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Information

• Member: Khandreia
• Studio: Vulture Studios
• Title: Vultures' Dance Redux
• Premiered: 2002-01-22
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Fun
  • Other
• Song:
  • Loreena McKennit The Mummers' Dance
• Anime:
  • Gundam X
• Comments: Although the original version of "Vultures' Dance" remains one of my most popular videos (well, within the Gundam fandom at least), I felt that it was lacking something, and I was greatly dissatisfied with the picture quality as well due to varying-quality fansubs I was forced to use. So now that I have a better computer with a better hard drive and processor that can handle the stress a daunting project like this can dish out, not to mention that I was able to finally acquire raw GX episodes, I decided to revisit my pet project and make it into the video I -really- wanted.
  
  Within the first minute of the video, you'll already notice the use of many new clips. I did this throughout the video, as I wanted to put a little more emphasis on the characters and their personalities, as well as show more of some of the other characters who are allied with the Vultures. Also look for the theme of lead character Garrod Ran (the kid with the shaggy dark green hair and red jacket) either getting beaten up or acting like the semi-immature-but-lovable goofball he is (it's a common thing within the series too, so why not?). Aside from these extra clips, not much else has changed, though I did change some things here and there, and I fixed the ending part of the video, which looked horrible in the original. You'll also notice that there are absolutely no subtitles getting in the way of this now, so that made it easier for me to pick and choose which new clips I wanted to put in. Timing is still just as good too, as I reused the original time sheet for this as well. The only flaws I can find in this are some extra frames getting in just after the GX Divider fires its Harmonica Cannon near the end, and after a shot of Ennil El (the red-haired chick) shortly after that, but they happen so quickly that you'll really only notice them if you're actually looking for them.
  
  For those who have never seen my original "Vultures' Dance" video, this a completely spoiler-free introduction to the often underappreciated Gundam X series, with the primary focus being on the main protagonists of the show, a group of mercenaries and scavengers known as Vultures. This isn't exactly a character profile type of video, but I try to put equal focus on as many of the lead characters as possible, as well as showing some of the mecha action typical of a Gundam series. However, because GX is more of a character-oriented series than mecha-oriented, I think you can tell why I've decided to place most of the attention where I have. Although I have a tendency to make this into a "the lyrics say something, so show it in the video" type of thing, there are still some clips in which you have to look for a deeper meaning of why I matched it up with that lyric; my favorite instance of this (carried over from the original version of the video too) is during the "long past their woodland days" line, showing the photograph of Jamil (the captain and my most favorite character in the show) as a young Federation soldier that then fades to an image of him now. Also, although I never intended to do this, the "garland gay" in the chorus seems to be represented here by the Gundams' big guns and weapons, such as the Double X readying its Twin Satellite Cannon and the heavily-armed Leopard Destroy, all of which I think adds a more interesting aspect to the overall story I'm trying to tell about the Vultures. My hope with this video is to spark more interest in this typically overlooked series and give more of a reason to have this brought over to America.
  
  Overall, I'm much, MUCH more satisfied with this new version of the video. The flow is better, and there's more action within the clips. Sure, I still had to use Windows Movie Maker (so no flashy effects here--I don't think I need them to show my vision anyway), which crashed a gazillion times over the two long nights of editing (this one took less time to edit than the original because I already knew what sorts of things I wanted to use), and the quality of some clips varies according to the episodes they were taken from (most are excellent, others are so-so, and one or two are just . . . bleh . . .), but for the most part, the video quality is considerably higher than the original despite having to use downloaded DivX-encoded episodes (I would've used the Hong Kong bootleg GX DVD's, as legit ones don't exist yet and that would've been the highest-quality and most affordable video footage available, but my set took way too long to arrive and I had to settle for the downloaded episodes instead >_