Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Sailor Moon: Secret Identities VHS Review

Once, long ago, in the depths of space, on a planet called Earth, at a Toys R' Us in Northern New England, there existed a VHS tape.

This tape was called "Secret Identities" and contained two episodes of the English dub of Sailor Moon, the first called "A Crystal Clear Destiny" and the second called "A Reluctant Princess". The episodes formed a two parter in which everyone met up in a hellish, nightmare dimension and discovered their past lives. At the age of around six, I bought this and proceeded to watch it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again until I, and everyone I knew, could recite the damn thing by heart and it was lost to the depths of time and my barn.

At the age of nineteen, I found it again. At the age of nineteen I watched it and said "Wow. This was really stupid." At the age of nineteen, I was about to enter the Hofstra University film department and decided it would probably be a good idea if I knew how to use editing software.

So I made this.







It's crude, primitive, and really not all that funny. There are a lot of audio problems, and I never could figure out how to convert the episode into a file type my computer could handle. I'm clearly nervous, and I forget my lines a lot. It's also in three parts, because it's a bit too long.

My friends are quite good in it, though.

However, for some reason, a few people seemed to like it. I did "A Crystal Clear Destiny" in this one, and at the end of it I promised, somewhat halfheartedly, to cover "A Reluctant Princess" in the next one. I wasn't expecting anyone to see it, so when I actually got a few comments and private messages asking me for the next one, I was shocked.

Cut to one year later. I'm slightly more competent at editing, but not much. I wrote and shot my scenes in January, Karen's scenes in February, and my roommate's scenes in May. It was insane. But eventually, despite my lack of skill, I managed to make a second one.

This is that second one.



It's...also, not very good. But it's done! I put a link to my YouTube Channel on the sidebar. Who knows? Maybe I'll do more.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Two Decades

And now it's time for everyone's favorite game; What Ever Happened To The Blogger? HOORAY!!!

So, yeah. It's been a while. Spring semester this year was...tumultuous, to say the least. Not like last year's, though. No one nearly died in front of me or sent me to Florida or anything. I just found myself with a lot to do and no time to do it.

Should I perhaps make a list? Those are always fun. And simple. Actually, they're mostly just simple, but you know, sometimes simplicity is a good thing. It's certainly better than rambling on and on and on about things you probably don't really care about. At least, I think so.

Anyway, onto the list! Here's what I've been up to:

1.) Film Stuff - I'm a film major. You know, with movies and stuff. So, naturally, the time finally came in which I had to make a film. Or three. In four months. My first one was about someone being stalked by the Virgin Mary, my second one was an obligatory "angsty student film" and my third was about crossing a parking lot. They were a bit more interesting than they sound, I promise, particularly that last one which not only featured Slender Man, but killing demons with an umbrella. I also wrote a screenplay about urban legends and psychotic roommates, as well as a shorter one about a demonic occillating fan. They all went over relatively well, despite the Slender Man film being one of the most hellish filming experiences of my life. Half my footage came back overexposed, too. It still came out alright, it just wasn't what I wanted. At all. But yeah, that was mostly the reason behind my dropping off the face of the Earth for a few months. When once it was plays, now it's films. They'll always be something, I suppose,

2.) Moving - With the end of the semester came another move back home for the summer. New Hampshire is still beautiful, and everything is still virtually unchanged. I did finally get a desk for my room, though, so at least I have a place to write.

3.) Soccer - I don't follow soccer. My interest in sports pretty much ends at a mild interest in the Red Sox and the Bruins (who won, by the way! Take that, Vancouver!) however, a few of my friends do. My roommate and my once and future suitemate follow Real Madrid like crazy people, and when it was discovered that the Spanish National Team was in a match with the US National Team down in Mass, they decided it was a good time to come up and see me. It was bizarre. Until this year, I had led two completely seperate, unconnected lives. My other friend, and soon to be suitemate, Karen, had come up to see me for a few days in April, but before that, there had been no crossover. Now several of my old, childhood and high school friends have met and mingled with my new college friends, and you know, no one exploded. The weekend was ridiculous, it was tiring and awesome and made me really wish that all my friends lived in the same place all the time. Also, Spain won, so, I guess that was good.

4.) My Birthday - I am officially two decades old, and no longer a teen statistic. My birthday was very simple, I wanted to record an episode of the radioshow I had written in high school - something I had been trying to do for about three years - and have a pirate party. Both of these goals were eventually accomplished during what was, mostly likely, the greatest party I've ever thrown. The backyard may never recover from the barrage of glow sticks and silly string, and I'm still finding pages of scripts between the cushions of chairs, but it was, without a doubt, the best possible twentieth birthday ever.

Which leads me to now. I've probably forgotten a few things, like the fact that I'm still unemployed, the fact that I worked my sister's dance recital again and somehow managed to fight the urge to return to theater (though it was, as it probably always will be, a struggle) and how my sister had the best dance and pirate face in the entire show.

I also, just a few minutes ago, was informed that the "Top Five Animated Films of 2010" article I did for ThinkHero.com just reached 6,000 views. I don't even know how to respond to that yet without excited, childish squeals. I'm literally at a loss for words.

And so, that's that. I'm twenty years old now. This is no longer the Blog of an angsty teenager. I suppose I should try to make more mature, shouldn't I? More professional?

...Or, I could not. I'm still a young adult, right? There's no need to be all serious and mature just yet.

If you happen to know anyone who's hiring, let me know. Other than that, I suppose I'll end this entry.

Farewell, everyone! Until next time.

*Nelly*