My video for Project Editor 2 Round 1.

The theme for the round was “Tribute” though my video went more the “Trailer” route. I decided on Gunbuster and an overblown dramatic trailer-music style song for this one, and the text is cheesy as all heck, but overall, I had fun with it.

It finished seventh in the round, out of 17 videos.

The best part of my job is filming local bands in concert. I heard this song and immediately thought of making a “travelling” story video using it. I picked up the original artist’s performance of the song, and absolutely hated his vocals. So I went back to my tape, which had a direct line from the band’s sound board and used that version instead. I shortened the song by one verse and chorus, though.

For the video, it really ended up going in a different direction from how I first envisioned it. I originally thought of Alpha on her Vespa. Unfortunately, I forgot that most of her long trip in the second OVA series was done on foot. So slowly the video shifted into a light yuri romance between Alpha and Kotone. It’s a little slow, but it fits the folksy mood of both the song and the OVAs.

Convention History:
Kurokiiro 2009 – Finalist
Bakuretsucon 2009 – Finalist
Youmacon 2009 – Finalist
Another Anime Con 2009 – Entrant

I really can’t say much about the content for this one, since I’m not sure I have the words to say it right. Mr. Sagan will just have to speak for me.

On a technical level, my goal was to not use any series more than once, but time pressure (this was actually finished during the two-day FTP upload window) forced me to use a few twice (I think there’s four or five that are repeated).

I’m really proud of this one, and I’m glad that people have said they liked it. Thanks for watching.

Contest History:
Anime Weekend Atlanta 2009: Pro Contest – Finalist, Best Artistic Endeavor category
Kurokiiro 2009 – Finalist
Another Anime Con 2009 – Entrant
Bakuretsucon 2009 – Finalist
Youmacon 2009 – Winner, Best of Show

I blame this one on dokool. At AAC last year, he challenged me to do a comedy video for Anime Boston. I normally don’t do comedy because my black sense of humor isn’t shared by a lot of people (and I rarely execute it well, anyway).

Inspiration finally struck when I saw a Haruhi video and thought “I wonder how hard it would be to PhotoShop something else onto that armband.” That thought segued into the silly Spike Jones song “Der Feurher’s Face” with a Nazi-esqe “H” replacing the swastika, and the idea was born.

From the Anime Boston contest’s concept statement:
“Three years ago, an interesting anomaly was discovered in the film archives of a respected museum, where a canister of film was found with all the approprate cataloging labels attached, but no corresponding record in either the physical or electronic databases. We believe that the canister is an artifact of an alternate reality that slipped below the notice of whatever initiated the reality fork. We are presently investigating the source of the fork, though the majority of the currently-available evidence points to a girl named Haruhi Suzumiya, as the film depicts her acting in a far less benevolent role than she currently portrays.”

PLEASE NOTE: This video does contain snippets of footage from Triumph des Willens and in areas that restrict the original movie, this video may be subject to the same restrictions.

Contest History:
Anime Boston 2009 – Finalist
Anime Weekend Atlanta 2009: Pro Contest – Finalist, Comedy category

This one was created especially for Anime Central’s 2009 Theme contest of “Trailer.” I decided to go the “original trailer” route rather than a parody trailer, taking a romantic comedy series and turning it into an action/drama/epic movie for its “new” theatrical installment.

When the theme was announced, I had just finished a book on myths from many cultures, and that in turn led me to think of the events of Ragnarok paired Ah! My Goddess. The video took about three weeks from first inspiration to completion, which was a surprise to me, since I normally work much more slowly.

The subtitles were deliberately styled to look like Pioneer/Geneon DVD subtitles, to further the “real trailer” idea (P/G were the ones who released the real AMG movie in the US).

The voice of Kami-sama is actually my own, since I couldn’t find any closely corresponding lines spoken by the real Voice. It was run through a number of filters to get the resonant quality my real voice lacks as well as the needed “long-distance telephone” effect, and to disguise my atrocious accent.

Each of the text overlays was written in English first, then translated as best I could manage into Japanese (apologies to anyone who can actually read my clumsy translations) for the red kanji versions, and each is also one of the events leading up to Ragnarok in the original myths.

The release date (Sept. 9, 2009) was both too great an idea to pass up (a flipped 666) and a nod to the upcoming movie “9″ which shares that release date.

Convention History:
Anime Central 2009 – Finalist
Anime Boston 2009 – Finalist

The idea for this one was inspired by the call for entries to the Gothik II MEP. The list of suggested anime included Tokyo Babylon, which I’ve wanted to use for something for quite a while, so I went looking for an interesting song that might fit. I didn’t have time to make it for the MEP, but put this together about a month later.

The title was inspired by the scene of the shattered glass falling in front of Seishirou, which, for a second, looked like flower petals the first time I saw it.

Overall, a pretty simple video that I enjoyed making.

Contest Participation:
Ohayocon 2009 – Finalist
Tekkoshocon VII – Entrant

Listening to the Castlevania: Dracula Battle soundtracks always makes me think of action videos, so I decided to try one out. The goal was to make the various fights in the series flow together into what seems like one long mostly-seamless fight.

I think it came out pretty well; there’s a few spots that feel off, but I like the transition points, especially the Mao/Blanche one.

Convention Participation:
Ohayocon 2009 – Finalist
I-Con 28 – Finalist
Tekkoshocon VII – Entrant

This project was a birthday project for ngsilver, inspired by his Dance x.0 series. I picked a bunch of video games and a few oddball scenes from series I had at hand, and put together a pretty upbeat, dancy video.

This was a birthday project for koopiskeva, parodying all of his videos. My segment was the parody of Waking Hour using Porco Rosso. I also provided the driving footage for Glory_Questor’s segment parodying Twilight.

This contest was EXTREEEEEEEEEEME!!!

After arriving with our lists of ten songs each, they were whittled down to one song from our original lists and two from our opponent’s original list.

Only then were we shown our primary video source: Detroit Metal City.

Over the course of the editing, there were several challenges thrown in. The ones I remember, in semi-order:

5 minutes with “beer goggles” on (Vaseline-smeared lab goggles)
Roll a d12, your opponent must use at least that many lens flares during the video (11 for Lantis, 12 for Kiarrens)
DDR for one song (Tsugaru, victory by Kiarrens), added source: BECK episode 21 (maybe a bit later?)
Do a cheesy transition NOW
5 minutes with no headphones
Added source: Bleach Live-Action Rock Musical
FAILed challenge: Guitar Hero (GH3 on 360 doesn’t like Rock Band guitars, so this one didn’t come off)
Run an errand for dokool: Go get the trophy from the green room (Lantis got back first)

In the end, Kiarrens won a well-deserved crushing victory.