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Information

• Member: TaranT
• Studio: Studio Tarantella
• Title: Mirage
• Premiered: 2003-04-04
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Character Profile
  • Serious
• Song:
  • Hemstock & Jennings Mirage of Hope
• Anime:
  • Serial Experiments Lain
• Participation:
  • Sakura-Con 2003, Sakura-Con 2003 (2003-04-04)
  • Anime Boston 2003, Anime Boston 2003 (2003-04-18)
• Comments: *************
  CD: Trance Vertigo (2002), mix by Scott Stubbs, www.neurodisc.com
  CD: Total Trance Mix (2003), mix by GTR, www.moonshine.com
  *************
  
  This project had to be done in four weeks in order to make it into the Sakura-Con contest. And it turned out to be only three weeks since I changed from the initial song choice ("Ocean of Emotion" on the same CD) after a few hours of editing. To save time I used footage I had gathered for a previous project (Singularity, 2001). The reason for switching to "Mirage" was because it has a strong melody/rhythm that supports the use of the 1/2-second stills...which was one thing I planned on doing to save time. And it's also true that "Mirage" has great ambience; i.e. it sounds cool, especially in an auditorium.
  
  This was the first time I used Video Vegas (v2.0) and the first time I started seriously using overlays. I discovered what a great effect the chroma keyer can be...when it works. I used it in several places, the most notable being the overlays with the "flying" words from the Lain episode openings. It's also used in the still sequences that have the black and white moving backgrounds. By keying the black in those overlays, the foreground colors were not muted and showed more clearly.
  
  I am still surprised at how popular this video has been. I don't personally find the concept all that interesting, and the copy that went to the contests had several raw editing errors. As I see it, there are three good things here: (1) the choice of music, (2) the choreography (*not* the same as beat matching), and (3) a few effects. On the negative side, I'm not too pleased with the triple overlays in the still sequences. And the clip selection, while not bad, doesn't really lead to much. It does seem to work with the music, however, in building an overall feel or atmosphere.
  
  Awards: Master's, Anime Boston (2003)