better late than never here are my notes on this edit<3
starting off with a recommendation: i thought a lot of about summer by @rozzed while i was working on this, so i think it's a great companion piece to check out if you enjoyed the edit
now, the commentary (and some spoilers for about summer):
the song's main theme + my narrative for this edit:
for those not familiar with big star before the edit: lorde wrote this about her dog pearl, who died while she was working on solar power. so it's a song about death, and while working on the edit i was definitely a lot in the headspace of a world where ilya dies in a plane crash during tlg
with the edit being mostly from ilya's pov he has the role of the narrator, the one full of admiration and grief for his pet, but he's also the pet, the one whose own life conditions cause there to be "not enough time". he does not have the blissful unawareness of pets though
i like the idea of him being aware of his fate. a bit bc of his depression ("i used to love the party, now i'm not alright") and of course the looming threat of suicide. but even with a death not by his own hand, like the plane crash, i like the idea of that haunting the narrative. and this is where i point you to about summer again — i LOVE the non-linear narrative in that fic, and in this edit there's a few lines that i see coming from an ilya standing outside of time:
"i toss up if it's worth it now every time i get on a plane" - again, him being aware of his fate, that looming in the distance...
"i'll still watch you run through the winter light" - as in, he's always there, seeing him for the first time on that december day in saskatchewan. "every perfect summer's gotta take its flight" but he'll STILL watch him run through the winter light
"(i love you) 'til i die" - which is the outro of the edit and it's their first summer together at the cottage, and he loves him, and he wants to take his picture, and stay in that moment. but he knows they can't have that summer forever...
⭐ keeping the rest under a cut bc it's a lot and that was already the most important part of what i wanted to say⭐
typography:
i spent so much time font hunting for this one... i even almost paid for a font but thankfully i found two great free ones: East Sea Dokdo and Yuji Boku
i was looking for something that looked handwritten and kinda childlike because that's the feeling that the song gives me
i took a similar approach as i did with the mangetout edit: thicker font in a larger size in different colors and thinner smaller font in white. i really love doing this to highlight certain words or phrases.
in this case for the bigger font i used yellow and blue as a nod to the solar power album colors<3
also, for the line "you're too good for me" i decided to highlight "too good" as a nod to my mangetout edit:
they're sister edits 2 me because of the approach to typography and also bc they're both my first full-song edits :)
"i'm shy but you like to say hello to total strangers"
at first it was difficult to think of what to use for ilya being shy, but then i thought, well! there is one moment where ilya was the shy one, and it was when shane first introduced himself to ilya, a total stranger, which went perfectly along with the next line
"shivering pines and walls of color — i can't believe i used to stay inside"
probably one of my favorite lines from the song. it was perfect to continue with their first meeting for "shivering pines", shane a bit nervous, both of them a bit cold...
and then jump to "walls of color — i can't believe i used to stay inside" - the skip kiss happening and ilya just thinking... why did i ever hide.
also i need u guys to know the changing colors for the "colors" text was done by hand. well, digitally, but what i mean is it wasn't a capcut effect/animation. That was all me, placing every single differently colored word on the screen:
alright that's about it for lyrical analysis and technical/design notes. i think all the other lines really speak for themselves, or i already mentioned them in the first bullet point. would love to hear if anybody else has thoughts about the song and the #meanings <333 it's always so fun how even for an edit i did and spent hours on there's people who find layers i had never even thought of.
just one more thing as a little teaser for the s2 version of this that i'm possibly doing: "hope the honeybees make it home tonight" is definitely going to be whatever shot we have of the incident with the centaurs' plane. oh that's gonna be so juicy...
Anyway thank u for reading if u did and as always thank u for all the love for my art. Mwah!
thinking about “no, i get that, but actually, i love him.” mind you this is like less than 24 hours after he’s even said it aloud to ilya. less than 24 hours before he puts to words what he’s felt since ilya kissed him goodbye on the stairwell. i get that, given the last decade of the two of us connecting over our shared distaste for the man standing next to me. i get that, given how reporters and magazines and podcasts all pick apart at our relationship like vultures, insisting there’s venom between us. i get that, since i’ve gone quiet whenever you’ve mentioned him in the last nine years. you must’ve taken my silence for hatred. and i get that, i do, but no. in those moments, i was wondering what it would be like for you to meet him, to shake his hand, look into his eyes and see the man i’ve held so close to my heart for years. and now i’m being honest, finally. i love him. i think maybe i always have.
And I guess to do the right thing:
Here's the AO3 link. Please enjoy Ilya accidentally adding David Hollander to the Centaurs group chat & David accidentally showing up to karaoke night because he's a Good Person who shows up when invited.
Anddddd in part two... Yuna gets added.
