The Bard's Song

[Nausy]

For thsi video I used scenes from:

Kiki's Delivery Service
Laputa, Castle in the Sky
My Neighbor Totoro
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Whisper of the Heart

The song is "The Bard's Song" by Blind Guardian.

The most difficult thing to do choosing this song was to decide what "the bard's song" is. Mainly, it's Nausicaa's prophecy, but soon you'll realize that the Bard is Miyazaki himself, the greatest storyteller of our times in my opinion, while his stories are so wonderful they really look like they've always existed, and they've always be sung by someone. So this video is a tribute to Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's works! There's no plot in this video, I chose all the clips paying great attention to the mood, letting the song flow through my mind. The "main plot" is "storytelling", I might say.

This song was originally created thinking of Lord of the Rings, and in fact they mention "hobbits, dwarves, men and elves". In my video, they simply are all the magical creatures (I chose Kodomas, because to me they're the best creatures ever invented in a Miyazaki's movie!) and heroes that fight and live through these movies.

The Bard's Song

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!!!

[Flint the Dwarf]

Excellent work, my good man (or woman, as the case may be). I never hoped to see a decent video made to this song.

There were flaws, but I still thought it made for a good video. The storytelling was very good given how hard it'd be to make a complete video for this song. Sometimes, however, the clip selection looked pretty ambiguous; I couldn't exactly see how it was supposed to match the lyrics (but you did say you were aiming for mood, correct?). I really liked the sync and flow... reminiscent of the first video I made. It was very simple, and had an amateurish look to it, but it works. It matched the mood of the song very well.

The quality was iffy, but it looks nice considering the file size. Also need to get rid of that DivX logo.

Good work, keep it up.

[Nausy]

Thanks! (I'm a girl, btw ) I know that sometimes the clip selection looks ambygous, but I just decided to follow the mood! I'm sorry for the Divx Logo, but I don't know how to get rid of it, and after all it's very little, and you can see it only now and then...
If you liked this video so much, then I'm sure you'll like my Miyazaki Tribute as well!
Thanks again for your comment!

[codehappykid]

1) Open the Decoder Configuration Utility in the folder where DivX is installed on your machine (config.exe)
2) Click on the "Quality Settings" tab
3) Check the "Disable Logo" checkbox

If your source footage is a DVD rip, save yourself some pain and do this *before* you rip and encode.

The first vid I made had the DivX logo all over it. The problem is that it starts getting in every clip when you splice the footage. You should be able to avoid it entirely with the aforementioned process.

I checked out your vid, btw. Good work!

[Bote]

O...M...G! A BG VID!

*gets*

[Bote]

I dunno, even if I don't take the terrible quality in consideration, there isn't anything that can make me attach to the vid and I'm a big fan of BG's music. Editing is weak and so is the concept, I never caught the message you wanted to show and couldn't follow good enough cause there barely are any lyrical matchings. The atmosphere was alright, but at times it was ruined by random scene placing.

Peh, I had big plans for this song, both editing and concept wise, but since there already is a vid to it that kinda dismotivates me to make it -_-. Don't take all this too harsh, it's just that I imagined this to be done in a much different and complex way, so yeh can't say I enjoyed this kind of approach. Above all, I don't think Ghibli's work is fitting enough for a song of this magnitude. But that's just me.

[Brsrk]

I can't think for the life of me what goes good with this song... It's just so damn perfect, like nothing can go with it.

I'll check this out later when I'm not so tired...

[Lord Rae]

I always associate Ghibli's work with that ridiculously sappy quality. I was hoping this video would make it so that didn't come across but it was still just heavy... like it was hanging in the air like dense fog. The anime and all that it conveys wasn't overridden by the song or the concept and thus since the song is vastly different it really doesn't flow or match at all.

I applaud your ambition and the try. But I just don't like the results too much. Sorry.

Plus the fact that 2 of the 3 instruments used at the beginning have no business being synced with the sound of the music. So seeing someone string the bow across the violin and you trying to match it to the guitar was incredibly annoying and obviously bad. It’s something that even the most lenient critic couldn't look past.

Sorry again. But hopefully you'll learn more from your failure than your success.

[Warheart]

Blind Guardian ?

Seems like I have to get it ... ^^

[Nausy]

I think you're getting it a bit too seriously! As I wrote before, it's all about mood, so it's what I feel when listening to this song, and it can be totally different from what other people feel! For example, I think the song fits perfectly Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Anyway don't be sorry because you don't like it, other persons wrote me to tell me they thought it was a wonderful video, so it's all about taste, as always with music videos! De gustibus non disputandum est!
Merry Christmas!