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Information

• Member: Quu
• Studio: OtakuVideo
• Title: Life in Madoka
• Premiered: 2000-05-13
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Character Profile
• Song:
  • Mono Life in Mono
• Anime:
  • Kimagure Orange Road (TV)
• Comments: Life in Madoka, I like that title.
  
  This video is the very first music video that I made. I originally bought my video editing equipment in the interest of making a music video, and for archiving the AWA music videos. Well, a lot of time passed and I still had not made a music video. Most of the videos from AWA had been archived though. I finally began to feel a bit guilty. I was a judge at the last AWA, and was a judge at AZ. I felt that I had better make something. This led to my impending doom.
  
  I have an anime club that meets every Monday. We call it the KOR group... after the very first series we watched, Kimagure Orange Road. Near the end of the series, I was listening to the song Life In Mono at work, and I began to see relations. I began to see how it fit. I love that song, and listened to it a lot. I decided to make my first music video. I did not know yet that I was doomed.
  
  I began to listen to the song over and over again, I printed up the lyrics. I began analyzing the structure of the song. I marked up many different copies of the lyrics of what I wanted to do. I had everything planned. I knew what scenes I wanted, I knew where and how. I had sealed my doom.
  
  I finally sat down and began capturing footage for my video. I had the LD box set from Animegio. The SUBTITLED box set, I was doomed.
  
  I had nightmares where I would see subtitles in my dreams. I began to hate off screen narration. But I muddled through. A lot of the scenes I had planed for either did not exist, or had subtitles. I finished. It was dry, it sucked, and I deleted that project file. I was going to redo it, until I liked it. I was so very doomed.
  
  After about three of four retries, I began to try a more organic approach. Always before, with my previous attempts, it was a very careful and measured video. On each exact 4th beat I did a cut. When the music shifted, my choice of scenes did. It was all very exact, and it was basically footage to music. It had no direction. No purpose. But one began to form in my head. I began to figure out what the lyrics meant, what the song was about. I began to feel a bit of Madoka in the song. I was playing with the beginning, and decided to add the locations where things happened, most of the places were stuff happened, and I also began to play with fades. It worked. Both the realization of Madoka's song, and the use of fades hit me at the same time. I now knew what I wanted to do, and had a way to keep it organic, to keep it soft and malleable. I had crafted my doom.
  
  From that point it took a little over a month to finish the video. That is a month of every spare minute, and many 24 packs of Surge, Citra, and Pepsi being sacrificed. And I could never get it the way I wanted. I cursed my inept skill. I cursed those subtitles. I went through a phase where I hated the song, and then I loved it all over again. I ended up stopping finally, but only because Michelle Simpson stood firm on the extended deadline for Anime Central. I wanted to get this video out by then. I told my self that after the convention I would go back and touch it up. After the convention, I decided that I could not really go back to it. It was done, flaws and all. I decided that I was going to make another video. At that point, I was truly doomed.
  
  Once you begin making them... they get inside you... you can't get them out.
  
  The video was made with a Pinnacle Systems Dc1000. Source footage was the Animegio LD box set, the OAVs from Animegio on LD, and the movie (1st movie) raw on LD (borrowed from Daric Scott Jackson). The song is by Mono and I found it on the Great Expectations sound track.
  
  It won
  Best Drama - ACen 2000
  Artistic Award - AKon 2000
  Judges Choice - Anime North 2000
  
  It was shown at AWA 6 Pro, but lost.
  
  (*WARNING SPOILERS*)
  
  General things to note
  
  This song is about Madoka, and is almost a story told from her perspective. The video is much more intense than the actual series. I think it is a woman singing about a relationship that used to be simple, used to be straight forward, and how now is complex and painful, but still can not be forgotten, nor left alone.
  
  Ingénue means naïve girl in French. Whenever the singer says that word, I show Madoka when she was only nine years old. Back when Kyuseke first met her and saved her life. Back when she was still naïve and fell in love with her night in shinning Armour. I never show her face when she was 9 years old, not until the very end.
  
  A lot of the story and effects I was trying to do were intentionally subtle... I did not want the effect, or the edit to draw the attention of the viewer. I wanted it to enhance the video.
  
  Magical Mystery Tour of the video
  
  The video begins with various locations that were important.
  I had to include the Orange Street sign. I thought it was a perfect way to start the video.
  I made Kyuseke ghost into view at the beginning, kind of like how he suddenly appeared in Madoka's life
  First local was his house.
  Second was Abcb. The scenes I choose for it were kind of weird. I wanted to show subdued movement, and well... it was just a beginning
  Third was the school. I think 3-A was the classroom for most of the series, thought I do not remember if they kept continuity. A lot of the scenes I shoes to show off the school, plus I wanted movement in the video... I wanted each shot to move the viewer.
  Final location was Madoka's house. Why did I not add any other places? I don't know.
  
  They lyrics "The stranger sang a theme" was a bit difficult. All I could think of was the Pop idol singer. He was a stranger to the two of them, and I darkened up the video to try to make him look different. Him cutting before actually singing I thought added, but it was a wonderful side effect of working around subtitles.
  
  "From someone else's dream"
  This was Kyuseke's dream, and very obviously so. It was also one that held longing.
  
  "The leaves began to fall"
  Going strictly with the lyrics is bad form sometimes... but I thought it worked here. The leaves were falling with the wind, and the wind made his face look serious. The scene of Kyuseke on top of a girl with the wind blowing, it is not Madoka, but I wanted people to think it might have been. I was trying to play with people's perceptions. I added the flower falling right after it to maybe plant a sub conscious suggestion that there was a deflowering.
  
  "And no one spoke at all"
  The Final Kiss of the series
  I thought that the final kiss of the series, the moment that they are finally a couple, is when there was no more words needed. No one spoke.
  
  "But I can't seam to recall... when you came along"
  I chose a build up and a showing of when Madoka and Kyuseke first met. I liked how the scenes moved and flowed into each other.
  
  The first Ingénue I decided to show the first kiss
  
  The sequence after that I decided to show Madoka in emotional turmoil. I wanted to focus on her churning through emotions.
  
  The composited scene of Madoka the child falling and being saved, with the older couple talking I thought was a powerful mix. My skills were not quite up to par, but I needed to show that... I needed to plant in the persons mind that maybe they were talking about that event... or about something that happened in the past.
  
  "I just don't know what to do"
  That is actually Hikaru's hand, and from two different scenes... I did a color correction and spliced it to fit. If most people do not know, they will assume it is Madoka, and the movements had their timing adjusted to fit with the music.
  
  "Tree lined avenue"
  I had to use the stairs. I chose to rely on the time that Madoka decided to move out. Since she had the proper facial expressions.
  
  "Begins to fade from view"
  I loved how that worked.
  
  "Drowning past regret"
  I did a bad thing. I wanted to suggest that Madoka had a past regret to drown. So I edited a scene of her in a towel, about to take it off. Followed it with her gripping some sheets. And finished it with her walking away in a man's shirt. Those who know the series know that I grabbed from 3 different episodes... but I wanted it to be subtly imprinted.
  
  "In tea and cigarettes"
  Actually coffee, and it is Hikaru who is dropping the cigarettes.
  
  "But I can't seam to forget... when you came along"
  Madoka at the piano like that seamed to be regretful, seamed to be angry, seamed to be perfect for the feel. Yes my timing is off.
  
  The next Ingénue was when she got her old hat lost, and he had to buy her a new one. Again, for the scenes after it, I was looking for scenes of emotion played across Madoka's face. I wanted it to look like a chaotic stream of emotions that she was feeling. The third Ingénue was when she was used as bait for the thugs to capture the "alien". I used it because she was in a dress.
  
  "I just don't know what to do"
  I found a powerful scene from the movie. When Madoka begins to break down. It does show that she does not know what to do anymore.
  
  The person jumping over the fire was not Madoka... but I thought it fit... and used it.
  
  I had a lot of fun fadeing between scenes of her face that were close, so that it looked almost like the background changed, and she did not.
  
  Fourth Ingénue was the end of the first kiss. I am teasing the viewers by showing more.
  
  "I just don't know what to do"
  Madoka looks so lost.
  
  The Moped scene was a bear to time. The fireworks had to work, and the light switch. It is a repetitive part of the song. I wanted to show the part were Madoka almost has a mental breakdown. When she shows her minor disorder. And I fade before you know how far they go.
  
  (Yes I used the slap scene twice... I made a mistake)
  
  "Ingénue"
  She is falling, a bit of a hint at what was before... and you still can't se the face.
  
  "I just don't know what to do"
  When she did not want to answer the phone. She did not know what to do yet.
  
  I showed a scene of as different girl than Madoka in her bra... looking violated, but fuzzy it up just a bit so only those who know the series know who it is. Otherwise it looks like Madoka. I show the shower scene right afterwards to make people think that she is cleansing her self.
  
  At the final Ingénue, I finally show her face, and make it look like the young Madoka kicks the ball to the old one.
  
  Now you know why I am insane.
  
  ----------
  Update: May 28 2002
  CyberFred has made a French web site for this video
  http://madoka.ayukawa.free.fr/koref24.htm