Author: LantisEscudo

Avatar: The Last Rainforest

Source - Ferngully: The Last Rainforest
Audio - Avatar: "Beyond Imagination" TV Spot
Completed June 2010
Premiered July 9, 2011
YouTube Link

The idea for this one came from some webcomic's (probably Real Life or Schlock Mercenary, I don't remember now) note that James Cameron's Avatar was the best Ferngully remake ever. And so the parody trailer idea wouldn't leave my brain.

Overall, a fun thing to make, though the lipsynch is absolutely terrible (too many distinct faces to make it look right, sadly).

Silhouettes

Anime - Revolutionary Girl Utena
Song - The Birthday Massacre - Kill the Lights
Completed March 2010
Premiered April 2, 2010
Animemusicvideos.org Link
YouTube Link

The idea of Utena as a broken fairy tale was one that I kicked around in my head for a long time while I was planning this video. Unfortunately, the execution here (especially some of the mask edges) was kind of flawed, given how badly I rushed actually making this video before the Anime Boston deadline. In all, I spent about 19 hours straight on it, finishing about two hours before the deadline.

I still like the silhouette effect I used here, and may use it again if I find the right place for it.

The Outer Sky

Anime - Wings of Honneamise
Song - John Rubinstein - Corner of the Sky
Completed February 2010
Premiered April 2, 2010
AnimeMusicVideos.org Link
YouTube Link

When Anime Boston announced that the 2010 contest would be in HD, I only owned three anime Blu-Ray disks, so my selection of sources was a bit limited. I had just watched Wings of Honneamise the week before, so I settled on that very quickly.

The song was a bit harder, but dumb luck in picking up a secondhand copy of the soundtrack to Pippen and hearing "Corner of the Sky" got me thinking about flying and the hurdles that Shitotsugh and his Space Navy compatriots overcame to get into space.

I deliberately focused on the flying and his relationship with Requinni and cut out as much of the actual combat of the last act as I could, preferring to keep up the hopeful tone of the song.

Conventions:
Finalist at Anime Boston 2010
Winner, Best Character Profile - AWA Expo 2010

Another Anime Con 2009 EXTREME Iron Editor

Anime - Demonbane, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!, The Hobbit, School Days
Songs - DJ Mei Lwun - Nelly vs. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Sweet Home Country Grammar, Skye Sweetnam - Part Of Your World
Completed November 2009
Premiered November 21, 2009
AnimeMusicVideos.org link

The resulting videos from the EXTREME Iron Editor competition at Another Anime Con 2009.

It was a tag-team match between the Green Team (LantisEscudo & inthesto) and the Blue Team (Kiarrens & OtakuForLife).

The full details of the competition, including the tortures visited upon the editors by dokool and BasharOfTheAges:

*Extreme Challenge Summary*

First Source Revealed: Demonbane

Steady Hands - Alts are forced to play Operation with an eye-patch on until someone gets 3 pieces. (arm weights were, sadly, missing)

Winner - inthesto

Hypothermia Challenge - Both alts plunge their hands into ice water and keep them there. First to remove a hand loses. (this lasted 20 minutes, and resulted in 4 emptied cans of silly string as well as possible nerve damage. We forced them to switch off with their partners and immediately start editing.)

Winner - tie.

Second Source Revealed: Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight

On The Hunt - Alts are given a camera and a scavenger hunt list of cosplayers, staffers, and Guests and 20 min to take as many pictures as they can.

Winner - Kiarrens (but points were awarded per picture anyways)

Nice Boat Balloon Pop - Alts are presented with a pile of balloons - each of which has a piece of paper in it. All have phrases on them the alt has to call out after reading, until they find the correct one - Nice Boat! - The first one done wins.

Winner - Otaku4Life

Third Source Revealed: "Nice Boat" episode of School Days

One Ring To Bind Them -
A) Alts must find the hidden box with their color on it (on Bashar's Car) and return it to main stage.

*Lantis docked 20pts for unsportsmanlike conduct in taking both boxes, leaving otaku4life confused in the parking lot for 20 min.

B) Inside this box is a hello kitty lip-gloss ring locked by a pad lock. The keys to the padlocks are at the bottom of a vat of shaving cream. First to Unlock their box, wins part B.

Winner - Otaku4life

Final Source Revealed: The Hobbit (Rankin-Bass's 1979 version)

A Little Trivia While We Render - A Little Retrospect is played. All editors name the AMVs used - 2 pts a piece.

*no real winner - just awarded points until we were done*

Project: Editor 2 – Round 2: Shoryuken? Sure You Can!

Anime - Various
Song - BUS STOP feat. Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting
Completed October 2009
Premiered November 20, 2009
AnimeMusicVideos.org Link
YouTube Link

This was my Project: Editor 2 Round 2 video. The theme of the round was "Word Association," and the word I was given was "Shoryuken."

I originally thought of using the Street Fighter Anime, but I don't own it, and figured it would be a bit of a cop-out, so I went to the original source: the games. Which led to the people that play the games, and my hunt for scenes of characters playing video games.

"Kung Fu Fighting" felt like a very appropriate song, and the BUS STOP version that was included in the original DDR was the perfect length.

Thanks to my friend Adam for being Player 2 in the screen captures, and to Kit for pointing out I screwed up the original capture of the Playstation footage. Also thanks to mirkosp, godix, Kit, G_Q, MeteorDragon, and ngsilver for making suggestions on where to find scenes that might work.

This received a "So Much Win" award from Code in the P:E thread, and also won Best Fun/Upbeat/Etc. at its con debut at AAC 09.

Project: Editor 2 – Round 1: Tribute

Anime – Gunbuster
Song – Kerry Muzzey - Anthem
Completed October 2009
Premiered October 8, 2009
AnimeMusicVideos.org link

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.

Bright Journeys

Anime - Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou ~Quiet Country Cafe~
Song - Stockwell Brothers - Before I Go
Completed September 2009
Premiered October 3, 2009
AnimeMusicVideos.org Link
YouTube Link

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