AMV Autobiography

[Radical_Yue]

Mmmk now... I'm only doing this because Jay told me to =/ If I had my way...I wouldn't at all -__-

2002

Back in 2002 or so, when I was 12 and still in middle school, I was given a disk by some kids I hung out with from time to time. I brought it home to find this disk contained AMVs...Dragon Ball Z AMVs, but AMVs none the less. I was wowed by videos like Dark Kamui's "Vegeta" and MeriC's "Heart Of Sword". I watched that disk for hours on end...

2003

I was given a couple other disks over time and wanted more. I continuously searched the net for AMVs, but could only download low quality/small cruddy videos due to an amazing dial-up connection.
I happened across this "A-M-V.org" place quite a few times, but ignored it due to the fact that I didn't want to sign up for a site =p

2004

In 2004 I had a breakdown and dropped out of normal school to enter Independent Studies where hopefully, I could clear my head...this also gave me more time to search for AMVs =p
One day...while roaming the Neopets boards, I found a person who posted a link to their site and their AMVs...and they took requests O:
I emailed them my request which resulted in this video... Samurai X...with Vanessa Carlton's "White Houses" I desperately wanted to try making AMVs for myself, so I asked this person who to do so.
"Download footage and import it into Windows Movie Maker. Put some audio in there and pull it all onto the storyboard." I hastily searched google for "Anime Clips"...yes, those are the exact words I used to search with...I took whatever I could find, whether it be high-esque quality GIFs to random blips from subtitled episodes.
Luckily, right at that time, I acquired, from the dumpster of an Oral-B building...a laptop O: Well, actually, some drug dealers got it and sold it to my mother for $100, but yeah...a laptop none the less. With a whopping 128mb ram and 5gb hd, I was ready to go. I didn't want to edit on the main computer, so I would burn my footage to CD-Rs and transfer them to my laptop to edit with. Without normal schooling to bog me down, I began to edit, completing my first video in September of '04...You Are
Unfortunately, I didn't know how to burn from my laptop, so I was stuck without feedback due to lack of internet connection...but I continued to edit...

2005

I edited like a madman...constantly going...pumping out crappy videos one after the other. But I was happy. My breakdown brought me something wonderful...who would have thought? =p
Finally, in February 2004, we upgraded from Dial-up to DSL =D I got a wireless connection for my laptop, and signed up with A-M-V.org. I
entered my videos into the database (by that point in time I had made 8...) and hosted them on my freewebs account since I couldn't figure the FTP out. Of course, with the bandwidth limit, freewebs continually went down and I began to lose hope of ever getting an opinion on my AMVs.
Eventually, I wizened up and figured out the FTP process and I was a very happy panda.
Later that month, I downloaded a free DVD ripping program(well, the trial version was free ), and ripped the only disk that I owned that wasn't protected... Samurai X: Reflections. Of course, the files were way too big for my laptop, but I easily fixed that by running the videos through Windows Movie Maker...twice each...rendering them out as 320x240 WMVs.
I went on to create Welcome Home~ Numb. My first well received video =D I entered it into The Scoobs Awards AMV Contest. An online AMV contest in which I lost in the first round, but started getting out there =] From there, Katie (JaddziaDax) started oping my videos. I was ecstatic to have a popular editor giving me feedback. Of course, I was a moron and didn't pay any attention to the feedback, but I kept going. >:O
I prided myself in being able to edit a full video in under 6 hours tops. I thought subtitles were good. I was in happyland.
Due to the crappy-ness of my laptop, I was unable to download the more popular AMVs of the time since it would choke everytime I tried to play something larger than a 320x240 video, but I kept alive on cruddy videos like mine =w= And I thought they were AMAZING

Now, over the course of a good 8 months of editing on a shitty laptop, with subtitled footage encoded in DivX and Xvid, and reencoding DVD rips that were encoded with DivX from the ripper I was using...WMM died on me. It refused to import any new media. I cried.

I had no choice but to move to the main desktop. Now, the desktop was MUCH more powerful than my laptop of course, so this made it possible for me to render at a bit of a higher resolution. My first video on that computer was The Two Of Us In The Twilight. I knew it wasn't the best, but I was very happy with it. From there, I "remastered" Welcome Home~ Numb and created Always Waiting, which became my favorite video out of all that I had made at the time. I nearly died when I woke up 6 hours after completing it to find 4 opinions. I was on top of the world.

After finally realizing that SUBTITLES = BAD I attempted to cut them out of my videos.
With ~†=- Illusions Of Blue -=†~ I used subtitled footage, but restricted myself to only using scenes that had 1 line of subtitles. I then rendered it out as a DV-AVI from WMM, ran it through a trial version of a DivX converter I had downloaded, and then into Virtual Dub Mod to remove the subtitles.
I used this process once more on my video Rumina's Nightmare. A video which I edited to take my mind off the death of my ferret Jasper. It was also the video in which I had found out how to create a strobing flash...and I abused it so...

Fantasy was my last AMV using Window Movie Maker. A quickie I made using Howl's Moving Castle, an anime which I dearly love due to the fact the book is one of my favorites and I adore the author.

Once Upon A Time was my first AMV in Vegas, the program I still use to this day. I was so proud of the fact that I figured out a new program...I couldn't wait to edit more =]

2006

Wow...a lot happened in 05 o_o

Give Me Wings was my first video I ever considered to be "effects heavy."
I was so excited about it since I had finally figured out how to do a type of overlay =D
This was followed by Silent Screams, my first properly encoded Xvid with the help of Katie, once again.

Around this time, I had finally gotten the nerve to talk to Katie on AIM and I met more amazing editors through skype, such as Batto!, Mamo!, Jade_Eyed_Angel, Scoob and Shinodude. I have to say, that the summer of 06 was one of the best of my life. Editing happily and playing games with new friends till the dawn...it was good times =]
This was also the time I finally worked up the courage to check around the forums a bit. I didn't post much and played the fool when I did (as I do quite a bit now still) but I was getting involved none the less.

Grace...my first dance video. I was SO EXCITED =D When I came up with the color cycling border...my mind nearly exploded. It was really well received too =] I made semi-finals in the VCAs and even got an honorable mention at Otafest. I never thought I'd go anywhere with my videos, but small victories like these made me want to get better.

Poison Lament, the video I won my first award in. It was a small con...but happiness ensued.

2007

I had been having so much fun editing, but I was getting fed up with my system. My computer was crappy, and the motherboard was so outdated I couldn't even upgrade the ram from 128mb. I was sick and tired of the restrictions.

Desire was the last video that I made on my old computer. It serves as a reminder of the days when I would hit play and the preview screen wouldn't move...and the 14 hour renders for a small wmv beta... I was done with that.

In about September of 07, I had finally saved up enough, bought all the parts and had my computer assembled. My first project I decided on...would be Radiance. This was a big project for me so I only worked on it from time to time, creating other videos in the meantime.
Angel being the first one successfully completed on my new computer.

If you asked me what my favorite AMV out my own collection was, it'd have to be Blessed Days In The Cherry Blossoms. An AMV made it 2 hours, and made to be HORRIBLE.
You see, as time progressed and I got better at editing, I began to hate my editing more and more. I saw what others could create and was astonished at their knowledge that I could never even begin to grasp. I still feel this way to this day, but Blessed Days was a release for me, and it gave me the little push that I needed to keep editing and attempt to have fun...even if I despised the result with every fiber of my being.

Fairytale was my last AMV of 07. My New Years Rush Job as I call it. For a couple days, I was actually very happy with this video. I had a really fun time editing it and I guess I was in my own personal euphoria for a bit after finishing it, but it became one of my hated videos after a bit. As they all do.


2008

By this time, thanks to Kitsuner and Niotex, I had worked up enough courage to play in #AMV. That's where I started talking more to everyone, especially ZephyrStar, Aesling and Fall_Child42. From there, I fell so head over heels in love with this community, I never wanted to leave my computer.

Of course, I finally did in May of 08 to go to my first convention...Acen O:
I fangirled inside each time I saw an editor that I had worshiped over the years.
You guys seriously have no idea how loud I can squee in my head |:
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, HOLY SHIT! THAT'S ATOMX O_O;; AND THERE IS KISANZI! OMG JCD!!! ....holy fuck...I just groped Aesling O____O And I likeded it =w="
It was really a dream come true.
Now, for Acen, I worked hastily to finish Radiance...I didn't make it into finals, but I was shocked to have the it played at the All Girl panel o_o I seriously...almost died...
Radiance...started as a video that I wanted to pour every ounce of my being into...but I just got so angry at myself for not being able to produce what's in my head that I finally just gave up and released it in June of this year.

And that's basically where I am now. In love with the community and it's members, loathing my own work, but loving editing so much I can't stop.

HAPPY NOW JAY? IT'S ALMOST 4AM AND I'VE RAMBLE/TYPED FOR A GOOD 30 MINUTES >_o
I can sleep nao?
I can?
kthnx.

/me passes out

[Fall_Child42]

This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
There was a boob in my hand
At the ACEN Convention
AMVs, on you_tube
suck too bad to mention
It's just those boobs on you
Caught my attention

I groped an Aes and I liked it
The feel of Victoria secret
I groped an Aes just to try it
I hope her boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
All the guys pants became real tight
I groped an Aes and I liked it
I liked it

[ZephyrStar]

This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
There was a boob in my hand
At the ACEN Convention
AMVs, on you_tube
suck too bad to mention
It's just those boobs on you
Caught my attention

I groped an Aes and I liked it
The feel of Victoria secret
I groped an Aes just to try it
I hope her boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
All the guys pants became real tight
I groped an Aes and I liked it
I liked it

This... HAS to be made into an actual song.

[Ileia]

2004:

I had no computer of my own, and had NO experience with computers or the internet or anything. I happened to be staying at a friends' place and she showed me some AMVs that she made, and I was smitten. I kept watching them, playing them with the audio muted, while playing a different song to see how it worked.

When I went back home, I had my boyfriend make me a computer so that I could make an AMV. That's right. I only got a computer for the purpose of editing AMVs. I started off with Windows Movie Maker since that was the program that my friend had used. I didn't know there were other programs you could use. She said she used downloaded episodes and music. So I did that too. The only anime I had seen was Inu-Yasha. So, that was what I used. And I made three videos in about week's time.

Then I thought, "Hey. I bet other people have made these! I'm going to google AMVs!" and I found the .org. I made a beeline for the VCA winners, because I didn't know where to start. I saw Mitternacht and my jaw dropped. I made everyone else come watch it. Then Euphoria. Again, a jaw drop. I decided to message the creator of the latter. He was a bit short with me, but I attributed it to him getting the same questions over and over again. It went kinda like this:

me: I liked your Euphoria video. What editor did you use for that?
him: Magix
me: okay


So I got Magix.(Though it was Music Maker, it could still edit video.) And some DVDs. So I made one video using Magix and DVDs. I didn't even watch the DVDs, I just immediately went into using them for editing. And I went about it all wrong, technically, I just ripped the DVDs and edited with the vobs, then exported whatever sort of AVI Magix would let me. Even after editing it, I kinda realized it sucked, because I compared it to other videos I'd seen. So I stopped for a little while. I wanted to use the time to watch more videos to see how things should look, to get a feel for all types of videos.


2005:


This is the year when I really hit it hard. I made 22 videos in 2005. Video after video, I kept trying new things. Romance, dance, action, comedy, drama, even hentai! I wanted to try everything. Some failed, but I learned from them, some were successful, and I learned from them too. I never really spent long on the videos, but I could visually see my own improvement. I started fixing some of the technical aspects as well. AMVapp ftw.

This was the year I started getting into the community. After the video Date Rape, some other editors started to recognize my name and I started talking to them. a-m-v.org was my first experience with forums. I actually thought you were supposed to look and see who was online and PM them to start a chat. I recall messaging Willow, being all noobish, telling him what my favorite anime characters were. Then I decided to enter the IRC chatroom (which took some doing because I didn't understand IRC.). I still remember the first line of text I ever read in IRC:

Decoy: omg date rape girl

Through IRC and the forums, I made a shitload of friends. And it grew by the day. We'd play games (Gunbound is still fuckwin) and skype and chat and laugh and it was awesome. I had never really had a lot of friends (in fact I was pretty introverted) so this a new experience for me. I absolutely loved it.

This year was also my first experience with Iron Chef'ing. I didn't understand the concept at first. I thought you were supposed to finish the video, ALL of the video, as quickly as you could. So my first IC video was made in 45 minutes, and I finished the whole song. :O So I learned something: "Hey! I'm pretty good at fast editing!"


2006:


I wanted to step it up a notch. I made less videos (only 12 this year) but they were of higher quality. I still kept with my need to do new or different sorts of videos. (A Saikano rap comedy video?!!) Quite a few MEPs that year, as well. Though I was presented with sort of a challenge. Both Niotex and Decoy told me that I couldn't do action videos. Couldn't! I had to prove to both myself, and to them that I could not only do them, but do them well. I was determined! A Burst Angel video that I made I sent to AWA 2006...and I won Best Action! It's funny because now I get people who say that all I can do is action. If I focused on any one genre as much as I did on making sure I was good at action, I'd be just as good at them. I just haven't yet. :O

Speaking of AWA, it was the BEST TIME I HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE AND IT STILL HAS NOT BEEN TOPPED. It was a whirlwind of awesome, with editors and convention stuff and drinking and meeting soooo many people, and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!! It was my first convention. I'm told that at most people's first conventions they just kinda test the water....if that's so, I dived in headfirst! I loved these people and never wanted to leave.

I also came to a decision this year: I wanted to do video editing as a career. And since I had recently broke up with my boyfriend, I was free to go to wherever I wanted to go to college.


2007:


Clearly, I decided on Chicago. I had such a good time there, that's where I knew I wanted to go. I even went and surprised the Chicago peoples with a visit (See: ROS 5). This is where I have my first break in editing since after I first started, my transition from Minnesota to Chicago. Koopiskeva and peropero were nice enough to come and save me and bring me to Chicago, where we were going to have an a(mv)partment together, with Nessephanie and AtomX!

Living together with them definitely helped motivate me to keep doing better and better. Brad was already going to school in a related field, and both Liz and I want to go to Columbia for the same major. Unfortunately, both of us had to put our dreams on hold for various reasons. Mine was that my parents' (whom I disowned as soon as I was 18, when I moved out) refused to give me their tax info, so I couldn't fill out financial aid forms. So I was gonna have to wait until I was 24 and officially independent.

Oh, and my first ACen! I got to meet some new people that I didn't get to meet before, so I had fun, but it was definitely more toned down than AWA. (and that's saying a lot, considering some of what went on at ACen )

And for AWA, I decided I was now good enough to enter Pro. And I wanted to use School Rumble, an anime that I not only watched, but loved. There was a LOT of searching to do, there was a metric shit-ton of DVDs to sift through! Usually I stuck with one or two DVDs, or a movie, so this was kinda a big deal for me. I stayed up most of the night before the deadline, getting it all finished. Close to the deadline for the Master's competition, I had a little spark of an idea and decided to make good on it. I decided on the day of the deadline. Luckily, we were given two days to upload the video. And I made use of both of them! (granted, I did have to work on one of the days, so it was only technically, like, a day and a half). I also sent an iron chef video I made to Expo. So I was entering all three contests, when I had only planned to enter one.

To my tremendous surprise, I won all three. I hadn't expected it at all (I even just gave Wagner a guessed size for the jacket, because I wasn't planning on winning. The sleeves are a little long XD). The reception the videos got even after AWA was surprising to me. One Fine Day, the video meant for the contests, received very little attention, while the other two, the ones that had very little work put into them, were loved. My rush jobs are better than when I put a lot of work into a video? o_O

I only made one more video that year, a Beck video with a song that I felt was really powerful, but once again, not well received. I love the video, but it seems that the videos that I like are the ones that don't get liked. I don't have good taste in my own videos?


2008:


This has been a strange year. I had no definite plan, but I knew I wanted to slip into some more genres. Because of AWA, I still haven't been able to shake this preconception that I am only good at action videos, so I knew that for this year's AWA, I wanted to make a drama video, still unreleased, but I'll get to that.

My best-liked video so far this year has been a Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei video, that I barely paid attention to, just edited little bits here and there. When I released it, I was expecting it to be hated because of the song, but it seems the opposite, and that surprised me.

Another surprise, I made a funny little video with Goldenboy for ACen specifically. It didn't even make the finals for the convention. I was generally kind of "meh" about it, but once again, it got a pretty good reception when I released it. I sent two new videos to ACen and neither won. First time for everything! Though at ACen, I did have my first experience doing a live Iron Editor, and it was so much fun. I used Premiere for the first time for the competition and took an instant dislike to it!

So yeah, AWA. I knew I wanted to do something different. So I made a drama, sort of trippy video. But as it is...I hate it. I disliked it when I sent it and I still dislike it. How I ever got Best Artistic and Best Overall, I'll never know. I still haven't released it, I want to fix it. This may mean a dramatic overhaul, or maybe I should leave it. Enough people seem to like it and I do seem to have bad taste in my own videos, haha. CDVV did an awesome job at AWA, we won a lot of awards between us and I'm proud of myself and the other editors.

So after AWA, I've been releasing a new video each week. I still have a lot to go, including a dance video and a romance video, so we'll see how the rest of it goes!




a-m-v.org is my life. The other editors are my best friends, I am always editing and watching videos. Nothing is more important to me.

[aesling]

This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
There was a boob in my hand
At the ACEN Convention
AMVs, on you_tube
suck too bad to mention
It's just those boobs on you
Caught my attention

I groped an Aes and I liked it
The feel of Victoria secret
I groped an Aes just to try it
I hope her boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
All the guys pants became real tight
I groped an Aes and I liked it
I liked it

This... HAS to be made into an actual song.

Lawl, but I don't wear Victoria's Secret.

[Koopiskeva]

This is great.. keep em comin O:

[jade_eyed_angel]

o;
i shoud post stuffs here.
maybe ^^

[CodeZTM]

I don't think I've aquired enough awesome to post in this thread.

But Ima gonna do it anyway. :O

AMV Autobiography
Code

The first ever memory I had of an AMV was when I was a little kid playing Pokemon Red which had just been released. I was listening to music on my awesome expenisve and totally futuristic CD player, and imagining digimon and pokemon dancing to the music and just doing generally awesome stuff. Not to mention that I'd always loved Cardcaptors and Sailor Moon in years to come.

Fast foward to junior high. I was enamored with the French animation Code Lyoko. I watched every episode and had them recorded on about 20 or more VHS tapes. I was also very much in love with Yugioh at this point and was quite the avid duelist.

2006

This would be the second half of my Sophomore year in high school. I discovered a-m-v.org after finding an AMV dedicated to Asuka of Neon Genesis Evangelion, of which I had become a huge fan of thanks to Cartoon Network. I joined, logged in and made some posts. Then I kind of drifted from the forums, and just started watching AMV's. I attempted some early work with ripping off AMV's of WMM projects I'd downloaded, and just changing the song. When I found out that subtitles and sucky video quality weren't too popular, I think I just stood bad and took a breather. I think it was Katie that told me I should just watch a bunch of good videos and see what makes them good and then attempt to make my own style.

So I did that. Then I tried running a MEP. >_> On the whole, it wasn't bad, and I still love those videos in the project, but I royally fecked it up with poor quality and no local upload. I had no clue what I was doing. Somebody asked me when thye should send in their huffy, and I just kind of paniced at that point and said I had it all figured out and not to worry about it. I dropped their project (an Xvid) into VDub and plowed it out in weird format that to this day I can't remember why I picked it, imported to premier, edited it together, and then made AMV Signs of Light and Hope. At least 3 of the videos in that project were already made and annoucned, including Mamo's Cartoon Heroes and Yue's Gaurdian Angel video. Moonie made a candid appearance in the MEP too, making an AMV that just made me crap my pants at how good it was.

After that, I realized my level of suckage was pretty bad, so I tried doing what Katie advised once more. Then I saw it. The one video that I honestly think really set me off to attempt to make my videos better. Sierra Lorna's Sincerly Yours. To this day, I still have that video on my HD and watch it frequently. Somethign about that video made me seriously want to make a really good video like that one. It's like those two sources worked so well together and Sierra Lorna made a story out of it. It was then that I knew what I wanted to do.

I started work on "Do You Believe In Magic", and I hastily threw it together originally as a track for jubjub's Valentine's MEP. Then I was arrogant. I thought it was gorgeous and brilliant. Then jubjub offered advice on how to make it better, and I kind of just blatently said "It's hawt the way it is", and made no changes, dropped from the MEP and made a full length AMV out of it. I regret that. Today I can see the blatant problems with it, but back then I was just too prideful to see my mistakes. When it wasn't well-recieved, I kind of just gave up on making full-length AMV's. I was better at MEP tracks.

To end the year, I made a track in the AMV Holiday Special. To this day, I still regard that segment in that AMV as one of my top 5 best works. Because I took my time with it, heard Katie's critisism about it and actually fixed it to make it better.

2007

I didn't even think about editing until June. I continued to watch AMV's, take notes (I still have them too) about what was popular and what wasn't. I took subtle note of the styles that were well recieved and what I wanted to do. It was then that I began a project. Il Silenzio Delle Stelle - The Silence of the Stars. It was started in June of 2007, and it is still in production. Why hasn't it been released yet? Because I'm still working on it. I promised myself I wouldn't release it until I KNEW it was the vision that I wanted. I haven't accomplished that vision yet, and it's not even 1/2 done yet. What's worse is that as time has passed, I've learned how to make better quality video and I've had to re-encode the video footage for it nearly 3-4 times now.

I began purchasing new anime at this point. By this time, the only sources I had was Neon Genesis Evangelion and Chobits. I bought Fruits Basket because the premise was interesting. After seeing one of the episodes, I made an AMV dedicated to it. That was Home. The video quality needed work and the AR was off, but I still love that video. In the future, I plan to remake this video when the inspiration hits.

It was at this point that Donators Forum came to life, and Godix held a competition for an Iron Chef. I joined in, and entered. While I didn't win by any shot, I did get my first ever praise for and AMV. quadir said it was sad enough to make people cry, and that it was an "ok" video. Hearing that really inspired me. I thought that maybe I'm not totally useless after all. After that, I remade my iron chef video into Faith. It's probably (most literally) my best video. Technically fine, had emotional sync out the bum, and I actually watch it myself from time to time.

2008

This year, I've been a busy bee.

When a good friend of mine pushed her cancer into remission, I had to make a video for her. She loved the anime Loveless, and "Angels Among Us" felt like the perfect song. Therefore, I made Angels Among Us.

I coordinated the poorly announced Clow's Collection Part One and joined the Improv Project. The latter involving me making the most odd AMV I ever created (but was also proud of).

I've joined several MEP's that aren't done yet (points at Gateway).

In celebration of what I hope to be a good movie, I made the trailer video Twilight Sky. I was proud of this one. :O

I also started Project Editor, which is turning into a fun project.

Personal project, wise, I've got one under my belt which will be dedicated to the memory of those who are pessimistic, and hopefully convert them to optimism. O-o

AMV's are a part of my life that keeps me busy. I usually spend a lot of time on computers at work, and it's a handy little time waster. Not to mention I've met some of the most interesting people I could have ever thought of meeting. I one day hope to meet some of these in person, at AWA or ACEN or something. However, that probably won't happen until I'm a few more years into college. i just don't see myself taking off for three days for a convention. I think my parents would croak if I did that. >_> Plus, if it weren't for this site, I probably never would have bought all the anime or CD's I have today, because I probably would have never heard of them otherwise.

[LantisEscudo]

I'm a small name, but I might as well toss mine in here, too, since I've been around a long time.

Early days: 1998-2000

I first got introduced to AMVs during my first brush with high-speed internet at a summer camp in Boston. I had been introduced to Sailor Moon on TV the year before, and was intrigued by this cartoon with an overarching plot. Kicking around various fansites, I'd find openings, transformation clips, and occasionally an AMV. I still have several of them. Also during this time, I was introduced to more shows in this weird niche called "anime," and started looking at other shows that looked interesting, but obtaining the tapes in rural Vermont was next to impossible. I did manage to borrow a copy of the old Streamline dub of Akira, and my brother ran into a friend that had a fansubbed copy of Nausicaa, which was the first subtitled anime I'd seen.

When I was touring colleges during early 1999, I made a point of grabbing a list of student groups and looking for an anime club. At JHU, where I ended up going, during the first week on campus, the Student Activities Commission (the umbrella organization governing all student groups on campus) holds a Group Fair, where all of the groups try to attract the incoming freshmen. I made a beeline for the JHAC (Johns Hopkins Animation Club) table, and really never looked back.

At JHAC, I got shown a huge number of interesting shows, and then either late in my freshman year or early in my sophomore year, somebody gave me a link to Kusoyaro's website. Those videos were what really started my interest in actually making them.

I picked up a DVD drive at Thanksgiving, 2000, and started buying DVDs to watch, and then went to Katsucon in 2001.

The beginning: 2001

Katsu 7 was my second con (I'd been to Katsu 6 the previous year, but spent most of it in video rooms, checking out shows I'd never seen before), and the first time I'd caught the AMV contest. The videos were pretty good, and I realized "Hey, I can do this, too." I'd picked up the first DVD box for MKR (still my favorite show) at the con, and I'd seen a bunch of parody openings during the previous year, so I decided to do one. The result was Raiyuki. The footage quality was godawful because of the method I was using (FlaskMPEG, blend deinterlacing, resize to 352x240), and the editing wasn't that great. Still, I liked it at the time, and a friend pointed out to me that I should put it up on A-M-V.org, so I made an account and did.

That summer, with not much else to do, I blasted through making six more videos, finally discovering how to use crossfades, keyframe some effects, and a number of other important skills. The videos I did that summer aren't terrible (except for the video quality, which is why I'm working on remastering them), but they're no masterpieces, either.

The start of classes didn't leave me much time to edit, but late that year (also after a major system upgrade), I did do one video that was suggested by a couple friends while we were watching the series Slayers. I'm pretty sure that the current downloadable version of To the Edge, To Heaven still has the dedication to them on it (I may or may not keep it when I finally get to remastering it).

Near the end of the year, I first started entering my videos at contests. Seeing the reactions were some of the best moments of the con, and that's still my favorite thing to do at cons.

Continuing to build: 2002

This is the year I did my first big multi-anime video (Citius, Artius, Fortius), where I pulled from a ton of different sources, and learned that when you're doing one of them, you have to say at some point "no more" to hunting down more sources and actually sit down and edit the things. I also did a non-anime video for the first time (Graduation) as a promo for a webcomic I really enjoyed, as well as my first VGMV (World of Alex & Luna) when my DVD drive broke and I had to save for a new one.

Near the end of the year, I finished what's been my most competitively successful video, Gods and Mortals (though it did all of its competing in 2003). I still think it's one of the best videos I've ever done, and I keep trying to match its impact now.

Technically, with GaM, I started using AviSynth for the first time on the OVA footage (the movie footage was still being ripped with FlaskMPEG), and found it to be so much easier, so I switched over completely for my next video.

Breaking in: 2003

Up until the summer of 2003, I wasn't really involved much in the AMV community; I was just making my videos and listing them. This is about the time I started playing in the forums, though I was still avoiding the OT segments (which, in retrospect, wasn't a bad idea). I still don't say much, but I'm at least reading a lot of what goes on.

I did finish a few videos during the year, still sticking with my niches of sappy drama and simple upbeat. Gummi Tanuki, which I finished at the end of the year, was a video I hoped would be a good in-joke reference, but I couldn't get my hands on the footage I wanted for it, so that part fell though, but the video still came out well.

GT was also a first for me for using imported R2 DVDs where I'd only been using R1s before that.

A slow time: 2004

2004 was a down year for me on a lot of fronts. Graduating from JHU the previous May had left me pretty badly burnt out, and I was burnt out on anime pretty badly by this point, too. I did put out one non-anime video (Isn't That Love) and one AMV, Not What You See, which was okay, and was the first video I used a lot of AviSynth filtering on.

After finishing NWYS, I took a step back for a while, and worked on some other things in my life, which let me start back into watching some series that fall and eventually editing again early in 2005.

I also started grad school that fall, and I think being back in the classroom helped immensely, having something else to focus on.

New Year, New Tech, New People: 2005

After a quick joke video early in the year, I started editing videos on the Mac laptop I purchased for work in school. While I was still doing the footage prep on the PC, thanks to the huge benefits AviSynth offered, I fell in love with Final Cut Pro for actually editing the footage.

Ad Caelum was the first video I made using it, and except for ICs and quick, short-term videos, I've used it ever since.

2005 is also the year I first met another editor I knew from the org in person, when dokool came to Bakuretsucon.

MEPage: 2006

I didn't edit much in 2006, since grad school ate so much of my time, only finishing one true solo video, Magical Barrage, which finally made the Otakon finals in my fifth year of submitting. I did start getting into a couple Multi-Editor projects (I also made a track for a project that never ended up getting completed in 2005), making one track for the Moonlight Melodies project that also worked as a standalone video, and three submissions for the AMV Hell Championship Edition, none of which made the final video.

About this time, I also started hanging out in #AMV, which has introduced me to to the true madness that this hobby instills. There's no going back now.

Free Time = Editing: 2007

In 2007, I finally got to attend a major con where something of mine was being shown, at Anime Boston, where I also got to meet several other editors, including BasharOfTheAges, kiarrens, algonzal, mckeed, and several others.

Also, not long after the con, I got diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia, which curttailed many of my other activities while I was going through the whole process of testing, waiting for surgery, and recovering from it, so I found a lot of free time to both catch up on series I'd been meaning to watch, flesh out half-baked AMV ideas for future editing, and to actually edit videos.

I finished two more full videos, as well as a couple of one-shots and Iron Chef videos, some of which I haven't publicly released yet (I'm planning on doing an IC collection around New Year's).

I also became the founder of the #superic channel during 2007, which is designed for coordinating impromptu IC competitions. I don't edit in them very often, but am frequently the one to provide the songs.

A Mild Resurgance: 2008

2008's been my most productive year since 2001 just by the numbers, and the videos I've put out have been at least pretty good, in my opinion.

I started a new imprint studio name early this year, Hyoushou Productions, to hold videos that are a little too risque for a PG-13 rating that I prefer to keep my Honou videos under. I still feel dirty for the videoI sent to AB's hentai exhibition, which was the first video under the new imprint and the reason for its creation. The only other video under that label so far is Mater Dei, which was created for the Acen H-Iron Chef, but actually contains no hentai (because I was too much of a prude to use the rather gross scenes in the provided secret ingredient). I may have another one or two next year, but that really depends on if I come up with ideas for H contests, which is about the only reason I'd edit it, since I don't often think of H ideas without some sort of prompt.

I also got my first experience in a live Iron Editor event at Another Anime Con just last week, where I was soundly thrashed by kiarrens.

The Future

In the next year or so, I plan to try stretching my horizons a bit. I've been doing very simply edited drama/romance and fun/upbeat videos for a long time, so I want to branch out some, rather than stagnate like I think I have been doing a bit this past year.

I have an action video already in the works, and I've been given a challenge to have a comedy video for Anime Boston next year. I want to work some with masking and effects, which I've touched slightly, but don't really like doing yet.

I also have one very ambitious project idea that I've been planning out for close to a year, on-and-off. I want to try to have done for AWA, since that's about the only place it can be exhibited. So I have eight months to finish the planning, gather the footage, and edit it.

2009 is looking promising, editing-wise, so hopefully it comes to pass.

[blabbler]

http://tinyurl.com/6bveye

blabbler, nov 2007 - present.

i think i went outside a couple of times too.