Holding Out For A Hero: A Tribute To James May

Unlike probably most other James May fans, I didn't "discover" him via Top Gear - in fact, I didn't even make the connection until very recently. I first saw him on the first series of The Great Wine Adventures, and then made the link when I was introduced to Top Gear just before Christmas 2008. As a result, I had a lot of stuff to catch up on!


This vid was made because it was the first song I thought of when I decided to do a tribute to James May - it just seemed to fit him somehow! I'm a conscientious vidder and I like to see if what I have in mind when I consider a vid has already been done, and in this case, someone HAD got there before me. Dunalqua made a vid to this song that was so fantastic that I very nearly shelved my idea altogether.

However, she encouraged me to put my own spin on it and so this vid was born. Thanks to her for being so gracious in allowing me to do so! My thanks also go to the lovely person who supplied me with the National Television Awards footage and to the people who helped me identify lots of lovely moments from a variety of different sources :).

The song has long been a favourite of mine as I'm a true child of the Eighties, and Bonnie Tyler's version remains the definitive one for me. Its lyrics, of course, reflect that little bit of long suppressed desire that most women have for a man who's just that, and to my mind, James May fits the bill ;).

In terms of content, this was pretty straightforward; I wanted to find all of the things that make me go a bit wobbly over James May and put them into a sequence. These include, naturally, his driving, his drinking, his piano playing, his flying and the moments when he's just generally behaving in a wonderfully gorgeous way. I wanted to mix the serious (the Veyron speed challenge, the flying, the scientific stuff) with the silly (tripping over, jumping around, drinking wine in the way only he can!) because really his public persona seems to be a complete mix of the utterly adorable and the completely absurd, so I wanted to reflect this.

Until I started putting this together I didn't fully appreciate the beauty of the editing of the Veyron speed challenge sequence. I know a fair bit about film and the editing process, and I was blown away by the absolute attention to detail during that section of film. So much so that it became a kind of recurring theme through this video, and I use it at the high points in the song, especially, if my musical memory serves, at that magical 2/3 climax point. Chilling in its cinematography, the original film captures the danger and the excitement of the challenge perfectly, and I wanted to convey that feeling in the vid, too.

I have no idea what James would think if he saw this; I hope he might be a little bit flattered to know that he's inspired me to make it! I doubt this will be the last tribute to him that I make; being relatively new to Top Gear, Ive got eleven series of footage to play with, so I'm definitely tempted to do another one. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I've enjoyed making it :)

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• james
• may
• bonnie
• tyler
• top
• gear
• oz
• and
• holding
• out
• for
• hero

[animefangirlxx]

lol my friend nicknamed me Captain Slow Jr. because 1) I love May :] 2) I'm similar to James (our likes and dislikes) and 3) i'm slow at everything. lol Love the vid :]

[fayzabeam]

Thank you :) Glad you enjoyed the vid :)

[DaWookie15]

Well done on the vid! James is funny

[fayzabeam]

Thank you :) Glad you enjoyed it :)

[girlswhowearglasses]

Good Grief. Words fail me. Well done! Typing from the floor is not as easy as you would think.

[fayzabeam]

*passes you a cushion so you're comfortable on the floor while typing*. *G* Thankyou very much - I'm really glad you enjoyed the vid :)

[desesperadox]

Top Gear became 100X better with him.

[Indogyearsimdead]

It seems Capt. Slow is miles ahead of the other 2 presenters.

He could really call them pretenders.

Great video.

[RailRKO57]

Al i can say about this man, he is a total legend, a credit to television and journalism. Lets go Captain Slow!! x

[ameliastone1]

He is my Hero...yummy !!!

[saveusmilkboy]

where did you get the bafta footage and james playing the piano??? could you possibly share with the rest of us, avid fans?

[niebells]

He's gorgeous

[embed000]

Is there a way to download this vid? I can't play it because it's blocked for me but maybe it's uploaded somewhere else? :/

[JezzaFordGT40]

Played this video again today! this is my fave all time example and is superbly and professionally edited!Remimded me of when I met Captain Slow last year!sigh:)

[dougiepoolable]

this made me lol... lol funny guy funny vid

[RichardSwayne]

Captain Slow FTW!