We Make Our Own Future notes
This was an spn_summergen 2015 gift for cassiopeia7. (Original post).
Yes, 2015. No, it's not a mistake. I was sorting through some folders while working on something new (coming soon-ish), and realized I never claimed this one, probably the vid I’m most proud of. Oops
I'm not 100% happy with it now. Some of the manips turned out fine. Some are awful and made me cringe in real time. To my defense, this was the first time I've ever used After Effects in my life. Still pretty damn proud.
And I have a few (thousands) notes and rumblings about my work process that I wrote back in September 2015.
TL;DR? Fantastic prompt. Crazy research. Hard work. I've learned a new software and a new skill. Manips are a bitch. Mission Impossible saved the day, and I didn't even watch it. Oh, and I'm never doing something as insane again!
So this all started with Cassiopea7. She had a fantastic set of prompts for spn_summergen, the kind that every writer dreams of. She even had two (!) song prompts for vidders. She's the dream giftee.
I was drawn to this prompt from the get go, and it didn't take too long to come up with the story. Time travel, yay! I'll write a time travel fic.
Only I don’t really write anymore, haven't written in ages. A vid it is. But then, how do you vid things that never happened on Show? How do you even explain a fic's plot in a vid?
Then I remembered this fantastic vid, a crossover between Sherlock and Doctor Who. Calling it a fanvid seems ridiculous, we’re talking an entirely different league, a never before seen level of talent, effort, and professionalism in fan editing. This editor is a 3D and VFX master with insane skills. I know I could never produce even 10% of this, but he inspired me to try nonetheless.
That lucky bastard worked with one character who always wears the same clothes and another with only 6 episodes available at the time. He still needed to manip them a bit, but oh, how jealous I was when I entered the clothes-matching stage of my editing. But more on that later.
Usually, I start vidding some scenes before doing research and know a few key shots I want to use. Here, I only knew 3 things:
I knew I wanted to show Dean getting the Mark in reverse
I knew exactly how the time travel sequences would look like, with S9-10 key moments in reverse
I knew the time travel should end in 9.10.
The scene from 9.10 was the obvious choice, not only because it's the last scene where the boys are together before Dean gets the Mark but because it’s when things really fall apart between them.
It's Dean's choice to land at that precise moment. Why? Because he's a freaking masochist, that’s why. He could've gone much further back, but he knows time travel is dangerous and only does what's necessary to get rid of the Mark and save Sam. He can't save Kevin since Gadreel was still possessing Sam when he killed Kevin, so Dean chooses the perfect timing for his plan instead, and the hell with the consequences. That’s the moment where Gadreel is gone, Sam is safe and Dean hadn't gotten the Mark yet. And true to his word, Dean made the same choice again by not going as far back to 9.01 to preventing Gadreel to possess Sam.
On my (imaginary) fic, Dean's angsting over this quite a bit. He's going back to a time where Sam couldn't trust him and everything was broken between them. He believes that without them needing to deal with Abaddon and then the Mark Sam would truly leave him. He does it anyway, because it’s the right thing to do and because he’s Dean fucking Winchester.
Dean’s right, Research IS a bitch
So, I had that. And research, lots and lots of research. I knew I needed a dialogue about time travel* and about making a deal if this was even half doable.
[*2017 note: Dean actually talked about time travel, and about going back and undoing everything, at the very start of S11, a couple of months after I finished this project. FML.]
... Research was a BITCH. Seriously, you wouldn't believe how little they talk about time travel! Talking about deals wasn’t any better. Dean hadn't been to a crossroads by himself since S2 (and thank god for that), and he rarely talked about his deal. In fact, when he made his deal? Never said the word. Not once. Bastard. (also: S2 Dean sound nothing like S10 Dean)
I found some syncs that were acceptable and started tinkering with them.
The first version had Dean turning to Cas and asks him to send him back in time, and when Cas said he couldn't he turned to Crowley. This put me in a point where Cas has his grace back so late S10, and it was an easy editing choice. There's a handy dialogue of Cas explaining how time travel is difficult, blah blah blah. So, how about placing this whole thing mid 10.23?
But that way, it would have ruined the surprise of time travel and what Dean's deal is. Plus, talking to Cas is the smart, obvious thing to do. Late S10 Dean does *not* think rationally. The Mark took over him so completely he was going to kill Sam, for crying out loud. He passed out drunk in a motel room alone. That’s not a smart decisions kind of guy.
Oh wait, that's a good scene to start with!
At this point, I ditched the editing software and went to write everything down. I usually work straight with the clips, but this time I needed some structure. If I was actually doing this, I needed a clear vision of how this vid works and feels. Halfway through I realized what I was writing was a script for a very short episode, based on past dialogues and footage. And hey, every episode needs a cold open! Yay, editing to the beat! *hugs the beat*
.. That didn’t last long. Only 15 secs of action-packed moc!Dean doesn’t take me too long to edit. Then I said to myself, Me, you know what else and episodes needs? Titles. Damn episode.Stupid cold open. Cue looking for the fucking fonts for over a week. Way to go, Me.
Uhm. I kept revising the script all the time, but it was mostly cutting some dialogue or switching shots. Since I wrote it, it became this vid's bible.
Mission Impossible to the rescue
I had a very rough version of the key dialogue. Time for some music. I wanted something with a ticking clock element but I couldn't find a piece that would work for the entire vid. It took about a week and hundreds of instrumentals but I finally found a few that could work, and screw that clock. And then! Then Jurassic World came out, but most importantly, the trailer for the new Mission Impossible. The music was perfect AND had a ticking clock element! I may had started flailing at the cinema. Thank you, 90′s reboots.
So I had my script and my music and all was right in the world. Manips were NOT part of the plan. Stitching together a tiny image to a clip is one thing. Making a day shot into a night shot? Done in Premiere, I can learn to do that. Planting a character from setting A to setting B? Nope. Don't know how to do that. Wrong vidder, folks.
But dammit, it means I'll have a vid full of B-rolls with voice overs, and they'll wear different clothes and..
How complicated can After Effects be?
COMPLICATED. VERY, VERY COMPLICATED. There aren't enough caps in the world to explain HOW VERY COMPLICATED. I still don't know what the fuck I'm doing in this program. It's like the love child of Photoshop, Flash and Premiere. If they had a crack baby.
I started messing around with AE, watched tons of tutorials, took an online course and 3 months later I can say I know what After Effects *is*.
Each manip took probably at least 10 hours of work, not counting time spent on studying, tutorials and nervous meltdowns. The VFX (Dean's eyes shots) is very raw, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out for a first try, and it was fun to make and allowed me to get a bit creative.
Others makes me cringe. None are perfect but some of them.. Ugh. But since I was on a deadline, I had to settle on some of my very early tries to make the final cut.
Finally, there's Sam and Dean at the Beach. Five of Cassipoea7's prompts were about summertime and I gave her this weird, dark AU vid, I had to make it. And the boys deserve a happy-ish ending. I just didn't know how.
Fast forward a bit, I had to settle on keeping the original grass setting and just switch the lake to an ocean, because let me tell you, Sam's hair? With WIND? Impossible to rotoscope without a green screen. I'm sure someone more capable could do it. Me, I just kept cursing his stupid, long, girly, wavy, gorgeous, annoying hair.
Since I was already messing around with AE, I went ahead and tinkered with some more things. It's the tiniest details, like trying to match Dean's shirt colors from scene to scene even without manipulating much else in the shot.
Finally, I've done some audio editing and fine tuning. My main challenge was Jensen's voice. I have a S2 audio clip in there ("I was hoping we could strike a deal"), and baby!Jensen sounds nothing like S10 Dean. Audios from S5 and even S6 were still a bit problematic, his voice had gotten even deeper in the last couple of years. I tinkered with them to lower the tone a bit, and forever laugh at listening to 2006 and 2015 Jensen in comparison.
We’ve never seen someone Time Travel to a time where he already existed in Show, which left it open for my interpretation. Here Dean ‘landed’ in his old 2014 body with all his future memories. Don’t make me think about what happens in present day. Sam isn’t left behind and reality is pushed back in time to where Dean chose. Okay? Okay.
I was too lazy to write the note Dean for Sam at the motel, but I imagine it went something like “Went to Start Trek IV this bitch. See you on the other side”. As to why Sam’s so opposed to the idea, other than not wanting Dean to make a deal with Crowley, Sam is worried about the same thing Dean is. He’s afraid his past self won’t be able to forgive Dean about the Gadreel situation, without the threat of the Mark. It was losing Dean that’s really shaken him, and he doesn’t know what would happen in that Back to the Future reality.
Implications of Dean’s little trip? Well, let’s see. Abaddon is alive, and so is Cain. CHARLIE IS ALIVE. Cas doesn’t have his grace (and Dean doesn’t know where Metatron stashed it). Metatron is free, Gadreel is alive and still a threat. CHARLIE IS ALIVE. All the things demon!Dean did have never happened, the people he killed are still alive. Does it make him guilt-free? Pfffft. Please. Cole is still looking for Dean. DID I MENTION CHARLIE IS ALIVE?
Crowley is the only one who remembers the alternative timeline, and he expects Sam and Dean to surrender. He really agrees because he figures he’ll have the upper hand on Rowena this time. Does he know how far back Dean is going and realizes he’ll have an Abaddon problem? Not really. Oops.
That’s it. I’ve been working on this project for the past three, almost four months so it feels weird to finally be truly done. Even a bit sad. I have a WIP in the making that is much more conventional, I haven’t made a good old regular vid since last December!
But I’m also aching for another huge project, something that would allow me to stretch my skills again and learn some more After Effects (what? So I’m a masochist, don’t judge). If you have any ideas for songs, stories or both, prompt away!
