The Song Remains the Same: Week 4 - High School Never Ends

[tari_roo]

Wotcha! This week's installment was delayed by the massive lightning storm last night (hello tree across the road).

Song: High School Never Ends
Artist: Bowlin' for Soup

This week's vids (with surprise fandom) are:

SG1 (and SGA) - High School Never Ends (All-inclusive SG1) by MilenaDaniels
Star Trek 2009 - High School Never Ends by Pelagia911
MLP: FiM - High School Never Ends (PMV) by TRPonies


And as usual: the Questions

Questions asked and discussed:
a) Song Choice - was this a good song choice for the fandom/ship/theme
b) How much does editing play a role in my enjoyment of the vid, when I already like the song. Is one vid superior to the other as a result?
c) When comparing each 'version' of the song in the vid, did the vidders use the same moments to capture the same feeling? i.e. was the song used in a similiar theme in each vid.

The Song:

I like Bowling for Soup songs. They're light hearted, quirky, and fun. And I liked this song before seeing it on a fanvid (which is somewhat unusual for fanvids, as I usually don't know the song). The song suits all three fandoms. SG1 (SGA) has a fantastic combination of seriousness and comedy, but its mostly the geekiness/nerd side of SG1 that fits the song. The majority of the SG1 characters are outsiders, even the military ones (bar Cam, who is pretty much the quaterback) and the whole show has a undercurrent theme around 'outsiders' and 'aliens'. Add in the lab scientist like Bill Lee etc and SG1 does take on an aspect of - high school continuing. Jocks (miliary) and Nerds (scientists).

Star Trek 2009 suits to a Tee as well. Both shows are sci fi and have elements of different personalities, different races etc, and what works for SG1, works for ST. Star Trek might not be as lighthearted and there are certainly darker, harder elements in the movie at least, but the vid certainly would not need to focus on that. So - yes, the song works.

MLP (stop laughing and rolling your eyes, I did say suprise!) Does it work for the fandom? Yes. It does. The MLP are all about different personalities and making friends, which face it is the high school experience - who actually learns at high school. phebemarie, forgive me :) And MLP is not serious, definitely lighthearted and well - its MLP and I cracked up at the combination. However, the lyrics are not a complete match - and as a result, I am not going to go into too much depth on the MLP. As a children's show, it shouldn't match the sex lyrics, drugs etc. So, I don't really want to 'examine' the non-fit.

I'm going to review question 3 before 2, for one reason - aesthetics. I want the comparison between the two vids. So, when comparing if the same vids used the same 'type' of scenes at the same lyric points, here is what you find. (an aside, I ran out of steam on the note by note analysis, so... )

Lyric                                       Vid 1                                      Vid 2

4 years                                 Starfleet Academy                 General SG1 ness
Dicks                                    Bar fight                               Ba'al
Stuck up chicks                    Uhura                                   Orici
Graduate                              End movie medal                   Vala's patches and Cam taking over SG1
Best dressed                        Spock and mom                    Vala and Sam  shopping
Having sex                            Kirk                                      Jack
Kinda cute                            Little Spock                          Sam giving cookies to Cam
Just a mess                          Alien in bar                          Cam beat to hell
Right look                             Little Spock                          Danny's hairstyles over the seasons
Right friends                          Little Spock fight                 SG1 team variations
Same faces and names         Little Spock and then           Janet and Carolyn, and diff BDU dress
                                            Spock and Kirk
Popular kids                        George Kirk                        Team Shep \o/
What Jessica did                 Kirk and Orion lady              Elizabeth kiss Shep
Mary Kate lose weight          Uhura top off                       McKay eating and personal shield
Katie had her baby               Momma Kirk                       Teyla
Tom’s straight                      George                               Shep (his face \o/)
Climb Social Ladder             Kirk as captain                    Mayborne becoming king
Same Hair and car               Little Kirk in car                  Ori guy and a 304
16                                           Chekov                           Young SG from 200
35                                           Bones                              Sam kiss Cam
Reese Witherspoon               Uhura                                  Vala at the Prom
Bill Gates                             Spock                                  Daniel playing chess
Jack Black                            Scotty                                 Jack
Brad Pitt                               Kirk                                     Teal'c
Having sex                           Spock and Uhura                 Vala and Daniel
2nd chorus                           Bar fight

Right look                                                                            Teal'c’s hats
Ensemble and guest stars snap shots

3rd chorus                           Fight on the Nerada
Same as I was back then    Little kirk, little spock then big kirk, big spock

Whew. Ok. In fairness to the ST vid, there is less footage to chose from, as SG has ten seasons worth of quirky scenes and guest stars. But however limited ST's footage was, well, I feel the SG scenes work best. I like the choices on the SG one, the mix of SGA and SG1 (especially that Team Shep are the popular kids).

 2) Editing

In short, as work is calling - the editing on the SG vid is very snappy, and synchronised to the beats in the song. ST does this as well, but the editing is not as fast/snappy. MLP matches the SG vid for snappy editing, but I prefer the rapid review of SG. All three vids have great editing but I feel the SG one eeks out ahead.

Conclusion: Perhaps fairly obvious - but true in my opinion, none the less - I feel that the SG1 vid wins. The combination of editing, nostaligia, great match to lyrics and well, its SG1 - it wins.

As ever, feel free to weigh in to agree, or disagree.