vid: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (X-Men movies, Charles/Erik)

[thedeadparrot]

Title: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Fandom: X-Men movies
Pairing: Charles/Erik
Length: 2:43
Summary: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Music: Nina Simone - "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
Footage: X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men 3: The Last Stand, X-Men: First Class
Notes: Thanks to merisunshine36 for betaing/enabling. This wouldn't have gotten finished without her persistent cheerleading.

Xvid download (69 MB) ( mirror )
subtitles file
Youtube | blip.tv

Baby you understand me now
If sometimes you see that I'm mad
Doncha know no one alive can always be an angel?
When everything goes wrong, you see some bad

But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

Ya know sometimes baby I'm so carefree
With a joy that's hard to hide
And then sometimes it seems again that all I have is worry
And then you're bound to see my other side

But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

If I seem edgy
I want you to know
I never mean to take it out on you
Life has its problems
And I get more than my share
But that's one thing I never mean to do

Cause I love you
Oh baby
I'm just human
Don't you know I have faults like anyone?

Sometimes I find myself alone regretting
Some little foolish thing
Some simple thing that I've done

Cause I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

Don't let me be misunderstood
I try so hard
So please don't let me be misunderstood

More Notes: I love their tragedy and their heartbreak, man. So much. There are so many other amazing vids about them, and I wanted to join the party. Vidding lets us tie together all the films together in a visceral way with a sense of continuity that even fic can't entirely accomplish, and I loved being able to play with all that history between them.

This song nearly kicked my ass. I'd been mulling over various ideas for an X-Men vid for a while, but when I listened to this song, it stuck. The song takes on so many layered meanings in the context of their relationship, how much they can hurt each other and how much they can hurt the world at the same time. Unfortunately, it's also the type of song that lives to thwart my vidding style. I'm someone who has trouble hearing lyrics when listening to music, and when I vid, I'm very much attuned to the underlying music and beat. I love using cuts to bring a certain amount of momentum even if the shots themselves don't have much movement.

Nina Simone, on the other hand, kind of blows that vidding strategy out of the water. Her vocals are so powerful and so dominating that you have to follow their lead, and you can't rush them along or make your cuts too choppy. That kind of sucked for me, and there was a lot of hair-pulling before I managed to really figure out how to work with it.

But! I managed to finish this in the end, so I'm going to put this in the 'win' column.

Comments

[greeniron.livejournal.com]

Lovely vid -- I like how worked the different times together. Also, Nina Simone is probably my all-time favorite singer so it was great to see you using her work.

[thedeadparrot]

Thank you! Nina Simone is quite amazing, and also, incredibly difficult to vid. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[futuransky]

Awwww Charles and Erik! I loved this a lot.

[thedeadparrot]

Thanks! They break my heart every time.