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Information

• Member: Scott A Melzer
• Studio: NoN.D.E.
• Title: New World Man
• Premiered: 2002-08-06
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Character Profile
• Song:
  • Rush New World Man
• Anime:
  • Tenchi Muyo! (OAV)
  • Tenchi Universe (TV)
• Participation:
  • Otakon 2002, Otakon 2002 (2002-07-26)
• Comments: This video was burning in the back of my mind, and when Otakon started creeping up I had the excuse to make it...
  
  The idea here was to take a character that everyone knew, Tenchi Masaki, and show him as something completely different from what people are used to. Tenchi is usually shown as a buffoon, but I wanted to show him as a complex character. Someone with strengths and weaknesses. Someone who is strong at times, but also someone who makes mistakes.
  
  The idea came to me while listening to the Rush album "Signals." The song just seemed to scream Tenchi. I started to think, "But, no one wants to see a Tenchi character video." Then I thought, "So what? I can't just make videos to try to win contests! I want to make this video!" So I did.
  
  The original idea was to make the video very dramatic. I wanted to stay away from Tenchi looking stupid, and from the girls. All of that is incredibly over done. I wanted to show Tenchi in not jus a positive light, but also the mistakes he makes. I wanted it to be moving and dramatic, but also sad.
  
  To this end I tried a new technique that I haven't seen used in videos, but has been used in cinema. I tried showing several clips from several different scenes together to give the impression that what you're seeing isn't just one occurance, but something that happens many many times (such as the training scenes or the girls being sad). I wanted to give the impression of "A portrait of a life." The video starts and stops with the same scene, that of Tenchi walking. The feeling that I wanted to give was that of Tenchi walking and thinking of his life. The good and the bad.
  
  This video was incredibly difficult. I needed a lot of help, and got it in the form of Richard Suchenski (ptmd42 on AMV.org). He lent me the Tenchi Universe DVDs but he couldn't come by much so his help was limited to seeing videotape copies of my progress every few days and commenting. However, the ideas were invaluable. The project seemed to be impossible at times, however. Tenchi just doesn't actually DO much besides look like an idiot and sword fight. Frustratingly, the more that I worked on the video, the more it turned into an action video and wandered away from its original dramatic intentions. For example, I wanted the video to be more like the scenes where the girls are crying, but sword fighting and some slight silliness kept creeping in. Ah well, this is an example of a video creating itself against the wishes of its creator, I guess...
  
  I had two steadfast rules when making this video (which only made it harder). No "Jump-cuts" and no "Lip-synching." I was sick of Jump Cuts from my DBZ video, and I'd just finished a lip-synch heavy video with "All Star." I thought that neither would build the drama that I wanted, and I wanted a much more "old-school" feel to the video. I also worked hard AGAINST having a story in the video. I wanted a character study, the idea that Tenchi is looking back on his life, not a narrative. All of these things just made it harder, of course!
  
  I'm reasonably happy with the results, but would have liked it to have been more dramatic. Still, I managed to fit in some subtlety, form, play with the new cinematic technique, and get Pretty Sammy in there. All in all, I think it worked out well. Not what I'd expected or wanted, but are they ever?