I last saw this vid back when it was a gawky adolescent, charming but in many ways unformed. It has grown up so beautiful and graceful I want to cry. What you have done with the motifs of fire and water is perfect*, and if Xena had not taught me better I would kill for your way with motion in this vid. Not only bravura moments like 2:50 (*_*) or the push forward thingy uniting Gabrielle and Lao Ma around 3:14, but also the way you keep the movement flowing with the music throughout. Or not flowing, as the case may be -- both the drum sections around 0:40 and 1:06 make me clap, they fit the music so well. Which is maybe a given after Tightrope (still so awesome).
The Gabrielle section I was concerned about diverging from/dominating the vid before is now perfectly integrated. The vid ends up conveying the journey of four women's navigation of nonviolent vs. violent responses to tyranny with basically equal focus on all four (taking into account that Xena is Xena). You do a really impressive job there, given how unevenly distributed the available footage is. Before you started making this vid I doubted that a M'lila vid could be made, but now there's proof, and it's glorious and smart.
*OMG, the first shot of Xena is her running away from water! :D It's my 5th rewatch and I just got that!
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if Xena had not taught me betterI would kill for your way with motion in this vid. Not only bravura moments like 2:50 (*_*) or the push forward thingy uniting Gabrielle and Lao Ma around 3:14, but also the way you keep the movement flowing with the music throughout. Or not flowing, as the case may be -- both the drum sections around 0:40 and 1:06 make me clap, they fit the music so well. Which is maybe a given after Tightrope (still so awesome).The Gabrielle section I was concerned about diverging from/dominating the vid before is now perfectly integrated. The vid ends up conveying the journey of four women's navigation of nonviolent vs. violent responses to tyranny with basically equal focus on all four (taking into account that Xena is Xena). You do a really impressive job there, given how unevenly distributed the available footage is. Before you started making this vid I doubted that a M'lila vid could be made, but now there's proof, and it's glorious and smart.
*OMG, the first shot of Xena is her running away from water! :D It's my 5th rewatch and I just got that!