General info

title The Sweetest Sky
anime Tokyo Marble Chocolate
song Mebae Drive
artist Marble
album Hirameki Sketch OST
genre romance
time spent 20-25 hours
programs used Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, StaxRip
editor Douggie
download link amv.org

Production notes

I always wanted to do romance video. The first one I made, corazon, didn't really have that romantic feeling in it and even though the idea of corazon goes back to the end of 2006, I knew that wouldn't be a "standard" romantic video. Romance videos are hard for me, because I always want to create something original and with romance videos, I find it hard to do so as a lot has already been done. Eventually I just stopped thinking about making a "proper" romance video - even more so beause I just couldn't find a source that would convey the feeling I wanted to.

A while after searching for the right source, I discovered Tokyo Marble Chocolat and I thought this video might have what I was looking for. I spent $35 for getting the DVD and once I got it, I realized it was only one of the two episodes! So it seemed that the store didn't display the titles properly and I had to get the second one. Well, eventually it wasn't really what I was looking for, but I got the first AMV with that source, didn't I?

This AMV entered in Chibicon and also in AWA Pro (I think people just skipped this video).

Story

The reason why Tokyo Marble was a bit hard to work with as a romance video was because there was this donkey in most of the scenes. Also, the snow didn't really add to the mood, but I thought I could use that for my advantage - it might look like they have a harder time that way. After watching the OVA, I tried to think of a story and unfortunately I came up with a standard one, where a girl and a guy are searching each other. Just when it seems hopeless for the guy, he dives into his imagination and tries to delve into the feelings he has left of the good times with her - combined with the feeling of losing her at the same time. I guess that's something that happen to a lot of people if they try to cheer themselves up.

Editing techniques

To be honest, the AMV is a bit boring - half of the AMV they are running and the other half consists of a montage of happy times slash losing the girl. Editing was done without the planning I usually do: it was only done structural this time.

The AMV is also done as an extension of the techniques used in Beaufitul Night, My ...friend. That video was an exploration of the use of crossfades and in this video, I tried to use fades learning from the experiments in Beautiful Night. Almost all the fades are done with a reason, but most of them are used as a superimposition. Using that I could create scenes with entirely different meanings than when they are used alone and also "split screens". This would give the user the feeling they are both busy searching at the same time, at different places and creating the sense of the search being hectic.

The fades I use are different than the usual AMV you see though: the length of the fades are much longer and certainly not used as a transition on the beats. I wanted the fades to be more clear for the user - as in what is happening at the moment - but also to be more aesthetically pleasing than your usual 15 frame fades most AMV editors use.

Of course, as said before, this video could've been edited completely different - was it not for the way I wanted to use fades and superimpositions. If it wasn't for that, I probably would've been way less fades - as I usually do. I realized that using fades can really hurt the build-up of a story - or at least, I haven't figured out a way to do so. The pace is different (mixing it up with normal cuts seem to be the way to do it) and the contrast of the images must be more clear, while trying to compose the multiple shots together in a way that is aesthetically pleasing.

I think I would've used a different song in the first place, a different anime and different story... oh wait! :D