Ah, here I am again! That’s probably the longest time I’ve gone without making a new video, haha. This started as an earworm that I needed to edit out of my head….then I got busy with school/work and forgot about it….then I picked it back up again to try and rush it for Sakura-con’s deadline this weekend. Yes, it’s yet another Eva rebuild action video…but….I like editing them. :D

Yeah, I’m gonna be lame again and not post my full notes, but suffice to say it is a Tiger & Bunny video that isn’t yaoi. It’s about friendship and bro-fists and motorcycles.

Yet again, it was made for the Quickening, this time in about….oh….16 hours. I had a whole week but didn’t use it, it’s my own fault for scrapping my first idea and having to process and edit new source with only a couple days left. :x

Synthetic Heroine - Various - David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj “Turn Me On”

Premiered online: April 11th, 2012

First, no, it’s not about drugs, it’s “heroine” not “heroin”. ;p

Anyway, for 2012, my AMV goal for the year is to send my videos to more conventions’ AMV contests, but to only send if I made that video specifically for that convention. A few friends of mine always attend Anime North and one suggested that I enter a video into their contest. Sounded like a good idea, so I started one.

I have a tendency to get AMV ideas while I’m listening to random music and this time was no different. Going to the grocery store, “Turn Me On” was on the radio and I immediately associated it with literally turning someone/something (as in, robots/android/etc.) on. At first it seemed like it could easily be a gag video, maybe a few seconds for a joke, but then I realized it could actually make for a really good full-length serious video.

From there it was just a matter of gathering source, which was harder than I thought it would be. The 80’s and 90’s were full of cyborg/android anime, but there wasn’t much in recent anime. The bulk of the video ended up being Ghost in the Shell, since I had three movies and two TV series to work with there. I didn’t want to use that many older anime, the visuals would just contrast too much and be more distracting than actually add to the video’s value. I asked around but most people either recommended older anime or anime that I already was using. I winged it with a few sources that didn’t actually have androids in them, but were believable enough, so it was fine.

The first editing I did, though, was “fixing” the audio. I love the song, but I’m not a fan of the rap near the end (It would’ve been around the 2:45 mark). I just think it sounds ridiculous and is incongruous with the rest of the song, so I simply edited it out. It seems that either people agree and they’re glad I took it out, or they’re upset because that was their favorite part of the song. I’ve heard people complain that you’re “destroying the artists’ work” when you edit the song, but I just don’t see it that way. To me it’s not any different than a remix or a radio edit. 

With so many sources, the video doesn’t really have a story, but I did try to keep them all in a semblance of order and not just throw random scenes all over the timeline. The initial verse is the creation of the androids/cyborgs, the first chorus is their awakening. The next verse is just a bit of toned down mood/set-up, the following chorus is the ladies in full action, then quiet it down, show a softer side, before ramping it back up for the finale. The progression worked out well, and I think, really, that’s what made me want to use the song.

Anime North came and went, I didn’t win, but I was given an honorable mention, which is still awesome. Plus I was told the audience enjoyed the video, so what more can I ask for? The video is definitely the best I’ve made this year (so far…), I find myself going back and watching it more than my other videos. I don’t always do that, sometimes when I’ve finished a video, I’m done with it and don’t watch it again for months. Given that, I take it as a good sign that I keep getting drawn back to this one. 

Say It - Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad and Glen Hansard’s “Say It To Me Now”

Premiered online December 15th, 2007

Opposite of yesterday’s entry, this video was to a source that I know and love. Beck has such an engaging story that I could watch it again and again and still not be sick of it. (Not to mention catchy Engrish tunes that get stuck in my head)

I went and saw the movie Once and while the movie itself didn’t really leave a lasting impression, it was the music that really struck a chord with me (I’m hilarious.) I played it constantly, listened to it on my way to work and when I went to bed at night. One song in particular was nagging at the back of my mind for me to use it in an AMV and that was “Say It To Me Now”. Beck immediately came to mind, so I prepped the footage and got to it.

I actually was sort of being anti-social, we had visitors over (suberunker and metroamv) and I was holed up in my room working on this video. When I edit, I usually get this tunnel vision that doesn’t go away until the video is done.  Sometimes I forget to eat or I’ll look at the clock and realize I’d stayed up all night and had to work in an hour!

The same sort of thing happened in this instance, I had 15 seconds left to finish on my timeline and then realized I needed to head out for one of my certification tests. Unfortunately, I tend to lose my earlier focus when I get interrupted, so that last 15 seconds laid dormant for about a week before I had enough  motivation to finish it.

It’s a pretty basic Beck video. The pairing had been done many times (and I’m sure many more times in the five years since then), so I wasn’t being original. The whole  Beck-characters-playing-guitar-in-synch-with-song was much, much more overdone. However, it’s not something that I had done, so I wanted to. This was still early on in my AMV “career” so much of it was things I needed to practice doing. 

What exactly was new for me? A coherent storyline, for one. Much of the AMVs I’d created were just random scenes synced to the music and not much beyond that. Secondly, lip sync. Sure, I’d done lip sync before, but rarely (if ever) when the character was in motion. It’s still something that I’m working on to this day, there’s always room for improvement there.

Looking back, I can see glaring problems with the video. Koyuki’s face just does not match Glen Hansard’s voice. There’s no real way to fix that, Koyuki is just not up to the task. Secondly, I alternated between acoustic and electric guitar. Silly when you think about it, but not many people noticed it. Both of these are easy to overlook, you just have to suspend your disbelief for a few minutes and it’s fine. More people were annoyed by the long credits than by either of those two things. The credits were too long for no other reason than because I like that song. >_>

It’s not a favorite video of mine, but amidst all my crazy action and sped-up fun videos, it’s nice to have a simple romance video in my repertoire.

The Yin, The Yang, And The Girl - Aquarion Evol - Quickening Round 2 Entry

This video was created specifically for a contest that is currently running over on A-M-V.org called “The Quickening”. For those unfamiliar, the basic concept of the contest is that all the entrants choose 5 songs and send them to the coordinator, who keeps the selections anonymous and the full list is kept a secret. The entrants are separated into groups and the songs are randomly chosen and assigned. The groups each get a week to edit and a certain number of editors are eliminated each week. Since everyone has their own style or genre preference, the contest is basically about the luck of the draw. Will you get a song that you like and want to edit with? Will you get a genre that you absolutely hate and it makes the editing a chore? It makes it fun and at the same time, challenging! You can check out the full Quickening contest here: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=83

When Round 2 began and my group found out our song, Imogen Heap’s “The Walk”, I wasn’t too pleased. Not that it’s a bad song or anything, just that it’s been used in multiple popular and amazing videos, most notably JaddziaDax’s Walking in the Butterflies, a Loveless video, and Memory Flash³, an insanely good French multi-editor-project. For me, it’s something of a personal no-no to edit with songs like this. However, obviously, I got over it, it was just a bit of a minor annoyance. To make it seem fresher, though, I decided to find a newer anime to edit with.

It didn’t take long to find Aquarion Evol, I skimmed through a small bit and decided to use it. I haven’t seen it and in fact, hadn’t even heard of it previously, but when I select an anime-song combination, it’s mood that matters most to me and Aquarion Evol suited the song we’d been given. The atmosphere and basic storyline would work fine. Since we only have a week to edit each round, the more time you waste choosing anime, the less time you have to actually edit. 

I set out specifically to create an alternate storyline, which was somewhat difficult when some scenes that I wanted to use simply didn’t exist. Such as killing off a character that doesn’t actually die, but, luckily, [possible spoiler?] another character did die and I was able to manipulate those scenes enough to make it look passable. I filled out what specific scenes I knew I wanted where, then worked my way backwards from the end. I had to wing it for some of the sequences (I don’t think it shows toooo much), but overall I was pleased with the result. 

I didn’t watch Aquarion Evol, but scrolling through the episodes dozens of times hoping to find a stray scene here or there, I got the general idea. Anything else, I filled in online. So I know the story, I’ve seen the scenes, I just didn’t actually watch it. Given the overwhelming amount of “I want to watch this now!” responses that I’ve received so far, somehow I’m actually sort of tempted to sit down and check it out myself! 

I’m still awaiting judging to find out if I’ll make it to the next round (which should come hopefully soon), there are three other editors in my group and this week two of us are getting voted off the island. As I said earlier, it’s a very fun and challenging competition so if/when I do get eliminated, I enjoyed myself so it’s no biggie. 

Yes, indeed.

I’ve been editing for almost 8 years, and while I do upload to Youtube and AMV.org, I never really bother to go in-depth with the info, so that’s what I’m aiming to accomplish here. I’m going to be going back through and adding info on my old videos, as well as new and perhaps even future projects. I also do some baking from time-to-time, so there may be some of that, too. >_>

On the side, you’ll see a section where you can ask me questions, or just comment, whatever you’d like, so feel free.