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Valion
Valion

The first time I (knowingly) watched anime was around 1995, when a friend brought over a tape of Cyber City Odeo 808.  After that, I started looking for more information about anime in general on the Internet, and found a gigantic community already existed on the Web and on Usenet.  From there, I became a giant fan of the original Bubblegum Crisis OVAs, and Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs.  I built up a decent sized collection over time, then started again when DVDs came out.  My involvement with fansubs and tape trading was pretty minimal, aside from most of Kenshin and the Evangelion movies. Looking back, the first time I actually saw any anime was when I was when I watched Voltron, and then the anime version of Dragon Warrior that aired in the US in the 80s.

I saw my first AMVs on the Internet, though they were few and far between.  I think the first one I ever saw was a RealVideo file of an Akane-based Ranma video set to 'Dangerous' by Roxette.  My first big exposure was at Anime Expo 98, which was the first time I saw an AMV contest. 

Originally, I set up the VNS website for Kisanzi and Krat early in 2006.  I released Lovers End a couple months after that, and officially joined the studio.

 

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 October 2006 )
 
Lovers End

 

Lovers End is my second video.  My own goal for the video was to use it as a learning experience to become more adept at the basics of video editing with Premiere, focusing on color and time control.  In the end, I was fairly happy with how the video turned out.  The style matched what I had envisioned,  and I still didn't hate the show or song by the time I finished which is always a bonus!

I wanted to try something significantly different from my first video, so standard action as a choice was right out.  I ended up spending a couple months trying to come up with a concept, song, and anime that I would be happy with.  I heard a song by The Birthday Massacre purely by luck on a sampler DVD at a friends house, thought it was interesting, and bought their album 'Violet'.   The style was unique, and I thought several of the songs were pretty catchy, so the quest to find a show that fit the music began.

At this point, I was letting the song determine the concept of the video.  I needed some sort of dark or gothic show with a decent amount of style.  A quick look over my collection turned up nothing suitable. Crap.  Randomly entering words in to Google led to a description of Tsukihime, which I had only vaguely heard of.  I took a chance an ordered the box set.  Fortunately, it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.  Woohoo! 

I put the actual AMV together over a period of about a month or so.  There were no looming deadlines, so it was a pretty low intensity effort.  Like with my first video, I did virtually no planning beforehand.  Most of the sections were redone a couple times as the concept shifted around.

 Lyrics
Title: Lovers End
Artist: The Birthday Massacre
Album: Violet

Hands cover whispers of the lovers fright
Fear cloaked renditions of that autumn night
Digging up rumors of the kids in the park
What awful things happened in the dark

Take
Just one last dare
Pretend you don't care
Till twilight falls
Wait
There's someone else here
And I can't stop my tears
I've never been so scared

In the cellar buried 6 feet deep
The lover's shaken from a dreamless sleep
Nails clawing splinters from the ceiling and floor
Shrieking like the witches till his stitches are sore

Take
Just one last dare
Pretend you don't care
Till twilight falls
Wait
There's someone else here
And I can't stop my tears
I've never been so scared

Calling for the other
Searching for her lover
Secrets she discovers
Drain her face of colour

1... 2... 3... 4... Underneath the cellar floor
5... 6... 7... 8... Lover will suffocate
1... 2... 3... 4... Underneath the cellar floor
5... 6... 7... 8... Lover will suffocate
1... 2... 3... 4... Underneath the cellar floor
5... 6... 7... 8... Lover will suffocate
1... 2... 3... 4... Underneath the cellar floor
5... 6... 7... 8... Lover will suffocate

 Video Information
 Title: Lovers End
 Video Source: Shingetsutan Tsukihime
 Audio Source: "Lovers End" by The Birthday Massacre
 Length: 4:14
 AMV.org Page: Link
 Participation
 ColossalCon 2006 Best Drama
 AnimeNEXT 2006 Judges Award
 Anime Mid Atlantic 2006 Third Place Drama
 Connecticon 2006 Finalist
 Animethon 2006 Finalist
 AWA Pro 2006 Best Horror
 Archon 2006 Best Horror
 File Information
 Container: Matroska
 Audio: Vorbis
 Video: h.264
 Size: 38,389,030 bytes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 October 2006 )
 
Molly

 My first video that I completed and released!  This video was originally created for Nan Desu Kan 9 in 2005.  Since this was my first video, I wasn't trying to do anything particularly fancy, just some basic beat syncing.  I picked the song based on two criteria: 1) It was catchy. 2)  It was SHORT.  Almost all of the editing and encoding was done in a three day span in order to make the NDK deadline.  The deadline provided a nice motivator.  I had started several videos in the past to much longer songs, finished extremely few of them, and released none of them.  I went with Elfen Lied primarily because I had just finished watching it, and most of the important scenes were still fresh in my mind.

There wasn't much in the way of a concept beyond focusing on Lucy, and using action.  Given that it's Elfen Lied, Action == Decapitation.

There are several technical issues with the video, mostly in the form of small sync errors.  Originally, the quality of the audio I used was pretty low.  Later on, I replaced it with a significantly higher bitrate version.

 

 Video Information
 Title: Molly
 Video Source: Elfen Lied
 Audio Source: "Molly" by Mindless Self Indulgence
 Length: 1:40
 AMV.org Page: Link
 Participation
 Nan Desu Kan 9 Finalist
 Anime Expo 2006 Semifinalist
 Connecticon 2006 Best Action
 File Information
 Container: Matroska
 Audio: Vorbis
 Video: h.264
 Size: 15,467,219 bytes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 April 2007 )
 
Site debreaking in progress
 After a very slight period of motivation, most of the really obvious errors on the site should now be gone, including the general layout issues and looking like hell in Firefox.  Most of the member pages have been updated....except mine .  Several of the member videos still need to have their information added, which should happen soon (Note: Soon is relative Tongue out).
 
Almost there!
After what seems like ages, the site is finally almost presentable! There's still a ton of work to be done, but the basic structure of the first draft is in place. Over the next few days, more videos and member pages will be coming online.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 July 2006 )