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Information

• Member: Cyanna
• Studio: Aquiline Studios
• Title: The Live
• Premiered: 2009-06-12
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Romance
  • Sentimental
• Song:
  • Journey Faithfully
• Anime:
  • BECK, Mongolian Chop Squad
• Participation:
  • AnimeNEXT 2009, AnimeNEXT 2009 AMV (2009-06-12)
  • Otakon 2009, AMV Contest (2009-07-17)
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta 15, AWA 15 - Exposition Contest (2009-09-18)
  • AnimeUSA, AMV contest 2009 (2009-11-20)
• Comments: 2008 was a good year for two things: Weddings and Journey.
  
  I've wanted to do a video to "Faithfully" for a while because...well....it's "Faithfully". But for the longest time I couldn't really think of a visual match for it that wouldn't feel too forced. After all...when you get past the chorus and into the meat of the song it has a specific story that doesn't meld well with most romantic scenarios.
  
  "Faithfully" is a song about a virtually long distance relationship between the musician narrator and the nameless girl he loves back home. Because of his busy schedule and always being on the road, they don't get to be like a normal couple. It sucks sometimes. But they're both faithful to each other...or at least he's faithful to her so I like to assume it goes the other way too.
  
  The idea to use Beck came to mind a few days after the Otakon contest pre-screenings at King of Prussia. Seeing Meri C's "One Guitar" followed by Jamming Kryptonite's "Novum" just a few days later helped pushed me in the right direction towards combining relevant material mixed in with a "live" performance of the song. Beck is really good for that sort of thing.
  
  Like my "Christmas in July" AMV, this video tells a story with the help of flashbacks. In this video Koyuki assumes the role of the song's "music man" in more ways than one. It starts out as he takes his place on the big stage on a rainy afternoon and starts performing the song "Faithfully". But unknown to his audience, Koyuki's mind is elsewhere thinking of his own relationship and the girl HE can't be with right now because of the band's tour (but he's in for a surprise at the end). So we have two sides of the story going on. One is the concert itself involving the other band members and the audience reactions while the other side is made of the memories that flash through Koyuki's mind as he sings.
  
  Through the use of flashbacks I tried to show things like loneliness, being distracted with work, long distance travel, and the difficulty of picking things up where you left off. But the overall tone of the video is positive. Oh, and then there's the More-Sweet-Than-Bitter Ending and the Final Kiss.
  
  About a third of this video comes from episode 23, 24, and 25 (out of 26). Anyone who is genre-saavy and watching the show probably can foresee a lot of the ending before it happens (the guy gets the girl, the sports team wins the championships, the Titanic sinks, and the band plays their Best. Concert. Evar). So the "spoiler" mark is more a courtesy than anything. I don't think you'll ruin anything for yourself...but to be fair it IS towards the end of the series.
  
  I'm really happy with this one. It's pretty much the first time none of the scenes selected make me cringe.
  
  
  The end credits feature a live version of "Don't Stop Believin'" using crowd scenes that would have been very out of place in the video itself. It's a shout out to...well...you know who you all are. You guys are awesome.