[saiyuki vid] After Midnight

[permetaform]

After Midnight | .avi (640x480, 30 Mb)
AMV.org Mirror | download page
_{Source: 'Genso Maden Saiyuki', produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu, and Pierrot
Song: 'I Don't Know What I Can Save You From' by Kings of Convienience
Summary: The rain will stop.}
Extras: Vidder process notes.

Critque will be adored, so will comments.

To watch the files [.avi], open in any media player.

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Or, take the shortcut and download the VLC player, the most stable thing EVER, free, no spyware, no extra downloads.

Credits and Acknowledgements: Thank you coffee_and_ink for brainstorming the vid with me and the narrative beta, lierdumoa for listening to me rant and rant and rant some more about this vid and for beatwhoring beta for me, thank you boniblithe for giving me a supplementary beta of it, thank you karose for looking it over and chatting about Saiyuki with me loooooong into the morning and for reminding me of why I was making this along with louiselux, misstressrenet, and ciceqi who were all lovely and rambled about why they loved Saiyuki when I needed it most. Thank you absolut3destiny for introducing me to avi-synth and post processing without which this would have been a granulated mess. In addition, much thanks must be given to coffee_and_ink, ciceqi, and louiselux for hooking me up with some episodes ::blows kisses:: this vid literally couldn't have existed without you!


I Don't Know What I Can Save You From by Kings of Conscience

<sub>You called me after midnight
Must have been three years since we last spoke
I slowly tried to bring back
The image of your face from the memories so old
I tried so hard to follow
But didn't catch the half of what had gone wrong
Said "I don't know what I can save you from"
I don't know what I can save you from

I asked you to come over, and within half an hour
You were at my door
I had never really known you
But I realized that the one you were before
Had changed into somebody
for whom I wouldn't mind to put the kettle on
Still, I don't know what I can save you from
I don't know what I can save you from</sub>


Blarg: I'm calling this done because the thought of working on this any more than I already have is making me want to stop vidding. Frankly this could be improved, and I need to integrate the footage that louiselux was a total rocking babe to supplied me with, but at this point in time and with my other commitments, I don't have the time to work on this. Even more important, I desperately needed the space on my laptop to work on RL projects and my VVC auction vid.

This is, if anything, THE vid that I WILL remaster, if for nothing but to stop me from cringing in dismay.

[edit] alee_gothphyle made Gojyo icons from screencaps from my vid!

Comments

[kintail.livejournal.com]

Ok, here goes... comments that have been simmering in the back of my brain for over a month. Prompt I am not. *hangs head*

First of all, to say I am new to watching vids is the understatement of the millennia. I had never watched a vid in my life. I'd added your journal to my reading list a bit before you posted this because of your Saiyuki links and discussion. I noticed you talking about vids, of course, and I was quite curious, and yet my brain jumps all over the place and drops things so I never got around to actually looking for vids to watch until *plop* you dropped this post into my lj reading and of course I had to check it out. In other words, this was the first vid I *ever* watched. Ever.

I had some vague expectations, but this blew them all away. Every single moment, every beat, was so thought out, every intricate layered part of the sound was echoed in layers of visuals and movement. I had no idea at all such things were possible. The framing and insets and flicker-stutter thingies that matched the music and mood perfectly, and of course the *colours.*

So much of it made me feel *yes* this is what the anime *should be.* You took the good ideas that they didn't implement so well, like the small frames on a mostly black screen and layering of images, and you make them work so well. And you took the things that they completely messed up (like the pink hair) and fixed them. And greatly minimized the really ugly art.

I had never heard the song before either, and on first watch, I was completely caught off guard by the happy-bouncy calypso-like music starting up over the darker lower sounds being juxtaposed with the splashing of blood and the first look at Gonou dying on the road. The contrast was like a punch to the gut in a way, so unexpected. And yet as soon as I recovered I realized how incredibly well done that was, the music coaxing the guard down just as such a painful and serious scene was shown, because Gojyo had his guard down then and what he experienced cut right through like a punch to the gut from a trusted friend he never knew he had. And then I realized how incredibly well done it was because finding Gonou, even dying, was the best thing to ever happen to him, and the single most important thing to change the course of his life from then on, and so the happy-bouncy music fit in that way too.

I really like how you used the frames not just to show division and lack of connection, but also show connections being made, like when Gonou and Gojyo are in separate narrow vertical frames far apart and then Gojyo's frame "grows" to go meet and include Gonou, symbolic of being isolated and then making him part of his life.

I loved the Gaiden moments, of course (being such a huge Gaiden fan), but I also liked that you didn't overdo it, that showing they knew each other before was enough, it was deja vu like whoa for them but not really anything they actually remember consciously or understand, and it is not really Kenren and Tenpou's story here -- their story is part of the larger story, yes (in the way that Saiyuki without Gaiden is not the full story), but not it is not the particular story you are focusing on here.

I wondered why you left Kenren's hair pink in most of that sequence, though, but upon later thought I realized that since the falling cherry blossoms (traditionally symbolizing "the impermanence of life" and "the beautiful but tragically short life of the samurai" if I recall) are the major understated point of that particular scene in the Gaiden story (besides introducing the characters) and that theme is even more important now at that moment when Gojyo and Gonou meet -- not just that they knew each other when they lived before, but they also died before and those lives are over and they are no longer those people, and so leaving Kenren's hair the close to the colour of the blossoms has its own message. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it? (I still prefer to think of Kenren as black-haired though. ~_^)

[con't]

[permetaform]

I had some vague expectations, but this blew them all away. Every single moment, every beat, was so thought out, every intricate layered part of the sound was echoed in layers of visuals and movement. I had no idea at all such things were possible. The framing and insets and flicker-stutter thingies that matched the music and mood perfectly, and of course the *colours.*

oh god ::SNOGS:: this just...eee ::wibbles::


And greatly minimized the really ugly art.

::giggles:: oy, thank you for that. I actually went through at one point to count the different art styles that went into the bits of animation and think I came up with about 9 that are shown in that vid alone...


the single most important thing to change the course of his life from then on, and so the happy-bouncy music fit in that way too.

Yes! ::bounces:: And I was trying to work that irony level really really hard in this vid, because it's very much Gojyo's limited and flawed point of view. (my favorite bit is actually on the line "I tried so hard to follow /
But didn't catch the half of what had gone wrong"; 'cause that's the moment when Gojyo actually 'senses' Gonou In Peril =D)


I really like how you used the frames not just to show division and lack of connection, but also show connections being made, like when Gonou and Gojyo are in separate narrow vertical frames far apart and then Gojyo's frame "grows" to go meet and include Gonou, symbolic of being isolated and then making him part of his life.

OMG YES. YES. ::TACKLEGLOMP LIKE WHOA::


and it is not really Kenren and Tenpou's story here -- their story is part of the larger story, yes (in the way that Saiyuki without Gaiden is not the full story), but not it is not the particular story you are focusing on here.

::nods:: yeah! it's sorta like at one point my beta was all, "there's too much Goku and Sanzo here" but I kinda felt that the vid wouldn't be complete without them too... they're like my platonic OT4. =D

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it? (I still prefer to think of Kenren as black-haired though. ~_^)

::nods:: I like Kenren as black haired better too, yet the pink hair kinda 'fit' in a way in these scenes the way they very much didn't in the other scenes and I think you might have hit upon a reason why. On a practical level, to actually make Kenren's hair black in that section would have meant coloring that sequence frame-by-frame...and while I thought the red-hair color change was crucial to the Gensomaden scenes, the Gaiden scenes didn't bother me nearly as much and as well the pinkness added to the 'floaty' feeling of that sequence. Black had a huge chance of 'weighing' that scene down unless I do it really really carefully, and the effort v. gain balance on that wasn't worth it in the end. ::wry grin::