Downstream

[Shadow]

This is a Moonlight video I've been meaning to make for a very long time - it's been kind of a personal challenge for me. After finding Figgy Duff's song "Children of the Night", so perfect for a vampire theme, I got the CD it was on in the hope of finding more Moonlight-video music. There was nothing else suitable, and though the last song on the CD, "Downstream", was beautiful and strange, I just had to laugh at the idea of using it for a Moonlight video, thinking it was about the most impossible song for Moonlight I'd ever heard. Which of course seemed like an interesting challenge . . . and the more I listened to it, the more it actually seemed to fit the story . . . .


on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntkn0Jc99Bo


on Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/36335744






Lyrics:
Well, you spent all your money
But you saved one precious dream
Burned your house in the country
And took a strange boat downstream

There are those who would dam thy river
Turn flowing gold to a trickle of silver
When love runs cold they will shiver and shiver
Poor haunted souls that wander forever

I’m going down to the mother
Back to the ocean
To the source of our dreams
To the battle
Straight through the fire
Where you melt like wax
Nothing to hide
On the dark side
Nothing to hide
On the outside

I’m going down to the alabaster fields
Through flashing spears and pounding shields
Through the valley of unrest
The world that Edgar Allan Poe loved the best
With Bodelaire and Arthur Rimbaud
These three got drunk on more than wine
The faerie queen and the black moonshine

Lost creatures from the black lagoon
All sing to the crime of the night

Let’s drink a toast to a riverboat host
And cast a tale about a ghost of a ghost
The water runs deep through the twisted trees
As we plunder the course of the wandering lonely leaves

Well, the eyes of the poet are altered by fate
Downstream
Downstream
Downstream
It’s been a long stream
Grab a hold of nothing
Downstream
Downstream

[allegrita]

Ooooh--what a wonderful song! I'd never heard it before, but now I want to buy the album. (Hear that, copyright-infringement lawyers?!) I even went looking for the lyrics, but unfortunately, I couldn't find them. Guess I'll just have to watch this video over and over till I figure all of 'em out.

I can imagine what a challenge it would be, to make this song into a Moonlight video. But I really love the way you've done it, with the wonderful sweeps forward and back through time (love the way you went backward at the end, like a watchspring unwinding). The music is so dreamy, and the way you used the effects, especially the color changes and that cool effect of the images that slide together and then apart, really works with the song. Watching Moonlight, we caught little glimpses of Mick's journey, but they were tantalizingly limited. You've done such a great job of pulling them together, and the pictures from Beth's past, as well, to give us an overall view of Mick's life. You show us the way his journey has crossed and diverted from the journeys of others... especially Coraline and Beth. I have this wonderful image in my mind now, of Mick's life as a many-branched river, with other streams joining it and then flowing away, and maybe joining it again later... and all the streams combining at last into the ocean.

And there are Mick and Beth on the beach, having lunch.

OK, that sounds silly. But that's what your video did... it made me all dreamily romantic, thinking of the wonderful connections (and missed connections and reconnections) that happened on Moonlight... and are still happening, through beautiful videos and fic, and the amazing conversations that take place here and throughout the fandom.

So... in my terse, unwordy way I guess I'm saying that you did a fabulous job with the challenge you set yourself to make a Moonlight video from Downstream. I really love it, and I will enjoy visiting it often.

[Marigold]

What a wonderful video, Shadow! I love how you framed the video with the same scenes at the beginning and the end.

I agree that the song was "beautiful and strange." Perhaps that is what makes it so perfect for a Moonlight video.

Thank you!

I'd never heard it before, but now I want to buy the album. (Hear that, copyright-infringement lawyers?!)

Yeah, no kidding! I really liked "Downstream," so I think I'll check out some of their other songs, especially "Children of the Night." Their website has a link to their iTunes page.
http://www.ambermusic.ca/artist_figgyduff.htm

[kath40]

You've done it to me again Amy, I'm speechless and not breathing as I watch this beautifully haunting creation. You are so good at marring together an unknown piece of music with our loved Moonlight as if they were always meant to be together. All they needed was you and your talent to preform the ceremony and you did so beautifully.
I can't thank you enough for finding these magical ways to keep our Moonlight alive. Thank You, Thank You, Thank you,.....

[Shadow]

Ooooh--what a wonderful song! I'd never heard it before, but now I want to buy the album. (Hear that, copyright-infringement lawyers?!) I even went looking for the lyrics, but unfortunately, I couldn't find them. Guess I'll just have to watch this video over and over till I figure all of 'em out.

That sounds like the perfect way to figure out all the lyrics, Alle! I couldn't find them anywhere either and it took me a while to work out the names . . . (Bodelaire and Arthur Rimbaud). Not that that exactly helped in planning out the video . . .
Thanks so so much for the beautiful comment. Amazing what gorgeous images you can conjure . . . like that watchspring unwinding . . . even when you're being all terse and unwordy!

[Shadow]

What a wonderful video, Shadow! I love how you framed the video with the same scenes at the beginning and the end.

I agree that the song was "beautiful and strange." Perhaps that is what makes it so perfect for a Moonlight video.

Thank you!

I'd never heard it before, but now I want to buy the album. (Hear that, copyright-infringement lawyers?!)

Yeah, no kidding! I really liked "Downstream," so I think I'll check out some of their other songs, especially "Children of the Night." Their website has a link to their iTunes page.
http://www.ambermusic.ca/artist_figgyduff.htm

Thanks Marigold, I'm so glad you liked this video . . . and the song! Thanks for putting up the Figgy Duff website, too, that's so great.

If you'd like to see Moonlight videos set to some of their other songs, I've actually made three others that are here in my office . . . "Children of the Night", "Weather out the Storm", and "Streets of the Night." ("Streets of the Night" is by Pamela Morgan, Figgy Duff's singer.) There's something about their music that has such a "Moonlight" feel to it . . . .

[Shadow]

You've done it to me again Amy, I'm speechless and not breathing as I watch this beautifully haunting creation. You are so good at marring together an unknown piece of music with our loved Moonlight as if they were always meant to be together. All they needed was you and your talent to preform the ceremony and you did so beautifully.
I can't thank you enough for finding these magical ways to keep our Moonlight alive. Thank You, Thank You, Thank you,.....

Thank you Kath, that is so wonderful!! It's great being able to share some of the more obscure pieces of music I've found, especially when the songs are really beautiful like this one. I was really glad I was finally able to find a way to fit this one with the Moonlight world. Thank you so much.

[Shadow]

The lyrics of the song are now up in the first post.
I've never found an official version of the lyrics, but I've listened to the song enough times now that I think I've got at least most of it right!

[allegrita]

Thank you so much, Shadow--I swear I got chills just reading the words!

[coco]

Stunning, Shadow. So haunting and beautiful. The song is amazing. It's a new one to me but it's an instant favourite.

There is no one better IMO at capturing Moonlight in vid. Loving your work, as always.

[kath40]

Thanks for adding the lyrics Amy.

[Marigold]

Those lyrics are absolutely beautiful... and so fitting.

If you'd like to see Moonlight videos set to some of their other songs, I've actually made three others that are here in my office . . . "Children of the Night", "Weather out the Storm", and "Streets of the Night." ("Streets of the Night" is by Pamela Morgan, Figgy Duff's singer.) There's something about their music that has such a "Moonlight" feel to it . . . .

Thanks for letting me know, Shadow! I'll be sure to check them out.

[Shadow]

Thanks Coco . . . it is wonderful that this song is now a favorite of yours too!

And the lyrics really are . . . eerie. I was surprised how much effect they had just written out on the screen . . .

[Shadow]

*removed obsolete link*

[maggatha3]

Shadow Thank you for posting the lyrics,without them I was almost helpless. I have listened again and again and loved it, I was dying to hear the lyrics all correctly. With the lyrics though..what a miracle that song is, it is a poem! And now I get why you said it was a challenge for you to make that song a Moonlight video. The music is also amazing and tense, ''difficult'' music, but I still can hear it in my mind!

Amazing, the metaphore of some verses where you used Beth and Coraline was so right on target! And you made it in a way that Mick's life and hard choises were shown in just a few minutes.

Such beautiful Moonlight creation! Thank you, my Sire, for always challenging yourself, it is as you can see deeply appreciated.