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Information

• Member: dwchang
• Studio: Ninja Gaijin
• Title: Believe in Me
• Premiered: 2002-03-09
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Romance
  • Sentimental
• Song:
  • Smashing Pumpkins Tonight, Tonight
• Anime:
  • Vision of Escaflowne, The
• Participation:
  • A-kon 13, A-kon 13 (2002-05-31)
  • MindWarp 2002 Spring/Summer AMV Contest, MindWarp 2002 Spring/Summer AMV Contest (2002-06-21)
• Comments: I made the video with somewhat of a character relationship in mind, that of Vaughn (original spelling. I swear! My friend is the one who translated it for the commercial releases and they made him change it) Fanel and Hitomi Kanzaki. I feel that the song lyrics and feeling fit perfectly (then again I figured that out b/c my then girlfriend pointed it out, so I'm not really that perceptive). Lines like "Believe in Me" fit nicely with the theme and relationships in Escaflowne.
  
  For the song itself, I divided each section into "Hitomi" parts and "Vaughn" parts. The quieter/slower parts were more Hitomi related and then after "Believe in Me" (which one can infer is Vaughn talking/asking Hitomi) it goes to a faster pace where Vaughn is generally fighting to protect Hitomi.
  
  For the fights and "strikes" themselves, I timed those to guitar/violin. This was the most evident "beat/tone" and I hope it is timed correctly. I hope this division and general story/theme is evident.
  
  Overall, I went for a video that was well timed and more importantly illustrated the relationship between Vaughn and Hitomi, over cool effects (which I don't know anyway ^_^). I felt the song was a perfect fit (both lyrically and tone/feeling) and the scenes were picked at specific times in the song for a reason. Either for meaning or because they fit "feeling" wise/appropriate-ness.
  
  In the end, I guess I just wanted to make a video that told a story(continuity is sort of there))/relationship and have it flow with the music (drama on slow parts, action on faster parts). I really hope this shows.
  
  The lyrics of the song are very important. I tried to make the song match not only the tone and music of the song, but also the lyrics. Some people on my opinions mentioned the lyrics enhancing the video so as per the request, here they are:
  
  "Tonight, Tonight" by The Smashing Pumpkins
  
  Time is never time at all
  You can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth
  And our lives are forever changed
  We will never be the same
  The more you change the less you feel
  
  Believe
  Believe in me
  Believe
  
  That life can change, that you're not stuck in vain
  We're not the same, we're different tonight
  Tonight, so bright
  Tonight
  
  And you know you're never sure
  But you're sure you could be right
  If you held yourself up to the light
  And the embers never fade in your city by the lake
  The place where you were born
  
  Believe
  Believe in me
  Believe
  
  In the resolute urgency of now
  And if you believe there's not a chance tonight
  Tonight, so bright
  Tonight
  
  We'll crucify the insincere tonight
  We'll make things right, we'll feel it all tonight
  We'll find a way to offer up the night tonight
  The indescribable moments of your life tonight
  The impossible is possible tonight
  Believe in me as I believe in you
  Tonight
  
  A few "meaningful" things (lyrically), that I hoped you noticed, were:
  
  "And our lives are forever changed"
  -Shows Fanelia and basically that Hitomi's life has changed now that she has been transported into Gaea.
  
  "We will never be the same"
  -Shows Vaughn as King of Fanelia. Since his country is destroyed, his life will never be the same. Originally, I wanted to show Fanelia burning as a layer on top of this, but it didn't look good. Maybe in the Remaster.
  
  "The more you change the less you feel"
  -Similar to the previous line. Vaughn changes a great deal because of the destruction of his country. This specific scene is when he is thinking about it.
  
  "Believe in Me"
  -Obvious...I hope ^_^
  
  "And you know you're never sure
  But you're sure you could be right"
  -Shows Hitomi scared and unsure about her circumstances on Gaea. Next scene shows her confident when they are finding Vaughn.
  
  "If you held yourself up to the light"
  -I guess a bit too literal in terms of lyric matching. Not sure if I should make it literal or not. Suggestions?
  
  "And the embers never fade in your city by the lake"
  -Yet another literal lyric match. Originally it was an even closer match, but I felt it took away from the scene. I chose a *little* bit more subtle since it's at night.
  
  "The place where you were born"
  -Shows Earth, Hitomi's home.
  
  "We'll crucify the insincere tonight, Tonight!"
  -There is no "crucifying," but I thought the scene fit and having it go the action shot on Tonight! I thought was cool. Thanks Mes^2
  
  "The Impossible is Possible"
  -Vaughn saves Hitomi against Fate/Atlantis Machine. I thought that made sense since it was *impossible* to stop the machine, but their love did it.
  
  "Believe in Me as I Believe in You"
  -Obvious. I hope having their faces match on Me and You wasn't too "beating over the head."
  
  On a personal note, this video was first thought up in the head of my then girlfriend. She loves Vaughn and Hitomi and I started making the video with the intention of dedicating it to her and all that sweet stuff :-P. We broke up and I stopped making the video all together for about 3 months since I had no real inspiration or motivation.
  
  Later on, I decided to just finish it up and A LOT of things changed. The video is nothing similar to the original vision since it was not driven by the initial emotions or motivations. It was no longer FOR a girl, but more for myself and me trying to illustrate a story/relationship to music...it was kind of therapeutic at the same time though. Although it was not FOR her, I will not deny that some of it was my...last "ties" to her and I wanted to get the video done and have her be proud of it. In the end, the video became something a lot different than I had originally planned and hope that I made a good video that illustrates a beautiful relationship. I really hope that she is proud of the results! Thanks again "Hitomi!" Enjoy!
  
  Will *DEFINITELY* remaster it one day for those of you who care. This was my first video and as happy as I am with it right now, I know down the road I can make it even better. I plan on learning a lot in terms of capturing and effects and then I will change a few little things like a better capture and add a few effects. All in all though, the video will remain 70% the same because I love almost all the scenes and how they fit. We'll see one day :-P
  
  Equipment used:
  Editing: Adobe Premiere 6.0
  Scenes cut using: Virtual Dub (yeah, yeah I know AVISynth)
  DVD Ripping: RipPack - Should've done DVD2AVI (hey it's my first vid)
  MPEG Encoding: TMPGEnc