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Information

• Member: Kevin Caldwell (proxy)
• Title: Believe
• Premiered: 2000-07-01
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Drama
  • Character Profile
• Song:
  • Franka Potente Believe
• Anime:
  • Battle Athletes Victory
• Participation:
  • Anime Expo 2000, Anime Expo 2000 (2000-06-30)
• Comments: Originally premiered at Anime Expo 2000.
  
  the following is a copy of an email Kevin sent to the yahoo amv mailing list shortly after the premiere:
  
  From: "Kevin Caldwell"
  Date: Thu Jul 6, 2000 1:50 am
  Subject: Re: [amv] Re: AX2K Contest Impressions
  
  Mark Neidengard wrote:
  > > Kevin Caldwell, Believe by ???, footage from Battle Athletes
  
  The song's by Franka Potente.
  
  > > In the words of a friend of
  > > mine, this video "makes me want to watch a series I had written
  > > off as crap",
  
  Interesting, and not the first comment along those lines that I've
  heard. Ironically enough, I came extremely close to not even
  entering this video, since I thought (and still do) that it did a
  great disservice to an anime that I felt was quite enjoyable. (Of
  course, I'm talking about the TV series here; the OAV was nothing
  special.)
  
  I actually consider that the second most embarrassing thing that I've
  ever created. My ultimate shame comes from the truly awful
  Goldeneye/VP Miyu video. Many times I have wished for someone to
  record their favorite bits of the Oprah show over that master (in SLP
  of course, so it dies a slow, painful death), but the gods
  continually laugh at me. Maybe it's because I don't have cable...
  
  Joe Croasdaile wrote:
  > heheh you thought this was best of show... first off I really liked
  > some of the effects, but some were way over done and I thought
  > detracted from the video. I would not say "flawless" because I
  > thought the first ten seconds had cheesy/nasty apparant effects.
  
  I would like any historians in the audience to make a note of this
  occasion. I would also like to ask any list members with heart
  trouble, who have a history of mental illness, or who are expectant
  mothers to please delete this message immediately, because I'm about
  to do something so shocking that I don't want the consequences on my
  conscience.
  
  Ready? Here we go:
  
  I... agree with Joe.
  
  As I progressed with work on "Believe", I could see it straying ever
  farther from my initial vision. I felt like a prophet who forsaw his
  own death in a car wreck but for some reason immediately switched
  careers to become a stunt driver. That opening sequence (it's way
  longer than 10 seconds) was my major miscalculation, but because of
  the way the video was paced, I didn't have a quick fix for it.
  
  I finished that thing two weeks before the convention, and I had a
  choice of either trying to salvage it or to do the William Tell vid,
  which would actually be fun to work on.
  
  I think my most glaring weakness is my general inability to handle
  lyrics properly. I've always tended towards songs where lyrics were
  a non-issue or were good lip-sync material (or both...). I believe
  that "Phantom of the Opera" is the only (good) video where I handled
  extended lyrical sequences without resorting to a lip-sync.
  
  This song ("Believe") was not a good choice for me, because not only
  did it have a resonable amount of lyrics, but the words were more
  spoken than sung. I tried to make the syncs more dynamic than normal
  by adding motion or pasting them into the background, but I really
  was disappointed in the final product.
  
  Thus passes my one attempt at a "special effects" video...
  
  > >Perhaps Joe can congratulate himself on this
  > > apparent karmic turn of events after last AX's contest. ^_^;;
  
  It was actually his choice of categorization last year that caused me
  to think that "Believe" wouldn't stand a chance as an Action entry,
  since it didn't have constant explosions or gunfire, just occasional
  quick cuts. It also comitted a fatal sin in my book (for any
  category, but especially Action): I think that it's BORING. I'm glad
  it didn't win anything, because then I'd know that you people were
  just humoring me. Heh heh.
  
  Kevin Caldwell