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Information

• Member: Kira_Douji
• Studio: Liminal Augury
• Title: Nightmare Manifest
• Premiered: 2007-05-01
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Drama
  • Other
  • Character Profile
• Song:
  • KMFDM Stray Bullet
• Anime:
  • Slayers (TV)
  • Slayers Great (Movie)
  • Slayers Next (TV)
  • Slayers Try (TV)
• Comments: Comments as seen on 2007-05-01 01:25:57:
  
  
  
  ===== The Formats =====
  
  After a lot of fighting with my computer, I managed to spit out the following:
  
  LOCAL = A high quality, 44.5MB MP4 encode
  
  DIRECT = A high quality, 76.6MB AVI encode
  
  ===== Technical =====
  
  This is a very spoiler heavy movie!
  
  Size: 640x489
  Codecs:
  XviD (Divx5 compatible)
  x264 (MP4 Container)
  Time to complete: Including the time it took to rip the DVDs and edit the song,
  
  approximately 90 hours of total prep and editing that took place over the course of a
  
  little over a month. Most of this was done in the first two weeks, but I then stalled
  
  over the last 15 seconds of the amv for multiple weeks. And then 6 days of intense
  
  troubleshooting to achieve a proper 264 encode.
  Sources: DVDs and Raws.
  Programs Used: Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, VDM, Audacity, AMVapp 3.0
  
  ===== Recommendations =====
  
  There are a lot of fast clips, but not any special affects; nevertheless please be
  
  careful as such things can cause headache and sometimes seizures.
  
  ===== Title =====
  
  "Nightmare Manifest" is a fairly simple title that easily reflects the idea of the piece.
  
  Lina wields the power of the Lord of Nightmares - the "Over-God", if you will, of the
  
  Slayers world. By the god's own admonition, Lina's highest level spells and eventual
  
  possession by said god are the Lord of Nightmares manifesting in the world.
  
  ===== Concept =====
  
  There's not much more to be said here other than expansions upon what was mentioned in
  
  the "Title" section. The basic concept of the movie actually occurred to me roughly two
  
  years ago now when I was borrowing someone's car and their CD started playing "Stray
  
  Bullet" by KMFDM. Perhaps it was because I had just been on a Slayers kick (trying to
  
  show it to all of my friends), but whatever the reason I immediately thought that the
  
  music and lyrics fit Slayers, and more specifically Lina, perfectly. The actual creation
  
  of the video was put off until last month when I acquired the DVDs of the first season of
  
  Slayers and for the first time ever actually managed to cut the song down to a reasonable
  
  two minutes without it sounding like trash.
  
  One of the main themes I worked with right off the bat was gender. This is pretty obvious
  
  in that the lyrics are "illegitimate son of God" and Lina, despite many jokes
  
  stating otherwise, is definitely a woman. The so-called "Lord of Nightmares" has,
  
  likewise, always been portrayed and even voiced as a woman. This, however, has more to do
  
  with translation than anything else, as the word originally used for "Lord" is more or
  
  less gender-neutral. However, the concept of an 'illegitimate son' has historically been
  
  regarded as one who is not the true son. Well. A daughter certainly fits the bill.
  
  ;)
  
  Other than that, the pictures pretty much follow the words from introduction to
  
  manifestation to aftermath - all sections fairly distinguishable within the video itself.
  
  It begins with Lina gaining knowledge, follows through with her trials and tribulations
  
  amid flashes of divinity and ends with her as her, having overcome it all for the better.
  
  This 'storyline' is part of the reason I have a hard time categorizing this piece, as it
  
  has elements of 'drama', 'character profile', and 'action'.
  
  Lastly, I contrast Lina with other choice characters; Valgaav, Xelloss, Filia, and Rezo.
  
  Xelloss and Filia perform as they do in the series; as reflections of the extremes in
  
  humankind (Lina). Rezo is a demonstration of false divinity and desperate struggle
  
  drowned in chaos and giving rise to Lina's ultimate tango with the Lord of Nightmares.
  
  And finally, Valgaav, whose experience and character very much parallels Lina. Though not
  
  human, he has both ryuzoku sensibilities and mazoku desires/instinct fueling the chaos
  
  within him. Like Lina, he has overcome a good many obstacles and even 'communes' with a
  
  god who has been consumed by the chaos of its opposing natures. Lina, in contrast,
  
  prevails through her 'true' chaos and the Golden Lord who is it. A strong irony
  
  considering her 'illegitimacy'.
  
  ===== The Song =====
  
  As I said, the song was originally about 5 minutes long and I trimmed it down in Audacity
  
  to where it currently stands (roughly 3 minutes). The adopted lyrics for the video are as
  
  follows:
  
  I am your holy totem
  I am your sick taboo
  Radical and radiant
  I'm your nightmare coming true
  
  I am your worst enemy
  I am your dearest friend
  Malignantly Malevolent
  I am of divine descent
  
  I am your apocalypse
  I am your belief unwrought
  Monolithic juggernaut
  I'm the illegitimate son of god
  
  Stray bullet
  From the barrel of love
  Stray bullet
  From the heavens above
  Stray bullet
  Ready or not
  I'm the illegitimate son of god
  
  Stray bullet
  Stray bullet
  Stray bullet
  Ready or not
  I'm the illegitimate son of god
  
  I am your unconsciousness
  I am unrestrained excess
  Metamorphic restlessness
  I'm your unexpectedness
  
  Stray bullet
  From the heavens above
  Stray bullet
  Ready or not
  I'm the illegitimate son of god
  
  Stray bullet
  From the barrel of love
  Stray bullet
  From the heavens above
  Stray bullet
  Ready or not
  I'm the illegitimate son of god
  
  Stray bullet
  From the barrel of love
  Stray bullet
  From the heavens above
  Stray bullet
  Ready or not
  I'm the illegitimate son of god