Let's Try it Again: Who is Kevin Caldwell Round 2

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Let's Try it Again: Who is Kevin Caldwell Round 2

Postby y2kwizard » Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:28 am

I resurrected this topic because I am still in the dark as to who Kevin is. I know he was an incredible AMV maker, but what happened to him?PLEASE NO SPAMMING!! I don't want this one to get deleted!!

From what I've gleaned from the forums, it sounds as if Kevin just disappeared off the face of the Earth. Why did he leave so suddenly? Did he die or just have some sort of falling out with the AMV community?

By the way, is anyone currently hosting any of his popular vids? I'd love to see his acclaimed AMV's.
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Postby iserlohn » Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:33 am

Caldwell was a guy who made AMVs and then either stopped enjoying it or got fed up with the community or got bored or something. Does it really matter? People stop making AMVs all the time, they just don't usually win awards first.
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Postby phantom_112 » Fri Nov 29, 2002 1:57 pm

I have no idea who Kevin is, nor have I seen any of his music videos.
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Postby Vancore » Fri Nov 29, 2002 4:47 pm

Well, from what I've gathered about Kevin Caldwell is that he's still alive and that he quit before a-m-v.org went up. His last AMV was 'Believe' and from what I've heard he'd mentioned that working on that vid was 'Pain'. It also lost in the contest it was shown in, whether that has anything to do with his disappearence I'm not sure but I do know the video he lost against was one of Brad DeMoss's (Forgot the name). The General opinion on this is that Brad's, even though it wasn't as well edited as Kevin's, was better presented. There was an AMV panel I went to that was discussing that with all the small faults to Brad DeMoss's video that it still won and someone in the crowd shouted "Ya, it beat Kevin Caldwell's Believe".
I do know a couple older people on this site have talked to him, and I do remember coming across a topic when I first joined the .org where a couple links were posted. One of them that lead to the 'real' Kevin Caldwell. Looked at a few of em, none of them seemed related to the AMV creator.
My guess is that from what he mentioned of making AMV's that he decided to leave because making AMV's seemed more like work then fun to him. That and knowing that this is a non-paying hobby probably lead him to leave it all behind and focus on some other job. My thoughts are that he never expected that this sudden change would cause his name to become legendary among many different creators and non-creators alike. Now even if he wanted to I doubt he would return, if he ever did come back I'm pretty sure many of the expectations of those on this site would be shot down in cold blood and the AMV community wouldn't have much of a legend anymore (Legends are supposed to be bigger then the real person).
So in the end I think its best that Kevin Caldwell stay a mystery, as he's a great inspiration to the AMV community. Although I'd still like to know the cause of his disappearence, I'll probably never know. :)
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Postby Jebadia » Fri Nov 29, 2002 5:03 pm

:cry: *Niff* That was beautiful...

Indeed I agree that he'd remain a mystery, even though I've seen pictures of Caldwell, and he 'does' look like David Spade in a way, I prolly wouldn't want to actually meet the guy due to the fact mentioned above.
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Postby Castor Troy » Fri Nov 29, 2002 5:52 pm

Jebadia wrote::cry: *Niff* That was beautiful...

Indeed I agree that he'd remain a mystery, even though I've seen pictures of Caldwell, and he 'does' look like David Spade in a way, I prolly wouldn't want to actually meet the guy due to the fact mentioned above.


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Postby Castor Troy » Fri Nov 29, 2002 5:54 pm

Castor Troy wrote:
Jebadia wrote::cry: *Niff* That was beautiful...

Indeed I agree that he'd remain a mystery, even though I've seen pictures of Caldwell, and he 'does' look like David Spade in a way, I prolly wouldn't want to actually meet the guy due to the fact mentioned above.


Party on Wayne.

Party on Garth!


Oh wait, that's Dana Carvey. Oops :x
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Postby XStylus » Fri Nov 29, 2002 6:19 pm

Someone should create a Monty Python Parody called "Life of Kevin".

Anyway, here's the history of Kevin from what I know, and what I've been able to research in the AMV mailing list archives. My personal knowledge of Kevin's accolates is limited only to whatever he's won at Anime Expo, which as far as I know is the only contest Kevin has ever officially submitted his videos to.

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VH-1 Behind the music: Kevin Caldwell


Kevin Caldwell started out like all of us do - as a relative newbie to the AMV creation scene. He entered three of his very first videos to Anime Expo 98 where he came out of no-where to win all three categories (Comedy, Action, and Drama). The three videos entered were: "It's a Beautiful Life - Goldenboy", "Phantom of the Opera - Memories: Magnetic Rose", and "Media Vita in Morte Sumus - Evangelion". While it was quite impressive and turned a lot of heads, life went on, and other AMV creators quietly prepared for the next year.

The next year at Anime Expo 99, Kevin entered two videos, mainly because AX imposed a 2-video limit per entrant to avoid one person sweeping all three categories. He entered his two videos in Drama, and Action. His Drama Video, "Sleep Now - Key the Metal Idol", won Drama. His Action video, "Engel - Evangelion", won the Action category, and also totally floored everybody by being the first video shown at AX to employ perfect lip synching. It's mainly because of that one video that fanboy AMV freaks started to perceive him as the God of AMV creation, myself unfortunately among those people at the time. People began to talk incessantly about Kevin, and it was driving other AMV creators mad.

The next year at Anime Expo 2000, Kevin again entered two videos, "Caffiene Encomium - Childs Toy" and "Believe - Battle Athletes". "Believe" had lots of fancy special effects, but did not win the action category. Kevin did have much to say about that video when asked about it in the AMV mailing list:
"I actually consider that the second most embarrassing thing that I've ever created. My ultimate shame comes from the truly awful Goldeneye/VP Miyu video." ... "As I progressed with work on "Believe", I could see it straying ever farther from my initial vision. I felt like a prophet who forsaw his own death in a car wreck but for some reason immediately switched careers to become a stunt driver." ... "It also comitted a fatal sin in my book (for any category, but especially Action): I think that it's BORING. I'm glad it didn't win anything, because then I'd know that you people were just humoring me."

"Caffiene Encomium", however, won the Comedy category, yet was prevented from winning the overall category by Brad DeMoss' Star Wars - Episode 1 parody.

On July 4th 2000, Kevin announced on the AMV mailing list his retirement. It is rumored that he had received death threats, which led to his decision that making AMVs was no longer worth the trouble, but I have been unable to substantiate this rumor. He promised to remain active among the AMV community, however the last he was heard from was in a casual conversational post made November 3rd, 2000. While post wasn't anything special, the signature he ended the post with was rather interesting. He signed the post with the following:

Kevin Caldwell
(I don't want to be worshipped. I just wanna be LOVED! <sniff sniff>)

Kevin remains to this day (and to the annoyance of many AMV creators sick of hearing his name) a legend that just won't go away. Where did he go? What does he do now? Is he still among us under a different name? No-one knows. Many would strangely prefer to keep it that way.
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Postby dokidoki » Fri Nov 29, 2002 7:27 pm

xstylus wrote:My personal knowledge of Kevin's accolates is limited only to whatever he's won at Anime Expo, which as far as I know is the only contest Kevin has ever officially submitted his videos to.

He's entered at A-Kon. Ref: http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=33 ... topher.net
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Postby SSJVegita0609 » Fri Nov 29, 2002 7:38 pm

Wow, its strange, I've never heard of him. But then again I haven't been publically making AMVs for very long...

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Postby Vlad G Pohnert » Fri Nov 29, 2002 8:15 pm

From What I know and I did have the chance to briefly meet him, he has a high stress job (Computer Engineer!) and AMVs where his way of releaxing. I heard it got to a point that it wasn't relaxing any more but "Painfull" and that was his word of it when I asked! Thus in the end he just retired from it and probably found another more relaxing hobby....

Nothing strange mysterious about it...Just someone who decided to do something else as a hobby....

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Postby Ashton » Fri Nov 29, 2002 8:46 pm

Vlad, it's not strange that he quit, it's strange that he disapeared and that there is an entire community siting around worshiping a none present idol. It's outright hilarious as a matter of fact, if only that guy could see us now.
Xstylus, that was great, I FINALLY learned something new about him. Thanx a bunch.
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Postby kthulhu » Fri Nov 29, 2002 8:57 pm

Kevin Caldwell was a 40 foot titanium man who dressed like a Pilgrim and dispensed man-milk in Candyland. He came to this world to leave a message, then ascended to Valhalla on cloud of steam and wheels, where he fights Japanese hentai shemale anime fan artists. Some say he will return one day and lead the AMV world into a new glory, but these people also believe that eating feces is a good idea.

Kevin Caldwell-truly a metal man of mystery!
I'm out...
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Postby Chaos Angel » Fri Nov 29, 2002 10:53 pm

The best way to see Kevin's videos is to search for them on P2P networks, to answer the question no one else has answered yet.

Now, for the rest of it.

I'm like you, I came into the AMV community and heard about Kevin Caldwell. I heard soooo much hype about how great, fanatastic, marvelous, incredbile, wonderful, majestic, abso-fucking-lutely GORGEOUS his talents and abilities are as an editor. I downloaded some of his videos for myself. I love Engel, Believe, and Caffiene Encomium (I think most people would agree that they are well-made videos), and I also managed to get Media Vita in Morte Sumus, Sleep Now, and Goldeneye (never did see Beautiful Life or Phantom of the Opera). Media and Sleep struck me as well-editted videos, but they did not hold my attention. Goldeneye, I LOATHED the song and i could not stand to watch more than 15 seconds of the video. It takes a lot to make me like a video if I can't STAND the song, and that didn't do it for me.

Over time, I began to analyze people's opinions on Kevin as I encountered them, and I've formed this opinion of him.

He was an editor. He was a person who made music videos as a hobby. He was an editor who knew how to create a solid concept and framework for his videos. He knew how to plan, he knew how to put it all together to achieve the affect he wanted, and most importantly, he was creative. He had good ideas and he realized them effectively. His ingenuity and abilities showed in the works he created. The reason he is so much of a legend is essentially the same reason people believe Elvis is still alive. Elvis was a man of talent who vanished into a life of hermitude. Similarly, Kevin Caldwell was an editor of both talent and ingenuity who apparently dropped off of the face of the earth. I would surmise that one of two possibilities is the reason he is no longer creating AMVs or even participating in panel discussions, etc.

(1) He simply got sick of it and decided to pursue something more meaningful and/or interesting to him. In which case, good for him. Why should he remain if he hates it? (I've never been a believer of the "You owe the fans" philosophy that states you should continue to make yourself miserable just to appease the people who enjoy your work. If you hate the hobby, don't do it anymore. Simple.)

(2) He wanted to leave on a high note rather than when people began to critique his work, saying it was inferior to his older ones, etc. He decided to leave on his own terms, and not when he felt like he just couldn't do it as well anymore. If so, great. Nothing wrong with leaving when it's still fun rather than when you are just so sick of it that you are forced to quit because you physically can't stand it anymore.

Whatever his reasons, it is his sudden dissappearence rather than his talents that make him such a legend. He was talented, damn good at what he did, but he is remembered as much for the air of mystery surrounding him as his talents. Hell, there are editors working today that are just as talented, if not more so, than Kevin Caldwell. KC just has an air of mystery around him because so many people know his name while not knowing him. Justin Emerson, Ian Roberts, William Milberry, Elizabeth "EK" Kirkendall, Hsien Lee, Meri Cantoni, Duane Johnson, and many more of the more well-known editors, they are just as talented as Kevin Caldwell is reputed to be, maybe more so, but they do not have that air of mystery around them. KC made a few showings, earned a rep, then dropped off of the face of the planet. Think about how many rock stars are remembered because their careers were cut short in their prime, for whatever reason, while the one's that stayed with it are, many times, remembered and revered for their older works while their newer ones are labeled inferior. Same principle. Most likely, he decided to leave before he got labeled a has-been. Nothing special or mysterious about it. He just quit.

I imagine it is very true that he refuses to come back because of the expectations that would be placed upon him. Hell, that may well be why he quit. No one likes having expectations and the pressure to one-up yourself thrust upon them. Hell, that's why William Milberry, the editor I consider my biggest inspiration and my role model, nearly quit. The pressure to constantly top your previous works got to him despite his love of what he does, and does so very well.

This is all pretty much just my own opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt.

BTW, xstylus, thanks for all of the info. Although, I must say, why Kevin would enter Believe as an action video, I dunno. It's a drama video if it's anything, in my book. It isn't an action video at all, I don't think. Oh, well.
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Postby Ashton » Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:47 pm

I was thinking the exact same thing. Also, I find it strange that everybody is criticizing that video so much. It makes no sense, the video straight up kicks ass. It is my number one favorite video of all time, but I think that's because of my style and preference in videos. I guess I'm just one of those ignorant masses that still enjoys his work.
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