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Still lurking
2007-12-21 13:00:39
There wasn't much progress with project "Sisters" during the last months, so there wasn't/isn't much to report. I'm somehow uninspired in that matter, and I have problems to concentrate.
The reason is that I did fall in love, and my thoughts are mostly revolving around her. The whole matter developed slowly but fine. But our sympathy became obvious to our friends, and they liked the idea that we could become a couple. Sounds like a good thing, but it wasn't. They tried to force it. That was so wrong. She reacted like me if someone puts pressure on me to do a certain thing - doing the opposite, no matter what the original intention was. She has withdrawn. So I have the problem to get our relationship back to the level we were before, if it's possible at all. Damn! How said a wise man: "If you have friends you don't need enemies." -
Watching anime...
2007-09-18 13:24:23
...is good for education.
Last week Japan started a satellite to explore the Moon. A German online newspaper brought an article titled "Sayonara Selene - Konnichi wa Kaguya" Selene is the name of a former Japanese satellite to explore the Moon, Kaguya the name of the actual one. They did explain who Kaguya is - the Moon princess from Taketori Monogatari. So far it is correct. But they translated Taketori Monogatari to "Legend of the Moon Princess", what is wrong. The correct translation is: "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter".
You may ask: "What has this to do with anime?" That's simple. The full title of my favourite anime is "Shin Taketori Monogatari: Sen Nen Joou" - "New Tales of the Bamboo Cutter: Queen of a Thousend Years". So I knew the correct translation from my favourite anime. It is really loose based on Taketori Monogatari, with Yayoi being Kaguya.
It may be a weird resemblance, but I'm under the impression the one who is responsible for names at the Japanese space agency is a fan of the series too. The first (hence elder) satellite is called Selen(e), like Yayoi's elder sister, and the second called Kaguya, who impersonates Yayoi. But maybe that's only a wish of a fan, since both names are related to the Moon, even without Queen Millennia.
If someone is interested in the story of Kaguya, two links to WikiPedia, the first English, the second German:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taketori_Monogatari -
Sisters
2007-09-16 16:21:04
is not only the project name of my actual project (which it got for it's contents, of course). It is the relationship that is has to "Millennium Game" too. It uses the same anime and will have the same basic structure. For a while I was even thinking about using "Secret Game" for this AMV too. But the lyrics are too strong for a sisterly love. While in the past I did collect the scenes and edit the songs, today I started really with editing.
"Millennium Game" got more downloads within this week than "Fighting" or "Flash Amamori" (my other Queen Millennia AMVs) from their releases until now. Maybe it's because it was shown at a con. But despite the higher interest, the star rating is as low as for my other Queen Millennia AMVs. That finally convinces me that the fact, how well known (and loved) an anime is, has a high impact at the star ratings. The comments that I got so far in the announcement threads and as QC don't give much of a clue what is liked/good (beside the scene choice) and what is disliked/bad. I was hoping for a bit more (detailed) feedback, because I want to know where I can improve.
The first QC was saying "DONNER und DORIA". I can't even translate it literal, only a part "thunder and ...", but since it's comparable to a saying, literal translation would be wrong at all. And I don't know a comparable expression in English. It's an expression of respectful amazement. That's a nice return for all the effort. I have never expected to get such an reaction (of course I was hoping for it XD), especially since I received it after the star rating was reliable down. -
Inside "Millenium Game"
2007-09-12 16:01:32
Since the chances are low that some of my journal readers knows the series, I will give some insight into the scene selection. For sure, I will not explain every line. Of course, explained that way it will spoiler more than the AMV does. But since it seems impossible to get an English version... (Japanese, Spanish and German is no problem)
Many of the scenes have a double meaning. While they look very literal, they express the opposite of the song text at the same time. Though I have to confess, it was hard not to make it too literal.
Before you read the following lines, it might be good if you take a look at this Synopsis: http://anime.mikomi.org/series/1381.html
"no more pain" - the hospital scenes. The events that brought Hajime into the hospital are the base for their relationship, which will bring them enough pain in the future.
"no memories remain" - Hajime and Yayoi in front of ruins. This memory will remain forever. It's the Ammamori house, in which Hajime's parents died during the explosion that is shown as the musical part begins.
"I give you all the stars I see" and the meteorites. On one hand, this is more literal than you might expect. It is really Yayoi that "gives" this falling stars. They are sent from her home planet, are the fuel for her space ship. But she takes them too. She steals them from the observatory which had salvaged them.
"The rain is gone, no pain is here" These lines caused me the most trouble. Remember that I wrote about a gap that I left because I was lacking an idea? This exactly was the gap. Originally I wanted to use more literal scenes: Hajime stands in the rain and Yayoi comes with an umbrella. But since they have differences, Hajime steps back into the rain several times. As he finally stays under the umbrella, the rain stops. Immediately after that happens an earth quake. A gap opens and Hajime falls into it. Yayoi can save him in last second before the gap closes. I was never able to match these scenes in a satisfying way to the lyrics.
"all your love" These scenes are the weirdest (at least to me) that I did use. The "dream" effect isn't added by me, it's from the show. These scenes are shown twice, once as Yayoi's memory, once as Hajime's memory. But never the "real" event is shown, despite that it must happen during the time span of the show.
"now you can play, all the games, with me" For sure not. They will never play together again, because Yayoi starts to her final voyage - which I show as ending of my AMV.
Enough with that. Of course, there were more scenes for which I wanted tu use more literal first an decided for less literal or even opposite later. But this would mean to explain nearly every line.
One last thing. You might remember that I had difficulties with one of the effects. It was this watermark like overlay. My original plan was to make it colored (sepia like), and my tests were satisfying with a less complex effect combination, without the need of an additional render step. But as I applied it to the AMV, it looked weird. The colored watermark was causing some really strange color mixes. And it became obvious, that the simpler method worked well with some clips, but with the majority not. So I had to "return to the drawing table". -
2007-09-10 15:58:41
Finally I did release Millennium Game. It's 24 hours ago, and no responses so far. Only a handful of stars, and if the tendency remains, it becomes low rated like all my Queen Millennia AMVs.
"A Secret Love" and "Episode#25" got op's. The first got average numbers, so compared with the org average it is low rated. The latter got a very good op.
This week I'll start editing project "Sisters". Last week I did edit the second of two songs. Today I started the job control of VDM, so that the clips are real that I had collected a while ago. So I have all that I need to work with.
Normally I write a "Making of..." for my journal buddies if I release an AMV. But this time I have written an "Making of..." that is available for all. And it is a while ago that I've finished it, so I don't remember that much. May be I collect the things that I remember and post it here later.
Saturday was a great movie night - 2 German TV stations aired 2 of my favourite films (Fortunately without overlapping!): "Startrek VI - The Undiscovered Country" and "Terminator 2 -Judgement Day". Terminator was an extended version, with scenes that were neither shown in the Germans cinemas nor was this version aired in German TV before. But I knew that scenes already from the book, and one of them is so important that I never did understand why they did cut it off.
JOURNAL: Keeper of Hellfire
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