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Information

• Member: Scintilla
• Studio: Aquiline Studios
• Title: Restless
• Premiered: 2007-07-06
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Romance
  • Sentimental
• Song:
  • Lacara Everytime We Touch (Single Edit)
• Anime:
  • Loveless
• Participation:
  • AnimeNEXT, AnimeNEXT (2007-07-06)
  • METROCON, 2007 METROCON AMV Contest (2007-07-08)
  • Animethon 14, Animethon 14 AMV Contest (2007-08-11)
  • Nan Desu Kan 2007, Nan Desu Kan 2007 (2007-09-15)
  • Nan Desu Kan 2007, NDK AMV Contest 2007 (2007-09-15)
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta 13, AWA 13 Expo Contest (2007-09-21)
• Comments: Because it's just not a Loveless video without a title that ends in "-less".
  (And also because I fail at coming up with good titles.)
  
  
  What They Say:
  
  "No words =D Just... pure... bliss x3" - Radical_Yue
  "now im starting to feel gay" - Shinodude
  "[My] sister is drooling on my keyboard" - Autraya
  "Makes me want to be a 12 year old cat-boy." - Ayanefan
  "I'm starting to wonder about you, man." - Mckeed
  
  
  
  What I Say:
  
  FINALLY, a summer video from me that (1) isn't comedy or upbeat and (2) is longer than 2 minutes.
  
  This video also marks my first use of After Effects for an AMV (but only for one scene!) and my first shounen-ai video.
  Pairing is Ritsuka/Soubi. If you have something against shounen-ai, then stay away.
  
  This footage practically composites itself. Would you believe that I didn't have to do a single character mask for this whole video, and that all the masking that DID happen was accomplished merely by using Premiere Pro's Keying effects? No? Well, tough, because it's true.
  If you like pretty footage, give Loveless a watch; it's got tons of it.
  
  This video was the first one for which I made separate sequences containing useful clips by category -- one sequence for every time they touched, one for every time they kissed, one for all the spell battles, etc. It worked rather well; I just wish Loveless would have given me more touches and kisses to choose from. :P
  
  The one thing I'd envisioned originally but wasn't able to work into the video (partially due to time constraints; I finished it the very day of the AnimeNEXT contest deadline) was an effect to match the synth lines after each "want you in my life" (da-DA-na-DA-na-DAT) that would process each of the affected clips by halves. It's hard to explain here. Never mind.
  
  About the music: This is NOT Cascada, got it? I imported the CD-single all the way from Germany; I should know. :P
  Maggie Reilly did the original version of "Everytime We Touch" back in 1992. It's been covered a few times since then; there are at least the following versions of it:
  
  Tixiana did one in 2001
  Lacara did one in 2003 (the version I used)
  And Cascada's didn't come out until 2005
  
  Cascada WAS, however, the first to replace the verses of the song with completely new ones (that "I still hear your voice when..." crap), only retaining the chorus from the original. I hold that Lacara's version is way better. (Even better than the Single Edit is the 7-minute-long Clubmix, but that was far too long for the purposes of this video.)
  
  Detailed notes on the video:
  
  The intro is mainly just trying to match the mood of the music with some beat-matching to the strongest beats and some special effects. I made a still image in The GIMP to create the feathered edges (since Premiere Pro's edge feather effect is very limited) and made good use of combining Fast Blur with fades to black.
  For the floating scenes, nothing fancier than Basic 3D was used; no After Effects yet.
  All the masking that comes after that was done completely with Premiere Pro's keying filters (Luma Key, Screen, Multiply, etc.); no frame-by-frame masks and no After Effects. I mean, look at the fire -- I couldn't mask that better if I tried. ^_^
  
  The first verse marks the beginning of the lyric sync... and I discovered to my delight that Loveless actually provided scenes that fit the lyrics very well, despite how specific those lines could be (shooting star, lightning, storm clouds, earth shaking... it's all in there).
  Have I mentioned that the spell battle footage can get really pretty? ^_^
  
  In the first chorus, I did have to cut up and manipulate the petting (not that way, you perverts) clip quite a bit to get the internal sync down; I just hope it doesn't come off as too cheesy. The effect with the photographs was, once again, done entirely in Premiere Pro, with some help from the same feathered edge still I used in the intro.
  That shot with all the flowers in the BG and the sakura petals floating by is taken from the end of episode 3, where it lingers on the screen for a fair bit. I swear, it's like the people who made this series were TRYING to be over the top and impossible to take seriously sometimes. It produces a peculiar viewing effect, I must say.
  (More evidence for this kind of thinking is found in the rampant frame blending that's used all over the series for dramatic effect; if you see any frame blending in this video, it was almost certainly in the original source.)
  I'm not entirely happy with the scene with the cell phones, but I was running out of good footage by the time I got to editing that part.
  
  Second verse: More lyric matching. Something strikes me as a little off about the "Storm clouds filled the sky" line, but I only had so many clips in that scene to work with. "Feel like I'm in heaven" was just too good to pass up, and I wish the clip of Ritsuka getting blown away had been longer so that you could see him more clearly before everything faded to white. (Yes, that fade to white was in the source; I didn't add it.)
  
  Second chorus: More compositing that didn't require After Effects, yay! "Heart beat fast", etc. is kind of slow, but Ritsuka conveys some real feeling in those shots and I wanted to let that come through. Of course I had to use at least one scene where Ritsuka takes Soubi's hand... and then the chorus closes with yet another way-over-the-top shoujo moment, this time from the end of episode 4. I swear, you can't make this stuff up. Oy.
  
  And then, the breakdown, which I mark with much calmer clips to match the mood. Nothing really happens.
  Then the buildup, which uses just simple clip-slicing to match the beats, because I was running out of ideas when I edited that part. For some reason, a simple B&W-and-frame-hold on the last hit before the chorus seemed appropriate.
  
  I knew I wanted to use the red-tinted scene somewhere around the end, because in the series, that's right after Soubi has been badly wounded and Ritsuka's just found him after the battle, and it's a rather touching scene. I also knew I wanted to save the best kiss for last -- and see what they did with the character designs and the contrast just before it? Once again, over the top, almost gratuitous. But then, when I saw how the "touch" line went into the "kiss" line, it didn't look as good as I'd imagined it... it could have used a cut away in between, but there was nothing to cut to besides the other team, which simply wouldn't have worked.
  I didn't find the snowy scene until late in the process, but I'm so glad I did... it's probably Soubi's sincerest statement of love and loyalty in the whole series (hell, he even sheds a single sparkling tear, though I didn't have enough time to show that shot).
  
  And THEN, the one scene in the whole video that required After Effects. I'd envisioned this scene from the beginning, but I wasn't able to pull it off quite as well as I'd hoped; notice how the camera "bumps" somewhat when going underneath the clip on the right.
  Then some more easy luma-key compositing, finally ending with the water washing upwards to clear the screen as the last words are sung.
  
  
  What the Lyrics Say:
  
  A shooting star fell down to earth
  Lightning cracked the sky
  Something weird is happening
  Something I can't deny
  A strange kind of magic
  Running through my brain
  Feel I'm in heaven
  Or going insane
  
  'Cause everytime we touch, I get this feeling
  And everytime we kiss, I swear I could fly
  Can't you feel my heart beat fast
  I want this to last
  Need you by my side
  
  'Cause everytime we touch, I feel the static
  And everytime we kiss, I reach for the sky
  Can't you feel my heart beat so
  I can't let you go
  Want you in my life
  
  (... I get this feeling)
  (... I swear I could fly)
  
  The wind was like a hurricane
  Storm clouds filled the sky
  I heard a crash of thunder
  The earth shook in reply
  A strange kind of magic
  Running through my brain
  Feel like I'm in heaven
  Or going insane
  
  [Repeat Chorus]
  
  'Cause everytime we touch...
  'Cause everytime we touch...
  
  [Repeat Chorus]
  
  (... I feel the static)
  (... I reach for the sky)
  
  'Cause everytime we touch...
  
  
  What the Judges Say:
  
  Winner, Drama category at AnimeNEXT 2007
  Best Romance at Metrocon 2007
  Best Romance/Sentimental at Animethon 14
  Finalist at Nan Desu Kan 2007
  Best Romance in Anime Weekend Atlanta 13's Expo
  
  
  For all DIRECT links, please right-click and select "Save As..."
  
  Opinions are always welcome!