End of Line: An Opera House Trilogy

[chaila.livejournal.com]

This is a trilogy of vids reclaiming BSG's mythology, theology and mysticism and the interconnected women at the center of it all.  These vids together attempt to present the Opera House from various angles and to capture what it meant to and for different women. Post-finale and its profane Opera House, they also collectively present a reconceptualization of the Opera House as the intersection between life and death and between human and Cylon, representing hybridity in infinite variations: intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical. The third vid, especially, is based on edits made by Battlestar Redactica, a fan-edited alternate 4.5 by cvm_productions. See here for a short explanation of edits relevant to and relied on by the vid and here for a textual explanation of all this, outlined by beccatoria, my compatriot in all this Opera House reclaiming.

I. Convergence: Cathedrals [D’Anna, Laura, Caprica]
seeking truth.

There is a feeling that you should just go home, and spend a lifetime finding out just where that is.

Download (.avi xvid 49MB)


II. War: Child You’re the Revolution [Athena, Hera]
hybridity’s a war.

Mother tell me, is there love on my tongue? Mother tell me, cause I’m the revolution.

Download (.wmv 42MB)


III. Synthesis: Order in the Sound [Kara]
lines blur.

You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace, you will lead them all to their end. End of line.

Download (.wmv 54MB).

Comments

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

"Synthesis" is just gorgeous. Totally love the editing of "Child You're the Revolution" too.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was fun to dust these off and put them all up together and see what it looked like. Glad you enjoyed!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the chance to rewatch these in sequence. I love the framing device you've used; I'd never considered them as a cycle of convergence/war/synthesis but it's so perfect, as is the way you managed to vid every woman connected to the Opera House and a final one who should have been (excuse me is, because that vid is clearly canon!)

Thanks for vidding so eloquently what it took me a bajillion words to approach ineptly. ;)

<#

[chaila.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed my pretentiousness! I do love them all together, and especially in sequence. But as with all things vidding and Opera House, it really only came together in retrospect and I didn't do it on purpose. I only vidded Athena and Kara because I was still bitter at having had to cut them out of Cathedrals, and I only came up with the convergence/war/synthesis framing retroactively. Um, for this post. Though I heart both concepts, of course, and I'm happy you think they work too!

But basically they're only eloquent as a trilogy because I never tried to spell it all out until they were already done. :)

Vive la Opera House! Or something. <#

[sheepfairy.livejournal.com]

Ah, these are all so beautiful! I love the music you used, and the editing on them was really brilliant.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! (Definitely check out the artists if you like the music, they're all awesome! Especially Jump, Little Children and Angie Aparo. *pimps* :D) Thanks for watching them all and letting me know you liked!

we'll always have the Operahouse

[cyborganize.livejournal.com]

be still, my heart.

I remember when this all started! everyone was all, "OMG you must go watch this new vid about BSG ladies and mythology!!!" I was all, "that's pretty good." but it was always already the beginning of a story.

you could also call it thesis/antithesis/synthesis (aka the dialectic). because the trilogy has that double helix motion through history, adding up to more than the sum of its parts. I loved rewatching Cathedrals because of its innocence (theirs and yours!), and the way this passionate seeking connects our prophets. but it has more layers of meaning once you add biopolitical struggle over the future, which we eventually had to remake in our own image. Order in the Sound will always be where it all rightly ends, for me!

I have ambitions of a CVM DVD set! but metatxt wants to finish some BSG vids, first.

Re: we'll always have the Operahouse

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Me too! But I was like, "OMG all the people who made Handlebars and there's a war going on for your mind, laura and Sons and Daughters are commenting on my vid!"

thesis/antithesis/synthesis

Guh, so much better! I need more theory in my life. Alas. But I am totally glad that together they add up to more than the sum of the parts, because I hoped that was the case when explicitly connected and watched together. Especially because Cathedrals kind of was always only the beginning, because there was a lot that got cut out of it in favor of (simplicity) narrative clarity for baby-vidder me, but I was really glad to later get to add those bits back into the larger project.

DVDs sound so *vidderly*. :D