Category: LAMV

The theme for the third round of Shabu Showdown 2023 was "Spectacular Settings," where editors were given one week to edit a video focusing on the scenery or setting of a source, rather than the plot or characters.

I immediately decided to use the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies, because of all the huge sweeping establishing shots in the films. The song was a lot harder to come up with, and I reached out for suggestions, and ended up getting the excellent song I ended up using from a link provided by VioletSkies.

I was also dealing with several real life things outside the event at the time, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to finish the whole song, so I edited a short version of the video that ended with the end of the first movie, just to have something to submit in case I ran out of time. I also decided once I started the second segment to focus just on Sam and Frodo's path through the films for narrative simplicity, though that did mean giving up the initial inspiration shot for the video (the epic long helicopter shot of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli running across the landscape in pursuit of the Orc army).

In the end, it came together much better than I initially thought it would, and was given the "Epic Fantasy" coordinator's award at the end of the event.

Video - Lord of the Rings movie trilogy
Audio - Tommee Profitt x MILCK - BEYOND
Completed November 2023

YouTube Link

This was an idea that I know has probably been done many times, but it also just would not leave my head when I was trying to come up with ideas for RICE 2023. I've been a Weird Al fan for about 30 years, and switching to the sequel trilogy with the prophetic line "I'll be playing this part 'til I'm old and gray" was the entire payoff to the idea in my head.

The rest of the video is a bit less well executed, partly because there's a lot less footage of Yoda in Empire and Jedi than I remember, and going back to the prequel trilogy just didn't make sense with Luke being the narrator.

It didn't get any finalist nominations in the competition, but got quite a few "wait, that was yours?" reactions when the editor reveals were made.

Video - Star Wars Episodes 4-6, 8-9
Audio - "Weird Al" Yankovic - Yoda
Completed February 2023

YouTube Link

I’ve been a fan of Doctor Who for a long time, and my favorite post-reboot Doctor has always been David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor (Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor is still my favorite overall). I originally envisioned this video as including the entire history of the show, but the amount of footage, combined with the lack of good quality footage of the early Doctors had me pare it back to focusing on the Tenth Doctor’s era, with small nods to his predecessors.

The song is one that stuck in my head from the first time I heard it, and I always thought that it spoke to the idea of what we leave behind and how we’re remembered by others, which fit very well with how Tennant’s departure was played in his final episodes.

I was surprised as I was editing with just how many defining moments of the series were done with just reaction shots of characters, especially of Tennant, and that ended up being how the video flowed, which unfortunately made it pretty inaccessible to people who weren’t familiar with the series. Overall, it’s a fun tribute to the era, and I’m glad it came together pretty well.

Video - Doctor Who
Audio - Trans-Siberian Orchestra - What is Eternal (from Beethoven's Last Night)
Completed February 2022

YouTube Link

I was absolutely buried in several other editing projects when I needed to put together the opening for Anime Boston 2019’s Tales of the Shogunate year.

I ended up just slapping together a very simple series of clips from the first three Lone Wolf and Cub movies and overlaying the instructions and warnings. Simple and effective, but not very engaging. I’ll have to step up for next year.

YouTube Link

I grew up in a hockey-crazy area, and I’ve always loved watching it, but didn’t have the time or money to play growing up. When I moved to Massachusetts, I started attending college hockey games regularly, which rekindled my interest in the game and eventually led to me joining a beginner’s adult league, first as a skater, then later as a goalie. I was finishing up my first season as a goalie when the time to start editing for AWA Pro came around, so I had hockey on the brain.

There are a lot of great hockey movies that have been made over the years, so I decided pairing a bunch of them with a classic Canadian song about hockey was an amusing combination. Balancing the action with the storytelling of the song was a challenge, but it came out quite nicely in the end.

Also amusing was when the other AWA Pro editors saw it, they were convinced that a Canadian editor had made it. It got a finalist nomination in Best Live Action, but didn’t win the category.

Video Source - D2: The Mighty Ducks; Goon; Goon 2; Slap Shot; The Mighty Ducks; Miracle; Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story; Mystery, Alaska; NHL Playoffs; Sudden Death
Audio - Stompin' Tom Collins - The Hockey Song
Completed August 2018

YouTube Link

Source - Mythbusters
Song - Oingo Boingo - Weird Science
Completed June 2011
Premiered July 8, 2011
YouTube Link

This was a silly idea that I'm surprised hadn't been done before (at least that I found in my quick search at the time), and pretty much sums up what makes Mythbusters so much fun: Making things go BOOM.

This was a finalist at Connecticon 2011 and won Best Live Action at AWA Pro 2011.

Source - Original footage
Song - Steeleye Span - The Song Will Remain
Completed July 2010
Premiered August 13, 2010
YouTube Link

My Round 5 video for Project NeoEditor. This round’s theme: Create an AMV that shows your last day of life, as if you knew it was your last day of your life.

This video finished second in a round of four videos.