skygiants | (no subject)

For Festivids this year I made "what's to come" for

trelkez, a Jesus/Judas vid for the 2018 Jesus Christ Superstar Live performance set to, uh, Tegan and Sara's song "Superstar."

ME, STARING AT MY SONG CHOICE: idk, should I really do this? It feels very unsubtle ...

genarti: You can't be too unsubtle! It's Andrew Lloyd Webber!
ME, ONE WEEK LATER, STARING AT MY DRAFT: idk, should I tone it down a little? It feels very dramatic ...

genarti: You can't be too dramatic! It's Andrew Lloyd Webber!

I'd enjoyed the performance a lot when I saw it, and I thought it would be fun to vid, so I hadn't really thought twice about offering it as a fandom. It was somewhat to my surprise that once I started working on it, I began to feel some kind of way about making this vid as a Jewish person; more and more it became, for me, a vid specifically about some Jewish guys, and the thing they started that got very intense on them very fast.

In related news,

feedingonwind and

shati both provided absolutely invaluable beta feedback for this vid but

"what's to come" (Watch on Vimeo)

(On AO3) (On Tumblr)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

alias_sqbr

I've never seen or heard Jesus Christ Superstar but that was amazing.

From:

skygiants

Thank you!! I am so fascinated by the experience of what this vid would be like if you're familiar with the, uh, initial canon but not the pyrotechnics of the musical!

From:

alias_sqbr

Ok, so, based on your description, cultural osmosis, and the vid, I feel like the story from Judas's POV is: Jesus and Judas are nobodies in a poor area. Jesus has some cool ideas, and Judas admires him, but also kinda envies his charisma/drive or whatever. Jesus starts to get a following of Life Of Brian-esque unquestioning worshippers, and maybe Alice Cooper? He preaches, heals the sick and draws crowds. He has some moments of self doubt, stress, and (righteous? petty?) anger but his star still grows and grows. Judas doesn't like how this is all playing out for a mixture of petty and legitimate reasons. He and Jesus have some slashy bittersweet arguments. Either out of pettiness or because he genuinely thinks it's a good idea, Judas betrays Jesus. For a moment he feels powerful and triumphant but then Jesus is killed, and becomes seen as a martyred god, even less questioned than he was before. Judas is alone in his heartbreak and despair.

From:

castiron

tfw when your boyfriend starts a cult and then you try and put the brakes on and end up just making a bigger, weirder cult

I am in love with this summary.

From:

skygiants

genarti put it: "Oh, great! Now it's a death cult!"

From:

thistleingrey

I liked that vid (it was one of the dozen-ish I watched last week)!

From:

skygiants

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! :D

From:

kore

I LOVED that staging and that was amazing.

genarti was Right!

From:

skygiants

No one goes unsubtly overboard like Webber does!

From:

evewithanapple

It amuses me greatly that both of us essentially made a vid about what happens when one's boyfriend starts a movement that gets very intense, very fast, but my canon ended a LOT better than yours did.

Edited Date: 2020-02-02 06:56 am (UTC)

From:

skygiants

A JCS vid to "The World Will Know" and a Newsies vid to "Heaven On Their Minds" would absolutely have the same energy.

From:

feedingonwind

the Galaxy Brain of this thread, holy shit

From:

st_aurafina

Oh, fuck, that was amazing! The song is perfect! So perfect. Wow.

'tfw when your boyfriend starts a cult and then you try and put the brakes on and end up just making a bigger, weirder cult'
I, uh, thinks that's an awesome summary, honestly.

From:

skygiants

Thank you! :D

It's ... an accurate summmary imo, but

shati also quite wisely pointed out that it might cause people to expect the vid to be somewhat funnier than it actually is ....

From:

sperrywink

That was fantastic! And I agree never too melodramatic for ALW.

From:

skygiants

Thank you! :D You are correct, it is absolutely impossible to out-melodrama ALW.

From:

duskpeterson

shati in particular is the person who talked me out of using 'tfw when your boyfriend starts a cult and then you try and put the brakes on and end up just making a bigger, weirder cult'"

I can safely say this as a former seminary student: That's way too close to canon. :)

Love your vid! It hadn't occurred to me that anyone would do a vid of that performance; this was a great take on it.

From:

skygiants

Thank you so much! I hadn't thought of it either until I saw it nominated, so big ups to

trelkez!

From:

asakiyume

That was FANTASTIC and fit the scene so well that it might as well have been made for it. Beautiful! (Plus, the Jesus and Judas characters are to die for.)

(ETA: and I agree with other commentators--your summary was great ^_^)

Edited Date: 2020-02-02 05:45 pm (UTC)

From:

skygiants

Thank you! :D (The Judas in that production was iirc fresh off playing Aaron Burr on Broadway and you could tell he was bringing ALL that energy to the role, bless him.)

From:

seekingferret

Yeah, I couldn't put an exact finger on it, but I definitely had a sense that your vid was a Jewish take on the show, and included it in my list of Festivids with Jews dancing.

From:

skygiants

lolololol I'm SO stoked that it made the list of Vids with Jews Dancing, that's ALL I could have wanted from this experience

From:

seekingferret

Hi, I am letting you know that I'm planning to include this vid in my Vidukon vidshow "Jews Dance in this Vidshow".

~Ferret

From:

skygiants

omg I'm delighted to hear it

From:

purplefringe

omg I am OBSESSED WITH THIS VID :D :D :D :D I am also a Jew who *loves* Jesus Christ Superstar, and this was such an amazing vid for it. I wouldn't have had the first idea how to start vidding this production, but you completely nailed it. It gives me SO many feelings.

From:

skygiants

ahhhh thank you so much, I'm so glad it worked for you!!! (it ended up being way easier to vid than I expected, blessings upon both the cinematographer for the dynamic camera movement and Brandon Victor Dixon for EMOTING EXTREMELY HARD and also being extremely relatable during 'Heaven On Their Minds')

From:

feedingonwind

1) this vid is astoundingly good and I fucking love it, and 2) ok but that summary is INCREDIBLY ACCURATE THOUGH, it is probably for the best you didn't ask me about it because I definitely would have steered you in the other direction, though it is hard to top "mistakes were made"

<3<3<3