my other self is a mansion

Vid: Between the Bars

Fandom: Ashes to Ashes

Song: Between the Bars
Artist: Elliott Smith
Length: 2:30
Spoilers: Footage through 3.08, in faintly AU context.


Contains: Alex/Keats, with all that implies. "Hypnosis/mind control" for kink_bingo, with all that implies.
Summary: Drink up, baby, look at the stars.

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Between the Bars from Em W. on Vimeo.

pw: glasses





Drink up, baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won't but you might
The potential you'll be that you'll never see
The promises you'll only make

Drink up with me now
And forget all about the pressure of days
Do what I say and I'll make you okay
And drive them away
The images stuck in your head

The people you you've been before
That you don't want around around anymore
That push and shove and won't bend to your will
I'll keep them still

Drink up, baby, look at the stars
I'll kiss you again between the bars
Where I'm seeing you there with your hands in the air
Waiting to finally be caught

Drink up one more time and I'll make you mine
Keep you apart, deep in my heart
Separate from the rest, where I like you the best
And keep the things you forgot

The people you've been before
That you don't want around anymore
That push and shove and won't bend to your will
I'll keep them still





Okay, so yeah; this idea -- Keats swallows Alex's soul -- has been in my head since approximately five minutes after episode 3.07 aired, so it's obviously been with me for a while. I tried writing it as a story once and got about ten thousand words in before I realized it was too fucking bleak for me to write, and therefore much too fucking bleak to ask anybody to read at more than drabble-length. I've had this song associated with the concept for almost as long, so I always kind of knew when I started vidding that I was going to vid it; I made a very, very early attempt at it before I was out of Windows Live Movie Maker.

(That might have something to do with the way it came together so astonishingly fast over the last couple days -- it was finally done cooking.)

Stylistically, this is kind of a departure for me, both in that it contains dissolves (I know!) and that at no point do I ever try and fit three clips into one second of timeline. I would like to say that there's some deep artistic reason for either of those choices, but the truth is that a: I did a few dissolve effects that made me bounce up and down and squee, and then I had to look for places to put more of them (I couldn't just have three dissolves in a vid; it looked weird), and b: the music just sort of demanded it.

The POV reveal is probably literally the oldest trick in the book (yes, I saw "Fix You" at a formative point, just like everybody) but I think it still works anyway.

Thank you to d_generate_girl for being on my page with this madness for ages, petra for encouragement and footage help, and gnattery and thirdblindmouse for correcting my timing and looking at more embryonic snippets than I care to think about.