main menu

• Members Main Page
• Search for AMVs
• Forum
• How-To Guides
• Site FAQ
• About us
• Login

Information

• Member: Chaos Angel
• Studio: Eclipsing Saturn Studios
• Title: Daydream
• Premiered: 2004-07-07
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Serious
  • Romance
• Song:
  • Smashing Pumpkins Daydream
• Anime:
  • Video Girl Ai
• Comments: To be honest, I was not planning to share this video with anyone outside of my beta filter on Livejournal. After finishing it, I did not like it. And now, a month after it's completion, I still don't like it very much. I will explain why I changed my mind about sharing it later.
  
  The idea behind this video is that Yota is having a daydream. It is not a canon thing where he is day-dreaming of Ai. The idea here is that Yota, while just hanging around, day-dreams about his ideal woman. Ai as she exists within the context of the series and/or manga does not exist within the context of this video. Ai represents the fantasy woman in Yota's mind.
  
  I did some effexing to represent the day-dream aspect. I had been wanting to fiddle with soft pastel colors for awhile. Initially, this video was just going to be an abstract collection of color and images designed to evoke a mood more than tell a story. I was even going to use a different song (Galapogos, also by Smashing Pumpkins). I scrapped that idea, though, after I could not come up with anything beyond maybe 20 seconds of footage. I decided to switch to the more developed and direct daydream-concept (hoo-ray for alliteration!), and it worked better for me.
  
  I used heavily-blurred circles of color and motion filters as well as solid color mattes to make the soft pastel clouds. I then took the day-dream footage and used the Find Edges filter to make the colored outlines, with Median noise to soften them up a bit and make them less harsh (softness was my goal for the day-dream segments) and Multiply transparency to allow the pastel clouds to show through underneath the moving characters.
  
  And now, the part where I explain exactly WHY I do not like this video. Skip this if you do not want your perspective tainted.
  
  
  
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  
  I am going to start by saying once again that I do not like this video, just to make sure we're all clear. :)
  
  I vastly dislike quite a few of the scene selections in the day-dream segment. I tried to think of something, anything, better to use, and could not think of anything. I scrubbed through the series again and again, fast and slow, looking for better scenes, and could not find anything.
  
  I hate the opening scenes, where Ai comes out of the television. I wanted so badly for the video to be grounded in reality, to avoid all the sci-fi elements of the series and focus on two people (imaginary though they may be). But that... section... muuuttteeerrrr... I could not think of anything better. I wanted to TRY to have the day-dream follow a kind of linear story while still having that loose day-dreamy feeling, and I could not find a better scene or clip to show the two of them meeting (the "chance meeting" was supposed to be part of the dream). I wanted so much to avoid the sci-fi elements, but I couldn't find a better "this-is-how-they-met" scene than that. Gaaaaaaahhhh.....
  
  I also do notnotnotnotNOOOOOT like the completely random still-images at the end of the day-dream sequence. At that point, I was running out of good romancey clips without once again betraying my desire to avoid the sci-fi elements by using the finale of the series. I decided to use the Ai Cosplay bit from the Omake Theater at the end of each episode to act as a re-inforcer of the "ideal fantasy woman" Ai was supposed to represent. But it just feels so random and sudden and pointless and I hatehateHATE how it just does NOT work going from Ai looking melancholy to that bit, but I could not find anything better and, to be honest, my interest in the video was flagging. I just wanted it done. Trying to find good clips that work the way I WANTED the video to was making me very tired and burned out on the idea, and even a MONTH afterwards I still cannot think of anything better than those two scenes. Fucking unbelievable.
  
  Aside from those two scenes, my problem is with flow. To me, most of the daydream segment feels choppy and clunky. I just don't feel that they are matching the pacing of the music well, and to me it feels like a little kid learning how to play Chopsticks. But, again, I could find no scenes better for my purposes than those, so I was stuck with scenes that only worked sub-par compared to what I WANTED.
  
  I even have issues with the pastellyness of the day-dream segment, although I cannot explain these as well. The best way of saying it is that they did not come out the way I saw them in my mind, and I could not figure out how to GET IT to look the way it did in my head, so to me it feels half-baked (although very nice in it's own right).
  
  I imagine, though, that these are the kinds of things only I see as the creator of the video. Maybe other people will like it, maybe not, but as for me; I only see what I WANTED to make, and what I failed to accomplish.
  
  Why, then, am I sharing it and making a database entry and uploading it and all that if I feel it is such a failure? Two reasons. The first is that I tend to be hyper-critical of my own work, and I want to give myself the benefit of the doubt by sharing it. The second is that, after pondering and thinking about it for a month, I decided that I'd rather share what I make, crap and goodness alike. It may suck, but it still came from me. And I don't think I really care all that much about my "reputation" as an editor. I make what I make. If it is horrendous, so be it.
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  
  
  I consider this a B-Side video. Please keep that thought in mind when watching it. although I hope you find SOMETHING in it to enjoy.
  
  I'd like to thank my friends who betad this video for helping where they could.