I haven’t made a fanvid in ages; in fact, the last full length one was the Holmes/Elizabeth Reincarnated vid for the film Young Sherlock Holmes that I made back in 2013, but the minute I sat down to watch The Lake House,  I felt my vid senses starting to tingle. It’s an achingly romantic tale of two time-crossed lovers, played gorgeously by Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, and I loved every sentiment drenched second of it. It didn’t take long before I settled on a song, and started to chop.

The result is this – a Lake House fanvid set to the brilliant ‘Need You Now’ by Lady Antebellum. Although the song is about a breakup, actually, in my mind it works really well for the film, as it’s all about wanting something you can’t, or shouldn’t have. 

Technically, this isn’t my most ambitious video, but then I don’t think it needs to be. The idea was to capture the romance and the angst, so there wasn’t a great deal of need for bangs, flashes and effects. I made do with cross dissolves and fades to black to link the scenes, and, narratively, as the song’s a duet, it works well to have Kate’s POV for the first verse and then Alex’s for the second. I had a fair idea of what I wanted to do for the climax of the song, too! What I hadn’t remembered, though, was the sheer hell of cutting dropped frames on cross dissolves, which made my eyes a bit square, and the additional hell of spotting flaws after the umpteenth export of the project (sort of like visual spelling mistakes, I guess!). What can  say…I’m a perfectionist!

Vidding also gives you the chance to really appreciate the subtleties of film and the quirks of actors. An example that made me smile while I was doing this vid was when I noticed, during the dancing scene, where Keanu Reeves has his hand on Sandra Bullock’s back, and under her cardigan. I might be reading entirely too much into it, but I think that was more Keanu than Alex – and perhaps, a testament to the ease that these two actors have with each other. Thoughts?

It was really lovely to stretch my vidding muscles again, and I got quite caught up in cutting to the right frame and telling a love story. I hope it works as well for a viewer as it does for me! Would love to know what you think :).