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Information

• Member: dwchang
• Studio: Ninja Gaijin
• Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends
• Premiered: 2007-07-20
• Categories:
  • Fun
  • Romance
  • Sentimental
• Song:
  • Me First and the Gimme Gimmes End of the Road
• Anime:
  • Adventures of Mini-Goddess (TV)
  • Ah! My Goddess (OVA)
• Participation:
  • Sac Anime 2007, Sac Anime 2007 (2007-07-14)
  • Otakon, Otakon AMV Contest (2007-07-20)
  • Animethon 14, Animethon 14 AMV Contest (2007-08-11)
• Comments: This video is a cute little Upbeat Romance video that I made for Otakon 2007. I've had the idea for quite some time and having not entered Otakon or edited in the last two years, it seemed like something fun to restart myself in the hobby so to speak. Afterall if it's not fun, why come back? :P
  
  Also to be honest, I wanted to not make a typical Sappy Romance video that everyone was expecting me to make upon my return :P. Now I of course have PLENTY of such ideas left, but I guess I wanted to do something a little different. For the viewers at Otakon to see the title card, expect one thing and then be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully you will be as well.
  
  The song itself is a cover of a (in my opinion) very famous R & B love song by Boyz II Men from the early 90's. Being old school I can fondly remember hearing this song on the radio all the time during Middle School and anyone my age (or older) probably remembers the same.
  
  It was a song they'd play at Middle/High School dances. You know, that awkward "standing three feet apart from each other, hands on waist or shoulders while only going side to side" dance. No one else remembers that? Bah!
  
  Unfortunately, I took my own familiarity with the song for granted and figured everyone would also remember the song. My hope was that with having that familiarity with the viewer already established, having a fun and upbeat cover of a song that they already knew would make things even more fun and memorable. Especially since the cover sounds quite a bit different from the original :).
  
  I of course failed to realize, not everyone is as old as me and thus an important part of the song itself is probably going to be lost the younger folks around here.
  
  Oh well.
  
  To make things "worse," the title for this video also assumes familiarity from the viewer. In this case, familiarity with a particular Children's Book Series by Shel Silverstein that included A Light in the Attic and *gasp* Where the Sidewalk Ends. I remember my First Grade Teacher reading these books to the class over...wow...20 years ago O_o. In any case, the title of this video pays homage to that book series and is well...a more complicated way of saying "End of the Road." ;)
  
  In any case, regardless of your familiarity with the original song (or lack thereof), I hope you enjoy the video. I had a good time making it!
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  Comments on particular scenes:
  "Without holding you tight"
  -Some of my beta testers didn't like it, but I LOVED the zoom, blur and freeze on this particular guitar riff as well as the subsequent embrace. In particular, how I synced "tight" to when Belldandy puts her arms around Keichi. It just worked.
  
  "Spinning around and around..."
  -Oh come on, what other scene would I have used? This scene is so much gold.
  
  "To the End. Of. The. Road"
  -My first beta had a lot less cuts and a bunch of slower transitions, but then my beta testers scolded me. This particular sync pattern is how I "fixed" it so to speak and I think it helps the video's flow immensely. This particular verse is one of the better ones and hopefully you hear the transitions and or movements that I chose.
  
  "I belong to you."
  -If you know me well enough, you know I love doing motion syncs where the scene itself hasn't changed, but the motions of a particular character flow with that of the lyrics, tone of voice or music itself. It's a more subtle type of sync, but I love when people successfully do it. In turn, I of course love using it whenever possible. It's unfortunate most folks don't see it, but I think subconsciously they know something was right :P.
  
  I really wrote way more than I should've for one little scene, but I guess it's more of a general comment since I do this particular type of 'sync' or 'flow' very often.
  
  "We should be happy together forever..."
  -I really liked the cuts/transitions I made and also the subtle syncs for the sake of flow.
  
  Drum Roll
  -I originally had a bunch of white flashes to these, but they were too harsh and out of place. I don't do many super fast tempo syncs and thus the additions of these for the two or three drum rolls seemed really out of place. I'm more about mood, feeling and flow than hitting every note like some editors. It's a taste preference and style thing I guess.
  
  "This time instead, just come to my bed."
  -This line just amuses me I guess. It was in the original and now that I'm older I realize how (in my opinion) out of place it was for the type of love song it was portrayed as :P. The scene selection also reflected some "out of place" moments in the show.
  
  Halfway Speech
  -For those who are familiar with the original, this is the part of the song where one of the four singers "talks" to the girl and gives this heartfelt apology and confession of love. It's all lovey dovey and even too sappy for me :P.
  
  With that in mind, this particular cover takes it in a totally different direction and goes with a humorous approach. I in turn, went with more humorous scene selection that surprisingly fit with the actual story in Ah! My Goddess (to some degree).
  
  Second Chorus and Chibi Masks:
  -I'm pretty sure this particular section will have viewers divided. Some will love the cuteness while others will find it distracting. I actually agree with both points of view, but obviously decided to keep the cuteness because well...I like cute things.
  
  The six masks were actually the fastest masks I've ever completed and this was really surprising considering I completed them a day before the deadline. Anyone who knows me knows I hate masking and am not that good on the technical side. In fact, I had to re-read threads on how to even use After Effects because I forgot entirely. I think I did a decent job and they're relatively clean given how quickly they were done.
  
  The actual footage was provided by Vlad a day before the deadline since I did not own the Adventures of the Mini Goddess DVD so he really saved my ass there. Thanks Dad! :P
  
  Also regardless of how distracting the masks can be (hopefully they are not), I did in fact do the normal edits behind them prior to putting the masks there. A day before the deadline, I basically had a "complete" video so to speak and just had to insert the masks. I did it this way so that the actual scene selection and flow (without the masks) could stand by itself and the edits still very much apparent. That way no viewer could claim I was lazy and using masks to hide my own bad edits :P.
  
  Seriously, watch the second chorus without paying attention to the masks and you'll see I made edits. Maybe then you'll be a little more forgiving :P.
  
  Final White Flash, Kiss and Fade to Black"
  -Oh come on, where else would I end the video? :P
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  Final Thoughts:
  As stated, this video was done because I thought it would be fun and thankfully it was (even with a tight deadline). It's probably because it was something different for me.
  
  Funny thing is, I was jokingly commenting to my friends during Otakon that if I lost, it obviously meant I should go back to my old ways with making Sappy Romance AMVs to 80's Music. After all that strategy did pretty well for me in the past and this song was a cover of a song from the *gasp* 90's! That's just too recent!
  
  Fortunately I was able to win my category so perhaps it'll show me that I don't *have to* make an 80's Sap Video and thus I'll keep making new stuff :P. At the same time, I do have a few of those in mind, so we'll see where things go from here ;).
  
  It's certainly not my strongest or favorite video, but I had a fun time making it and enjoy watching it so I guess that's all that matters :). In any case, I hope you enjoy the video and if you're part of the 1% who will actually read and get to this point, thanks and enjoy!
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  Hours Spent: ~30 or 40 hours? I surprisingly edited this fairly quickly and completed it in five days.
  
  Equipment and Software used:
  -My Quad Core 2.4 Ghz Computer
  -Adobe Premiere 6.5
  -Adobe After Effects 5.0
  
  Thanks to:
  -Pwolf - General Beta Testing and provided Ah! My Goddess R2s.
  -Vlad G Pohnert - Provided The Adventures of the Mini Goddess scenes for me to mask
  -AtomX - General Beta Testing
  -Corran - General Beta Testing
  -Castor Troy - General Beta Testing
  
  Awards/Recognition:
  Otakon 2007
  -Best Romance/Sentimental