My Profile

  • User Name: lostowl@globalnetisp.net
  • Member Since: Friday, December 14, 2001, 8:52 AM
  • Donation Level: Total Leech (Giver)
  • Name: Steven Robinson
  • Studio: Vicious Bunny Alternatives
  • Location: Burlington,VT, USA
  • Homepage: http://www.viciousbunny.net/
  • Last Login: 2007-03-02 19:35:11
  • Forum Info: Profile        Posts (0)
  • Journal: Last entry made on 2001-12-16 11:22:55
  • Usefulness: 135.2 with 23 opinions
    [average 119.3 of 231938 opinions; standard deviation 432 ]
  • Profile: Video editing has been a desire of mine since the early eighties when the first video cameras appeared at my school. Until recently, I couldn't find affordable hardware or software for my PC, though, so I have only lately begun making videos.

    "Girlfriend" was my first anime music video, which I made about a year ago over a single weekend. Basically nothing more than a series of clips, my major focus was an attempt to weave a plot. I recorded and sliced up about three episodes of Dual Parallel Trouble Adventure, which by the way is a light hearted rip off of Eva, complete with an emotionally void alien girl who is a robot pilot. Original, no? Anyway, to be honest, I only spent two days putting the video together because as I was only working with Dazzle's MovieStar, there really wasn't much I could do with it. Still, I am pretty proud of my first effort, especially the opening scene, which I almost set to Flight of the Valkeries, from Apocolypse Now. I only wish I still had the Dual DVD's so that I could redo it in MPEG2 quality.

    After discovering this AMV website, I posted my video and started downloading. Among the first videos I downloaded were "Odorikuruu" and "Sailor Senshi on Springer". I was thrilled at the use of overlays and effects that were used, as well as the concept of lip syncing, which frankly hadn't occured to me. I began plotting my second video.

    I recently finished my second video, "Downtown". While the major focus of the video was to practise editing techniques, I struggle over whether or not to include a theme. The obvious theme for a Niea Under 7 video is to focus on Mayu's journey from unhappiness to contentment. For a while, I searched around for music and clips that would fit the storyboard. However, the other major theme in the series is the general lameness of everything. The creator's own descriptions point out the intentional lamenes of the humor, animation, plot, and total lack or resolution. Finally, I decided to only apply a minor subtheme to the video surrounding the pressure to socialize. In the series, Mayu is asked to go out with some friends and she declines because she is self conscious. I felt the angry pushy sound of the B-52's remake of "Downtown" captures the sense that I get when I am pressured to socialize and really don't feel like it. Beyond that, there isn't much theme or plot to the video.

    I worked on "Downtown" for approximately five months, most of which was spent re-ripping clips to get the best quality I could, and subtly remixing the song to shorten it by half and provide a little more action. Also, I edited most of the clips to surpress the movement of mouths and remove the background for overlay. I find it destracting in other videos when the characters are moving their mouths, but not lipsyncing. So I worked "Downtown" to only have the people who were lip syncing moving there mouths. These meant editing nearly 1000 individual frames at one point or another to preserve background motion but no moving mouths.

    Final assembly took about four weeks, mostly as I tried out various codecs for editing. Once the video itself was finished, I realized that I never made a tag. I should have left it out, because the one I cobbled together is horrid. The other thing I realized was that nearly all of the work I did on effects is nearly unnoticable because they all blend in too well. Oh, well. Vindictively, I added a few more noticeable ones.

    So now, I have finished my second one. I have some thoughs for a third, but I may step back and write a fanfiction instead to clear my head. I may get some exercise, too, but that is unlikely.

    Peace.
    Steve

global average

  • Count231938
  • Originality8.47
  • Visual Quality8.37
  • Audio9.00
  • Action Sync8.45
  • Lip Sync8.24
  • Special Effects8.49
  • Effort8.60
  • Re-view-ability7.92
  • Overall8.43

average given

  • Count23
  • Originality8.57
  • Visual Quality8.30
  • Audio9.00
  • Action Sync8.39
  • Lip Sync8.88
  • Special Effects7.75
  • Effort8.78
  • Re-view-ability8.13
  • Overall8.22

average received

  • Count15
  • Originality7.67
  • Visual Quality7.40
  • Audio8.20
  • Action Sync6.93
  • Lip Sync9.20
  • Special Effects7.40
  • Effort7.53
  • Re-view-ability6.40
  • Overall7.00

10 FAVORITE ANIME

1.
Tenchi Muyo Movie 2: The Daughter Of Darkness
2.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
3.
Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water (TV)
4.
Love Hina (TV)
5.
Kiki's Delivery Service
6.
NieA Under 7: Domestic Poor @nimation
7.
Princess Nine
8.
Sailor Moon S
9.
Robotech
10.
Blue Submarine No. 6

My Videos (2)

  • Downtown (2002-03-13)
    [hits: 2762][opinions: 5]
    • B-52's Downtown
    • NieA Under 7: Domestic Poor @nimation
    • Character Profile
    • Comedy
    • Fun
    • Local
  • Girlfriend (2000-12-14)
    [hits: 3827][opinions: 10]
    • Matthew Sweet Girlfriend
    • Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
    • Action
    • Local