Your Love Means Everything, Pt 2
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Pairing: Alice/Dana Description
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Commentary
On top of bad writing, inconsistent character development, and dismissing one of the most desirable character on TV in ages, I've stuck with the L Word. I should state this wasn't due to dedication, but to two primary reasons:
- it's one of only a few shows with lesbian characters on TV (and the only show specifically about lesbians; and
- Alice Pieszecki.
Leisha Hailey is amazing as Alice, and if I thank the L Word for anything, it's for showcasing her talent. I'd also thank them for the Alice/Dana relationship—from friendship to lovers to stalking ex's and back to that great undefined realm of friends in love— the Alice/Dana relationship has been the one thing that drew me towards viewing some episodes even while cringing at bad writing, bad music, and other issues. Despite temptation, I really don't want to turn this into a bitching session about the L Word. It is what it is. So let's move on to the how's and why's of this video.
When originally thinking of doing a Dana tribute, the first song that struck my attention was Sarah McLachlan's Hold On from Afterglow Live (Bonus CD). In hindsight, the song captured my attention for the obvious—it was a song about the loss of a loved one; and in the live version Sarah starts the song with a version of "You Are My Sunshine". Obviously, I was still feeling a little pissed at them not only killing Dana, but then leaving Alice in the hallway with that horrid rendition of "Your Are My Sunshine". No offense to Sarah, because her song is great, and I love the live version, but when shuffle mode played, Your Love Means Everything by Faultline, the part one version, I immediately thought of Your Love Means everything, Pt 2. Actually, I literally thought of combining them, but over seven minutes of Dana dying just seemed excessive and too painful.
Part one of Your Love Means Everything is an instrumental track, and while hauntingly beautiful, I wanted lyrics. Chris Martin of Coldplay provided a perfect mixture of lyrics and vocals to this song. It's heart wrenching. It just makes me want to hug myself, but its not pure sadness; there is this sense of wonder in the song. Drowned in Sound has a great review of the entire album (it's wonderful). So there we have the song selection, next was the selection of clips from the show to use.
This video has the least number of clips that I've used to date for creating a video. The song was airy and reflective, so I tried to choose clips that could play out in natural motion for the music. My original goal was to alternate clips of Alice and Dana during happier times with clips of Dana dying, but the happier clips didn't really fit. The clips that did fit were a bit more contemplative, but still mostly from happier times.
With the clips chosen, I then started to think about sound. If you've watched any of my other videos, you'll notice that I rarely wipe all the sound from the background images. I like television and movie soundtracks, especially when done well. I think music can be a great compliment to words and emotion. Plus, as I mention, this song was haunting, but airy and reflective as well. It had numerous places where dialog or background noise could shine through and trigger memories, so I went with that.
There are two clips that I do want to comment on. The first is the inclusion of is Alice saying to Dana that bisexuality is gross. First, I don't believe Alice believes bisexuality is gross at all, just Tina's display of it. Second, I don't believe that bisexuality is gross, but Tina's display of it has been. And lastly, I wanted it because it was pure Alice, trying to make Dana smile, and succeeding. I though the interaction was very cute. The second is the overlapping Dana's calling for Alice. I thought them symbolic. I can't recall if we ever got the full background on how Dana and Alice met, but from my perspective Dana has always called Alice to her somehow. Even when they were just friends, there was Alice fluttering like a butterfly to a flower. I just wanted it to be more literal.
Lyrics
I slipped away last night
Took me away from sight and the place I know.
All crushed upon my skin
This mess I put you in and the punch i threw.
It was a strange reaction
for someone like you to remain on side
And in a chain reaction
I was down and calling for a place to hide.
I saw a broken arm
Machines will all break down in the way I know.
Mended and all made clean
I saw up on the screen all the stones I throw.
It was a strange reaction
for someone like you to remain so sure
And in a chain reaction
I dissolve and break and then away I crawl.
Technology
Hardware: Apple PowerBook G4, 15" 1.5GHz PPC.
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.5 Tiger
Software: iMovie HD 5. iTunes 6. Snapz Pro. Quicktime 7
(what the hell happen to iMovie HD 6, I had to switch back to complete this video)
Additional: LaCie d2 FireWire External Hard Drive
Downloads: BitTorrent
Other Details
Categories: L Word, The •
Viewed: 5483
Comments: 4
Permalink: http://www.wide-eyed.org/videos/article/your_love_means_everything_pt_2/
Comments
- On 03/30/2006, says:
hi, this video is amazing! is there any way i can download it for my ipod?
- On 04/04/2006, allgood2 says:
You can select ‘Save as Source or Save as Quicktime Movie, from the far right, downward triangle. If that doesn’t work, let me know, and I’ll upload a .zip file for you.
- On 06/01/2006, says:
This was one of the saddest videos I have ever seen...Very well put together,made all of us here cry our eyes out...We loved Dana and Alice…
- On 06/02/2006, Alnisa Allgood says:
Thanks. I admit that loosing Dana from the L Word, has placed a damper on my video development goals. This video was very cathartic, but not inspirational; I still need to get over the lost potential of Alice/Dana before I can be intrigued or encourage by some of the future pairings. It’s sad, because I was really looking forward to see if they did a Alice/Helena pairing, but I always believed eventually Alice would be with Dana—and I hate that that’s no longer an option.