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Information

• Member: AntiHero
• Studio: Naked Knight Productions
• Title: Disce Pati
• Premiered: 2010-02-20
• Categories:
  • Character Profile
  • Fun
  • Sentimental
• Song:
  • Avril Lavigne Complicated
• Anime:
  • His and Her Circumstances (Kare Kano)
• Comments:
  ORIGIN
  As my first foray into video editing, I'm just dipping my toe in the water, so to speak. I had never used Premiere before, so I thought it best to start with a simple idea. I was staying at my parents' over xmas break and had time to experiment, but the only anime at my disposal was mum's copy of Kare Kano (His & Her Circumstances). Back in 2002 when I first watched it, Avril's "Complicated" was on the radio and anyone who knew this anime must have been smacked in the face by the parallel.
  
  These days it's rare for pop to appeal since everything that passes through the major label execs starts to sound the same. But that doesn't necessarily preclude all redeeming features. I don't play into fandom politics and have no strong opinion on Miss Lavigne, but I do detect some merit here.
  
  I think it's natural to know different people in different ways. But there is a risk of losing yourself. Eventually we have to find the people who make us feel least compelled to perform for approval.
  
  THEME
  So why "Disce Pati"? It's the clan motto of my Scottish ancestors. The meaning is translated as "Learn to Suffer"... which tends to leave people scrunching their noses in consternation as to why they should want to learn that. But I think that's an oversimplification that misses the mark. I interpret it not to mean learn to suffer and enjoy it but learn to suffer effectively by converting failure to wisdom and pain into strength. Why do we learn anything except to become better at it? And to become better at suffering is not to wallow indefinitely but to recover more quickly and make the most out of the experience.
  
  You fall
  and you crawl
  and you break
  and you take what you get
  and you turn it into honesty
  
  That sentiment, I think, is the best quality of both the song and the story. Kare Kano ultimately degenerates into a fairly typical shoujo storyline, but it's strength was in that initial premise. So that is the theme of the video.
  
  STRUCTURE
  For the first part of the song, the words are Arima's directed to Miyazawa. After the chorus the roles are reversed, and it is Miyazawa expressing the message to Arima. The last part of the song is a free-for-all with the advice flowing both ways. Additionally, I tried to incorporate certain key symbols, like the lights, in the same way or similar to how they were used in the anime.
  
  TOOLS
  Tools used were DVDFab, Virtual Dub Mpeg and Adobe Premiere CS3.
  
  TIME
  I was surprised by the difficulty of making a motion picture from a source with shockingly minimal motion. Actions were frequently implied rather than portrayed (i.e. showing Arima with his hand on Miya's head but not actually showing him placing it there). It took me about a week to hammer out the basic structure and a month of tweaking until I could tweak no more without going crazy. I hope someone makes the most of my suffering. :)