AMV Autobiography

[Fall_Child42]

I think the real answer here is satsugai.

[Infinity Squared]

Hmm... though it's a very natural term to coin, I wonder how and who actually came up with the name "Anime Music Video - AMV" for this hobby.

You know, I'm quite interested to read some of the "older" histories around here, maybe even Phade's (assuming he has more to say than what's in his profile ).

That was me.

Cool... maybe you should have trade marked/copyrighted it. Could have been worth something.

[JaddziaDax]

I always liked Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers more than Duck Tales.

WHAT?!

I liked the show, but Chip was a fucking asshole.

Darkwing Duck FTW!

[downwithpants]

gadget was a hot piece though. interspecies ftw.

[Bakadeshi]

almost forgot i was supposed to do one of these :O

i'ma just outline most of it to try and not make it TLDR-ish...

1997 or 8ish (dun remember the exact year, but I was still in high school) I saw my first AMV at a Katsukon convention, I remember it being Kenshin (I think they had just recently came out in Japan at the time and thinking it was awesome. it was an effectsy video, or at least looked that way to me, and i remember thinking it was cool. I did not know anything about the concept of actually editing videos at that time though, so It soon went into the back of my mind and stayed there, until...

2002 - AWA - I saw Kwasek's a thousand miles, and fell in love with it. I Had played a little with adobe premeire a year ago for the purpose of making intro animations for Fansubs back when I was fansubbing under the AUS Fansubs label, so i then had a basic concept of editing, but nothing more than that. so I vowed i would make my first video to vanessa carlton, and it would be a Ghibli movie. (very original wasn't I....) I also found the org while looking for a copy of Kwasek's vid to download. So, around the end of 2003 and going into 2004, I had just gotten a copy of Ghibli's Spirited away and Vanesa carlton's latest CD, and so Ordinary Day was born. and I hell ya I was proud of it. I spent hours on hours going over each frame again and again to make sure everything was perfect, and entered it into Katsucon 2004 with every intention of winning. ofcourse I didn't, but I did make the finals, which still made me happy.

2004 - The begining
The rest of early 2004 I did videos here and there, mostly for myself rather than entering contests, until Run away with me, wich I treated similar to ordinary day, going over it with a fine tooth comb to make everything perfect. That particular video was inspired by Vlad's video to the same anime, of which i cannot remember the name atm, but I remember thinking, alright I can beat this guy, I can make a better laputa vid than him (yea right, what was I thinking....going up against the grandfather of amvs...) but I believed it at that time, and went with it. Made it perfect. with a rather lukewarm reception. Well I didn't let that stop me. I believe it was around that time that I started doing many ops on the org, with the intention of studying others works and learning from them, but also to get various ideas for styles and effects, and basically see what can be done with video editing. Examining others videos also taught me as a viewer what i should probably avoid in my own videos. it was after a few months of doing this, that the one video that would engrave my path into actually being somewhat known in this community came to be.

Summer 2004
Angel's Redemption.
Through the opinion phase, I met madbunny, and he was also my first real beta tester in my editing. He came up with some of the ideas that went into the video,(like the eyes at the end) and helped with beta after beta. This was also the first (and last) video I posted betas of in the suggestion forums. This video was the first release that I got a widespread response to in the forums, and I was like pig in mud ;p It was also the first video of mine to hit the top 10%, and I submitted this video to Otakon that year. It was a finalist, but didn't win.

Then came Animasia. My first Multi Editor project participation, and would lead to my first of a string of winnings at conventions. I went back to good old Ghibli again, this time to peter pan's flying soundtrack. (had just watched the movie, and had the song stuck in my head, so went with it :O) Animasia was loads of fun, and helped me alot in my editing, as i got a tremendous amount of feedback from various editors, and was the first time I started actually talking more with editors on aim, and became more like friends.

2004 - Fall
I submited the resulting video to AWA expo that year, My first AWA entry, and won best sentimental. My first award, I was completely surprised by it, and I must've had a HUGE smile on my face when I went up there to accept it. That pretty much made the rest of the con for me. I was on cloud 9. I may have met downwithpants and Jasper-isis for the first time in person at this awa, but it may have been the next, I can't remember exactly. I know Animasia was involved, which makes me think it may have been this one. but anyway.... I also made Swallow and Just another accidental love story around the time of animasia, both of which won awards at other cons.

Eternal sky was made a little later, specifically for the AWA Pro contest, but did not win anything there. (although Dchang almost gave it his vat guest award, but I think it was Corran? that ended up taking that :O
I later submitted it to ANimania though, where it won best Technical.
That was my first really technical video since Angel's redemption, and I tried allot of *different* types of effects to try and get a dreamy feel. I fell in love with the good old blur filter, which would be my companion for many a videos to come.


2005 - Angels Redemption 2
Following the trails of Eternal sky, I wanted to put to use the effects I learned in that to use towards a somewhat creepy emoish dark version of Angels Redemption theme, only this time to Haibane Renmei, one of my fav animes of the time. This was hands down my greatest technical ambition so far, also taking the longest to make, and with a somewhat original theme, in being told something like a mini movie. and I had high hopes for it when I submitted it to Sakura-con................ where it wasn't even a finalist. I was like Wha.... and i was heartbroken. Ok not realy, but yea I was disappointed that the video I actually worked hardest wasn't accepted. So after that, Anime Central came around, and I said what the hey, I'll submit it there also.... where it won best Dramatic. Go figure.

I suppose its also notable that I won Rookie of the year in this years VCAs, which was both surprising and enjoyable. This also started my little inner rivalry with Nostromo, who I then saw as my eternal rival (since we were both the picks for rookie of the year that year) and would be for some time afterwards :O

2005 - Summer
Did a few other vids, which I didn;t enter in contest, but where pretty well received, then I did the Mai hime video, Mai-Reason, wich won judges award at AnimeNext, but I wasn't happy with a few parts after getting some criticism on them, so I fixed em and released a directors cut version.

Oh yes, I think it was Otakon last year, there was put forth the challenge, that we would all overthrow DwChang's constant winning streak with romance at otakon. (he had won 3 in a row) so this year, I directly challenged Chang with some sappy song to chobits, which became "The little things". That was a funny year, because although me and Chang were competing against each other, we both ended up getting upset by a yuri sailormoon comedy vid that just happened to also be romantic. so we both lost. Good times. :O

This also marked the first break in my streak of videos winning awards. Guess someone out there figured I had enough head inflating for now



And then, there was Ros2.
And It was fun. and stuff. I also tried to copy others with flashy effects, rather than the subtle ones I usually do to try and blend stuff into footage that usually sin;t there for a purpose. and it was epic phail. Awell.


2005 - fall
And then there was Zetsumo. This is still by far my most technical and longest edited project to this day. This took me months to edit, and I did it specifically for AWA Pro 2005. it was also my first forey into action. Although I had the basic idea for this kind of story before whisper of the beast, that video did effect the outcome of this one in more than a few ways. That was probably the first video in a while that realy made me go wow, I want to try and do that! :O

This was also my first video that actually made it somewhat close to the top of the top 10%, and was my best received video upto that time. it also did win best action in pro that year. So my many months of work payed off. And it was good.

I think it was later this year that I completely revamped AuN Studios website and asked Jenna and Jennifer, along with my resident beta tester, Madbunny at the time, to join, who eventually did.

mmm... and since Firefox is acting funny on me, and if it crashes and doesn't let me post this, ima not retype it, ima hurry this up now....

Most of the interesting stuff is in our begining years anyway, right?


so... ima just outline the rest....

2006: won my first otakon with Shattered dreams, something I totally did NOT expect, since i hurriedly finished a random video I was working on just to submit something, and I didn't even go that year. I had been trying to win at otakon more than anything the past years, and the one time i halfassed entered, and didn;t go, I won. go figure. :O

2006 AWA: didn't submit much, aside from shattered dreams and my momocon IC to expo, and didn't win anything, mostly becauuse that was the year of

AYUMIX! and it was awesome timez. I think this was also the year I met Rina at awa, Who's first impression of me was aparantly scary, so we didn't actually hook up until later online, and she later joined AuN studios.


2007: there was my next heavily technical vid, though didn't take quite as long as zetsumo, Super cute girls. it was the only video i did that year, aside from a smaller one I made for Pro, wich ended up not winning anything, and that was because it was the year of...

AYUMIX2! and it was even awesommer timez at awa. Coulda done without all the drama on the forums tho. And I still have to make those DVDs ........
anyway meeting half the editors in person and showing it infront of such a large crowd , and as afro samurai to boot, was definately one of the highlights of my life as an AMV editor. :O

rest of 2007 to 2008 so far has been pretty dry so far, but after the 3d i managed to pull off and learned a ton of for ayumix2, I have quite a few major projects planned....... so we shall see


I guess I still made that TLDR huh, didn't realize there was so much history to cover :O

[dwchang]

Since I see a few references to me, I feel obligated to reply...

STUFFS NOT INVOLVING SLAYERS REVOLUTION

tl;dr

Always making me use my hotkey Bob...tsk tsk

Oh yes, I think it was Otakon last year, there was put forth the challenge, that we would all overthrow DwChang's constant winning streak with romance at otakon. (he had won 3 in a row) so this year, I directly challenged Chang with some sappy song to chobits, which became "The little things". That was a funny year, because although me and Chang were competing against each other, we both ended up getting upset by a yuri sailormoon comedy vid that just happened to also be romantic. so we both lost. Good times. :O

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

...well not you, but that dude who made that other video.

But yeah I remember that

[Bakadeshi]

hmm i just rememebred that the meeting jasper-isis and downwithpants was probably at Otakon, since jasper doesn't go to awa....

[inthesto]

Oh yeah, there's this important part of my AMV autobiography where I played DotA with Castor and some other people from here whose names I never bothered figuring out.

brb, finishing lothar's on stealth assassin.

[Castor Troy]

Oh yeah, there's this important part of my AMV autobiography where I played DotA with Castor and some other people from here whose names I never bothered figuring out.

brb, finishing lothar's on stealth assassin.

Too bad I retired from dota.

[dwchang]

hmm i just rememebred that the meeting jasper-isis and downwithpants was probably at Otakon, since jasper doesn't go to awa....

Yeah I've only ever seen dwp at Otakons. 2005 and maybe 2006? I don't remember . Jasper and krzt seem to be staples now though (two or three years in a row now?). Hopefully that continues.

Oh yeah, there's this important part of my AMV autobiography where I played DotA with Castor and some other people from here whose names I never bothered figuring out.

brb, finishing lothar's on stealth assassin.

That was me and Suberunker ass!

You'll feel my wrath...in the form of a sheep stick!