Mitakihara (AWA Pro Finalist)

[Scintilla]

I originally hadn't actually intended to release this video as I didn't consider it worthy (which led to this Site Help thread to which the staff still have not responded five days later), but Cyanna pointed out that it is one of the few drama videos she's seen that hits her "in the feels". If even one person gets a chill from any of the choruses I'll consider it a victory.

Mitakihara is the city in which Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie, Part III: Rebellion takes place, for those of you who are not familiar with the PMMM franchise -- and if you are in that boat, then this video probably will not make much sense to you, but hopefully you will find it pretty and well-mood-synched all the same.

Disappointingly, this video is only the first video in the Org's entire database to use a song by Ultravox, namely, "Vienna" (not to be confused with Billy Joel's "Vienna" or Falco's "Vienna Calling"). This song is a lot of fun to sing along to, and similarly, it's kind of fun to search for this song's lyrics with varying lengths of vowel extension and see how far you can go before you finally stop getting hits. See here or here or here or even here.

The download is an x264/AAC MP4 at 1280x720. That's the only variety on offer because it took me way too long to get an acceptable quality/filesize tradeoff (and even then it's still over the good old 10 MB/minute benchmark).

This video was a rush job for AWA Pro. The song is so slow that I found myself having to make some awkward cut placements when I couldn't get certain scenes to stretch long enough. The beginning of the instrumental bridge (right after the tempo goes double-time) is admittedly lazy and probably one of the last stretches finalized as I was running out of time. Also the consistency of the cuts could be better on the verses, and I would have liked to use one or two effects on the entire first verse -- maybe desaturation or vignetting -- to make it more minimal before the chorus hits with that wonderful crescendo. (That was one of the first scenes I think I placed -- to me that synth just SOUNDS like a beautiful sunrise.)

And I was quite annoyed that all the destruction that happens when everything starts crashing and burning (quite literally, as you'll see) didn't yield much in the way of clear, punchy impact points. There were three huge cymbal crashes at the end just begging for good sync points; while I think I nailed the one with the big explosion, I really could have used some better crashes from all those zeppelins.

But hey, at least I didn't spoil the central conceit of the movie (somehow all the Rebellion videos I'd seen up through August were nice enough not to spoil *me* on it, and I wanted to return the favor).
And based on the complete lack of Ultravox AMVs up to this point, I don't think anyone else would have ever done this concept, better or otherwise.

So enjoy. If the ending has you "feeling like despair" (Cyanna again) then I've done something right.

[pan_dbgt01]

Very cool. I love how is was simple, but so well executed.

I love you classic editors

[CrackTheSky]

First time I watched this for the Pro judging it passed right through me, barely leaving an impression. The second time I watched it (a couple weeks later) I wondered what in the world I was missing the first time around. This video is phenomenal, and is one of my favorites from the whole contest when all is said and done. I love that it's simple, I love that it's weird, I love that it focuses on the city more than the characters (if for no other reason than that makes it feel different from most other AMVs, using Madoka or otherwise), I love the song (although I didn't at first), and holy crap I think you nailed the climax.

Great job

[Scintilla]

I love you classic editors

As long as people at cons still mistake me for way younger than I am, I guess I can handle being "classic".

First time I watched this for the Pro judging it passed right through me, barely leaving an impression. The second time I watched it (a couple weeks later) I wondered what in the world I was missing the first time around. This video is phenomenal, and is one of my favorites from the whole contest when all is said and done. I love that it's simple, I love that it's weird, I love that it focuses on the city more than the characters (if for no other reason than that makes it feel different from most other AMVs, using Madoka or otherwise), I love the song (although I didn't at first), and holy crap I think you nailed the climax.

Great job

Thank you... I think I needed to read that. Video description has now been updated so as not to suck so much.

[pan_dbgt01]

I love you classic editors

As long as people at cons still mistake me for way younger than I am, I guess I can handle being "classic".

Well I remember you and I'll be 32 this December.....LOL

I look at the oldest 22. It's great.

[seasons]

Watched this for a minute before I had a "shit, this is all from the movies and not the series!" moment and then turned it off. It was really good and I was really getting into it and love the simplicity of it.

Downloaded it and will get around to watching the rest when I've seen the films. Really looking forward to it, too.