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Pulp Overdrive
2004-08-25 16:40:12
Ok. If there is a genre I like, it's pulp. From novels to movies, I've always been fascinated by cliffhanger action, interesting yet weird characters and above all, the sheer irreality of it all (irreality is not a good way to say it... anyway).
Tarantino is, of course, a name you must speak when you're talking about this. His Pulp Fiction and, more recently, Kill Bill, are simply over the edge. They are instigating, funny, sad, and surely make you stick to the chair. A big part of this effect is achieved by the out-of-the-way soundtrack, mixing mexican, japanese and american styles as if nobody would notice the difference. It's simply amazing (listen Green Hornet from the Kill Bill OST or the Pulp Fiction Theme to know what I am talking about).
So I'm going to make an AMV out of it. I've already started editing the songs. I'm aiming for this to be fairly long (by my standards), some 3~4 minutes, probably. My goal is to give the Pulp feel to my AMV - overused scenes, clichés, and at the same time, inovative. A great soundtrack that at the same time fits the video and not quite. An instigative storyline that actually says something. And, of course, killer action scenes! I might throw a "noir" feel into it, just for the fun of it too.
I've searched for AMVs with the Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction soundtrack, but they're most parody trailers or simply a regular AMV with an unusual song (there's a pretty good one with the Pulp Fiction Theme, BTW). Nothing even remotely like what I want to do.
I'll probably need to learn After Effects for this, though. This will probably be the longest project I've ever got in, and I don't expect it to be finished in less than a year (yeah, I'm a perfectionist). Perhaps I might include the Kill Bill vol.2 soundtrack if I deem it worthy.
Anyway, that's it. Let's rock.
P.S: English, motherfucker, do you speak it?" - I must include this line somewhere in the AMV ^_^
P.S2: Oh, there's Blade Runner too. I know I have the soundtrack somewhere around here... -
AMV Hell 3
2004-08-19 22:35:46
Alright, my AMV Hell 3 little segment is ready. Damn, that thing behaved as if it didn't want to be made.
The joke is very simple: take Manta, the shortest human being ever to appear in an anime, and make him sing a brazilian operah. You won't be able to fully understand the weirdness of it until you actually see the vid, but I can assure you it's DAMN funny ^_^
First, the audio. I only have the song in a vinyl reacord, and it was a real pain to grab it with some degree of quality (including borrowing a fancy soundcard from a friend, a cool recording needle from another and tech support from the forum). It ended quite good, although I feel I could do better. Next time, maybe. ^_^
Then, the video. I never thought a DVD could look as ugly as that damn Shaman King volume 1 (a special brazilian release). It took me at least 5 hours to make an .avs script that could make it look good.
The actual editing was easy. It's just a 15sec vid, and even though it is all lip-sync, it was still much quicker than I thought. It seems my lip-sync technique has improved, and I actually got the funny effect I wanted to give.
Exporting was another pain, due to the Video Guidelines required for participation in AMV Hell 3... my footage was badly letterboxed, with irregular black borders in ALL sides. Again, I spent at least some hours trying to figure out how should I crop and resize to mantain the correct aspect ratio AND the required frame size for the project. Argh. They also require the sound to be 44khz, instead of the more common 44.1hhz... go figure. That was easy to convert, though.
All said and done, the video is readyto be uploaded. Time to think about my next project... -
Long Time no See, Huh?
2004-08-17 10:51:26
Everything fell into place with Mushroom Samba, despite Premiere's best efforts to stop me from finishing it ^_^. I've got 2 reviews so far, and judging by them and the star ratings, I've got 2 kinds of response. Some people liked it, and found the action sync subtle and original, yet weird, and some people never realized there was an action sync at all! Go figure.
Anyway, Mushroom Samba won for Best Action Sync at So Sohma Studios Summer Fest 2004, so I'm now an official award-winner AMV maker. Just like I wasn't cocky enough before >_<
University is on strike, so I'm doing absolutely nothing. My AMV Hell 3 segment is being made, but I'm stuck with ripping the damn song from a vinyl record... it will be done, though, eventually.
All in all, just wait for my next work.
Until then! -
Mushroom Samba
2004-07-18 11:46:42
I've alrady finished my second AMV! Now THAT was fast! If you consider everything, it took me almost a year to make Digital Sakura and less than 48 hours to make Mushroom Samba... and the second is so much better.
Thing is, Premiere hates me! It won't export my AMV for nothing in the world. I'm trying to get some help from the forums, but I feel it will be tough... that's life.
If I get to export it, I'll add info on it. But it is really good stuff. -
Update
2004-07-16 02:46:54
108 local videos downloaded so far.
The AMV app, the guides and the programs I needed for the editing are quite bulky, too. Not to mention the actual footage, that needs a few GB just for it.
I guess that banner that said "sucking disk space one MB at a time" didn't really know how fast can this process be! ^_^
JOURNAL: 7sigma (Pedro Simões)
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