This fight sequence from the movie Sucker Punch is perfectly over the top. Three twelve-foot-tall samurai battle against one young woman. Spoiler alert: she wins. If you’re not familiar with the premise of the movie, this fantasy world is a mental construct of the main character’s mind. She’s able to deal with seemingly insurmountable odds because she is blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. At least, in theory. (more…)
Read More“Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.”
Read MoreA start, an end, a rise and fall
No system eternal and no one immortal
Creation all must end in destruction
We cannot change the fate of civilization
I suppose it was inevitable that I’d mix two of my favorite things together. This brilliant animated short film by Paul “Otaking” Johnson features an animation style reminiscent of cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s. It’s an homage to the TIE Fighter video game from 1994. I set it to Dream Theater because their music seems perfectly suited for animation, particularly from that era. (more…)
Read MoreThe only unbreakable promise of war is that one day it will end.
I truly love this one. The music is uplifting and hopeful even though the video doesn’t appear to be. But this isn’t a celebration of the death of humanity as much as the rebirth of the old world, fulfilling the promise that war will one day end. Our machines will continue to plod along until there’s no one around to maintain them, and nature will move on as though we never existed. Admittedly, this could be viewed as a depressing reality, but it’s no more depressing than the cost of war. (more…)
Read MoreI’ve already used this video before, but the music was distinctly different. After I found this Celldweller track, I couldn’t resist. The sudden changes in speed and perspective beg for a song that changes so drastically, which is one of the strengths of dubstep-style music. Plus, this kind of song seems pretty appropriate to highlight a badass woman destroying a building-sized demon. (more…)
Read MoreThis is only a proof of concept, not a finished video. It needs a lot of additional editing and effects.
I’m not sure what inspired this, but once the idea was in my head, I had to try it out. After a couple of hours of editing, it suddenly became apparent that the concept could work. I keep coming back to it, tweaking it, then quietly replacing the older versions online. (Like I do with all of my videos.) The trick now is to hide the fact that she’s singing without completely destroying the edit. (more…)
Read MoreEvery aspect of human technology has a dark side, including the bow and arrow.
I mixed this together last night. Some videos and songs seem like they were meant for each other, and these two definitely fall into that category. The story mostly takes place outside of a city that resembles a futuristic Las Vegas, so visually it’s very tied to the name of the song. And thematically, it has a somber melody that suits the protagonist’s journey, which unravels itself a little at a time. The video itself even takes center stage during an unusually repetitive and otherwise boring moment in the song. It’s as if they composed it for this video, though they clearly didn’t. (more…)
Read MoreTwo Steps from Hell recently released another album, and it continues the tradition of truly magnificent scores of the past several years. Though the album landed in the final month of 2016, I’d say that “High C’s” is probably the lead contender for song of the year. But more on that later. For now, take a couple minutes to experience one woman’s struggle to fight back her almost literal demons. I set this short trailer from Ninja Theory’s Hellblade to Two Steps from Hell’s “Inferni” from their new album, Vanquish.
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