LAST UPDATED: 30 July 2007. A new video today. Unwell is an account of Harry Potter 5 through Harry's eyes. 28 April 2006: Just some housekeeping - my video hosting is fixed and some long-dead links through the site are changed, so the videos are once again available. 6 January 2004: A new video today, and it isn't X Files! A Terminator 2+3 themed video from John Connor's point of view, In The End. 24 November: One new video, Hero, a Krycek POV on Mulder, Marita and the conspiracy.

Unwell)
Performed by Matchbox Twenty
Theme: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Date: July 2007.
Specifications: RealPlayer 9, Winzip, 6MB, 3:49 mins.
Summary: Harry's POV on the events of the movie.
My Rating: I'm happy!
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Programs Used: Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit.
Sources: Harry Potter 5.
Geeky Things To Note: No more advanced techniques than usual here - just the greenscreened logo, playing with speeds a bit to make the footage hit the beat, and breakthrough audio of Harry speaking at a key moment (tainted by poor quality source - I will re-dub this when the DVD comes out). However, I'm really happy with this one - I think it captures the entire journey of the movie really well.


The Untitled (In The End)
Performed by Linkin Park
Theme: Terminator 3

Date: December 2003.
Specifications: RealPlayer 8, Winzip 8, 9MB, 3.28mins.
Summary: John Connor POV on the final moments of the film, and his journey.
My Rating: This one's a good one.
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Programs Used: Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: Terminator 2 and Terminator 3.
Geeky Things To Note: Not a lot of advanced techniques here, just the usual greenscreened top-and-bottom bars and logo and the like, and playing with speeds a bit to make the footage hit the beat. However, I'm really pleased with this vid - I think it holds the pace for a very demanding song quite well. If I ever remaster, I may tinker with the ending - I like the idea, but there are small things about the execution that annoy me. But overall, I did what I set out to do here, and I really enjoyed making it.


Hero
Performed by Chad Kroeger
Theme: Krycek

Date: November 2003.
Specifications: RealPlayer 8, Winzip 8, 5MB, 3mins.
Summary: A Krycek POV on Mulder, Marita, and the conspiracy.
My Rating: I'm really pleased with this one!
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Programs Used: Adone Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: X Files episodes plus deleted footage from the DVD sets.
Geeky Things To Note: Not a lot of advanced techniques here, just the usual greenscreened top-and-bottom bars and logo and colour correction. One thing I did do was zoom and crop to get rid of some subtitles and to make a couple of widescreen scenes work as letterbox (most of my source footage was letterbox). There were a lot of fiddly cuts here to make the timing work, and I also had the benefit of a beta from Linzee. I really enjoyed making this one!


X Files: VCU Trailer
Performed by Enigma
Theme: X Files
As Seen At Vividcon 2003

Date: July 2003.
Specifications: RealPlayer 8, Winzip 8, 4MB, 2mins.
Summary: An advertising/fill-in-the-gaps trailer ad for a virtual series project.
My Rating: I love this one. I think it did what it set out to do especially well. There's really nothing I'd change about it.
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Programs Used: Adone Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: X Files episodes plus deleted footage from the DVD sets.
Geeky Things To Note: This video is a trailer for a new virtual series project, X Files: VCU (Violent Crimes Unit). The series is set eighteen months after the end of the show, and there is a backstory to explain how it is that some supposedly dead characters are back, and how the characters have come to be working on the X Files as ordinary agents again. The object of this trailer is to sketch out that backstory, and make clear from the footage which agents are back, without those of us writing the series needing to write reams of exposition explaining how we got from there to here. So, there's a one-minute monologue voiceover with matching, low-saturated, eroded footage. Then the backing music swells to a crescendo, and the footage switches to colour, high-action casefile-type footage. In terms of advanced techniques, there is audio mixing (voiceover plus edited music). One thing I did was move down the footage of Scully testifying to block out the subtitle credits. I had to do some image pan work for the same reason for the Duane Barry newspaper clipping footage as well. The Jeffrey/Diana footage against "the conspiracy is no more" is from a deleted scene that never made it to air - a scene I rather like for its implications about their working partnership. The voiceover is my voice, and I had my doubts about it. Oddly, other Australians who heard it found my accent more discordant with the material than American viewers. It works okay, but I did attempt to get an American friend to re-dub it. In the end, it wasn't worth the hassle of re-cutting the footage, so we left it. I also had to use black bars to create the illusion of widescreen in early-season footage (the X Files DVDs switched to widescreen in Season 5). In some cases I had to move footage in order to make the important elements (faces, for instance) appear in the right spot. One thing this one emphasised was how important it is to get not only cuts in the right place, but movements in the footage itself to complement the music. This video will form part of the 2003 Vividcon Nearly New exhibition.


** REMASTERED **
Gravity Of Love
Performed by Enigma
Theme: Krycek/Marita
As Seen At Vividcon 2003

Date: September 2001 (original), July 2003 (remaster).
Specifications: RealPlayer 8, Winzip 8, 6.5MB, 3.55 mins.
Summary: Angst/Romance. A Krycek/Marita montage shown in retrospect; the couple are apart, reflecting.
My Rating: This one's a must-see. A major step forward in terms of use of advanced techniques, and it has a fantastic mood.
Lyrics/Download

Programs Used: VideoMach (original), MGI VideoWave (original), Adobe Premiere (remaster), Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: Earth Angels, Once A Thief, The Raffle, Expect No Mercy, Teliko, Unrequited, Requiem, Patient X, DeadAlive, Zero Sum, others to Existence.
Geeky Things To Note: Definitely one of my best. I experimented a bit - some new techniques used, including scene dialogue breaking through the music. Another thing I tried was using widescreen cropping on the Alex/rose and Marita walking sequences, which were meant to distinguish that footage as taking place in the "present", as opposed to past memories. The bookended Alex/rose sequence came from Nick Lea's recent pilot, Earth Angels. There are "behind the scenes" tricky elements - I cropped out the actor credits from the Requiem prison scene, used repeated Alex "The End" footage to drag out the clip to the required time, made the Teliko and Earth Angels footage in slow-motion, and added a still image of Marita with her eyes closed in Requiem to extend a momentary blink to visibility. Since that blink was only the second frame of a shot, I also used reversed footage in front of it to give a lag time before the blink. I can see niggly flaws in this one with the passage of time, but I'm still really happy with it.

Remaster Notes: I remastered this video in July 2003 because it was to be exhibited in the Special Effects event at VividCon. The video is largely the same, just recaptured with better quality source footage for full screen viewing. However, there are a few small changes. The main one is the colourisation. The video has three "time zones" - the present (Marita walking, Alex sitting toying with the rose, both reflecting), the recent past (XF canon events), and the distant past (young Alex and Marita falling in love, cribbed from old footage of the actors in other roles). Previously, I had the present in red tones, the recent past in normal tones, and the distant past in pastels with a white overlay. This time around I followed the colour spectrum - the present was in boosted reds, the recent past with slightly boosted reds and yellows, and the distant past in boosted yellows. I don't know how effective this is, but I like it. I did find replicating some of the special effects difficult, however, and I'm not completely happy in a couple of instances (particularly the blink). I also had to use new special effects in a couple of places - I no longer had access to Patient X footage without the subtitle credits, and there was a subtitle over the top of Marita's black coat, so I wound up concealing them with a green screened blob of masking black. Because the video was chosen for the convention in its original format, I decided not to toy with it too much, but there are still a couple of things I would like to change. Still, it remains a favourite of my own work, so it's nice to see it again, and to be able to watch it at full-screen with some semblance of quality. The old version is still available here if you want to compare them. This video will form part of the 2003 Vividcon Special Effects show.


Mary
Performed by Patti Griffin
Theme: BTVS/Drusilla
Nummy Treat Award Nominee

Date: March 2003.
Specifications: RM (RealPlayer), Winzip 8, 7MB, 4 min.
Summary: Drusilla self-portrait, playing with the idea that Dru retained some of her innocence despite being transformed by Angelus.
My Rating: I'm thrilled to bits with this one.
Download

Programs Used: Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: Buffy (mostly Season 2 DVDs, plus a few later clips from Kazaa and Linzee).
Geeky Things To Note: This video is inspired equally by Betsy Dodd's Scully video to the same song, and by Linzee's gorgeous Spike/Dru vid, Jaded. (In fact, without Linzee, I would never have gotten hooked on Dru at all). The video is consciously surface-contradictory, pairing a slow-and-gentle song with an eccentric and often demented character; nonetheless, I think it worked out really well. The 'Mary' designation is literally accurate as well as figuratively; women religious in that era traditionally chose new names beginning with Mary (for instance, Sister Mary Cecelia). There are a few overlays here where I needed to convey a lot in little time. For instance, "You're covered in babies" has overlapping shots of Dru's dolls and Dru talking to them, because there wasn't enough time to cut from one shot to the other, and neither shot conveyed the message on its own. I also strove to avoid, as far as possible, shots of Dru or Spike in vamp form. The first draft contained one close-up of Vamp!Dru, and it badly undermined the theme of the video. So that went on the cutting room floor. I had a lot of technical problems making this one - I'm growing more and more frustrated with Adobe Premiere 5. It's a really good program, but its instability is becoming too much of a liability to be worthwhile.


Eyes Of Truth
Performed by Enigma
Theme: Promotional Trailer Challenge

Date: January 2003.
Specifications: RM (RealPlayer), Winzip 8, 2.5MB, 1 min.
Summary: A trailer-style promotional piece for my websites, made for a challenge at P2K Forums.
My Rating: This one is pretty average, and it's more for novelty value than anything, but I had fun making it. But it's worth noting that in a lot of ways, this was a stylistic precursor to the XFVCU trailer (they use the same music, as well), and in that sense, it was a very formative exercise.
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Programs Used: Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: Still images of my websites, plus audio of my telephone conversation with Chris Carter and audio from a Nick Lea interview.
Geeky Things To Note: This one was good fun to make - a fairly simple display of various page designs (still GIFs), with image pan and other filters to create the illusion of movement, along with music and some vocal audio overlay. The vocals are myself and Chris Carter discussing the Thank You Chris Carter project in 2002 and a promotional Nick Lea clip. I owe both the music and basic inspiration for this one to Betsy Dodd, who made a similar trailer clip to the same music for the Scully Marathon in 2001. There's some audio mixing here, as well - extra sound from elsewhere in the song is overlaid with the main track. This was good fun!


Toy Soldiers
Performed by Martika
Theme: Krycek/Marita Post-Existence Angst

Date: December 2002.
Specifications: RM (RealPlayer), Winzip 8, 7MB, 3 mins.
Summary: A Krycek/Marita angsty piece set post-Existence. Marita remembers Alex and mourns.
My Rating: Not bad. I don't think this one is quite on a par with some of my more recent favourites, but still a good piece. It really derives all its impact from knowing their story, though. In that sense, it's much more narrative-based than, say, Gravity Of Love.
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Programs Used: Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, VCD Cutter, RealProducer.
Sources: XF to Existence, Outer Limits.
Geeky Things To Note: This one is composed entirely in Premiere, and I'm now finding that less frustrating than for previous videos. I've worked out how to get most of the effects that I used to get in other programs now. As with Return To Innocence, I'm now using a footer with my signature and the title, like a music video on TV, rather than the titles and/or trailers I've used in the past. In particular, the fifteen-second closing trailers I had on a few videos - while lovely - began to irritate even me. So this system works a lot better. I'm sticking with the techniques I've used for a clean finish since Pray - thin top-and-bottom black border to mask signal noise, for instance. I really notice that on my earlier vids now that I've found a way to mask them. I'm also cropping out titles (credits and translations) from the bottom of the screen. This particular video uses footage of Laurie Holden in Outer Limits, where she sits alone in a restaurant, quietly crying and smoking. I used that to bookend the clip to suggest that this occurs not long after she learns of Krycek's death. I had to crop that footage pretty severely, because in fact, her character suicides in this scene by quietly downing a bottle of pills while she drinks (I actually considered including this for about five seconds before deciding that wasn't Marita). There's one part where the cut is a bit more jarring than I'd like, but I think it still works. This vid is very narrative based - I don't think it has really any atmosphere or impact without the context of their story - so that's a negative for the casual viewer. Marita likens they way they've been manipulated and used to them being toy soldiers, and she clearly blames herself for Alex's path (it's true I did extend the invitation/I didn't know how long you'd stay), and understands their downfall against the backdrop of the mythology (bit by bit, torn apart/never win/and the battle rages on). The other thing that niggles me about it is that it's a slower-moving song than I normally work with, and that was awkward for me to work with initially. Still, overall, I'm happy with it.


Return To Innocence
Performed by Enigma
Theme: Brides Of Christ/Catherine Leaves

Date: October 2002.
Specifications: RealPlayer 8+, Winzip 8, 4.8MB, 2:55 mins.
Summary: Catherine (Josephine Byrne) is torn by the Church's teaching on birth control and leaves the convent in the Australian mini-series Brides Of Christ.
My Rating: Pretty good. Overall I think I did a good job with the buildup. Not the best vid I've ever done, but I think it has a certain resonance. I like it.
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Programs Used: Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, VCD Cutter.
Sources: Brides Of Christ episode 6 (Catherine).
Geeky Things To Note: This isn't the first time I've used Brides Of Christ as a source. The Thank You Annabeth video uses This Is Where I Belong from the soundtrack, and the "Video By Deslea" trailer I've used a couple of times is set to Goodbye Sister Catherine, both by Mario Millo. Overseas viewers with sharp eyes will see Irish actress Brenda Fricker, Lisa Hensley, and a very young Naomi Watts. Brides of Christ was the series to be a part of in 1990. Originally, this video was bookended with images of Catherine and her fellow sisters after leaving the order. I liked that because it put a positive spin on the video - that Catherine's "return to innocence" was a kind of spiritual conversion that was right for her rather than necessarily saying anything negative about religious life generally. However, this didn't work so well creatively. There was too much distance, atmospherically, between the clips. So I settled on shots of her walking out the convent gates. One thing I didn't like about this video was the lack of variety, visually. Since Catherine spent most of the mini-series in her habit, there's a lot of black and white. I tried to compensate by including a lot of shots with bright backgrounds and movement. I do like the sequence of the second verse, where we see Catherine's conflict rising - particularly the cuts through her walking in the rain and arguing with the priest in the confessional. I think that scene where she bangs her head against the confessional wall is particularly strong. I think that builds up really well.


Jack & Paul In Love: This Is Where I Belong
Performed by Mario Millo
Theme: Monica Reyes, Doggett/Reyes

Date: June 2002.
Specifications: RealPlayer, Winzip 8, 5.3MB, 2:03 mins.
Summary: A montage of Monica Reyes clips to poignant instrumental music for Thank You Annabeth, a project in honour of Annabeth Gish.
My Rating: Not bad. I was very, very hampered by limited footage. Season 9 hadn't aired in Australia, so I was relying mostly on the generosity of friends for clips this time around. For that reason, the clips are longer and less ideal than usual. Still, as an overall piece this one maintains a nice mood. It's worth the download.
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Programs Used: Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, VCD Cutter, TINRA, VirtualDub.
Sources: X Files through to The Truth.
Geeky Things To Note: This is my first video composed entirely in Premiere. Overall it worked out well, but I still find Premiere frustratingly slow for simpler tasks I would normally do in VideoMach or VideoWave. I used some of the techniques I used in Pray (below), like the top and bottom border to clean up the edges and the captions. It wasn't intended to be a DRipper piece, but it just so happened that those were the clips to which I had access. That's okay - after all, Robert Patrick rocks, too! I'm particularly pleased with the flashcards in the opening sequences. The music is from the Brides Of Christ soundtrack, and I've wanted to use it for a while. I found working with instrumental music a great challenge - there's not quite the same ready-made interpretive framework as with lyrics. I'd like to play with instrumentals some more down the track.


Pray
Performed by Tina Cousins
Theme: Krycek/Marita Mythology

Date: May 2002.
Specifications: ASF (Windows Media) or RM (RealPlayer), Winzip 8, 5MB, 3 mins.
Summary: A Krycek/Marita mythology piece set during The Truth, tied to Marita's testimony and her memories, regrets and fears.
My Rating: I'm really pleased with this one! I've wanted to play with the idea of Marita seeing herself as a kind of parallel to Mulder and Scully for a while, and I liked working with the complex set of emotions from that scene. In The Truth, Marita faces up to her past, the colonisation threat, and the man who killed the one she loved, and it's wonderful creative fodder. I think this one is a step forward in my work. Definitely worth a look.
Lyrics/Download ASF/Download RM

Programs Used: VideoMach, MGI VideoWave, Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, VCD Cutter, TINRA, VirtualDub, RealProducer.
Sources: XF to The Truth, Once A Thief, Expect No Mercy, The Raffle, Outer Limits.
Geeky Things To Note: For this one, I decided to try to find ways of fixing all the little problems I normally tolerate - things like pixelation and flickers at the top and bottom of the captured videos. I used a green screen GIF file to create a top and bottom border to mask the flickers, and I played with blur and deinterlace and other settings to clean up the footage as much as possible. The little MTV-style captions at the beginning were also achieved with green screen (my first attempt at this technique). I don't know if I'll use them again - they're kind of gimmicky - but it gave me a thrill to be able to do it. One moment I really like is in the opening sequence where a closeup of Marita emerges over Skinner resulting in a moment of brightness - really nice colour movement there. As always, I sneaked in non-XF performer footage, but this time I took a different interpretive tack - I only used them on certain lyrics in the chorus ("Pray for good and pray for love"), thereby indicating that while these moments "happened", they represent a kind of idealised set of memories that Marita wished had been the norm. Please note that the attached readme file contains some inaccurate information about the performer (blame my pal who gave me the music!) - she's British, not Ausralian. Regardless, the lyrics seem tailor-made for the mythology. The closing "Video By Deslea" trailer is to Australian music, though - it's from "Goodbye Sister Catherine" from the Brides Of Christ soundtrack by composer Mario Millo.


** REMASTERED **
Standing In The Way (Stay)
Performed by Anthony Stewart Head
Theme: Krycek/Marita

Date: May 2002 (remastered), December 2001 (original).
Specifications: RealPlayer 8, Winzip 8, 5.2MB, 2.05 mins.
Summary: Angst. A Krycek/Marita piece themed on Krycek's desertion in One Son, Krycek POV.
My Rating: This video probably fails the technical merit test for average audio quality, but it has a high feeling factor and is a good demonstration of the music video as a vehicle for storytelling. Now that I've sorted out most of the niggly problems that annoyed me about this one, it's one of my favourites.
Lyrics/Download

Programs Used: VideoMach, MGI VideoWave, Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: One Son, Patient X, Red & The Black, Teliko, Zero Sum, Requiem, Once A Thief, Buffy.
Geeky Things To Note: Buffy fans will recognise this song as Giles' solo in the episode Once More With Feeling. As usual, I sneaked in some non-XF footage, and this time you'll note overlaid semi-transparent footage as well. I've been playing with Adobe Premiere. I haven't really mastered good use of layered footage yet, but not a bad effort with new techniques. (In the remastering process I removed a couple of layers which I considered ill-advised, as well as fixing some lighting and colour problems and changing the titles). Probably the most interesting challenge of this piece was editing out the background noise from the audio, which was taped direct from TV. There were several clanging sounds where Buffy dropped and threw things while Giles sang. I edited these with laborious microsecond cuts and splices. In terms of composition, I was careful to use only pre-One Son footage, since this video is very much a story set as Krycek walks away from Marita. The one exception is a clip of Krycek killing CSM in Requiem, which is presented as a fantasy rather than a reality - that of killing one of Marita's demons. There's an in-joke: To the line "wish I could play the father", there's a clip of Nick in The Impossible Elephant, where he plays the widowed father of a young boy.


Devil With The Green Eyes
Performed by Matthew Sweet
Theme: Mulder/Diana

Date: April 2002 (remastered), January 2002 (original)
Specifications: RealPlayer 8 or Windows Media, Winzip 8, 6.9MB, 4.08 mins. The Windows Media (ASF) version has been remastered to correct some very dark clips, and is optimised for full-screen viewing. My favourite viewer for ASF clips is Sasami.
Summary: Angst/Romance. Diana POV on loving and losing Mulder.
My Rating: One of my best. Even if you're not a fan of this pairing (don't laugh - some people are), this one is definitely worth a look.
Lyrics/Download RP/Download ASF

Programs Used: VideoMach, MGI VideoWave, Adobe Premiere, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: The End, The Beginning, Two Fathers, One Son, Biogenesis, Sixth Extinction, Amor Fati.
Geeky Things To Note: Some layered footage, used to better effect than in Standing In The Way. I'm starting to get a better feel for what tones and shots will work in layers and what won't. I like the overlay of Diana speaking during the opening titles - that scene has always struck me as a very naked one, emotionally speaking, in which we see the character stripped bare of all pretense and barriers because of what she knows about what Mulder can see. It's for that reason that I've bookended the rest of the footage between clips of that scene. It's not quite flashback, because some of the footage comes from after that scene, but in an atmospheric sense that was the idea I was shooting for. The song, funnily enough, was originally suggested to me by Sally-Ann Maslen for Krycek and Marita, but musically that never seemed to come together. What I like about this song is that, while acknowledging overtones of loss in a relationship, it also honours the strength of the bond, and I perceive that very strongly between Mulder and Diana.


Love Will Keep Me Alive
Performed by Wendy Matthews
Theme: Mulder/Scully

Date: November 2001.
Specifications: RealPlayer 8, Winzip 8, 6.7MB, 4.10 mins.
Summary: Angst. A Mulder/Scully general beating-the-odds montage. Made for the Leyla Harrison Memorial Project.
My Rating: This one has grown on me since I first made it. A competent video with good composition and timing, but there aren't any really noteworthy techniques here.
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Programs Used: VideoMach, MGI VideoWave, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: TFWID, Paper Hearts, Terma, Patient X, FTF, Biogenesis, Amor Fati, all things.
Geeky Things To Note: Some good composition moments here, including the snowfield falling away to "world is changing before our eyes" and Scully pulling Mulder away from the fire to "I would burn for you". The really nice quality FTF clips were ripped from DVD. The song is a lovely one by an Australian singer.


Did We Not Choose Each Other
Performed by Sophie B Hawkins
Theme: Doggett/Reyes

Date: August 2001.
Specifications: RealPlayer 8, Winzip 8, 5MB, 3.05 mins.
Summary: Action/Romance. A Doggett/Reyes partnership/romance montage.
My Rating: One of my best. Funky beat, move, and timing, and really well suited to the DRR dynamic.
Lyrics/Download

Programs Used: VideoMach, MGI VideoWave, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: TINH, Empedocles, Essence, Existence.
Geeky Things To Note: Nothing really remarkable in terms of advanced techniques, but there are some great moments here, including the cut from a shot over Doggett's shoulder to Reyes throwing water at the park ranger - the sweeping motion of the first shot flows perfectly into the second. Some good alignment of lyrics and footage, including their confrontation in Empedocles to "you don't always say what I want to hear but you move me". This one rocks.


Particle
Performed by Better Than Ezra
Theme: Krycek/Marita

Date: May 2001.
Specifications: RealPlayer 8, Winzip 8, 5MB, 5.08 mins.
Summary: Romance/angst. Loving, wisful Alex and Marita POV on each other's tendency to self-destruction.
My Rating: Although I've since done better, this video has a really good mood, and it's a great song. It's worth a look.
Lyrics/Download

Programs Used: VideoMach, MGI VideoWave, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: Paper Clip, Herrenvolk, Tunguska, Zero Sum, Patient X, One Son, others to Requiem.
Geeky Things To Note: The blue selenium tint doesn't work as well in RealPlayer format as it does in the original AVI, but I think it adds something. I wanted some variety after so long working with the same footage. Some really good composition moments here, including the United Nations building to "in a Union square" and Paper Clip to "in a burnt-out car". I love the crossfade from Alex in the woods to Marita with the picture of Samantha in the field.


Against All Odds
Performed by Mariah Carey
Theme: John Byers/Susanne Modeski

Date: Early 2001.
Specifications: RealPlayer 7, Winzip 8, 3.42MB, 4 mins.
Summary: Romance/Angst. Byers reflects on losing Susanne after Three Of A Kind.
My Rating: This one's pretty. Fairly ordinary in terms of technical merit, but a sad sweet storytelling vid worth a look.
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Programs Used: VideoMach, MGI VideoWave, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: Unusual Suspects, Three Of A Kind.
Geeky Things To Note: Nothing really of note in terms of technical details here, but I loved making this video. I was a huge fan of Signy Coleman back in the 1980s, when she appeared on Santa Barbara, so I've always had a soft spot for Susanne.


Forgiven Not Forgotten
Performed by The Corrs
Theme: Krycek/Marita

Date: December 2000.
Specifications: RealPlayer 7, Winzip 8, 2MB, 3 mins. Slideshow.
Summary: Romance/Angst. Marita remembers a lost love, and leaves her life behind to make things right.
My Rating: This rocks. Definitely not your typical slideshow. This one's a must-see.
Lyrics/Download

Programs Used: VideoMach, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: All Krycek/Marita eps to Requiem.
Geeky Things To Note: This slideshow involved the manual creation of 412 individually edited frames. It was a HUGE job. I used layers in PSP to keep the transitions straight, and did a batch conversion to .jpg format at the end. I then used that to create a linear slideshow in VideoMach. It took several all-night stints. It was very gratifying, but I don't know if I'll ever do it again.


Closer
Performed by The Corrs
Theme: Skinner/Kim Cook

Date: December 2000.
Specifications: RealPlayer 7, Winzip 8, 3.3MB, 3 mins.
Summary: Romance/Angst. Kim Cook reflects on loving Skinner from afar.
My Rating: Quite a sweet touching video. Good integration of the song and the clips, particularly given the limits of footage. An oldie but a goodie.
Download

Programs Used: VideoMach, Paint Shop Pro, CoolEdit, RealProducer.
Sources: Anasazi, Piper Maru, SR819, Bad Blood.
Geeky Things To Note: This video was a favour to Kimfic writer KristenK2, and although I'm experienced in making the best of limited footage, this was a challenge even for me. I enjoyed it, though - more than I thought I would. Kristen still owes me a Marita story for it!