main menu

• Members Main Page
• Search for AMVs
• Forum
• How-To Guides
• Site FAQ
• About us
• Login

Information

• Member: CrackTheSky
• Title: Overmind
• Premiered: 2013-09-27
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Drama
  • Other
  • Serious
• Song:
  • The Graduate For The Missing
• Anime:
  • FLCL (Fooly Cooly)
• Comments: So here is, at the time of this writing, the video into which I have poured more time, thought, and energy than any other. And I'll be perfectly honest here: my feelings towards it could not possibly be more ambivalent. There are a lot of things I like about it but at the end of the day, when I watch it, all I can think is, "Around 100 hours of work...and this is it?" So if you're taking the time to read this (and thank you if you are), that's probably not the most heartening thing to hear. But I want to make it perfectly clear that this is not my best work, by far. I can do better.
  
  That said, there are plenty of things about this video that I'm really proud of. When I started making it, oh, over two years ago, I had been watching three videos over and over which were acting as a massive inspiration: Niotex's Eidolon, Megamom's Sharing Light, and Nostromo_vx's Binary Overdrive. These three videos, in my mind anyway, created worlds independent from the anime they were using. I had always wanted to do that - not just tell a different story from the one told in the anime, but to create a different world altogether.
  
  I chose FLCL because it's far and away the most versatile anime I have ever used as a source for editing. It has everything, and it has been used in every possible video genre, I'm sure. And yet, not everything has been done with it. I wanted to make a new world; why not use FLCL's as the foundation?
  
  Basically, the story in the video revolves around Naota, who is living in a town surrounded by ominous, gigantic machines in the distance. The idea is that they're unnatural and menacing, but nobody can do anything about them so everyone (Naota included) has decided to just live with them. But then things start going wrong - fire starts raining down, Mamimi (the girl) is killed, the town is being destroyed and it's clearly all caused by the machines. These things break Naota and cause him to transform, in classic anime fashion, into a being which has the power to finally fight back.
  
  So that's the particular story this video tells - more generally, it explores the idea of oppression and asks the question, "How much does it take to incite insurrection?" I started this video in 2011, and stopped editing it for almost two years. When I picked it back up, the whole NSA scandal was coming to light. The video took on a new meaning after that.
  
  I believe the idea is conveyed well - well enough for me to be completely satisfied with its telling. I also am happy with the way that I was able to integrate the "effects" into the video in a way that I feel is subtle enough that if you've never seen FLCL, you might not notice them. That was my number one goal in making this video - I wanted to manipulate scenes and make new ones without anyone noticing. This is what took up the majority of my time - masking and blurring and color-correcting and lighting so everything looked natural. If I feel I can brag about anything, this is it. And I don't mind posting a few before-and-after screenshots so you can see for yourself in case you're NOT familiar with FLCL.
  
  
  
  That said, the video is far from perfect and I know its flaws. In the interest of not wanting to degrade the opinions of those who might otherwise not notice these flaws, I'll keep them to myself. Chances are though, if there's something you don't like about this video, I've already noticed it and I probably don't like it either.
  
  A note on video quality - I am coming from the age of standard definition. All this HD stuff is strange and shiny and it scares me and I NEED AN ADULT. I edited this at 640x480 because that's how I learned to edit seven years ago and that's how I've always done it and my options were limited (working off a standard def bootleg DVD). I tried to upscale a bit post-render and do some light filtering...not sure how much it really worked and it looks kinda crappy to me, so I apologize in advance. In future videos I'll be trying to do much higher definition editing upfront.
  
  One final note - the music. I first got into The Graduate thanks to Reigna and her video Chelloveck Devotchka, and they became a special band to me. I got to hang out with them on multiple occasions after shows and I felt indebted to them for all the awesomeness they showed me over the years. Part of the reason I initially started this video was as a way to thank them for their awesome music and the fantastic way they treated their fans. I had originally wanted it to be done before their final show...back in 2011. Obviously that didn't work out, but I guess better late than never, right? Anyway: to Corey, Tim, Matt, Max, and Jared, if you're reading this - thanks for the memories guys!
  
  Technical Notes:
  Sony Vegas 8.0, Photoshop 6 and Adobe After Effects 7.0 all fricking day long.