GEHIRNSTURMEN

[CrackTheSky]

I have a lot to say about this but I'll start by saying that I think this:

"Gehirnsturmen" consists of the words "Gehirn", which means "Brain", and "Sturm" which means "storm". The way it's konjugated "sturmen" is gramatically wrong though, but it's a literal, naive (and wrong) translation of the expression "Brainstorming". The reason I used it as the title for the video is blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

could easily be construed as a long-winded "explanation" for random violence and gore. In fact after watching it for the first time I couldn't help but think "lolli's full of crap."

Okay, that said, I don't really think that, and I loved this video. It reminded me (conceptually, not in terms of content or aesthetics) of this video from years ago. Here are some bullet points on various things worth mentioning that came from my watching this:

• This was super uncomfortable to watch, not just in terms of the violence, but the effects work you used which was horribly tacky and flat-out ugly more often than not. This is one of the few contexts though where that actually helped the video, and I know you were doing that 100% intentionally, given that this isn't exactly a video that was supposed to be "pretty" or anything. So, great job with the effects. Hiedeous in almost every way, but always in the best way.
   
• This is possibly the first time (although I'll anticipate somebody correcting me) a video that could rightly be categorized as both "horror" and "dance", and that's awesome.
   
• I showed this video to my girlfriend as she was a huge fan of Into The Labyrinth and tan(x), and I think she enjoyed this one too, although probably less so than I did. But she made an interesting comment, which just goes to show how differently people think about things. After it was over I said, "Yeah, it's pretty uhh...violent, huh?", and she responded with, "Yeah...but it reminds you that stuff like that" (she was referring mostly to the Akira scenes I think) "actually happened to people. They burned and melted when the nuclear bombs were dropped...it's horrible to think about."
   
• Mastamind mentioned the sync with Rei's wings from EoE...definitely the part of the video that totally won me over. Awesomely clever and fitting.
   
• Parts of this video must have been nightmarishly tedious to edit.
   
• Between this and Into The Labyrinth, you've made the horror videos I've always wished I could make.
   
• I love the way you edit, just in general. Everyone else seems to be trying to figure out ways to push videos to be prettier and "smoother" in terms of how they edit; you're pushing in exactly the opposite direction. I love that in some respects, this video seems to be a giant middle finger to generic AMVs of all eras. It's exciting to see where you're going to go next. No matter what I might try to guess, I'm sure it'll be in a different direction.

I haven't found myself with this much to say about a video in a while, I'm sure there's more but I'll restrain myself now. Anyway, excellent work.

[Bollocks]

I don't even watch AMVs anymore, but I went to AKROSS to check out your video, and wasn't disappointed. I'm fully expecting your next video to be the interpolated final scene from Ashita no Joe edited to all of No Love Deep Web backwards. Don't let me down.

[lolligerjoj]

hey hey hey thanks for the comments

maybe colorful borders werent best idea.

I love them

I just think some of the things in it got a little repetitive.

Yeah, I acknowledged that when conceptualizing this, but I think it actually works in favor of the video (at least the way I see it. Which is: I wanted the video to feel like the pain doesn't seem to ever stop, it all just keeps on happening, making the viewer feel to actually want to escape the video.)

I wonder how much more positive its reception would be if viewers didn't expect something less outrageous from you, which, given what you've edited before, is a little confusing to me.

I think that this video actively works against most people's taste (which is intentional), so in that sense I am not surprised that many cannot be reached with this video.
Also, I think I might actually be the troll some accuse me of since I kind of enjoy reading about people that utterly despise this video. But in a way, that was part of what the video is about, so not respecting this reaction would be pretty absurd of me I think.


@CrackTheSky:
Thank you for the lengthy and multifaceted comment! I enjoyed it very much!

given that this isn't exactly a video that was supposed to be "pretty" or anything.

You're right, but weirdly enough, I actually find this video very beautiful in a way. Maybe my taste is just fucking shit but the way everything doesn't want to look pleasing makes it look pleasing for me again.

But she made an interesting comment, which just goes to show how differently people think about things. After it was over I said, "Yeah, it's pretty uhh...violent, huh?", and she responded with, "Yeah...but it reminds you that stuff like that" (she was referring mostly to the Akira scenes I think) "actually happened to people. They burned and melted when the nuclear bombs were dropped...it's horrible to think about."

I'm very glad you mentioned this, because in the initial idea, this video was just going to be about torture. (Some remnants of that are still apparent in the part around 2:00). It was just some kind of goal, as I knew that a video with this music was going to have a really hard time, so I had to make it at least something clear in concept. But as I worked on it, it just wouldn't feel natural to force it, so It became more and more abstract and I gave up on trying to do various shit to make this thing more accessible. Now, I really consider this video to be about "pain" in general (next to chaos), and I think it really is more applicable not just politically, but in personal things as well. So your girlfriend thinking like that is definitely another aspect that makes me think that this video was a success. ( <- me, actually).
Oh, and when she was talking about nuclear things, she probably didn't mean Akira but rather the Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen) scenes

Parts of this video must have been nightmarishly tedious to edit.

Hmm... actually I enjoyed making most of this. With most of the synchronising I did things dynamically with After Effects Scripts, so the whole project was pretty easy to manage even If I tried to change the way I wanted the whole thing synchronized. Quite contrary to tan(x), where the last month was just motion masking to get rid of shitty twixtor warping. This time the only instance where I had to use Twixtor pro was at the squashing scene around 1:55. (stop with the arm all over the place pls I understand you are getting squashed but really you are fucking up my shit here)

I love that in some respects, this video seems to be a giant middle finger to generic AMVs of all eras. [...] It's exciting to see where you're going to go next. No matter what I might try to guess, I'm sure it'll be in a different direction.

I'm curious as well! But hmm. I might just do something completely normal. My favorite videos sometimes seem to be the most generic ones. So.... HM!

I'm fully expecting your next video to be the interpolated final scene from Ashita no Joe edited to all of No Love Deep Web backwards. Don't let me down.

Thanks for the tip! Starting working on it now!

[KnightAMV]

Wasn't a big fan of this one, regardless of what the purpose was. If you scratch a chalkboard and call it a song, you will be successful if you wanted people to hate it or cause discussion but does that makes the song better? The video felt fairly random, but deep is the word I've seen many describe it which is often used a way of saying "I don't understand it". Especially when they can't expand on why it is deep. Or they will all have completely different reasons. If something can mean anything then it could also mean that it just has no meaning. You could try to say that you left it for interpretation or you could say you failed to convey a clear message, but I guess you could also say it was just too deep and people couldn't understand it. Kinda reminds me of Duchamp's Fountain, where the piece itself wasn't good by any stretch but is still considered to be one of the most influential pieces of art by many due to what surrounds it rather than the piece itself. But I really couldn't care less about what surrounds the piece but more for the video itself and in that sense the video didn't deliver for me. Still I would like to see you apply your skills in a more interesting way like by trying a different genre of video for example. Good luck with your next video though, looking forward to it. A bit of a late response but yeah.

[lolligerjoj]

heheheh I'm really sorry
I apologize for all the people that have offended you by considering this a good video. They are obviously stupid! Thanks for the battle cry!

I think if a sad video or a scary video can be considered good, there is no inherent problem with calling a painful video good. I don't require you to consider it good though obviously. There's nothing wrong with just not liking it.
Actually, I imagine scratching a chalkboard could be made into a very interesting song, if it's used in a interesting fashion. Obviously just leaving it unedited makes it hard to discern if it can be considered a song at all.
Is this video "deep"? I have no idea what that means. I am really wondering why so many people seem to think that everyone considers this video to be literally "deep". I actually can't remember more than 2 or so. This video has obviously themes, I obviously had some intentions for the viewer to experience, and this video certainly is not just a random collection of violent scenes and shitty effects. I don't think that you can "not get" the video, it's just that some people might not pick up on what some of my intentions were. But that's not a problem, cause the video might still work on them as intended.

[KnightAMV]

Yeah I understand your point but pain is kinda murky water. When it comes to something that is sad or scary though there are also positive that come with that. For something to be sad you have to have a emotional connection with something , for something to be scary there has to be exhilaration that comes a long with it. With pain though there really isn't a positive. Pain/Pleasure as a concept work so that if something is bad you will feel pain, and if something is good you will feel pleasure. For example if I put my hand on a hot stove I will feel pain, it's my body's way of telling me it's bad, or if I don't eat anything for a long time I will feel pain. In contrast if I eat something after being hungry it will feel good or feeling exactly as a incentive to mate. It works quite obviously in nature but there are man-made interventions so it's not so black and white at this point. But feeling pain without any sort of purpose or gain doesn't really give me an incentive to watch. If it was to be able to empathize with pain others had to go through, you could make a point but such a obscure type of pain (more of an annoying type, like the chalkboard example) I don't think there is much value in it. Going back to the stove example, if I'm watching the video and feel a sort of "pain" and there isn't any incentive to keep watching I would take my hand off the stove or in the case, stop watching the video. An example of going through pain but getting a reward would be physical exercise or working for a job you don't enjoy but in both cases you get something out of it, and I didn't feel I got something out of the video. Kinda talking about general concepts now and loosely going over them but if there is one thing your video did undeniable do well is stir up a discussion. I guess you can be proud of that, I apologize if my writing is kinda rough or crass but I much prefer speaking to writing and often don't refine my writing.

[lolligerjoj]

I think it is perfectly valid for you to refuse seeing value in the depiction of pain. I don't agree about that being an universal thing though.

The same way you need to have an emotional connection to something to feel sadness, the connection to your real physical body is required to feel physical pain. Having a body is a pretty cool thing in my opinion.
It's also not difficult to find examples that already are building primarily on painfulness. First thing that comes to my mind is the Saw movie franchise. Even though they're definitely pretty stupid movies, they are still respected as what they are, and have an undeniable amount of fans.