Video announcements
Anime - X TV & OVA
Song - Flobots - Rise
Completed June 2010
Premiered July 2, 2010
Animemusicvideos.org Link
YouTube Link
My Round 2 video for Project NeoEditor. This round's theme: Create a tribute video for another competitor (random pairings) based on their likes and dislikes.
This came in fifth in a round of ten videos.
Anime - Magic Knight Rayearth
Song - Nox Arcana - Caliope
Completed June 2010
Premiered June 27, 2010
Animemusicvideos.org Link
YouTube Link
My Round 1 Entry for Project NeoEditor. Theme for the round: tell a story with a moral.
This came in third in a round of 13 videos.
And I was very depressed after killing off one of my favorite characters ever.
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.
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
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*
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.
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.
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
Anime - Various
Song - Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot Chapter 1: You Are Here (excerpt) & Dana Cunningham - The Color of Light
Completed July 2009
Premiered September 18, 2009
AnimeMusicVideos.org Link
YouTube Link
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
Anime - Ah! My Goddess (TV & Movie)
Song - Immediate Music - Blasphemy
Completed April 2009
Premiered May 8, 2009
AnimeMusicVideos.org Link
YouTube Link
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