Hmm...
I can say with absolute certainty how I first saw a music video, and, for that matter, what that video was. Back in the days of no-pay Napster, I used to download Final Fantasy music (now I own the soundtracks. ^_~ ) I don't know what possessed me to do it, but one day I clicked "video" instead of "audio" for my file criteria. I have to admit, I was a bit confused when I saw "Final Fantasy IX - 'In the End'" as a downloadable file. So, I got it. And I was like...
WOW.
That was awesome. At some point, I learned that the author of this video was some "AtomX" guy. As I downloaded more of these music videos, I found his name on a couple of other works as well. To me, the n00b, these were equally kickass. I wanted more.
Of course, it would still be quite some time before I started making them myself.
On some random day a few years back, my sister was playing around with FF clips in this program called "Windows Movie Maker." I hadn't even realized that this was on our computer. She was putting the clips to music, and I became interested, recognizing this as what I had been so fondly downloading all this time. I asked her how to use it, and she tried to explain, but very little of it made sense to me. Finally, I opened up one of her projects when she wasn't around and messed with it - taking care not to save, of course. I got the basic gist of what the program could do, and played around in a new project file of my own - a blank slate, as it were. My very first idea never came to fruition, although I do still think it has potential. Unhappy with the direction of that project, my brother introduced me to a new song. I had some kind of !OMGWTFBBQLOL! moment, and I began editing. I had the project (a six minute song, by the way) done inside of a week, just in time for Christmas. My second video was done not more than a few days later. And so on with the third.
It wasn't until after my fifth video that I discovered the .org. When I did, it was like some kind of heavensend. I was finally able to put names to the creators of many of the videos I had, and a persona to the ones that I already had names for.
And so, I've been hooked ever since.
But I still haven't donated.
- Jen