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AMV

AMV: Some Memories Are More Clear Than Others

Watch it here. This video was made for AwesomeCore 2025, an online contest encouraging experimental videos. It was also submitted to ConnectiCon 2025 in the experimental category, but was not a finalist.

After watching La Jetée I was inspired to create something in a similar vein. I wanted some sort of historical work, comprised mostly of still shots with a brief interlude of clear motion, matching a lot of what the film does. The connection between film and AMV should be even more obvious given I used a song straight from the film.

To put it simply, I wanted to convey how an early fascination with planes for Jiro Horikoshi, led to the creation of the Zero, a personal triumph for him, which ultimately contributed to the destruction of his own country. Kind of a lot to do in four minutes, but I claim I have done it.

Director’s Commentary

00:03 : It may be hard to see unless you are looking for it, but all the still shots have a gate weave effect applied. I wanted this so that each still shot has a little motion and it is not just a slideshow. I also added some film grain and turned down the color so that the scene with all the motion in the middle could have a little more contrast.

00:30 : I am using the fades here to show passage of time.

00:34 – 00:37 : One of my favorite bits of this AMV is the rapid shot changes to indicate the ferocity of the earthquake.

02:33 – 02:56 : I used real audio from Zeros at an airshow here. I wanted to convey, by way stopping the music and turning off the effects, that this was a very special moment for Jiro and was a core memory for him. This is also very similar to a scene in La Jetée.

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AMV: Class Warfare

I did two videos for this, but only submitted one. You can see them here. This was an online contest where contestants were asked to submit a video related to one of the classes from the Holy Grail War (those being: saber, archer, lancer, caster, rider, assassin, berserker, and shielder). These videos are for the rider class.

Director’s Commentary: Ponsonby at Waterloo

It felt a little sacrilegious to make a high tempo “blood-pumping” video full of historical events, so as penance I made this slower more thoughtful video about General Ponsonby covering his death at Waterloo.

00:43 – 00:51: I ran out of live action clips to use, as this is a fairly short part of the Waterloo movie, so I added in some art from the battle.

01:16 – 01:31: The slow motion footage is direct from the film with no changes.

02:50 – 02:53: Really great shot with all the retreating cavalry in the background.

03:06 – 03:23: I am quite partial to the ending.

Director’s Commentary: Thunder, Steel, and Blood

The impetus for this is I have seen a lot of movies with Napoleonic cavalry in them and I just wanted to show off all the great cinematography. It is doubly cool that it is all real extras with no CGI.

00:37 – 00:55: Slow motion footage is still cool wherever it is used.

01:39: Technically WW1 British mounted infantry here.

02:36 – 02:40: Kind of a meh climax here. Really wish I had some better clips of the cavalry mixing it up with some infantry, but it was just not available.