I joined the staff for Anime Boston in 2013, and took on handling a lot of things surrounding the AMV Contest, including the opening, which had been dormant for several years at that point. The contest opening traditionally had been a parody of a movie scene that includes the various instructions about the rules and warnings for the showing, so for the year’s theme of Tales of Yōkai (Ghosts or Spirits), I decided to do a knockoff of the classic Tales From the Crypt opening.
I shot this at my grandparents’ house, which is filled with interesting knicknacks and has a very nice vertical layout that mimicked the path the original opening took. I decided to go up the stairs instead of down because ending in the attic worked better than stopping at the front door. The neat bobbing figures were part of the year’s themed art, and there were exactly the right number to pair one with each instruction.
It took a few tries to time the movement right, so I was pretty exhausted by the time I was done shooting (stairs are great cardio, if you weren’t aware).