Video Skillz

For your viewing pleasure… Anime Punch 2006, as presented by the Weekly Anime Review Podcast.

In March of 2006, Aaron and I attended Anime Punch (aka The Armageddicon) in Columbus, and we brought the old-school 8mm videocamera for shits and giggles. I played videographer and taped a few panels, some musical guests, and some otaku milling about in the hotel lobby for ambience. Aaron finally happened upon the source footage tapes last week, and captured them to his computer, setting into motion the process of video making. Also known as “Oh, shit — I’m certified in defunct non-linear video editing software, and now I have to translate that knowledge to a more basic yet more pirateable prevalent program.”

I acted mainly as technical consultant, showing Aaron the basics of nonlinear video editing — take your giant source file, make little clips of the stuff you want to use, then string those clips together on the timeline. We learned some things together, like how to apply audio and video transitions in Premiere. He was the main artistic force behind the project, deciding which clips to use, whether to keep the ambient sound, things like that. I put together the images for the intro, suggested the basic wipe as a non-annoying transition (“Is that like what they used in Star Wars?” “Yeah.” “OK, that sounds good.”), and showed Aaron the ropes of video editing, so to speak.

Both of us decided that we’re feeling a little better about someday making an AMV — well, I have about 10 seconds of one put together, but I feel like I might be able to finish the next minute and a half of my short song without crashing and burning.

But, yeah. Good times. Aaron wants to buy a digital video camera now. 🙂