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Information

• Member: Sephzilla
• Studio: DZX Productions
• Title: FF7AC - Path of Advent
• Premiered: 2006-04-07
• Categories:
  • Action
  • Drama
  • Character Profile
  • Serious
  • Instrumental
• Song:
  • Apocalyptica Path (DZXtended Mix)
• Anime:
  • Final Fantasy (VII): Advent Children (movie)
• Comments: --My personal favorite piece of work I’ve made yet…
  
  Given the extremely high popularity of Advent Children videos flying through AMV.org when this video was completed, it’ll obviously get overlooked initially based on that. I just hope that you, the viewer, look beyond that and see this video for what I look at it as, an epic presentation of my favorite story ever told.
  
  In what now feels like a distant time ago a close friend of mine and fellow DZX Productions member, _Ice Angel_ (known in other rings as ‘Zacloud’), released a video named ‘Path of Advent’ using footage and pictures from trailers and other previews of the upcoming film Advent Children put to the audio of Path by Apocalyptica. Some would say that the video itself was flawed with occasional mistakes in timings and lack of consistent footage quality. What stuck with me in Ice Angel’s Path of Advent though, was the concept and feel the video had. Path of Advents’ instrumental piece really gave a proper feel to what Advent Children was and created a surreal almost movie-trailer like atmosphere to it. It was that very concept that stuck with me long after, and eventually made me return to it.
  
  After adding Advent Children to my DVD collection I looked back on Path of Advent and realized that Ice Angel’s original concept could ever so easily transform itself into a full-fledged Advent Children presentation. This brought me to come asking Ice Angel if I could have the privilege to remold that concept into what you will see shortly. We quickly discovered one obstacle in our way, the length of the song ‘Path’, how we overcame that obstacle was the first thing that made this recreation of Path of Advent very memorable and unique. Ice Angel and I essentially created our own extended version of Path distinctly for this video, Ice Angel modified and created an entire between chorus section whilst I myself attempted to make the final chorus a fitting finale for what I intended, thus the Path DZXtended mix was born.
  
  The hardest obstacle for myself was overcoming the burden that is real life, and dedicating as much time as I could to completing this personally epic project. That inspiration came from just when I needed it. My best friend, AltruisticCrono, had released his newest work in FF8 – Remember Me and informed us that he had in fact sent this video into the AMV competition at the upcoming Anime Con we were all planning on going to. Seeing a chance to finally show off my abilities in a more public manner, and seeing how beautiful some of DZX’s best works had become, I determined that I would do whatever it took to essentially start and finish this Path of Advent and enter the competition alongside my friend AltruisticCrono.
  
  On the Thursday afternoon, just over a week before the con’s deadline for their AMV competition, I realized my time was very short to get this video done for the competition. What I ended up doing to complete this video was push myself to a physical limit of AMV work I didn’t think I could accomplish. I sat down in front of my computer and vowed that I wouldn’t leave this seat until Path of Advent was finished. And I kept that vow, at 5:30pm that Thursday I started work on Path of Advent. At 3am early that Friday morning I took a break for a 5 hour period of sleep, which was the only break I took. And on that same Friday late into the night, approximately 29 hours after starting the video at 5:30 the day before I dubbed Path of Advent completed. It was the most steady dedication I had ever put into any AMV I had ever created, hands down. The end product turned out to be my personal favorite AMV I had ever made as well, hands down.
  
  -----
  
  Path of Advent itself, tells the story of Advent Children and Cloud’s own personal search for self-forgiveness through what becomes a trial by fire. Cloud is forced to conflict enemies of both present and past in order to shape the mold for his own future and the future of all of his friends, and even the planet itself. Opening with Cloud lingering on his past in a gray and lifeless trance, being forced to fight to simply defend himself before ultimately rediscovering his cause for fighting through himself and the help of his friends from both the living and the dead. This main theme of Path of Advent is also complimented by a sub-theme, that being the never ending presence of Sephiroth that haunts Cloud as well, a haunting presence which looms closer and closer through moments of the video right up until that looming feeling of Sephiroth transcends into the physical realm… where these two themes ultimately clash, and Cloud is put to his final test in order to fulfill what he deems his own forgiveness.
  
  -----This is dedicated to two people close to me----
  
  Ice Angel - for being a great friend, inspiration, and my greatest fan
  
  AltruisticCrono - for always motivating me when I needed it, whether in AMVs or in life