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Information

• Member: Ashyukun
• Studio: Electric Leech Productions
• Title: Who Let the 'Fros Out
• Premiered: 2003-05-17
• Categories:
  • Comedy
  • Fun
• Songs:
  • Bahamen Who Let The Dogs Out
  • Two Ball Loo Moko Moko Afro Ken
• Anime:
  • Afro Ken (OAV)
  • Azumanga Daioh (TV)
  • Chobits
  • Cowboy Bebop
  • Excel Saga
  • Haré+Guu (TV)
  • Initial D Battle Stage
• Participation:
  • Anime Central 2003, Anime Central 2003 (2003-05-16)
  • Otakon 2003 (10 year Anniversary), Otakon 2003 (10 year Anniversary) (2003-08-08)
  • Manifest 2003, Manifest 2003 (2003-08-09)
• Comments: This is one video that I can't really blame on anyone else. Well, OK, maybe I can blame it on my wife, but not entirely. And I can kind of blame it on Willow as well, as his Animix project played a role in its devising.
  
  Once upon a time, I had this grandeous video idea of Otakon this year. It was a video I really wanted to make and had such big plans for what I would do with it. Then reality set in. Around the time of Anime Boston, I realized that while I MIGHT be able to get it done in time for the Otakon deadline, I would a) likely not be able to do it anywhere near the justice I felt it deserved and b) I would not have time for the other commitments I had to get done. So, it got moved to the back burner for a little while.
  
  This left me with an unexpected gap in my schedule, which I enjoyed for a while. Then, one day, Willow posted announcing his Animix project. Since it sounded interesting, I poked around the track list a bit, and found that most of the songs I could come up with ideas for were taken. Somewhere while browsing through the track list I wondered, "Hmmm. I wonder if "Who Let the Dogs Out" is on this disc, I could do something to that easily. Using Afro Ken! That would rock!" Since I didn't see it, I PM'd him, and found out it was in fact not on the disc. I was disappointed. But then I thought about it and realized that there was nothing (besides, perhaps, common decency...) stopping me from making a regular old AMV using that combination.
  
  So, I fired up Kazaa and grabbed all the versions of "Who Let the Dogs Out" I could find and found one that worked, and then grabbed a used copy of the CD from half.com (wife: Um, did you actually buy this Bahamen CD? me: Yeah, I got it from half.com. It was only like $5 including shipping. wife: You paid too much for it...) and started playing with the Afro Ken footage. I quickly realized that with the OAV only being like half an hour long- and like 10 minutes of that being the live-action interview with the creator of Afro Ken, I was going to have a hard time making a normal-length AMV with the footage. I also thought about it and realized that a) the second verse of the song just didn't work with Afro Ken and b) making people sit through four and a half minutes of "Who Lot the Dogs Out" would probably not be the best of ideas. So, I hacked and cut and mixed the song down to less than half its original length, and decided to tack the intro to the Afro Ken theme song on the front for the hell of it.
  
  The majority of the video is nothing more than basic fades and speed changes to make the video match up with the lyrics, and of course repeating and reversing some clips. Until the 'Afro Ken Invastion' as I referred to it, the only effects used were the 'Channel Flip V-Hold" effect I came up with that is first used at the beginning where I switch from the Afro Ken song to Who Let the Dogs Out, the title effects on the Afro Ken logo, and the static on the electronic-type sound effect (the same as the beginning of Eiffel 65's "Blue", I believe).
  
  As I got towards the end of the song, I realized that I was running out of footage that would work even faster than I thought I would. There were a lot of scenes in the OAV that just didn't work in the video, so I needed to come up with a way to make the video a bit longer. I don't totally remember what first gave me the idea for the Afro Ken Invasion, but I know I was giggling for a long time after thinking it up. It didn't work out -quite- like I had hoped it would (especially the Initial D segment, the shot I wanted just didn't exist in the series), but I was quite happy with it. I have to thank Vicbond007 for both telling me about and eventually getting me the footage for the Excel Saga segment- I didn't have the last DVD at the time.
  
  I am quite happy overall with how this video turned out. It's a lot of fun, and will probably be just about everyone's first exposure to the Afro Ken Anime. It's not likely to get picked up and released here, unfortunately, but it is a lot of fun, and even though no subtitled copies of it exist to my knowledge, it's still worth getting. :)
  
  Recognition:
  Honorable Mention at ACen 2003 & Otakon 2003
  Fan Favorite at Manifest 2003
  
  Since I have a bit of excess bandwidth to burn at the end of the month, I'm temporarily enabling a direct link to this video. Enjoy!