FMV

Inspector Basil [Shabu Showdown 2025 Week 1]

LantisEscudoMarch 17, 2026FMV, Project Editor, Videos

The theme for the first week of Shabu Showdown 2025 was “Enneagrams,” where the participants were given one week to create a video that was a character profile showcasing one of the nine enneagram personality types.

I didn’t have a solid idea at first, but I knew I wanted to use a short song because of the condensed timeframe. Going through my collection of music, I pulled out a few possibilities, but then stumbled across the Inspector Gadget opening theme. I had had a conversation with someone recently where The Great Mouse Detective had come up, so the immediate association between Basil and Type 5 – Investigator clicked in my head.

I ended up tracking down an instrumental version of the theme because the lyrics felt a bit too literal for the setting, and I think that was the right choice.

It got a good reaction in the reveal stream, and several compliments after the week ended.

Video – The Great Mouse Detective
Audio – Shuki Levy – Inspector Gadget Theme (Instrumental)
Completed July 2025

YouTube Link

Stage Presence

LantisEscudoMarch 17, 2026FMV, Videos

This one was directly inspired by SilkAMV’s excellent video BLOOD 4 THE BLOOD GOD in AWA’s Accolades contest in late 2024. I had vaguely had an idea in the back of my mind about using various 80’s animated movies set to “Rock and Roll Fantasy” for a couple years, but hadn’t actually made any concrete plans for it. Silk’s use of a music-heavy movie I’d never heard of before, combined with the launch of Retro Matsuri, a new retro-focused event with an all-retro-animated-sources content rule, changed that.

One difficulty I ran into is that while I’d seen clips of most of the movies I used, I hadn’t actually watched any of them all the way through, so how much footage from each was actually usable was a surprise. I’m still amazed at how little musical footage was actually in a movie called “Heavy Metal,” and I ended up only using some background/scenery shots from Cats Don’t Dance because of the clash in art and stage animation styles.

I ended up cutting the song down heavily, which worked out pretty well, in my opinion (most of the cut bits were repeats and loops), and the final result came together pretty decently.

It did make the finals at Retro Matsuri, but didn’t win its category.

Video – American Pop, Cats Don’t Dance, A Goofy Movie, Heavy Metal, Rock-a-Doodle, Rock & Rule, Thumbelina
Audio – Bad Company – Rock and Roll Fantasy
Completed June 2025

YouTube Link

The Lives and Times of Dirk the Daring (Shabu Showdown 2023 Week 2)

LantisEscudoJanuary 2, 2024FMV, Project Editor, Videos

The theme for the second round of Shabu Showdown 2023 was 20th Century Time Capsule – editors had a week to create a video with a video or audio source (and preferably both) originating between 1901 and 2000.

My original idea was really dark, with Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” to the 2000 movie Battle Royale, which I decided was a bit too much for this sort of event. I did like the idea of using the song, though, and so I started looking through my collection of discs when I remembered Dragon’s Lair, which fit the song really well, and still was lighthearted enough that it felt more appropriate.

All of the footage segments were very short (usually under 60 seconds, with the deaths even shorter), so I divided them into three buckets: “successes” which I used for most of the first section of the video, “deaths” which filled most of the remainder of the video, and “skeleton bounce,” which was all of the variants of the game over animation. If I remember correctly, there are 27 different versions with the same animation over different backgrounds. I ended up only using it for the final segment of the video, and synched up several of them to cut between on the beat for that final shot.

People definitely enjoyed it, and a few suggested I send it to events that accept video game and western animation videos, which I may do.

Video – Dragon’s Lair
Audio – Queen – Another One Bites the Dust
Completed November 2023

YouTube Link

Trí Scéal

LantisEscudoNovember 15, 2023FMV, Videos

This is another video that I heard the song for many years ago and spent a long time looking for the right source to use.

Back in early 2007, I saw a video on Twitter of the pregame ceremonies at a New Zealand-Ireland rugby match from mid-2006, specifically highlighting the New Zealand haka. I didn’t recognize the song used as Ireland’s anthem, so I looked it up on Wikipedia afterwards, finding that it was an alternate anthem used by some of Ireland’s national sports teams that represent the island as a whole, rather than just the Republic of Ireland. At the bottom of the page was a link to an uncredited MP3 that became the definitive version in my head, despite the huge number of covers, especially after Celtic Thunder covered it with slightly different lyrics. I wasn’t able to find the artist of the version I wanted until 2022, which turned out to be one of the first recorded versions released, and included the Irish National Rugby Team as the background singers.

I didn’t have a good idea for what source to use until Wolfwalkers came out and the trio of Cartoon Salon films started being referred to as the “Irish Folklore Trilogy.” I’d only seen Secret of Kells at that point, but picked up the box set when it was released and watched the other two immediately. I found Song of the Sea the hardest to work with of the three, mostly because the setting was so far different from the other two, but I think they all worked well together in the end.

The title is simply “Three Stories” in Irish Gaelic.

Editing-wise, I was really working more by feel than going for anything with a distinct narrative structure. It works pretty well, and got nominated as a finalist in the Best Vibes category.

Video – Cartoon Saloon Irish Folklore Trilogy (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers)
Audio – Andrew Strong – Ireland’s Call
Completed September 2023

YouTube Link

Dragon Slayer (Project OrgEditor 2020 Round 2)

LantisEscudoJune 27, 2022FMV, Project Editor, Videos

The theme for Round 2 of POE 2020 was “The Thrill of the Chase.”

Dragon’s Lair is a source that I’ve wanted to use for a while, but didn’t have a good idea for, but Dirk’s chase through the dungeon in search of the Princess felt like a good fit for this round’s theme.

This one was kind of rushed because of the one-week time limit, but still was a fun one to put together.

Video Source – Dragon’s Lair
Audio – Naora Shibata PROJECT – Vampire Killer
Completed October 2020

AnimeMusicVideos.org Link
YouTube Link

Speed Reading

LantisEscudoMarch 18, 2022FMV, Videos

After seeing the episode “Read It and Weep,” the combination of Rainbow Dash and Reading Rainbow wouldn’t leave my head, so I quickly knocked it together in time to send it to AWA Pro 2012.

I also sent it to Youmacon 2012, where it got a positive reaction, but didn’t win anything.

Anime – My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Music – Tina Fabrique – Reading Rainbow Theme Song
Completed August 2012

YouTube Link

The Mark of Crom Cruach

LantisEscudoMarch 18, 2022Award Winner, FMV, Videos

I picked up a Blu-Ray of The Secret of Kells on a whim when I saw it on a shelf of Academy Award nominees at a store, and fell in love with the movie. When I decided to try editing a video to it, I chose to play with the storyline, making Brendan’s story more of a quest brought to him by Aesling rather than how the movie actually plays out.

The modifications worked out nicely, and the video won Best Storytelling at AWA Pro 2012.

Video Source – The Secret of Kells
Music – Yasunori Mitsuda – Time’s Scar (from Chrono Cross)
Completed July 2012

YouTube Link

Avatar: The Last Rainforest

LantisEscudoJuly 9, 2010FMV, Videos

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).