main menu

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

Information

• Member: willmorton
• Studio: Will Morton
• Title: Ed's Day
• Premiered: 2002-11-03
• Categories:
  • Character Profile
  • Comedy
  • Fun
• Song:
  • Spike Milligan Q5
• Anime:
  • Cowboy Bebop
• Participation:
  • Aya Returns Anime Music Video Competition, Aya Returns Anime Music Video Competition (2002-11-02)
• Comments: Premiered at Aya Returns convention, Northampton, UK, 3rd November 2002. Joint 1st Prize winner.
  
  This is my second attempt at creating an anime music video, and the first to be released. It took me one day to edit the main part of the music video, and a further two days to add the sound effects to the start and end of the video.
  
  The video is from Cowboy Bebop, and the music is called Q5 and was written and performed by Spike Milligan.
  
  
  -= ABOUT THE VIDEO =-
  
  Judging people's reactions, I think I'd better give a little bit of information about the concept, as it seems a lot of people just haven't "got it" :)
  
  The idea came about when I finished watching Cowboy Bebop session 24... I wanted more of Ed. The first thing that most people think when you talk to them about Ed is how utterly crazy she is. I got the idea of creating a music video about Ed, choosing sections of Cowboy Bebop which demonstrated Ed's bizarre behaviour at it's best. With plenty of footage to choose from, I needed to find a piece of music which would work with the video.
  
  Spike Milligan, for those who do not know, is a British comedy legend, who inspired (in fact probably created) the most surreal jokes, YEARS before anyone else picked up on it. Even the Monty Python team acknowledge Spike Milligan as a huge influence. Unfortunately, Spike died earlier this year. However, in the flood of tribute programs broadcast on television and radio, I saw clips from one of Spike's TV shows - Q5. I grabbed one of my Spike Milligan albums, and found the Q5 theme tune. It was one of the most bizarre pieces of music I had ever heard, but bizarre in a totally humourous fashion :) There are no real "lyrics" in the song. Think of Spike Milligan's voice as an instrument, and not as a way of conveying meaningful lyrics.
  
  I edited the music to shorten it. I wanted my music video to be short enough to carry the "Ed is strange" theme for long enough, without the joke wearing off. I then decided to select footage for the video itself. Contrary to popular belief, I didn't just choose random clips of Ed... I wanted the video to have at least some flow. Basically, the video goes like this:
  
  Ed is sat working on her PC when Ein comes up to her. Ed gets out a tape/disk/cartridge/whatever with music on, and loads it into the PC. The music starts, Ed is delighted, and then feels the need to go mad. Ed runs about, dancing, skipping, playing, leaving a trail of members of the Bebop crew stunned at her weird behaviour. Eventually Ed goes a little bit too far and starts splashing water from a hose. At this point, everyone gets a little mad with Ed and try to stop her. Ed eventually knocks herself out, and is woken up by Faye. Just when you thought the video was over.... Ed is finally out of everyone's way :)
  
  As a side note... the only clip in the video which I feel doesn't follow a "story" is where Ed falls over at 1.20 mins. But hey - the sound effect at that moment in the song was just ASKING for that clip :)
  
  After the main section of the video was edited and synchronised to the audio, I added sound effects to the start and end of the video (all sound effects are mine, none have been lifted from any anime etc).
  
  That's about all there is to tell about this video. It was the second video I have edited (the first is a Ranma video to a movie trailer audio clip which I have not released) and I think that my inexperience shows in the quality of the video. I was unaware of "interlacing issues" and I don't actually know how to cure them, so if anyone can offer advice (in layman's terms! I don't understand most of the guides on this site I'm afraid) I'd be very pleased :) I used Vegas Video to put it together, with Sound Forge to edit the music and sounds.
  
  The video went down very well at the "Aya Returns" convention in Northampton, UK, November 2002 (joint first-prize winner). I wonder whether it was received so well because every single UK resident knows who Spike Milligan is and understood what I was trying to do. If you haven't seen Spike Milligan's comedy I seriously recommend you track it down, especially if you are into the same sort of humour as Monty Python :)
  
  Good grief, that was a lot of waffle. Thanks for reading it, if you got this far! And please let me know what you thought of the video, I'm after all the feedback I can get :)
  
  Cheers!
  
  
  www.willmorton.co.uk
  members.anime-internet.com/willmorton/
  will_morton_desu_ne@yahoo.co.uk