AMV Autobiography

[x_rex30]

In 2000 I saw some well edited videos, was in multimedia design so used there equipment to make one, found this site in 2000. Wanted to upload a video in 2001 to this site, so i signed up.. didn't actually put a video up till years later.. yeah.. typing with a mouse so don't wanna type much.

Didn't read a single other post because I dont care

[mexicanjunior]

I always thought that AMVs were a good stepping stone to get my editing skills to the level where I finally can work in the porn film industry...

Actually, I kind of had the same mission...

[Kionon]

I always thought that AMVs were a good stepping stone to get my editing skills to the level where I finally can work in the porn film industry...

Actually, I kind of had the same mission...

That explains the bible black videos...

[Qyot27]

I guess I should be as all-encompassing on this as possible, so here goes:

1995-1996: The Beginnings
My memory of events this far back is a bit fuzzy, so I'm not completely up on the exact dates (considering I was 10 at the time). Anyway, this was when I got my first real exposure to Japanese animation - the term 'anime' wasn't in wide usage at the time; heck, it'd be common to hear 'Japanimation' more than 'anime' unless you were in with the fansub scene, although that's only the impression I get in retrospect.

That first exposure came by way of Sci-Fi Channel airing their Saturday Anime movie slot - I wasn't really allowed to watch the stuff that was on there, but I'd sneak it from time to time. Through that I most distinctly remember watching Gall Force and 8-Man After, and at the very least seeing the listings for Akira, Dominion Tank Police, Venus Wars, etc. In summer of '96 one of the local stations aired Sailor Moon, which my sisters got hooked on, and that fall the same station started airing Dragon Ball Z and Eagle Riders (which I knew vaguely because an earlier memory than Sci-Fi's anime lineup was Cartoon Network showing G-Force - and I do mean G-Force, not Battle of the Planets); I lost interest in Eagle Riders after one or two episodes and for some odd reason got prohibited from watching DBZ - not that I cared too much after a while, though. Also that fall, one of the other stations began airing Samurai Pizza Cats, which I had to see - I still have the VHS tapes that I recorded the episodes on.

1997: Toonami (when it didn't suck)
I still remember coming home from school on St. Patrick's Day and watching the initial Toonami broadcast. I had heard of Voltron before from one of my friends at the time, whose older brother had the toy. So with Toonami actually putting it on air, I figured it was time to familiarize myself. Of course, by that time I'd pretty much grown out of the whole Power Rangers/combining robot fighting show thing, so after a few months of other things getting in the way of watching Toonami or the other 3-5 PM afternoon shows for the 10-12 crowd, I lost interest in said shows completely and drifted away from it.

Later in the year, after starting 6th grade, one of the guys in my Computer Tech class was reading one of the Robotech novelizations and I'd asked about it or something, I can't really remember. In any case I remembered the name - it wasn't until the following February that I realized that A) there was a program by that name which was the source of the novels and B) that Toonami was airing it.

1998: Robotech
That sums it up a lot, actually. I found out it was airing on Toonami and started watching it religiously (when I started it was already into the section culled from Southern Cross, but the Macross section started up not too long after, and I watched both parts Cartoon Network ever aired, I read all the novels as well, so I got through the Mospeada section that way). In the truest sense it was probably what really pushed me into anime fandom. I did find out that it was constructed out of Macross, Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada when I began reading the novels, and based on that I'd occasionally go and look at the anime section in Suncoast, where Macross II and Macross Plus were stocked. This was also around the time we got online with AOL, and I'd see various references to other anime series, notably Ah! My Goddess.

In looking at the Robotech novels at Barnes and Noble, I stumbled across the graphic novel section where some of the early volumes of the Evangelion manga were stocked. I was very interested in getting it, but paying 15 bucks a volume was out of the range my mom was willing to spend. I ended up getting the first edition volumes 1-7 years later after having watched the series itself.

1999:
At some point during '99 my parents relented and allowed us to watch DBZ, right as its popularity was peaking in the mainstream media. Other than that, the only thing worth mentioning is that I finally was able to watch more of the stuff Sci-Fi was showing, but it wasn't too long after that that the Saturday Anime feature disappeared outright.

2000:
Gundam Wing, some Tenchi (at least before we were barred from watching it based on really bad misinformation), and I finally got sick and tired of DBZ and gave up watching Toonami altogether.

2001:
At some point during this year my sister stumbled across Meri's website and got ahold of the RealPlayer version of Traces of Insanity. I didn't really pay attention to it, as I was more concerned with other things in my life imploding and anime had taken a serious backseat (not to mention I was already sick of DBZ). She may've also come across a couple Mega Man X videos during that time.

2002: AMVs
We finally got DSL. Shortly thereafter, I started getting back into anime, and somehow stumbled upon Maboroshi's Information High video through some method. This (and the Mega Man videos I mentioned previously) were what prompted me to look for something to process them with - I'd previously toyed with converting MOV files and whatnot due to the music videos frequently packed onto Enhanced CDs, but that was more or less aimless experimentation. I found out about Video CD format and gradually got more interest in converting video I'd found online into a format I could watch on my TV. And while I really don't classify them as AMVs, I did slap music tracks over a couple cutscenes from Mega Man X4 with VirtualDub and then ran them through TMPGEnc to make VCDs out of them.

Due to the Information High video or simply due to the fact I realized I could use iMesh (yeah, I know) to find anime episodes, I ended up somehow turning up a bunch of other AMVs, including dokidoki's Right Now video, Engel, Brad DeMoss' Iris vid, and a few others. This subsequently pushed me to finally find out what Evangelion and Oh My Goddess! were about (I also saw Onegai Teacher around that time), and also led me to find out about A-M-V.org. I browsed around the site for a month or two before finally joining.

I was also pushed to edit my own video. And like many others have already stated in this thread, my earliest attempt was actually with the source footage I had - some downloaded footage, some video game footage, scenes from preexisting AMVs I had on hand, etc. And because I knew that VirtualDub did have the capacity to cut and append clips to each other, that's what I used. My focus in it even back then was more about how one clip flowed into the next, so maybe that puts me a little ahead of just slapping audio over anything at all, but there were still deficiencies in it (I actually remastered the video a couple years later after I'd gotten all of those sources on DVD, albeit for the DBZ Final Bout footage and Rockman Zero stuff). This was quickly followed by a Gundam Wing video that I used with a Mötley Crüe song - later on I replaced "Dr. Feelgood" with Rammstein's "Spieluhr" and that's the version that I ever dare to lay claim to. After that were a couple Oh My Goddess! videos that I actually used DVD footage for, since I'd found a ripper - DVDx. And finally, at the end of the year, I did another multi-sourced video with the same crappy sources I'd used before (Nuclear Disaster - which I also remastered after getting the sources on DVD; I occasionally still watch it - the cuts are better prepared than they were for my first video, and the flow does seem a lot better at times).

All the while I had been looking at EADFAG, although not much of it really sank in. I was interested more in the formats discussion, and I already knew at this point that I needed to get Premiere, but that was still months away.

2003: Growth
For the first half of the year I put out video after video using VirtualDub, all using DVD footage (with an exception being that Sisters of Mercy video that's listed but still hasn't seen release). In April of that year I did try my hand at spending more than just an afternoon on a video, and the result was 'Nerv' Trouble, which I will get around to remastering one of these days using the Renewal Films. I realized at that point that I could do better with my videos if I just took my time with it, and I started getting increasingly frustrated with VirtualDub's editing abilities - although I had figured out how to do rudimentary fades to/from black or white.

Finally, in May or June I got Premiere 6.5. In truth, it was a little daunting jumping into using it after having used VDub for a year, but I was determined. It took all of July '03 for me to edit my first real AMV, which is The Nights Will See Them Through. Sure, it was edited with fansubbed DivX footage (I was astute enough with VDub to crop out the subs, though), at the wrong framerate, without the below 100% interlacing problem unchecked, and the initial cut of it has the visual quality of granulated crap, but I was immensely proud of myself for having created something like that, especially since I clearly recognized most of my earlier videos for the crap they were. I also tested out SmartRipper to get the pure MPEG-2 streams from my DVDs instead of constantly having to put up with DVDx - the test video I 'edited' to see what advantage I could get doing it that way was just slapping Green Day's "She" over the OP to Please Teacher! which I had maybe the first or second DVD of at the time.

Also around that time I found AniMix, and watched both of the parts that had been released. Due to the promotion it had toward getting people to join and edit, I wanted to see if I could do anything, which led to the first of the two tracks in AniMix that I edited. Looking back there are so many problems with it, and I'm somewhat embarrassed now for submitting it in the state that it's in, but I think I did far better on the second one a few months later (when I had more experience).

I was in Senior year of high school that fall, and amazingly the school started up an anime club that year (although it crumbled later on that year and dissolved; a newer anime club started up a couple years after I graduated, though, and met with better success from what my sister would relay to me). Following those, I decided to try my hand at an action video, which resulted in my X/Stupify video. Despite being the second true AMV I edited, I still look back to it in some ways as an example of action editing - even if most of my videos have turned out to be more in the realm of Drama/Sentimental/Romance.

In October, I edited How Not To Be Seen, and this was probably my first taste of success - because not only did the hits on the video climb more rapidly than any of my other videos, it had (and heck, maybe even still has), more downloads than all of my other videos combined. It even found its way on Kazaa, which gave me something of a high when I found out about that. The next month the club president asked if I could edit a commercial for them to air on the morning announcements - in the end I don't think it aired until the club was nearly dead, but whatever. I still do not understand what the heck has caused that commercial to get as many hits/downloads as it has (and it's shown up on the 'tube, for grief's sake!). I remastered The Nights Will See Them Through in early December and uploaded it to the Local server - this version has very notable flaws that even the original didn't, due to how it was edited. Finishing out the year was the Spineshank/FLCL video that I edited over the course of two days after getting the DVDs for Christmas. That was also the first video I announced on the forum (I was way too overconfident in my videos then, there are times I wished I'd have kept my mouth shut). It was also somewhat of an experiment in that it was the first time I really paid attention to internal sync, although I neither knew what internal sync was at the time nor did I do it consciously.

2004: Slowdown Phase 1
By this time I had settled into a bit of a pattern of a month or two off, then edit a video over about 1-2 weeks' time, then another month or two pause. This changed in 2004. I wanted to take more time to flesh out ideas, or play around with composition. This resulted in Solace in Destruction, which ranks as one of my more blatant attempts at being artistic (although whether it succeeds at that is anyone's guess). Solace marked an important turning point in my editing though, and that was in my decision to keep the source files I'd used. That decision came in part due to the fact that I had wanted to use a couple of shots from the Inuyasha movies and Ranma ½ OVA, but I didn't have those DVDs (and also was the first and only time I made the mistake of asking for help with obtaining said source, although it wasn't quite in the vein of 'give me episodes' - even I could do that considering I knew how to work the tech, if you will). The solution I came up with was that I'd use the low-quality footage I had, but I would keep the source files and when I did get those DVDs, I'd simply swap out the lower-quality shots for the good stuff (as of current, I still haven't gotten the Ranma footage). After archiving the source that time, I realized how valuable it is to do so, and have made sure to do so on every release since.

2004 also saw the first time and as of yet only time I 1) submitted a video - Nights - to a convention contest (and didn't even come close to winning, which I was aware of even before the winners were announced), although I do remember that the audience started faintly singing along by the end of it and it received some applause, 2) abandoned started video ideas, and 3) tried coordinating an MEP (the Betamax Project) - and it tanked; I do still have the lossless copies of what few tracks I did receive, though. I also edited a segment for Project 5555, but considering that it kind of *poofed* into the ether, I'll probably finally upload the segment when I release my next video.

During '04 I did complete a few other videos: a parody of the Kinsey theatrical trailer (which was the first time I did a video with multiple angles and used Matroska), an Evangelion video that I released in 2005 after I'd obtained all of Platinum/Renewal and remastered it, a completely revamped version of my Gee Angel video (which I first played with AviSynth on), and at the end of the year, Decisions, which I once again took a whole month to edit. It was partially drawn from an inner conflict I'd had in high school, although not much of that shows since most of the details were completely different.

2005-2007: MEP time, burnout time
During this stretch of time I partipated in many different MEPs, including AMV Hell 0, Video Game Project 3, the first Nightwish Project, AMV Hell CE, Project Trinity, and AMV Hell 4. During 2005 I started taking courses at the local community college, which started a very detrimental trend - I put off watching several anime at the start of the year, which eventually snowballed into the absolutely massive queue I have now. This snowball effect with the anime also coincided with my motivation for editing dying down, and in part contributed to it since I stopped having as much to get inspiration for. The only time I felt like editing was to get short segments for MEPs done. This kept up pretty well into the end of 2006, when I released a full length version of my Project Trinity track.

In early 2007 I finally decided to remaster Nights properly, and apply all of the AviSynth know-how I'd gained over the past three years to make sure that the quality and other framerate-related issues were resolved forever. This resulted in Nights:True, which I listed separately because there were other fundamental changes (such as lip-sync and one or two scene selections) from either the original cut or the half-assed remastered version from December '03. In some ways though it does restore more of the original cut than was evident in the first remastering, however.

2007 saw my editing come back some, especially with Fate Against Will, which again was a first for me in many areas: using manga (well, doujin) as source, using After Effects on a full-length video, editing for HD, and releasing something at more than 30fps. 2007 was also when I attended my second convention, Metrocon '07 (first anime-only convention, the one in '04 was MegaCon).

Coming back from that, I edited ...Whatever..., which was the first full-length, non-drama/sentimental/romance video I'd edited since 2004. Of course, the next video - Bittersweet Sentimentalites - was right back to the sentimental category (and has invoked its share of ignored warnings about the proper way to view the video due to its two video streams).

All along (2006-present) I have been working on shorts here and there, of which a full compilation probably won't appear until 2009 at the least.

2008:
I've spent most of this year still recouping from the burnout. I edited a slew of videos for AMV Hell / 0, of which about half made it in, and one full-length Mahoromatic video that should have been done back in February, but that I didn't finish up until September. I'm currently sitting on it because I need to find the time to get it beta'ed.

However, maybe I'll be able to churn out a second video before the end of the year - I have a couple of very enticing ideas, but I'm not sure of the practicality of one of them just yet (I'd prefer to have those Code Geass Blu-rays first).

2009:
I'm hoping that maybe I can dabble more in effects, as my videos are generally very very basic, and some ideas I have I know won't work without the help of effects to enhance them.

So that's basically where I am right now.

[Kisanzi]

I'll give this a go since I can't sleep.

2003-2004

I guess this is where this whole thing started for me. I had been a developing anime fan from a while before even hearing of AMVs. But somewhere in the beginning to middle of 2003, my friend Matt showed me some music videos he found on the internet that used anime footage. I remember seeing videos like Harder, Better, Faster, Smaller, Bleed the Sky, The Animix Project and a bunch of others, and had alot of fun watching them. But regardless, I still wasn't infatuated with them. So the only times I'd see any new AMVs would be when I went over to Matt's place and he would sit me down at his computer and show me the new stuff that he had found. As the weeks went on I started to develop enough interest to inquire on where to get these videos and that's how I was introduced the the org. Starting out I downloaded whatever used music I liked and was totally oblivious to video quality as long as it used my favorite music and/or anime. If you want an example of how biased I was before editing, I remember the first time I watched Euphoria and thinking, "what the hell is so great about this?", since I had no affinity toward Raxephon or Frou Frou. Ironically enough, before I started editing I really disliked FX videos since all I was interested in at the time was the anime/music.

So coming to the end of 2004 I'm at Matt's place again hanging out and watching anime when he pulls me aside like he always would and sits me at the computer and starts up a video. The video in question is JCD's Overdrive and after watching it I was blown away. The music was awesome, I loved Vandread at the time and the editing floored me. From that time on I was hooked enough to want to get in on this editing thing.

So around November of 2004, I got my hands on a copy of Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 and started tinkering with it. I wanted to try my hand at making AMVs and chose my sources quickly as they were the most recent anime I had watched and enjoyed paired with the music I was listening to the most at the time. So thus began my first vid, Neverlasting Happiness. I had some experience with editing programs thanks to broadcasting courses in high school, but it took me about a month to finish editing the video and deal with the many technical problems I had with the footage and program rendering. But thanks to a mutual friend of Matt's and mine, Valion, who had a bit of practice in the software side of things, my problems were fixed and the video was finished. I released it at the beginning of 2005 and thought incredibly highly of the vid, as it was amazing for a first video in my mind.

2005

After completing my first AMV and being very satisfied with the efforts, I immediately started my next project. This time I really wanted to capture all of my favorite shows in one vid, and it just so happened that all my faves at the time had some sad stuff in them. So I began editing Tear Stained Hearts. This video took me almost three months to complete due to the fact I had alot more source footage to use and was starting to play with some of the FX packed into the Premiere program. But upon finishing I was incredibly excited. I had just edited a video with all my favorite characters and showed them in the dramatic way that I remembered feeling when I saw the show. As sappy as that sounds, that was my complete motivation while making my first AMVs.

In April of 2005, I released my new drama vid onto the org and monitored it daily for comments. By this time my first vid had around 50 downloads and I was wicked proud of that, but since I had done 2 videos now, I wanted some real feedback. the new vid didn't get too much attention, so seeking whatever exposure I could, I then explored the Opinion and Contest sections of the forums. I started dropping links in opinion exchanges and got alot of postive feedback about the vid. This got me confident enough to attempt to send my videos to convention contests.

Being new at this whole convention thing, since I had only ever attended one convention prior to editing, I sent my video to as many cons that would accept my vid at it's current res and framerate specs. (Since I had no clue how to change them.) So after picking conventions that I was going to attend and stuff on the other side of the country, the mailed discs went off to Kunicon, Anime Expo, Nan Desu Kan, Nekocon and Ani-magic.

The first con, Kunicon rolled around and my god, this was an awful con. I had been to Nan Desu Kan in denver in 2004 and seeing an AMV contest shown to a couple hundred of the thousands of attendees. And here I was at a Kunicon, with an attendance in the double digits waiting to see if my AMV made it into the contest. Low and behold, I found the AMV contest showing room, which held about 20 people (no joke) and sat down awaiting the contest, The first video starts rolling and it's my TSH vid. I look around and the video room only had 2 other people besides myself in it. Regardless, I'm proud of seeing it on the projection and stick around for the whole contest to find that my 1st vid didn't make it in.

So one con down. I looked forward to the others and my vid getting some good feedback from more than 2 people. The next con, Anime Expo, was another first since I had been invited to go by Valion. This was a total 360 from Kunicon, as AX has an attendance in the tens of thousands and the AMV showing was to over 4000 people. And it so happened that my TSH video had made it in the contest. I was pretty floored at the contest showing at AX and went to the AMV awards ceremony days later expecting nothing since there were some amazing videos in the drama category besides mine. Shockingly my AMV ended up winning the category and I was utterly surprised to actually win something for my videos, albeit some this big as my first win.

After Anime Expo "Tear Stained Hearts" took best drama and judges awards from the other cons that I had sent it too. Needless to say, the video began to take off and I was really proud of it. But I still had little to no interaction with other editors or the hobby in general.

My next AMV, Love's First Glance, pushed me further into the fold of video FX and after completing that vid I really got into the hobby for the editing beyond the anime. So before releasing the video I sought out other editors to critique my work. I ended up joining Scoobsnet AMVs and finally got a little feedback from fellow editors through their studio forums. And later in the year I released my 4th vid, Vengeful Discord

As the end of the 2005 approached I was a bit deeper in the community here on the org and decided to join the online iron chef tournament v.2 on the forums. I really wanted more reasons to edit, so even though I was still inexperienced I joined. The I ended up beating Metro and Kristyrat in the first couple rounds and losing in the third. But as a noob I was pretty stoked to have actually won a round or two. Later in the year I joined my first MEP, The Unearthed Project. So I pretty much tried everything there is to do editing AMVs online in my first year.

Another thing that happened around the end of this year was the reason I met alot of my friends on the org nowadays. I got a message from AtomX to come on some internet radio thing call RDS radio. I agreed to do so and was subjected to alot of friendly grief thanks to my noobness. But regardless, I had made some new friends in the community and began talking with them more and more. It was through these conversations that Brad aka AtomX, totally destroyed my idea of good video quality and gave me the 101 on video quality and filtering.

2006

Fresh off my video quality enlightenment and VCA victory for Rookie of the Year, I was ready to do some serious editing. I broke away from my current studios and started my own AMV studio, VNS, with previous studiomate and friend Krat.

During the first half of the year I was really trying to experiment and improve my technical editing abilities. In my experiments of creating FX I made Lighspeed Rush and Ephemeral Reality. As I was making these videos I wanted to do my best to improve so I started sending betas of my videos out to friends and other editors. Thus briefly talking with people like JCD and such.

In the middle of 2006 I was talked into flying 1/3 of the way across the county to attend Anime Central with a bunch of friends I had met on the org. Mainly AtomX and Koop. Despite of the initial awkwardness of meeting people in person for the first time, it was fun stuff. I met even more editors at the con and had a great time.

Nearing the end of 2006 I was finally confident in my editing and decided to start making some really solid videos. By this point I was talking more regularly with Brad and some guy named Koopiskeva, the latter of the two offering only silly emotes and little editing advice. But anyway, these conversations lead me to edit a track in Reflections of Style 3, alongside alot of good editors.

While making the ROS track, I was also working on Bladebeat Graffiti. This was the first video that the editing completely wore me out, but I was happy to have finally been able to create some of the more complex stuff that I had envisioned. Bladebeat released to good response and grabbed a victory in the AWA Pro contest and other cons. So here I was again with a video that had success with an audience and went on to become my best video in the minds of alot of AMV fans.

Speaking on AWA, this was the first year that I decided to attend yet another out of state convention with only org editors. But good times. I met Decoy and a ton of other editors.

2007

Coming off the success and mental fatigue of Bladebeat Graffiti, I took a few months hiatus to get back into the swing of the hobby. By this point, my interest in editing had grown enough to make me grab all the resources I could get my hands on. Which lead me to After Effects. So from November 06 to January 07 I read a through an AE 6.5 textbook and taught myself the program. I would have taken a college course on it right then and there, but it filled up before I could get in.

So after learning what I could of AE I decided to test my skills on a new video using as much as I could of the new FX. So 3 months in the making and Expendable Innocence is made. The vid releases to good reception but the popularity doesn't drive up as fast as my previous vid. Prolly due to source, genre, whatever. But I'm still proud of the video and what I learned making it.

A couple months pass and I don't even want to think about editing. AE taxed my brain and I needed time to get some more ideas for a new vid. Come summer, I head out to Acen again and fun times ensue. As the rest of summer passes I try to toy with some ideas but quickly abandon them until I start on a new video of which involved alot of 3d. Again, the 3 month editing cycle that I seem to have developed began. And just before the deadline of AWA, I finish a rough version of Condemned Memoir. Now this video was a strange case starting out. It won none of the cons I sent it too. But as soon as I got a finished version uploaded, then it really got some attention.

Now begins uber-hiatus.

2008 to current

Coming off another VCA win, I'm totally taxed and the months go by. I really didn't feel like editing for the first chunk of the year, and I wasn't getting any real solid ideas for vids either. So time passes until I get a message from JCD about a Happy Hardcore DJ who wants someone to make a video to one of his new songs. Thinking of this as a way to spark my editing I take the request. The result is Lovestruck Radiance. My first vid of 08 and here I thought it would get me rolling. But that's obviously not the case.

So currently I'm still a big fan of AMVs and editing. But as my ideas and editing take longer and more effort to complete, my motivation collapses under the fatigue of sitting at a computer all night editing. I don't intend on ever giving up the hobby, but I'll need some time to recharge my batteries. But no matter my feelings towards editing, the friends I've made through the hobby will keep me around for years to come.

P.S.

VNSFTW

[Koopiskeva]

First, thanks to all those that have written theirs so far - its really cool to me to see how everyone has developed throughout the years.

You know the problem with most autobiographies is that people write in the first person too much and it gets boring fast. Count how many times you used the word "I" in your biographies and you will quickly understand.

Some of the posts have been interesting so far but most of them just felt like people were just in godix words: "'Oh look, a chance to talk about my favorite subject, ME."

My amv life hasn't been long or indepth enough to really be of use writing about as is regardless.

While I understand where this comes from, most of us are not writers, so though several do come across as generally being straightforward and non-entertaining, that is the intent. Also, its an autobiography - we're supposed to be talking about ourselves (through our videos in this case).

I wouldn't expect everyone trying to be 'entertaining' or 'interesting' about their posts - I find it interesting enough how people have just progressed throughout their videos/years. To me, I get to know more about the person when they're not trying to be entertaining, but simply telling it naturally.

[Bauzi]

While I understand where this comes from, most of us are not writers, so though several do come across as generally being straightforward and non-entertaining, that is the intent. Also, its an autobiography - we're supposed to be talking about ourselves (through our videos in this case).

x²

Feel free to not read it if you don´ like it. I don´t mind ^^

I appologize for all the typos. Please forgive a foreign boy

I like my story

2001 - "What´s that?"
Yes I already started in 2001. Surprised? Oh you better don´t want to watch my old video. I was the average cliché noob who just discovered internet a bit more. I was a cliché for a long time. Hey, internet and it´s own moral and does and don´t aren´t that easy for a teen!

In summer 2001 I discovered anime threw a manga from my best friend and studio mate Mac. Later we downloaded some dbz clips from various site. I was always so excited to see some fights in full motion and coloured. Later we discovered AMVs from a dragonball fan site.

They were so cool and I think that some of them would still make some decent old school styled videos. We downloaded more and more amvs and we almost got fans from some editors. Someday we also wanted to edit amvs. Just for the sake of fun, but for me it was also a goal to make good amvs too to actually make people enjoy them. Like I enjoyed those videos.
Mac and me discovered Ulead Video Studio 5 for 10 bucks and bought it.
My first amv was with Rammstein - Ich Will and Mac´s first one was with Nirvana - Smells Like Teens Spirit. Yes. Both were with dbz.
We also decided to apear as one unit "Bauzi & MAC" or "MAC & Bauzi" in "credits".

2002 - 2003 "In the dark with no light"
It was a good idea to form a unit. We always shared our sources, pcs, software and even knowledge. Knowledge was a very important thing. Do you know how hard it is if you don´t know nothing at all about editing? Hell! Our first crossfade was a big step forward for us!

We´re both bound on bad workspaces. Mac got new pc hardware from year to year. I didn´t. I was bound on my 266 Mhz machine. I wasn´t even able to rip my own music cds withot encoding errors because the drive was so slow. Also we had bad internet connections for a long time. We also upgraded from Ulead 5 to 6, 7 and so on. hehe. I never used WMM

My goal was to actually get one of the best editors out there. My amvs got more technic, but it´s still far away from decent. I think they lacked effort.

Our goal in general was to make something that we considered good enough to be hosted on dragonballarena.net wich was the amv world for us.

2003 - "Let´s do it!"
So we worked on our videos. There was still lack of effort. We were both stuck on dbz. We just didn´t had any other source.
We wanted to produce something that was so as decent enough to get hosted on dragonball. Well we got reject two times, BUT I thanked the admins from the site, because they actually gave us a reason to get better.

There was also the bet: If one of my videos would be accepted first from dragonballarena, than our official name would be "Bauzi & MAC). Well and if Mac would win: "MAC & Bauzi"

Opening our eyes on other animes too, because Mac got better i-net.

2004 - "Argh. LET`S DO IT!"
I got more and more pissed. I didn´t liked my editing and so on. I saw the problem and it was "lack of effort". So I really set down and edited, and edited and edited until it was finished and good.
That was the video: Hunting The Undead

I was really proud of it. It got hosted on dragonballarena, I won the bet and I uploaded it here. You can still see "Bauzi & MAC" in the credits

However. I didn´t got the feedback that I wished to get. Just some feedback. Anything! .-.

2005 - "Upgrade. Let´s do it again"
I still got the problem that I couldn´t really finish vids, but than I made Mission To Hell and a lot changed. I also used our first rip from my own DVD. Well the quality wasn´t that good, but it was nice. I also entered my first contest.

Finally we got a new pc and I whole new world opened for me. I still use my pc today and I really like "him" ^^

Mac still didn´t finished something that he saw as "worth to be shown to others".

We also formed [LGS] Lazy Generation Studios, because we already were something like that. We really shared the things we got.

In the meanwhile I always searched for good austrian editors, but didn´t found them. We were fans of italian people, german, UK etc. but where are the austrian guys? That was something we didn´t understood and I searched them! So I got to amv.de after some while.
I think the austrian scene was "formed" in 2004 with the first local contests. So actually there was nothing to find .-.

2006 - "Rise"
I finally realised my problem. After getting used to the new possibilities with my new pc and software I set down and edited as long as "Type Of Negative" was finished. A HUGE step forward. I finally saw myself and stuff as decent or good.
The amv was made with Premiere Pro 1.5 wich I got from a friend. I still use it today ^^

It was demotivating to see that nobody wanted to comment my amvs from this era here in the forms =/ It made me sad! In got 3 posts in my first three anouncment threads here .-.
Things changed when I lurked here more and released new vids like [:Un/real] or "Condemn What We Don´t Understand".

I also met tons of new and nice people =O

My internet was finally upgraded from 56k to broadband >_>

Mac and me slpit up the name, because in the end I was the only one from us who actually released vids. "Bauzi & MAC" was dead. Long live "Bauzi"! [LGS] just was enough to be a unit.

2007 - "Above The Sky. Dreamvideo"
With "Seen It" I got into After Effects 7.0 and I realeased more videos.

"Deus Machina" was just great for me! It was the type of video that I always wanted to create. It made me so proud to see how people actually like it, because it was so much my own taste.

"Different Realites" was somehow disappointing for me, but in the end I think it´s ok. I would like to give the attention or popularity of this vid to other works of mine. I also showed myself that Deus Machina just wasn´t my cenit and there is much more to come. That was really important for me.

With Kiv and Kenka we got two great editors for [LGS]. Weeeheee ^^

Finally I saw myself as the best austrian editor. Well I don´t want to say that. We have so many talented people. Let´s say that I´m the most popular.

2008 - 2009 "Change"
"Never Giving Up" showed that I can edit something else than sick, dark videos :p
I really like it ^^

With my latest release "Eve - The Perfect Human" I made again a video that I always wanted to create. It splits people into lovers and hater and I like it!
I wanted to step down with this video from this heavy sync stuff and go back to mood sync like I did with Deus Machina.

I got somehow sick of oversynced stuff and I try to not do it again. I changed and so will my videos. I´ll still use effects, but I guess in a more usefull way.

Dreizehn joyned [LGS] ^^

In total?
I got far more than I ever expected when I began with this hobby. I am proud of it that I went threw years with a shitty workspace and discovered most of the stuff all by myself and with Mac. I just didn´t gave up and I won´t.

Due to the lack of comments that I got I try to give austrian amv editors as much feedback that I can.

I also help other people because I just had nobody at the beginning wich helped us. I consider Kenka as my personal amv student and she´s just great ^_^
I really dig her stuff.

I somehow got popularity in Austria too. I was judge at a contest and so on. It´s cool well I don´t care that much for popularity since years. It´s still nice to see people wich like my stuff.

I´m just proud of my own way, alright?

[Castor Troy]

Awesome stories!

I'm gonna read them all and maybe write my own later.

[Farlo]

im too lazy to do this kind of thing, someone make up a biography for me.

[NS]

im too lazy to do this kind of thing, someone make up a biography for me.

METAL!

/done