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Information

• Members: Nightowl, gambitt
• Studio: Nightowl Pictures
• Title: Mad World
• Premiered: 2003-08-08
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Other
  • Character Profile
  • Serious
• Song:
  • Gary Jules Mad World
• Anime:
  • FLCL (Fooly Cooly)
• Participation:
  • Otakon 2003 (10 year Anniversary), Otakon 2003 (10 year Anniversary) (2003-08-08)
• Comments: Where to begin.
  
  This video was incredibly important to me. I hadn't heard the cover of Tears for Fears "Mad World" until I saw the film Donnie Darko. I thought that Gary Jules brought a new level of darkness to it. What better show to use than FLCL, one of the fastest, most upbeat shows out there?
  
  Anyway, about six months before the Otakon deadline I began conceptualizing the video. I knew it wouldn't be like other FLCL videos, but frankly, I didn't care. This was something I needed for myself. I wanted something artistic, different; something people would understand and enjoy, yes, but also, something that I could speak with... something that would allow me to convey my own hopes and fears through entertainment media. I wanted to get back to my film roots and do something slow. I didn't want it to hit every beat or be overshadowed by effects. Unfortunately, being who I am, I had to mess with each and every frame in some way. That's just the way it goes, I suppose.
  
  Jeff Heller (gambitt) was staying with me over the summer by the time I began concentrating heavily on this piece. He ended up prepping a good number of the composites as I went to work putting together some of the other aspects of the thing. He also watched the show over a few hundred times to find what might be proper footage.
  
  We ended up using Adobe After Effects to do the composites, along with Magic Bullet to achieve an actual 2.35:1 Academy specified aspect ratio. I pulled out some of my favorite stock CDs of sky backgrounds, and utilized a technique I seem to use quite often - shooting the TV screen as video plays, then bringing it back in to the computer for an added digital effect.
  
  A good majority of the video is actually Photoshop composites matched and animated in After Effects, in order to change backgrounds or match shots. Also, the largest composite in the entire video - the multiple screens - used a bit of After Effect's CG element (something I doubt I'll be using again anytime soon). God, that was a headache... Jeff and I ended up having to ask the folks on Creative Cow a thing or two. If I stay with CG, I think next time I'll stick with good old Lightwave.
  
  I don't like to get into technical specifications too much... I find them, for the most part, meaningless. But if anyone cares to know, the video was ripped from the R2s of FLCL, an uncompressed stock footage CD, and miniDV (for the digital look). The audio was ripped from the Donnie Darko DVD. The MPEG was made using TMPEGEnc - VicBond007 provided the right specifications for me, as I'm not the greatest compressor in the world when it comes to PCs.
  
  The video participated in the Otakon 2003 AMV competition and lost to a Trigun video. Ah well, we can't have it all, eh?
  
  Regardless, this video is very important to me, it comes straight from my heart. What you see is who I am. So, I hope you all like it. If not... once again, ah well, we can't have it all, eh?
  
  NOTE: The video is encoded in it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 - if it gets stretched, it's a problem with your player. Originally I put 2:35:1 because I was very tired when I wrote this. So yes, I changed it.