Video Recommendations

The Becoming

Smallville [Added: 03/16/04 6:58 ]

I’m rec’ing this one for the great depiction of a major Smallville theme- the evolution of Clark and Lex into the men they will become.  Good song choice, in that it fits this idea beautifully and it calls to mind images of madness and mayhem.  I’m not totally on board the use of effects, but I like the idea behind this video and a lot of the clip choices worked well to push the main theme.  Not perfect in my eyes, but well worth watching.  And thinking about.

Visceral reaction:  Digging the song- NIN rocks and this works really well for the theme of the show- Lex and Clark achieving their destinies.  Effective intro- the blues of the nightclub really work with the mood of this song for me.  Totally love kicking off with the car driving over the paper.  Hm- kinda like the strobe, but I think less of it would have been good.  I get how they’re using it, but I thought it got old- distracting rather than enhancing.  Maybe some more organic effects would have been nice to break it up a little more (what the hell do I mean by organic?  I have no freaking clue.  Just, something more rooted in the clip choice rather imposed on the clips.  I guess.).  Still, nice juxtaposition of Lex and Clark both ‘becoming’.  That segue to Lex is nice- and the ‘me that you know’ worked well for me on Lex.  This really is a kick ass song for Lex and Clark.  Oh- like ‘I can try to get away’ with Lex fighting himself on the island.  Too long on the black at the 3 min mark.  Hm- dreamy/slow is kinda good, but I think I’d have sped it up by this point- build a lot more tension.  I like the series of panning through the caves and cutting to young Clark and the hints of mythology, but feel the need for more buildup or something.  This song is kind of insane and fucked up, might have built more of a climax based on that.  Not bad- cool song, generally pretty vid and very interesting ideas.  Definitely better than most of the SV I’ve seen, though I’m not sure the potential was fully realized.  On the other hand, this song strikes me as hard to vid- particularly the slow dreamy stuff toward the end (where they used the cave clips) while at the same time feeling like it should be shoving the viewer toward a climax.  Hm- tough one to vid.

Watching Smallville vids is weird for me.  I’d say it’s my primary fandom (even though the show tends to drive me batshit), but I find a lot more Buffy/AtS vids that provoke either an emotional reaction or technique envy.  Not sure why that is.  Anyway, this vid strikes me as kind of the flip side of another SV vid I’ve recommended- ‘Extreme Ways’ which just oozed movement and style and mood for me- though as far as I could tell, it didn’t make a lick of sense and had no real theme.  This vid doesn’t quite do it for me on mood and style (though it has its moments and I thought the beginning was really effective) but I think thematically it’s one of the best vids I’ve seen.  Seriously, I think THIS is what Smallville is ultimately supposed to be about- Clark and Lex stepping forward into their destinies.  And I think a lot of the clip choices in this vid worked well in that regard.  However, it kind of lacked the emotional punch it should have had.  I’m not sure why- I do think the strobe effect got old for me; I do think this song is an SOB to vid, I do think the ‘crazy/dreamlike’ elements could have been played up more- kind of increasing in intensity, moving toward madness- a la ‘Schism’ or something.  Good vid, it caught my interest and made me think.  Sometimes, it made me say ‘wow’!  But overall, I think it could use a little polish.