Video Information

Information

  • Member: dwchang
  • Studio: Ninja Gaijin
  • Title: I Just Can't Wait to be King
  • Premiered: 2004-02-18
  • Categories:
  • Song:
    • Jason Weaver, Jeff Bennett and Laura Williams I Just Can't Wait to be King
  • Anime:
  • Participation:
  • Comments: This is video is fairly goofy idea that takes the song "I Just Can't wait to be King" from the Disney's "The Lion King" and casts the Vision of Escaflowne characters Vaughn Fanel as Simba, Merle as Zazu and Hitomi Kanzaki as Nala. The concept plays off the show itself since Vaughn Fanel becomes the King of Fanelia and also parodies the scene in the movie "The Lion King" where Simba is singing about the same thing.

    Now before going further into the video I first need to explain the purpose of this video and why it was even made:
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    The (infamous) Otakon 2003 Bet:
    At Otakon 2003, I was in the Romance/Sentimental category with Glory of Love as my entry. My friends and fellow AMV creators Trythil and MeriC were also in this category. We decided to have a little fun and make a little wager on the results (the idea was a direct result of Trythil other bet).

    Basically whoever won the Romance/Sentimental category would then have to make a video with the source and song chosen by the other two participants. I was 99.5% sure that MeriC would win with her Deceptive Passions entry and thus it seemed like a foolproof bet. I was wrong.

    (Un)fortunately, Glory of Love won this category (by a small margin mind you) and I now awaited whatever their sick idea would be.

    Through talking with AbsoluteDestiny, the two of them found out about a (very wrong) idea that ErMaC had given AbsoluteDestiny on a dare. He declined (I guess), but obviously Trythil and MeriC would not since it wouldn't be either of them making the video. And thus my journey of pain began.
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    Video Description:
    I went for a lip-sync dominated video where Vaughn is basically singing about how he wants to be King. As I said earlier, this directly parodies the same scene in "The Lion King" and thus I went for goofier lip-syncs and scene selections by choosing Merle for Zazu.

    I originally wanted to use Vargas for Zazu (since it would be far goofier to see a 7 foot tall man "singing" in that voice), but there isn't enough footage. I also (surprisingly) found that Merle worked out quite nicely. I have to also admit that I dislike Merle quite a bit so it was easy for me to cast her as an annoying character harassing Simba/Vaughn.
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    Comments on particular scenes:
    I will write more here later after I watch the video again and start remembering -_-;;.
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    Gripes and Final Thoughts:
    This video is a direct result of a bet and to be honest, I think it is reflected in the video. It was the most difficult thing I've ever edited both technically (first serious attempt at lip-sync and use of After Effects) and more importantly, conceptually.

    I strongly recommend against trying to do someone else's idea. It's quite difficult since you don't have that self-inspiration/motivation and also have to conceptualize something that isn't a natural idea for you. Perhaps I'm not a strong editor, but I just can't seem to do well when editing things that aren't my own ideas.

    I did my best with it (well the majority of it) and some people seem to like it, but to be honest, I got quite frustrated with the video and I think it shows near the end since I just wanted to make it "good enough" and be done with it forever. (So I guess that means I didn't try my best ;_;). Obviously some of this could be related to the sheer technical work put in, but I think the majority was the lack of motivation as described above. I guess ultimately it's up to the viewer to decide on if they like it.

    Who would've thought that my first video that I really liked and I have no gripes about (Glory of Love) would bring me so much pain indirectly? :-/ It's ironic that in winning, I still lost :P.

    Thanks for reading all this and I hope you enjoy it (I really do). Feel the pain I felt ;).
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    Hours Spent: Didn't count, but easily over 200 hours in the span of two months. The After Effects scenes alone took 2 - 7 hours apiece.

    Equipment and Software Used:
    -My Dual 2 Ghz Athlon Computer
    -Adobe Premiere 6.5
    -Adobe After Effects 5.5
    -Adobe Photoshop 6.0

    Thanks to:
    -Rozard - Being patient and teaching me After Effects via Skype.
    -Ashyukun - After Effects help and tips.
    -AtomX - Creation of final Merle "arrow" scene in Flash.
    -Fluxmeister - Helped teach me how to create those "soften-edge" boxes. Not as easy as you'd think.
    -dokidoki - Very meticulous beta-testing and lip-sync advice. Only you would go frame-by-frame.
    -Hitomi2U - Beta-testing, various scene suggestions and being my "cheerleader" with her positive comments. You're still my muse ;).
    -AbsoluteDestiny - Numerous encoding suggestions. He is responsible for such a beautiful encode.
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    Sillyness:
    ErMaC: it shows how awesome my idea was :D
    ErMaC: course I didn't have the guts to make it
    dwchang: heh
    dwchang: and neither did ian
    ErMaC: yup
    ErMaC: we couldn't bring ourselves to do it
    dwchang: so you made me? >:o
    ErMaC: I told you before, I got like 15 seconds down on the timeline, with essentially the same idea as yours, and then got to the lipsyncing
    ErMaC: and I just couldn't do it
    ErMaC: I felt too dirty
    dwchang: this should be in my video description for it ;-)

    Awards/Recognition:
    Sakura-Con 2004
    -Best Comedy
    -Best of Show
    (Yeah I have no idea why it won either >_>)

    Anime North 2004
    -Momiji no Video Award (Judge's Choice)

Opinions (52)

  • Orig
  • Visual
  • Sound
  • Synch
  • Lip
  • Effects
  • Effort
  • Re-View
  • Overall
  • 9.76
  • 9.62
  • 9.67
  • 9.40
  • 9.60
  • 9.19
  • 9.45
  • 9.00
  • 9.36

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