August 30, 2015
Photoshoot, Ga-Rei Zero Style!
Some time ago, I was talking about a "creative project" I was working on... y'know, the one that needed 60 sets of chopsticks, a trilobite, something donated from Texas, two different styles of gift tissue, four thumbtacks and a big binder clip? It's fairly clear to me now that I'll never actually finish the damn thing, simply because the effort involved is somewhat beyond me at the moment... i.e. I can't be arsed. However! That doesn't mean that I can't reveal that which has been completed, and J Greely was right... the stuff WAS being used as a photo studio though not a tabletop one. More of a bookcase, really. You'll see, later. But what was I shooting?
Almost 18 months ago, I sugested that there were two more figmae waiting to be photographed... but what I didn't say is that they were a matched set: Kagura and Yomi from Ga-Rei Zero! Though they're fairly old Figma (Kagura is #066, Yomi #067 in a collection that's announced number #269 recently), I was able to pick the pair of them up for a song... in new condition, to boot. I just checked online, and nowadays they cost individually what I got both for in 2014. Anime figures: investment material!
Of course, the best part of Ga-Rei Zero is the relationship between these two. It's no spoiler anymore to say that they go from best friends to a duel to the death, and if nothing else, that gives a LOT of picture-taking opportunities. Let's continue, shall we?
more...
Almost 18 months ago, I sugested that there were two more figmae waiting to be photographed... but what I didn't say is that they were a matched set: Kagura and Yomi from Ga-Rei Zero! Though they're fairly old Figma (Kagura is #066, Yomi #067 in a collection that's announced number #269 recently), I was able to pick the pair of them up for a song... in new condition, to boot. I just checked online, and nowadays they cost individually what I got both for in 2014. Anime figures: investment material!
Of course, the best part of Ga-Rei Zero is the relationship between these two. It's no spoiler anymore to say that they go from best friends to a duel to the death, and if nothing else, that gives a LOT of picture-taking opportunities. Let's continue, shall we?
more...
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Post contains 1810 words, total size 13 kb.
August 26, 2015
Her Eyes
Back in 2008 or so, I was flooping around after finishing up my first AMV, "...Angel", feeling like I needed to make another one but not having any inspiration. Oh, there were a couple of aborted attempts, but nothing that got any farther than a couple of clips on a timeline and call it a day. Then there was a Formula 1 video I thought about doing (F1MV?) and never got around to... and then my copy of Adobe Premiere went away in a virus-induced format-and-install, never to be seen again. Of course, it was then that inspiration sneaked up behind me and whupped me upside de haid but good. And like with the first AMV, it happened at the Duck U Bookstore. Since it's been nigh on seven years since then, I don't remember what I was doing at the time... probably folding t-shirts because t-shirts always need to be folded, that's what they're for... when a song came on the instore music system.
As with the first time, it had less to do with how much I liked the song as how the entire AMV sprang to life in my head as the song went on. That I did (and still do) like the tune is an added bonus, something I can't particularly say about "Lips of an Angel", the song I used for "...Angel". Certainly by the time I was done, I hated that drippy piece of musical treacle. There was one huge difference between the two ideas, though: I had Premiere the first time lighting struck, and I didn't the second time. The constant badgering of my brain trying to get me to make "Her Eyes" into the AMV in my head drove me to make some... unwise... decisions on the downloading front, not that my antivirus programs did anything to help matters. Antivirus matadors, more like it: "oh look, a virus? Ole!" Anyway, after being unsuccessful on many fronts, I decided to make an effort at tabling my brain's nagging for a while. And then The Dark Years occurred. 2008 and 2009 were particularly horrible experiences, and while 2010 and 2011 were remarkable for blog output (all those writeups!), the AMV faded, stored away in a closet somewhere in my brain.
Jumpcut to a few days ago. I've put the entirety of my "loose tunes" music collection into one mega-playlist (iTunes suggests that I can now go 47 hours straight without hearing a repeat, and that's without any of the hundreds of albums included), and I've hit the shuffle setting. I'm sitting at the computer doing... something and the music is playing, playing, playing and... a song comes on. And the lightning bolt strikes again.
Indeed, by the time he hits the first chorus, there were tears rolling down my face. Not because it's a sad song, but because of how intense my brain's reaction was. If you've never had a serious "eureka moment" like that, I literally can't explain it to you. If you have experienced it, you know exactly what I mean and I don't need to explain it. It certainly doesn't have to be AMV-related... authors and woodworkers, papershufflers and athletes, bloggers and... uh... people who do real things can all get hit by such inspiration. I've been truly honored to have it happen a few times (not all AMV-related), and I hope it'll happen again in the future. "But", I hear you screaming, "what's the damn concept, Wonderduck?"
Some years ago, there was a fairly popular anime, spawned a damn religion, come to think of it... maybe you've heard of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya? I can hear you groaning to yourself, but remember this: the concept for this AMV came to me in 2008, well before the second series, well before Endless 8, well before the movie and all that jazz. It was still fresh then. Of course, people hyped the new series to Pluto and beyond, then were disappointed when it only reached the Moon, but that's beside the point. One thing that really drove people loony in a good way was the first series' ED, what with the dancing and the choreography and the glavin and... ...but y'know, I was always struck by an image from the OP. To whit, this one:
The universe in her eye, as we find out when we zoom in closer and discover stars and galaxies. It's a great image, and the song fits so perfectly with it I'd almost think that Pat Monahan had seen the series. And the intervening years, quite honestly, have done nothing but made it easier to make the AMV... after all, it's more than doubled the available source material, and in the process solved the one blank space I had in my mental storyboard (how the hell was I going to do "tells me that she's lived about a hundred lives..."? Well, now I know!).
The one, nearly trivial, aspect of the creation of the AMV is that I still don't have a video editing program worthy of the name. Or any idea how to extract video from mkvs. Or time. But those are all minor details.
The lightning has struck again.
As with the first time, it had less to do with how much I liked the song as how the entire AMV sprang to life in my head as the song went on. That I did (and still do) like the tune is an added bonus, something I can't particularly say about "Lips of an Angel", the song I used for "...Angel". Certainly by the time I was done, I hated that drippy piece of musical treacle. There was one huge difference between the two ideas, though: I had Premiere the first time lighting struck, and I didn't the second time. The constant badgering of my brain trying to get me to make "Her Eyes" into the AMV in my head drove me to make some... unwise... decisions on the downloading front, not that my antivirus programs did anything to help matters. Antivirus matadors, more like it: "oh look, a virus? Ole!" Anyway, after being unsuccessful on many fronts, I decided to make an effort at tabling my brain's nagging for a while. And then The Dark Years occurred. 2008 and 2009 were particularly horrible experiences, and while 2010 and 2011 were remarkable for blog output (all those writeups!), the AMV faded, stored away in a closet somewhere in my brain.
Jumpcut to a few days ago. I've put the entirety of my "loose tunes" music collection into one mega-playlist (iTunes suggests that I can now go 47 hours straight without hearing a repeat, and that's without any of the hundreds of albums included), and I've hit the shuffle setting. I'm sitting at the computer doing... something and the music is playing, playing, playing and... a song comes on. And the lightning bolt strikes again.
Indeed, by the time he hits the first chorus, there were tears rolling down my face. Not because it's a sad song, but because of how intense my brain's reaction was. If you've never had a serious "eureka moment" like that, I literally can't explain it to you. If you have experienced it, you know exactly what I mean and I don't need to explain it. It certainly doesn't have to be AMV-related... authors and woodworkers, papershufflers and athletes, bloggers and... uh... people who do real things can all get hit by such inspiration. I've been truly honored to have it happen a few times (not all AMV-related), and I hope it'll happen again in the future. "But", I hear you screaming, "what's the damn concept, Wonderduck?"
Some years ago, there was a fairly popular anime, spawned a damn religion, come to think of it... maybe you've heard of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya? I can hear you groaning to yourself, but remember this: the concept for this AMV came to me in 2008, well before the second series, well before Endless 8, well before the movie and all that jazz. It was still fresh then. Of course, people hyped the new series to Pluto and beyond, then were disappointed when it only reached the Moon, but that's beside the point. One thing that really drove people loony in a good way was the first series' ED, what with the dancing and the choreography and the glavin and... ...but y'know, I was always struck by an image from the OP. To whit, this one:
The universe in her eye, as we find out when we zoom in closer and discover stars and galaxies. It's a great image, and the song fits so perfectly with it I'd almost think that Pat Monahan had seen the series. And the intervening years, quite honestly, have done nothing but made it easier to make the AMV... after all, it's more than doubled the available source material, and in the process solved the one blank space I had in my mental storyboard (how the hell was I going to do "tells me that she's lived about a hundred lives..."? Well, now I know!).
The one, nearly trivial, aspect of the creation of the AMV is that I still don't have a video editing program worthy of the name. Or any idea how to extract video from mkvs. Or time. But those are all minor details.
The lightning has struck again.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
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