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Information

• Member: iserlohn
• Studio: Iserlohn Productions
• Title: Untitled #3
• Premiered: 2001-04-10
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Drama
  • Character Profile
  • Serious
  • Romance
• Song:
  • PM Dawn I'd Die Without You
• Anime:
  • Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
• Comments: *NOTE* Both links now point to the revised edition of the video. If you've got the original, consider it a collector's item.
  
  Video Stats:
  ---------------
  Title - Untitled
  Anime - Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
  Song - I'd Die Without You
  Artist - PM Dawn
  Completed - April 2001
  Participation - Otakon 2001 Non-Competing
  Notes Written for: Katsucon 8 Reel CD, animemusicvideos.org profile
  Indirect Link: AMV CD Distro. Go get my CD!
  Direct Link: Yes, I know it's a bit bloated, but trust me, this one's worth it.
  
  Making the Video:
  ----------------------------------
  I had never planned to do this video. This wasn't an idea that I'd had laying around for a while and ended up putting together once the source footage showed up, but yet this one got made. A lot of nasty shit was going on in my life around the time that I was putting this together - and with nasty shit comes depression and with depression comes listening to a lot of slow music and that's where I'd stumbled into this song.
  
  The idea seemed to fit pretty well with the whole romance angle going on in Cagliostro. This film presents a much less-ecchi side of Lupin and he's presented in a caring and deep relationship with the princess. The lyrics to the song are a bit off, but the mood carries very well.
  
  When working on this video, I finally got away from DivX and VCD stuff, going with Ligos Indeo 5.11 at 640x480 with no bitrate cap and lots of extra keyframes. This began the relationship I've had with this codec, and as of January 2002 (when these notes were written), I'm just now getting ready to move away from it, mostly due to hardware upgrades and the fact that I'm moving off of a 20GB hard drive for everything to a 60GB that's going to be for video work only.
  
  The footage itself came from a dvd rip (thanks bludstone for letting me cannibalize your disc). I used the US release of the movie, since the Japanese one hadn't come out yet.
  
  The video itself was put together in about a week, maybe a little less. I don't have any rough cuts or edit file backups laying around because I junked a lot of that to try and fit the edit files onto a single CD (and I didn't make many tweaks to this one anyways.) There are a total of 15 clips used in this video, and artistic comments are below.
  
  
  What's this Video About?
  ----------------------------------
  This is a video about the romance between Lupin III and the princess whose name I have forgotten in the movie Castle of Cagliostro. It's meant to be sweet, charming, and kinda depressing.
  
  
  Commentary and Notes:
  ----------------------------------
  This is officially my sappy romance video. That being said, I really don't consider this to be a music video as much as an attempt to set a soundtrack to the storyline. Part of this comes from the low number of clips used, and part of it because I didn't care how loose some of the edits were (see 1:34) if I could make the story work better. Sawa compared the storytelling level of this to "On Your Mark," Duane Johnson commented positively on the story aspect as well. I guess this seems to make one of my creator goals complete - I've made a kickass story video.
  
  On the other hand, there are a couple bits that I don't like so much...the bit where Lupin is diving off of the castle to save the girl is usually mistaken to be funny. In the movie it kind of is, in this I tried to portray it as an act of desperation. I also feel like I should've cut the song off at that scene and not finished doing it, saving about 20 seconds of final time and a kind of anti-climatic and disappointed ending.
  
  Nevertheless, I like this one.
  
  --->Video Re-editing notes:
  Originally I planned on just redoing my export of this video to make a 720x480 MPEG-2, but found myself pulling a Lucas and tweaking the edits. There's a couple more cuts now, and a fade, and the big difference is that the video ends earlier - with Lupin and the girl falling into the water. As I say above in the original liner notes, I always felt that this video went on too long, so I cut the clip. Also, after events at a certain DC area con in October 2002, I feel the need to remind people that this is a DRAMA video....idiots.
  
  That being said, I still like this one.
  
  
  Song Lyrics:
  ----------------------------------
  Is it my turn to wish you were lying here.
  I tend to dream you when I'm not sleeping.
  Is it my turn to fictionalize my world.
  Or even imagine your emotions to tell myself anything...
  Is it my turn to hold your hands.
  Tell you I love you and you not hear me...
  Is it my turn to totally understand.
  To watch you walk out of my life and not do a damn thing...
  
  (Chorus)
  If I have to give away...
  The feeling that I feel.
  If I have to sacrifice...
  Oh, whatever babe, whatever baby.
  If I have to take apart...
  All that I am...
  Is there anything that I would not do,
  'Cause inside I'd die without you...
  
  Oh, I apologize for all the things I've done.
  But now I'm underwater and I'm drowning...
  Is it my turn to be the one to cry.
  Isn't it amazing how some things just completely turn around...
  So take every little piece of my heart...
  So take every little piece of my soul...
  So take every little piece of my mind...
  'Cause if you're gone... inside...
  I'd die without you...
  
  (Chorus)