ExtraPenguin

Star Wars: The Old Republic, Jedi Consular storyline (and massive spoilers thereof). I made this one for vid_bingo's 2023 same song challenge. The song of choice was Level Up by Vienna Teng. Despite the temptation, I did not actually use any footage of my Consular leveling up. *g*

AO3.



My actual vote was for the other contender, Hey Brother by Avicii (with the intent of making a Clone Wars vid where each "There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do" is illustrated by Anakin doing dark deeds as a way of pointing out that "There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do" is not, actually, a comforting line), but when it was clear that one was losing, I listened to the victorious finalist on repeat. I was traveling and on my non-vidding-capable laptop, so I had no way of laying down test clips, only my imagination. Then, I got an idea to do it about the Jedi Consular story in SWTOR, and relistened to the song with that in mind.

Initial notes I wrote for myself

same song challenge: Vienna Teng - Level Up
SWTOR Jedi Consular
chrono order, "talk talk talk" abt Twi'leks, grid intro for talk talk talk etc bits
"everybody here has loved and lost" possessed masters, zoom in over swapping clip
"So what? Level up!" speech @ Parkanis
"everybody here has seams and scars" politicians, zoom in over swapping clip
instrumental abt ch2-3 politicians, no zoom, some gridding?
bridge ("Let your faith die" etc) abt Nadia, then Syo pre-conflict
outro pt 1 Syo Bakarn cave, heartbeat grid, zoom in overlay of Senate address for last bomp
outro ("warm" bit) reverse chrono order unused cool shots – zoom in overlay + heartbeat grid? other stuff
outro (heartbeat) Tython, finish w/ meditating on Tythos river delta
fade out to title card: "Begin Again – ExtraPenguin"

maximalist technical bit: 2×2 (+1 center) grid of clips, one clip swaps every beat, overlaid full-screen shot that's being zoomed in on

I knew I wanted to do some sort of compositing to reflect the nature of the beat, and I wanted to do some zoom-in overlay as well. I decided to introduce both of them separately and then join them together in the end. I didn't want to call the thing "Level Up", since, uh, that would be a bit too facile imo, considering the video game nature of the source. The lyric "begin again" struck out at me, especially since I'd already decided to make the vid sort of /\-shaped, and in the end, the Consular goes and gets people to begin again. It's also a bit of a nod to the Zen Buddhist concept of 初心 shoshin, an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even at an advanced level; lit. "beginner's mind".

It does not quite look like I expected it to look – I discovered alpha masks in kdenlive, and realized I liked the soft edges I could thus make better than the hard edges of just simple compositing, and I also realized I wanted differences in size, with some things at original, not just everything at 50% and aligned with a corner. I did still do compositing with transform + alpha masks and even made a custom mask for one bit!

As for what everything ~means~, well, hopefully you can get that just from watching. (Actually, if you've gotten this far and haven't, please do before continuing; I'd like to hear your unbiased reactions.)

In general, the theme of the vid is "people the Consular helped/could save". I mirrored footage so she'd be mostly on the right, looking left, with the reversal of that symbolizing her being on the back foot.

For the very start, I wanted to a) start on Tython and b) set things up. So Yuon Par and Syo Bakarn have brief appearances (Yuon for the first So come out) before we move to Nalen Raloch, the Tython end boss. He is done with all the talk, yes, but what he needs to listen to is his heart.

Then we move to ch 1 and the plagued masters plot. For the first chorus (If you are afraid, come out), we go to Coruscant: mostly plot rehash, but we sure did save that guy who'd had a noetikon implanted in him. First level up is healing Yuon Par the first time. We proceed with the rest of the masters who had a whole planet for them; I considered chronological order, but dynamite the dam on the flow was much more Master Duras Fain than Master Cin Tykan, and we are all cinders / of a fire burning long ago vice versa. Plus this way I could use Master Cin's padawan for the bit about his own heart. Master Eriz Vossan obviously fit If you are afraid, come forth, and Master Sidonie Garen wasn't a terrible fit for the remaining lyric.

Everybody here has loved and lost – this is the bit where I got to introduce the zoom-in overlay. I gave each of the people healed during ch 1 their own word (Cin Tykan, Duras Fain, Laranna Fain, Eriz Vossan, Sidonie Garen, Yuon Par), during which I took a clip of the Force shielding ritual and used that as an overlay (second shielding for Yuon) while rapidly swapping over a clip of their face for each beat. I ended with Yuon Par, then transitioned to Yuon being possessed by Vivicar, then to Vivicar when the music changed.

Level up and love again – I knew from the start this would be about Vivicar/Parkanis Tark. I was a bit worried about having enough footage, but thankfully there was enough to make it work, even if this video game's cutscenes are 99% of people talking at each other. I really like how your day number one in the rest of forever ended up looking.

Then, with the next chorus, came the transition to chapter 2. The whole ship sequence at the start fit the lyrics of the first bit.

Everybody here has seams and scars – the theme here is "people the Consular did a solid in ch 2". In order: Representative Alani, Miel Muwn, Tai Cordan, Shuuru, Senator Grell, Syo Bakarn, the Chancellor, the cyborg guy on Balmorra, Zenith, Felix, the Sarkhai royal couple. I had lots of fun putting Syo on "seams" and Zenith and Felix on "scars". The overlays are Darth Lachris's apprentice realizing he can walk away, a freed member of the Balmorran resistance bowing, the Consular healing a surrendered Imperial soldier, the Consular giving Felix's squad a pep talk, the Consular telling Felix to treat their Imperial POW according to the rules, and a Selkath scientist who almost got murdered by Imps.

Then the music changes at So what? Level up! and for this instrumental bridge, I wanted to introduce more compositing. The ship accelerating I knew would be there from the start, but the rest is one of the last bits conceived. (Incuts: Masterhood ceremony, Force lifting the psych droid on Belsavis, yeeting Gaden-Ko to safety, looking around on Belsavis, various bits of saving Esh-Kha on Belsavis. Belsavis, like Taris, had some top-notch cutscenes. Voss less so.)

Let your faith die – Nadia loses her father and has to be consoled.

And this is all we need – discovery that Syo is actually the First Son. Note the reversal of where the Consular is standing for the first part: she's disheartened by this discovery about her mentor, but then gets a grip and is back on the right side of the screen.

Outro, part 1 – confrontation with Syo in the caverns. Again, I was a bit worried about not having enough footage, but I had to crop this twice so I could fit in the meditating together and the Consular making a holocron of her journeys.

Outro, part 2 ("warm part") – returning to the beginning, with cool footage presented in reverse chronological order! Planets: Corellia, Voss, Belsavis, Hoth, Balmorra, Alderaan, Tatooine, Taris. (Plus an interlude with Duranna Fain's ship.) (Skipped: Quesh, Nar Shaddaa, Coruscant.) This is the maximalist visual feast, with multiple images onscreen at a time + a zoom overlay atop them all.

Outro, part 3 ("heartbeat") – Tython. The music became simple, so the visuals had to be as well. All the clips here are in reverse chronological order, too. Then I ended with doing a /meditate in one of the first zones on Tython, faded in the credits, and faded to white because that seemed most fitting.

I made a new Consular just to record all this on Ultra graphics with the UI hidden. With a constant XP boost on, max exploration & class mission XP bonuses, and a subscription, I finished the story at level 47. I was playing Serenity, which gets the ball rolling at level 15 and is enjoyable from 23 onwards, and had Qyzen on DPS the whole time. :D I had to do a few heroics to stay on level, but as a stealther, those weren't a problem. More of an issue was getting to level 10 before starting the recording (due to wanting clothes that required level 10 to wear), but I managed that as well.