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Information

• Member: CrackTheSky
• Title: VY CMa
• Premiered: 2016-10-26
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Drama
  • Fun
• Song:
  • Brookes Brothers Paperchase (feat. Danny Byrd)
• Anime:
  • Diebuster (Aim for the Top 2!) (OAV)
• Participation:
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta 22, The Professional Awards (2016-10-01)
• Comments: The fact of this video's existence in my catalog is a bit of an oddity. For one I typically don't like random action videos in this vein; every so often one will come around that I enjoy, but it's rare. Second, I don't edit random action videos like this, so in more ways than one this was outside of my comfort zone to create.
  
  Finally, though, this almost didn't get made at all -- I was intent on creating at least two videos specifically for 2016's NDK contest, and while I had finished one, the deadline was getting nearer and nearer and I had nothing else ready. I decided to start cutting clips for a Diebuster video and worry about the song selection after the fact. Diebuster was a source I had been excited about using ever since I saw it last year -- it was definitely one of my favorite things I watched in 2015, although I was afraid of being pigeonholed into making, well, this type of video -- over-the-top action with little narrative to speak of. But as the deadline crept closer I realized this was probably the best shot I had at quickly creating something I could be proud of, so I started cutting clips and searching desperately for music.
  
  This second part, the finding of a good track, was definitely the hardest part of the process. I really wanted to use something electronic, as although I've used electronic music a lot in my past videos, I hadn't really used anything beyond synthpop or electronic-influenced alternative. Luckily at the time I was preparing for this video, I was able to spend most of my time at work listening to music while I did my job, which allowed me to explore a bunch of different types of music to (hopefully) stumble across something cool that could work.
  
  I came across Rustie's album Glass Swords and thought I had struck gold -- there were several tracks on that album that sounded like they'd be fun to edit with, however the more I listened to them the less enthusiastic I became. From past experience, I know that if I'm not into the song, the video is going to be a slog to edit so I scrapped all of the potential ideas generated from that album and kept looking.
  
  Truthfully, I was starting to get desperate -- the deadline was less than two weeks away and I still didn't have a song, and I was starting to think about scrapping the idea of this being an NDK video altogether. Similar to the reservations mentioned above, I also hesitate to start editing a video when my impetus to create it is anything other than an idea I've had for a while -- I've found that my impulsive videos usually end up being my more forgettable ones. However, just as I was thinking this, I started listening to a genre of music called "liquid funk", which I had only heard of for the first time after watching Nopy's spectacular video Sky Journey earlier this year. I fell in love with the genre, and specifically the album off of which Nopy got the song for his video. The song "Paperchase" was pretty much exactly the mood and tempo I was looking for. I set to work.
  
  Like most of my videos these days, this was edited in a few intense, focused sessions. I struggled with several portions of the song; one evening I made no progress at all for a good 2-3 hours as I kept looking through my footage, trying things, and scrapping them. Even though it didn't take me a terribly long time to put this video together, it was one of the more challenging things I've edited over the past couple years. Since liquid funk is a subgenre of drum 'n' bass, it has the same rhythmic patters -- the time signature is 4/4, mostly (if not entirely), but the kick drums are not arranged in a neat, four-to-the-floor pattern like in typical dance music. It was frustrating, at first, trying to figure out the visual rhythm of this video.
  
  But it came together in the end. I've only seen two other Diebuster videos that I know of, the primary one being JCD's excellent Pure Love, so I can't say with any certainty how unique this video is. Given how many Diebuster videos are on the .org, I'm going to guess that mine is probably not all that unique. But hey, you probably haven't seen a Diebuster video in years anyway, so maybe it'll feel new to you all the same.
  
  Regardless, I really like this one. If you've never seen Diebuster, put it on your short list of things to watch, as it is phenomenal, especially if you like sci-fi and/or space stuff. This video sums it up pretty well -- even if you don't understand exactly what's going on, hopefully you get a feel for the style and general insanity of the show. It also happens to be one of the most gorgeous OVAs out there, IMO, and I wanted to show it off in that way as well.
  
  The video's title is the scientific abbreviation of VY Canis Majoris, which is one of the largest known stars. I remember years ago, when I was in college studying physics, I came across this gif, and it kinda helped to drive home just how big the universe is. Ending on VY Canis Majoris, I remember feeling overwhelmed at the mere thought of such a large star. Diebuster is a series that prides itself on its ridiculous scale -- although I've heard that Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has a much larger scale, there're still some pretty fricking big things in Diebuster (like a planet-sized alien powering itself with a black hole, only in anime let me tell ya), and that was one of my favorite parts of the series. Thus, I figured I'd name the video accordingly.
  
  This video didn't make it into NDK's contest, and it didn't win anything in AWA Pro when I submitted it there as well (in fact, its reception in the AWA Pro review thread was pretty lukewarm at best), but I hope you still enjoy it. Thanks for watching!
  
  Technical Notes
  Edited entirely in Sony Vegas 8.0 in probably 10-15 hours.