work scarily beautifully--excellent job!

[giandujakiss]

I misheard the same line others have commented on (grace for grease) exactly the same way the first time I watched this vid, too. *vbg*

Hee. Well, it's certainly a fortunate mistake, given the themes of the vid! I'm so glad you liked it - thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

Great vid and excellent song choice. :)


~Dlasta

[giandujakiss]

Thanks! I'm really glad you liked it!

[be_themoon]

I could have sworn I'd replied to this at some point. D:

I've loved this vid for a while now. It's really, really well done - the cutting is awesome, the story is chill-inspiring and thoughtful, the imagery is gorgeous. The whole thing is wonderful (and I've watched it a truly ridiculous amount of times).

And now I'm ashamed to admit that I would never have realized I hadn't dropped a review on it if I hadn't wanted to ask for something - there's a vid I want to make (mostly for myself) using this song, and you cut out exactly the verse that really doesn't fit for the canon I'm vidding for. And I suck at music editing. (Seriously, so much.) I was wondering if you would be all right with uploading your edit of the song for me?

[giandujakiss]

Hi there! I'm so incredibly pleased that you enjoyed the vid - thank you so much!

As for the song, I'm really sorry, but I'm a little uncomfortable about distributing my edit. I mean, obviously, I have no claims to the song, so it's all good if you use it and edit it similarly, but I'd prefer not to send my edits out.

But again, thanks so much for your kind comments on the vid, and good luck with your own vid!

[scintilla10]

This is stunningly good. Wow. Wow wow wow.

[giandujakiss]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it :-).

[kalliel]

Was recently linked this. Just wanted to drop a line and let you know that it is tremendous and inspiring! The imagery is to dieeee for. This is one of those songs that I've had in my library for a while, and I kept thinking, "Man, I wish there were a vid for this." AND THEN SOMEONE LET ME KNOW THERE WAS A VID FOR THIS. And it was more than everything I'd hoped it'd be. <3 Thank you for making this!

[giandujakiss]

Oh wow, thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it - I'm surprised you already knew the song! I was casting about for a Castiel song at the time and as soon as I heard this, I knew I'd found it.