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"Mishowne Kommmpleete!"
2005-03-26 14:33:15
"At the Chime of a City Clock"
Anime: GunGrave
Song: "At the Chime of a City Clock"
Artist: Nick Drake
Album: "Bryter Later"
Label: Island Records (November 1970)
Nightrunner Productions: Video #014
Folk Ballad
Sci-Fi Crime Drama
Program Used: Adobe Premiere 6.0
Video Format: AVI (XviD Encoded)
OP Credits Music: "Good Times Roll Pt. 1" - RJD2, "The Horror" EP
Participation: JACON '05 AMV Contest (April 16th, 2005)
(If it's accepted...)
Well, here we are again at the end of another project and I couldn't be more pleased. Where I ended "Madness" (previous video) on a sour note because it took me so long, "At the Chime of a City Clock" was far more pleasing to complete because I did it in a much more normal time-frame (2 1/2 Weeks).
I know what you're thinking. He rushed this for JACON, this video is going to suck and have low pre-production. You'd be right to think that too, but since I['ve had the concept and notes for this video dating back to January 6th, 2004, I already knew what this project would end up being like waaaaay before it was finished on March 25th, 2005. In bullshit theory, I've actually been working on this one for a long time too, I just only started to manifest it on digital celluloid within the last couple of weeks. Regardless, I'm elated on how it turned out and I hope fans of the series will like it and get what I was trying to say about Brandon and the decisions he made about Maria, Big Daddy, and Harry.
I was hit with the concept of this video on my birthday last year (also on January 6th, 2004), when Anime-One had posted Episode 14 of "GunGrave", when the show was still airing in Japan. Having played the game, I already knew the events in the episode were going to be explored in this one, but I didn't expect how well it would be done. I wrote a post in my journal here about it on that day that I watched it, and to make a long story short, I was completely floored. It almost felt like a movie, and they even put the episode title at the end of the episode, which is something I predicted they'd do. ^_^
The day before, I heard "At the Chime of a City Clock" by Nick Drake on one of the local College Stations around here and instantly fell in love with the song. I never knew about Nick Drake before that point, although I had been exposed to him before; there was a Volkswagon Beetle Commercial that used "Pink Moon" in it, and I thoght the song was unique, but not as stirring as "Chime" was when I heard it. I immediately went home to find every track from Nick Drake I could, especially "Chime", finding out whatever info on this mysterious artist I could as well.
The internet didn't disappoint. There are quite an abundance of websites dedicated to the late Nick Drake, a revelation that you find out about the man quickly. The mystery about his demise has yet to be dechiphered, but he lived a very depressed life with music being one of the few things that brought light into it. Still though, he's a very interesting person and a talent appreciated too late by most, but if you'd like to learn more about the man and his music after watching this video, peep this website - <A HREF="http://www.algonet.se/~iguana/DRAKE/DRAKE.html">The Nick Drake Files</A>.
I was until after I aquired the song that I realized the lyrics and mood of the song would fit GunGrave to a "T", specifically the earlier half when Brandon is still mortal. Some lyrics I'd be left on my own to interpret in my own way ("For a stone in a tin can..."), while others we're no-brainers ("And he will lose, If he won't choose, The one he may confide in...). Once I made the connection between the show and the song, mapping out the video on paper and in my mind was child's play. However, since "Madness" used up the resources on my laptop and GunGrave itself had yet to release on DVD in the U.S., I was left to wait until everything fell in place. Well, at least I had the song!
By mid-Feb., that finally happened when I picked up GunGrave Vol. 4, and I couldn't be happier. And once "Madness" was completed a few weeks ago, I jumped right on this one. To sum up the idea behind the video, I focused it on Brandon's life with the strict intention of not showing anything from his time as "Beyond the Grave". Those expectations fell fast when I reached the first lyrics (A city freeze, Get on your knees...), and had to compromise using the footage that fit those words best: Grave landing on the bridge and sliding through the snow, falling to his knees shortly after because his body isn't fully activated. Threw a clip of Mika Asagi and Dr. Tokioka for good measure too, since I was there.
After that, present day becomes a memory as I go back to Brandon's past, with a montage of the events that tore apart his friendship with his best friend, Harry MacDowell, and the withdrawal of his desire for Maria. In order to stay in both their lives and protect them, Brandon had to make some hard decisions, becoming Millenion's best sweeper and getting a lot of blood on his hands in the process. I'm sure it was a factor he didn't care much for, but dammit if the man wasn't good at it even when he was clumsy at most other things, especially at being social. Despite his sins and his quiet nature, Brandon Heat is a very complex and likeable character, and to watch him face his demons in his life is truly compelling. I just hope this AMV does it justice.
"At the Chime of a City Clock" will be my other entry for JACON '05, and because of that I won't post it here until April 16th, 2005 (day of the AMV contest) - the same reason "Madness" isn't up yet. I don't expect anyone who hasn't watched the series to care for it much, but for those who really felt GunGrave, it's my greatest wish that you cats like it. Still, feel free to to be honest if you review it - it's definetly a project I'd like feedback on.
Until next time,
Soul Brother Ryusynoke
0503.26
BTW, here's the lyrics again for those interested:
"At the Chime of a City Clock" by Nick Drake.
-----------------------------------------
A city freeze
Get on your knees
Pray for warmth and green paper.
A city drought
You're down and out
See your trousers don't taper.
Saddle up
Kick your feet
Ride the range of a London street
Travel to a local plane
Turn around and come back again.
And at the chime of the city clock
Put up your road block
Hang on to your crown.
For a stone in a tin can
Is wealth to the city man
Who leaves his armour down.
Stay indoors
Beneath the floors
Talk with neighbours only.
The games you play
Make people say
You're either weird or lonely.
A city star
Won't shine too far
On account of the way you are
And the beads
Around your face
Make you sure to fit back in place.
And at the beat of the city drum
See how your friends come in twos;
Or threes or more.
For the sound of a busy place
Is fine for a pretty face
Who knows what a face is for.
The city clown
Will soon fall down
Without a face to hide in.
And he will lose
If he won't choose
The one he may confide in.
Sonny boy
With smokes for sale
Went to ground with a face so pale
And never heard
About the change
Showed his hand and fell out of range.
In the light of a city square
Find out the face that's fair
Keep it by your side.
When the light of the city falls
You fly to the city walls
Take off with your bride.
But at the chime of a city clock
Put up your road block
Hang on to your crown.
For a stone in a tin can
Is wealth to the city man
Who leaves his armour down.
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As the deadline draws nigh...
2005-03-25 15:03:23
I'm starting to get nervous about this AMV contest at JACON. I've already finished "Madness", and I've got just 7 seconds and 9 scenes left in "At the Chime of a City Clock", so my content is there and ready. I even got the Bumper for our Clique, "Minority Report" that Devon made and Leroy tweaked (brought over by the latter last night). Leroy has even started to upload his videos to the server provided to the contest, but for a 400+ meg file, it took about 3 hours to upload. "Madness" is over a gig in size and when "Chime" is done, I'm assuming it'll be relatively as large. Uploading them will be an endeavor, but I hope I can at least get "Madness" up, which is Job #1 when I get home. While, that's going up, I'll be putting the finishing touches on "Chime" and praying that I find it sastifactory enough to enter the contest.
I'm expecting competition to be fierce this year at JACON, and hearing from friends that last year's con had the best AMV contest in the area, this year should be spectacular too. I'll have to buy admission for the con in order to participate in the contest, but at the moment, I'm still not sure if I can attend. I have to work that day (April 16th), in the morning, and not knowing when the contest is that day, and can't go about switching shifts at the job until I know when the damn thing is. They should be posting the schedule soon, and it's my hope that it's in the evening after I get off from work - but knowing my luck, I won't be so fortunate. Missing the contest is a reality I'm gonna have to accept, but still, I shouldn't be so pessimistic yet. If push come to shove, at least my boys (Devon, Leroy, Nick, and Paul - among others) will be able to tell me how much the crowd loathed my vids. ^_^
But first I've got to get them uploaded...
Yare, yare daze...
Soul Brother Ryusynoke
0305.25 -
"And as I sip my soda that I'm sure somebody spit in..."
2005-03-09 14:37:37
Well, "Love" has been up for a few days now, but since it's so old I'm sure it'll be awhile before anyone warms up enought to it to give it a review. Telling from the current star rating (2.5) it hasn't made waves yet.
The finalizing of "Madness" is finished. Despite some glitches here and there, I did what I could to fix the finite errors in it, but some I couldn't overcome on my increasingly slow laptop. I have the mind to format it now that I've taken off all the Nadesico DVD footage, but like a madman, I put on all the GunGrave footage I plan to use for "At the Chime of a City Clock" immediately after deleting "Madness's" video sources and defragging. Now I'm torn; either I can format, and then go through the trouble of installing everything again (XP Pro, Premiere, AMV App, etc.) and re-ripping the GunGrave footage again, and hoping to God everything works well, or I can slug through the mollases that is my Laptop right now. Since, "Chime" is a conventional video (Unlike "Madness" and it's million edits), I think I can have a quality video done in two weeks if I focus on it - that way it'll be done in time for JACON (with uploaded entries being due on March 26th).
Now that I think about it, I'd like to do something special for "Chime", if I'm gonna rush for the sake of JACON, I might be doing the project an injustice. And if I miss JACON with this video, there's always AFO6 in August. God, I sure hope the AMV contest is on Saturday this time, and after talking to one to the people in charge of AFO and the video contest there, it looks like it'll be that way.
Last year at AFO5, the AMV contest was on Sunday in order to attract folks to come back for final day festivities, and I can understand the sentiment behind that, but in the end, more people missed out on the contest and it just wasn't the experience that it was during AFO4. Now that was the BEST AMV contest I had ever been a part of; on Friday of AFO there was a meet-and-greet party for all the creators that were in the AMV contest and the staff involved. It was run by Jason ("Legionair" here at the .Org) and he had done his damndest to make it the coolest experience for all of us from start to finish. Later on that night there was an Adult AMV contest, where I was foolishly embarrased (read the journal entries back then for more details), but still had a great time anyway. For my first AMV contest experience, it was very conditioning. ^_^
Saturday was the Main AMV contest, and unlike theother contests I've been to, the judging was done after the videos were shown - not before the contest. Also the audience got to help with the judging (although that's not always a good thing when they'll mke noise for any bishie video that shows up). Plus, they had given away more awards than just Best Drama, Best Action, Best Comedy - there was Best Editing & Best Concept too.
I guess pre-judging is cool too, but I liked the suspense that came from judging on the spot. It's also uncool when you spend a lot of time on making your video, only for it to be left on the "cutting room floor" and not shown in pre-judged, time-constrained shows. I guess I'll just have to deal with it, since I don't run these contests, but it just sucks that AMV contests get the shaft sometimes by convention comittees. I've got no beef with Cos-players, but how come their events get more respect than AMV contests most times.
I heard JACON is a mixed bag, though they pre-judge, they give out plenty awards. I don't think "Madness" will be well-recieved, but if I'm lucky, I might have a chance with Best Editing. Maybe, I should just shup up and not jinx myself with pre-concieved notions. ^_^ Actually, I'm more excited for my friends' videos that they'll be premiering at JACON.
In AFO5, I ran into my friends Devon, Leroy & Paul who were inspired to make AMVs themselves after seeing the vids that were at that and other cons. I was all too excited to help them out with getting started and soon enough they were making vids in no time. Because of AMVs, we see each other all the time now, exchanging ideas and encouraging each other projects, viewing whatever we're working on and making suggestions on how to improve it. It's helped us all a great deal and since we worked so well together and had the same goals with making videos, we thought it would be a smashing idea to group ourselves together, much like "More Than Toast" or "Tornado Productions". That team's name is "Minority Report", and our skill is nowhere close to those cats, but we're trying hard to make ourselves known, especially at this years JACON.
Most would guess that we chose "Minority Report" simply because we're minorities racially, but it goes deeper than that. Being the articualte one on our clique, Devon ("Boiwondr Productions") phrased it best when he said that "All anime fans are minorities," and because we're underdogs in general we know it's a struggle to show what's special about anime to the uninformed and the misconstrued. But in making AMVs, we're minorities again, since we're coming into this from an unconventional route, with tracks and animes not often used in the AMV world. Sure we'll use a well know series from time to time, but for the most part we all want to be unique leave an impact on the viewers out there. I guess I'm trying to be more ambitious than my skills currently allow, but there's nothing wrong with aiming high out of the gate.
Anyway, that's all I gotta say for now. IT's back to work and then back home on working on "Chime". Thanks for reading and until next time...
Much love,
Soul Brother Ryusynoke
0503.09 -
"Love"
2005-03-04 17:03:40
I meant to add that I'll be posting video this evening called "Love" to Video Girl Ai. It's one I made in 2003, but it's one of my favorite vids.
Just a little dedication to all those out there that were victims of unreqited love. ^_^
Thanks!
SBR -
Done-and-done!
2005-03-04 15:14:24
Well, "Madness" is finally done!!!!
After 19 months of slacking on-and-off, I buckled down in the last few weeks to finish the few gaps I had in the project. Other than interlacing issues, the video is quite watchable, and I'd post here except for one thing.
JACON, a convention which is held here in the Orlando, FL Area is having an AMV contest, and I'd like it to be a surprise. I remember being told by folks that I met at AFO4 AMV contest that they saw my vids I entered up on this site before the competition, and I had felt the I tipped my hand a little when I heard that. Thanks to my roomate Nick the Stampede for bringing me to my senses when I was about to post up a compressed (and interlaced) version of it on the site. I could have made a huge mistake there.
A lot has happened since I last posted, I gotten together with some friends of mine - Devon, Leroy, and Paul - and were looking to form a union studio called "The Minority Report". The name has a double meaning since we're all minorities racially as well as minorities in the AMV game. The clique has got me excited about making AMVs again and makes for great competition amongst us as well as collabos.
Next video to work on is "At the Chime of a City Clock" by Nick Drake and to the anime "GunGrave". It'll be my drama entry for JACON 2005 (April 16, 2005) and I hope there aren't a slew of GunGrave videos there to pull attention from mine, but I'll have to wait and see what happens. If there's decent time, I can have a comedy entry for JACON too: "Very Educational" (previewed at the end of "Across the Board") done to the music of J-Zone and "GTO". But if it's not done in time, no problem since AFO 6 is right down the road.
Hope the next time I post isn't too long from now, but I'm bad with journals as is. ^_^
Until next time,
Soul Brother Ryusynoke
0503.04
PS. Big ups to "zark169" for the swift kick in the ass in that "review" he posted under "Madness". I'll have to credit you in it, before I post it. Here's hoping you'll edit your review when I have it posted on April 16.
JOURNAL: Soul Bro Ryu (A. Maximillian Russell)
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