main menu

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

Information

• Member: Atomox
• Title: Two Thousand Years
• Premiered: 2004-05-01
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Serious
• Song:
  • Billy Joel Two Thousand Years
• Anime:
  • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• Comments: This is my second video, but my first real public worthy project. Before this, I made an AMV to Johnny Cash's cover of the NiN song Hurt, to Cowboy Bebop. However, I didn't really appreciate fades until completing that video, so the final product looked awkward, with fades littered in after the fact.
  
  Here I started off with a better understanding of Premier and fades. I tried to sync things not only to the bass or words, but also events to other things. I figured that explosions and collisions didn't feel right unless they were associated with some sound. This is kind of obvious, although I sometimes went for what I think are non-traditional syncs. One of my favorite "effects" is during the plane battles about 2 mins into the video. One of the last scenes is one of the large planes falling from the sky as the old men watch it sink. As it does, the plane explodes in one of those flowing expanding sort of ways. I sinced it to a gentle strung of a guitar, and the effect, I think, is wonderful. I also tried to find scenes with continuous and slow-moving action to accent the symbols as they slowly faded out. Two great examples are the huge "bugs" floating in the water after Nausicaa lands in the jungle, and the crowd at the end rushing in to hug Nausicaa after she revives. Both, I think, really added to the atmosphere of the video.
  
  As for Nausicaa, why did I pick it? To be honest, as a huge Miyazaki fan, it's not my favorite film. I definatly enjoy it, but prefer Wisper of the Heart or Tonori no Totoro. Spirited Away I would also accredit to one of Miyazaki's best. When I began this project, I didn't really have a specific story board. I hadn't even watched the movie in about 5 or 6 years. I just started scrolling through the footage without any sound, and taking scenes that seemed to fit, while keeping things fairly linear. The plan was to do a compilation of Miyazaki films, say one for each stanza. I was doing them (mostly) in chronological order, so I decided to start with Nausicaa. Hence the beautiful opening scene that's a bit disconected with the rest of the video. From there, I just couldn't detach myself from Nausicaa, and it turned into a 1 anime project.
  
  One of the things I always want to fit in and focus on are the amazing scenes that are a slice of life. I really like extended moments of looking at "nothing," with nothing going on but a flower blowing in the wind or some birds drinking from a lake. The Enigma song "Silence Must be Heard" says it all. It's a great asset to film that's missing in most American culture, and so I'd like to focus on it wherever I can. In this video, I only use it sparsly. In the beginning, for sure, and also with the old man watching Nausicaa's captor's planes fly off in the sky. I leave the scene here for quite a while to hopefully let the sorrow the man is facing sink in here. Right before this, the lyrics are talking of children being our future, as the little ones run to Nausicaa. Until now, she's been an adult, and continues to be. The sad irony of it is that in this moment, I hope some realise that she is a child herself. A child forced to grow up, like a son after his father dies, filling shoes twice his size when all he wants to do is be a child. That is so here as well. Yet Nausicaa is forced into those large shoes. She takes it in stride, but for that same reason, she is a rare jewel scared by the world. To her credit, in the end she changes the world instead of letting it change her.
  
  I could go on for hours about what went into this AMV. I hope you can see even a small fraction of what I put into it. I know the hardest part in making an AMV is stepping back from what you see as obvious, having watched the same footage forwards, backwards, in slow motion, over and over again; Trying to convey your messages and meanings in a more blunt way that casual viewers will get. It's tough. But I hope, if you don't see all that I wanted to get across here, that at the very least, you enjoy it for what it is. It's a beautiful, very under-rated Billy Joel song. The lyrics are amazing and highly relevant. They should be applied not just to the anime, but more importantly to the world today.