Copa Cabana

"Copa Cabana" is an Alias vid by counteragent. It was reviewed on June 1, 2009, by milly at the reel vidding community.
Vidder's summary: "'Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl. And while she tried to be a star, Tony always tended bar." Syd and Vaughn take on the baddies and look fab doing it."
==Reactions/Reviews==
From the reel 2009 review: 
Overall impression: A fun vid that doesn't take itself too seriously and is only the better for it - a somewhat weaker second half, but it doesn't ruin just how entertaining the overall product is.
Titles: Quick and paced to the music at the start, using the same font as the one used to introduce locations on the show, which seems fitting considering the title.
Music choice: The song is a remix of the original, which again, seems quite appropriate for the source since it keeps the fun of the original, but the new beat adds a nedge that seems more appropriate to Alias (especially the fighting and gun-totting). Overall, the faster pace also achieves a lot in driving the vid.
Narration, Tone and Movement: The narrative seems very straight foward, using the lyrics to tell a story that plays with the show's own storyline in a very humorous way. It's not quite the song's story, but just fitting enough that it brings a smile to your face and makes light (in a very good way) of some of the show's darker storyling. The way the vidder uses movement in this vid is probably one of its strongest aspects, from the dancing intercuts to the way some scenes bleed into each other through continued or repeated movement.
Cuts, Transitions, Effects & Colouring/Coloring: The video uses mostly straight cuts and some quick fades, but as mentionned above, it's most notable for the way it uses motion to transition to some scene, repeating similar motions, or continuing a movement (a headturn, a character heading a certain direction). It really helps the vid's flow, making it at the same time quickly cut to the beat of the song, which is quite fast, but never jerky.
Effects are minimal - slowed down and sped up clips, and what appears to be some slight coloring, but the vid relies mostly on the narrative and htiting the beats, and the small amount of effects helps it in the long run, because and bigger amount might have overwhelmed the song. The vid seems to strike a nice balance between the use of effects and focussing on the narrative.
Specific vid & music notes:
0:08 Love the skirts spinning on the disk scratching.
0:18 Great lyric match with the dress color
0:21 The first of many great similar-motion or action transition, from sliding down her yellow dress to removing the bottom of her dress in another, non dancing shot, also carrying the narrative from a litteral dancing to the fighting-as-dancing metaphor.
0:54 Good music match
1:43 Another awesome music match
1:52 Great synching and I LOVE the insertion of that clip there, since the previous section was so sad, and this brings us right back into the vid's tone - it's a humorous vid, and nothing funnier than Marshal banging on his drums to the song
1:53 Very effective intercut starting here, from the club to the ballroom.
2:21 Great shot, matching the music and the edge in the beat
2:25 the flow seems to break there a bit, because the clips seem too slow for the beat, and break from the previous and following action.
Final notes:
I think one of my main issues with the vid is merely a technical one. The vid came through oddly - two slightly paler lines above and below, and two darker, but not quite black lines on the right and left, which drew my eyes away from the vid itself. (this vid was submitted in 2007, and having seen much of the vidder's work since then, it's no longer an issue).
The vid also seems a bit rough around the edges in some transitions, like the clips are a bit jumpy - not quite stray frames, but something similar. (see 0:04, 0:37, 1:00, 1:24, 1:25, section at 2:20, 2:32, ) Perhaps some slight coloring to mix transitioning clips might have helped there.
When it comes to some of the sped up clips, it seems as though there should have been more attention paid to the background (see 2:18 , Sydney is still slow, but the people around her are dancing too fast and end up distracting from her)
As is probably to be expected with a narrative driven vid, it seems to lose some strenght in musical sections without lyrics, mostly the second half.
Category:2007 Vids
Category:Alias