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Information

• Member: CrackTheSky
• Title: Hold Me Up
• Premiered: 2014-06-08
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Character Profile
  • Fun
  • Romance
• Song:
  • Goo Goo Dolls Just The Way You Are
• Anime:
  • His and Her Circumstances (Kare Kano)
• Comments: I love old-school videos.
  
  No, I mean I really love old-school videos. Like, a lot. Few things on this Earth make me happy in the same way as watching a good, solid old-school AMV. It's a special thing to me.
  
  Although, I do have to say...the term "old-school" gets thrown around a lot but there's no real definition that's been officially attached to it. I suppose it's one of those things that means different things to different people. A lot of editors seem to use "old-school" interchangeably with "effects-less", which to me just doesn't cut it. There's more to old-school videos -- it's an aesthetic, not just an editing style. Old-school videos use older music, typically from the '90s or earlier. They use anime from the same time period. They're usually effects-less, but they don't have to be. They're mostly simple and straightforward, from an editing perspective. And, the visual quality is usually pretty awful.
  
  Strange as it may sound, that last point plays a huge role in establishing what the old-school aesthetic is to me -- there is a strange intimacy that accompanies the VCR distortion, the poorly-filtered DVD rips, the low resolutions. I understand those people who prefer vinyl, 35mm film, and scale movie models over their digital, "enhanced" counterparts. As grateful as I am for HD, there's something that always vaguely cold and clinical about it. Maybe I'm getting old (psh, I'm 26 and I'm already worrying about such a thing), and this is what happens to old people, but having grown up right during the transition from analog to digital, I can't help but feel much closer to the dirty, flawed media of the past than the immaculate upgrades of today.
  
  More than anything, that's what this video is about. This is a simple, straight video meant to evoke the feelings of years gone by. I deliberately refrained from using effects, or anything that would require me to use more than one video and one audio track in my editor. (Okay that's a lie -- there were a couple places I did utilize more than one track to get rid of some lip flap, sorry guys). I purposely decided against doing any kind of filtering to my footage. The source I worked with was badly deinterlaced but I used it anyway. I decided to encode this using MPEG-1 and at a low resolution -- all to capture the particular old-school aesthetic I love so much. Most people will find it ugly and maybe borderline unwatchable. That's fine -- it looks perfect to me :P
  
  Also, I can't help it so I have to say it -- I loved everything about making this video! The Goo Goo Dolls were one of my favorite bands back in high school and I just now discovered Hold Me Up (the album from which this video gets its name and off of which this song comes), which is a fantastic album of early '90s alternative rock. And Kare Kano -- wow. Not a perfect series, but still great, and worth watching and re-watching. I loved almost every minute I was watching this show. I love the animation style, the characters, the story. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good classic anime, or anyone who's into romance, slapstick, or psychological drama. Just really, really well-rounded and brilliant. But please read the manga after you finish the series. Just trust me on that.
  
  But yeah, this was a blast to edit. Difficult at times, because a lot of Kare Kano is still frames or scenes with very little movement, but I can't remember the last time I had this much fun editing a video and was this excited to see it done. I hope you like it, but totally understand if it's not your cup of tea.
  
  Technical notes:
  Edited in Sony Vegas 8. No other programs were used to help with the editing. I don't know how long this took me...maybe 15-20 hours over the course of five weeks? I really only had a few hours on the weekends to edit most of the time, so it took longer to get done than I'd have liked. But that's what happens when you get older, kids. Real life and stuff. It sucks.
  
  P.S.
  If you like this video and you want something in a similar vein, and you somehow haven't yet seen Kusoyaro's Build Me Up Buttercup, do yourself a favor and check it out. It's a much better video than mine and was a huge influence on my wanting to make this in the first place.