HTTYD2014
Toothless is still my favorite character in the movie, but man, the relationship between Hiccup and Astrid is so sweet and touching. This video is dedicated to their relationship.
updated 14 years ago
youtube.com/watch?v=OTdPv1ULgrI
That was one of my earliest videos, and it’s by no means my slickest one (I hadn’t even discovered flashes yet!). But I created a little trope between me and her that lives on to this day: Toothless as Iron Man. She used that trope in her birthday gift to me this year:
youtube.com/watch?v=FwACKzPCbpE
Once again, I’m returning the favor. And I kept most of the other tropes as well: Hiccup as Thor, Astrid as Black Widow, and Stoick as Nick Fury. Here's her channel:
youtube.com/user/theNightFuryfan95
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So remember how you were pleading with me to make an HTTYD mock trailer with Age of Ultron, and how I said I wasn’t going to do it? SURPRISE!! *snotlout pun* See, here’s the thing: Every AoE trailer just did NOT have any lines which I felt matched our character tropes. So I just never had the motivation to make one. But when I saw that hilarious mock trailer where Riley’s emotions react to one of the AoE trailers…
youtube.com/watch?v=TkmerqUzExE
…that’s when I decided it was a good idea to finally make an HTTYD-Age of Ultron mock trailer. I mean, look at this: It combines our favorite fandom of all time (Dragons) with the two fandoms we’ve been enjoying over the last couple weeks (Avengers and Inside Out). Once upon a time we exchanged highlight videos, then last year we exchanged Frozen videos, and now it’s Marvel videos! (;
Now then, I’ve got some things to explain:
-I carefully spliced out the parts in the IO/AoE trailer where the emotions are looking at the screen and are watching footage from the trailer. I kept the parts where we see just the emotions themselves.
-The AoE trailer that the Emotions watch is actually a shortened version. Most notably, it cuts out all the lines from Captain America. I considered splicing in those parts, but I decided it was too difficult.
-IMPORTANT: At :35-:39, I went through like three different renditions before settling on that one. You gotta let me know what you think, NF95!
-I waved the white flag on :40-:41. There is literally nothing in the HTTYD universe that I can match with Banner’s line, “artificial intelligence.” So, I cheated: I took Riley’s reaction from the “Shoes of Doom” clip and made it her reaction to Toothless getting his mind controlled. Basically, it’s like she’s turning off the TV as Toothless goes rogue and moves in to kill Hiccup.
-At :48-:50, I skipped a lip-sync with Astrid. *I regret nothing*
-I used clips strictly from HTTYD 2, just like I used clips strictly from the first movie in my April 2012 trailer (not like I had a choice at the time anyway). Course, when I made my remake in December 2013, I was riding high from the release of the first sequel trailer, so I combined clips from both. But still, I felt it was proper to just use HTTYD 2 here.
And uh…I think that covers everything! Happy 20th birthday, theNightFuryfan95! I hope your nerves aren’t shot from aging anxiety! (;
Anyway, this video was not dedicated to GOTNF, but I still wanted to publish it on November 19. That was stripped from me when it was blocked worldwide on January 15, 2013, which of course was penalizing my account. It probably had something to do with 20th Century Fox buying the distributing rights to Dreamworks movies from Paramount Pictures, because it was blocked like a week after that deal was finalized.
To make things worse, it was blocked exactly two hours before I uploaded “Everlasting”
youtube.com/watch?v=q7L_iMJT684
I only know that because I saved each description I was going to write in my multiple failed reupload attempts back on February 21, 2013, which marked the one year anniversary of when I uploaded my first ever video. My final attempt stayed up long enough to get 4 likes, just under 100 views, and a comment from iVishu. Then it was blocked worldwide again that day. I haven’t touched it since – until now!
Oh yes, I was never going to give up on this project. I’ll admit I’ve shelved a few projects early on in the editing process – but never one I’ve completed. I was always going to reupload this one day, and since I’m never NOT going to be strapped for time at this point in my life, I figured my 3 year anniversary of watching HTTYD was the ideal opportunity. Tonight also marks 2 months since me and everyone else saw HTTYD 2, and 7 months since I saw Frozen.
There’s no point in recapping the multiple things I tried. Ultimately, I did have to compromise in one regard: The final 42 seconds until inhonoredglory’s pic at the end were completely revamped. Sort of. You see, those entire 42 seconds consisted of one entire clip: The “goodby” scene from Riders of Berk, Episode 5. That’s apparently a no-no. So I took the Hiccup VO, paralleled it with other clips from Ep 5 & 6, and even added an additional Hiccup VO at the very end.
Is it as good as the 42 second uninterrupted clip? Nope. But it’s gonna have to suffice. When my initial theories as to why it got blocked all failed, I resorted to doing with that uninterrupted clip what I did with “My Heart Will Go On”: Adjusted the lighting and the pitch of the VO. As explained above when I uploaded it on Feb 21, it worked for a few hours – thus cruelly getting my hopes up.
So yeah, here it is a year and a half later. Beneath the line is the part I saved describing exactly how this project came about:
_______________________________
They say inspiration leaps along. And by "they" I mean "we." Here's how this project came to pass:
1. In late July 2012, inhonoredglory proposes that her and I do "At The Beginning" for our collab
2. I do a little research on the movie that song is from - Anastasia. The plot synopsis intrigues me. But I don't rush off to the store to buy it.
3. Glory and I publish our collab on September 1, and little did I know, but hiccuptoothless94 LOVED Anastasia growing up. She highly recommends that I see it. I still drag my feet on buying it, but ultimately I do so a month later in mid October.
4. I watch the movie, like it enough that I watch it a couple more times, and become INFATUATED with the score. This here was the first of what I thought was going to be several Anastasia scores to come, but I only ended up doing two more because work life started.
The score is composed by David Newman, who most of you know from Ice Age. This one here is my FAVORITE on the soundtrack. Its called "Reminiscing with Grandma." I'll try not to spoil it too much, but there's a couple important things you need to know: This score occurs during what I consider the saddest scene in Anastasia. As such, this is my darkest video to date (And still is, I might add).
Every clip you see until 2:27 is Hiccup reminiscing his tender moments with Toothless. The tone of the music is supposed to convey the feelings of the scenes. I originally started the video with Hiccup staring off in the distance at Toothless after he drops him off in episode 5, but I decided to move the clip to the very end. As stated already, that final pic is Glory’s artwork. Ain’t no way I was gonna dump that!
Obviously, this isn’t a true celebration vid, but it’s better than nothing, and as stated at the beginning (wink), it was supposed to be a one year anniversary gift anyway.
youtube.com/user/theNightFuryfan95
It’s my first video ever without any HTTYD material, and my first video with strictly Frozen clips. Hope y’all enjoy!
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Metaphors. Similes. Double meanings. Parallels. Take your phrase of choice – this here is all that and then some. It is Song 7 from the “Live the Life” album, the next song after “Don’t Give Up.” And I forgot about it until going through my I-Tunes library!
As I had told you before in one of our PM’s, your Frozen gift was originally going to be a Lunatica song. After “Who You Are,” I thought it would be fitting to return the favor with a song from the same band. But even though I found a darn good one, it just wasn’t….personal enough.
So I went on a mad scramble through my entire library to see if maybe there was a diamond in the rough, and the rest is history. I listened to this song four fricking times in a row as ideas races through my head, and this is the end result.
Lets start with an iVishu-like breakdown of the clips: The first stanza is Anna speaking to Elsa, and the second stanza is Elsa returning the favor. My VO’s of the two sisters saying each others names drives this point home. Many of the clips have obvious lip-syncs, but in all of them I did my best to make the scenes appropriate with the lyrics. :44-:49 was the absolute first idea that came to mind, and editing it left my spine in enough chills to leave the Ice Queen herself impressed!
Then during the interlude starting at 2:18, I shifted over from the relationship of the two sisters to Anna’s love triangle. This was done in order to set up the middle stanza at 2:34-2:48, which was the second idea that hit me. On tumblr, we ship Hanna all the time, but we also are fully aware of which man she truly belongs with, so here I had more Kristanna. In the end, I basically covered all of Anna’s major relationships at some point in the video. It wasn’t strictly an Elsa-Anna vid, although that was obviously the main focus in the first half.
And now we get to the good stuff: How the lyrics and the corresponding clips serve as a message from me to you, NF95! Michael W. Smith wrote this song to a friend in need. Someone who was feeling down in the dumps. Someone who needed encouragement and support. After all the conversations we’ve had in 2014, this song is fitting in every sense of the word. It is my way of speaking to you in the same deep way you spoke to me with “Who You Are.”
Above all else, it’s an ode to the friendship we’ve forged. I thought it struck a healthy balance between not being too deep and not being too shallow. It’s a bit of a difficult balance, actually. Because on one hand, I don’t want to give the wrong impression by “leading you on,” but on the other hand, I want to show you what our friendship means to me. Make sure to tell me if I went too far. Yeah, I know, it’s probably just a false worry. But as you know, I’m sensitive these days about how I come across
That sums it all up! The lyrics and corresponding clips speak for themselves in how they serve as a metaphor for our friendship. I’ll close with this final message:
We both know that at the end of the day, it is God and God alone who can make us stop hurting. That said, I have this compulsion to help those I care about when they make it clear to me they are hurting in some way, even if the only way I can help them is with words of encouragement and advice as opposed to real life actions. (Come to think of it, carefully edited videos are the closest thing we’ve got here on the internet to a form of action). So as you digest everything, just know that I’m not trying to be something I’m not, because I’m well aware of my limited-ability to truly show you the way. At the end of the day, only He can do that.
I present to you, a Night Fury blast from the past! Rose herself said it best at the :44 mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKdSWbjOQ_g
The famous song from Titanic, "My Heart Will Go On," is indeed where we first met. You already know the story, but here's a recap:
-I sent theNightFuryfan95 a private message on January 31, 2012 asking her for help on how to upload my first ever HTTYD video without it getting blocked worldwide.
-After almost a month of trial and error, I finally got it up without hassle on February 21:
youtube.com/watch?v=ME9yGxltiX4
-Although I ultimately had to figure it out on my own, she gave me a few tips that steered me in the right direction, so in that sense, she is at least partly responsible for me getting it successfully uploaded.
-On January 28, 2013, after a year of building the kind of friendships that rarely happen over the internet, she and four others -- inhonoredglory, hiccuptoothless94, iVishu, WhispertheWolf -- uploaded a Super Collab/Gift in honor of the one year anniversary of me creating this here YT channel:
youtube.com/watch?v=GO5Fbh3-IoU
-Her part of the collab was none other than "My Heart Will Go On." I suppose you have to be in my boots to truly understand how personal and special that gift was. To this day, I've never dissected a video in more detail. (I left 37 comments, if I remember correctly)
-And now, here on July 11, 2014, her 19th birthday, the song has come Full Circle. *you must have been looking at the wrong BADGE!*
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So then, how about I split the ice apart -- the ice from the ice berg, that is -- by explaining some important things about this birthday gift:
I took some liberties with the trailer by inserting the key part of this classic Celine Dion song that the trailer cut out. As you can see for yourself at the 1:42-1:44 mark...
youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ6klONCq4s
...it skips from "there's nothing I fear" to "you are safe." There was NO WAY I could leave out the middle part, so I played around with the audio and did my best to make it sound homogeneous while also making the transition as smooth as possible. Not only did I turn up the pitch -- just like we both did in our respective vids -- but I also turned up the bass. So if you're wondering why the entire trailer sounds kind of distorted, that's why. (It's not that distracting anyway, IMO).
Then there's my choice of clips. I gave you generous servings of NIGHT during the FURYOUS main event! (which begins at 1:35, of course). With all due honor in the universe to the Dragon Master/Viking Chief and the Snow Queen/Reflection of Ourselves, there is no character you like in any movie ever more than the Alpha That Protects Them All/Unholy Off Spring of Lightning and Death itself!! This trailer is mostly Hiccup-focused, but THAT sequence right there deserves nothing but TOOTHLESS. Go back and watch your part of the collab to me. You can't miss the parallels! That said, I made sure not to mimic/copy anything. I wanted EVERYTHING to be fresh and original.
Also, read your orange bolded line to me at 9:03. In hindsight, you made a totally unknown Hans pun! I'm proud to have opened all those doors to you, and if I do say so myself, even more doors have been opened since January 2013. I never knew our mental states could be so...synchronized! *pulls the cover off the statue and says, "you were saying?"*
With my other gift to you that I promised, I shall honor the opening of the most important door -- Queen Elsa of Arendelle. I will upload it when I can. *turns around, walks out slowly and gets back to editing* And don't worry, I won't be a danger! *I've officially exhausted all my Muppets trailer references*
In closing, so much happened in our lives in between January 2012-2013, and even more has happened since then. After missing out on your birthday last year and getting FOUR b-day gifts from you (two in May 2013, two more this year) since my last and only gift to you in July 2012, I figured the best way to make it all up and celebrate was to combine everything you associate with me: My trailer skills (Master T), copious amounts of Toothless, and of course, this Timeless song. I'm confident you'll think it's Terrific! (;
It's a project I committed to making on January 28, 2013. That was when my 5 closest friends here on Youtube --theNightFuryfan95, inhonoredglory, iVishu, Whisperthewolf, and hiccuptoothless94 -- forged their powers together to create a Super Collab for me in honor of my 1 year anniversary of creating this channel. (It was blocked in the USA last fall, so unfortunately I can't link to it here).
That Super Collab moved me so much that I decided to one day return the favor by making an HTTYD video with this song as a response to all of you. At the time, what I had in mind was all the crashed hard drives, the 24-60 part projects, the subzero IQ video editing programs, and so many other technical problems that cause such severe frustrations to us editors.
Then the rest of 2013 happened. If technical problems are a painful frustration, then what two of you went through was soul-crushing torture. First there was the death of her dog Milly in July, who was by HT94's side for 11 years:
youtube.com/watch?v=Pa54Lfl6CEs
Then there was the separation from her horse Jetta in August, who was WhispertheWolf's real life Toothless:
youtube.com/watch?v=n5g7BUdg-08
As if all that wasn't devastating enough, NF95 lost her dog Emily on February 27, 2014:
youtube.com/watch?v=B3jzAtNMk3Y
And today, May 28, 2014, we received the shocking news from Wolf that Jetta had to be put to sleep:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwKNoHmHy0w
It was Jetta's departure from this world -- which I found out about today at like 6:30 PM after spending two hours on tumblr without so much as looking at my gmail -- that's caused me to spend the last 7 hours completing the final ¼ of this thing. (I got half of it done on Saturday March 7, than loitered around till Saturday April 19, when I got up to ¾ done. Then I loitered again until today).
I must return now to NF95's dedication to Emily: Her description was so damn emotional that it motivated me to expedite this here project to the top of my to-do list. As promised, my friend, this here is an all-encompassing response to everything you shared. It is called "Don't Give Up" by Michael W. Smith as part of his 1998 album, "Live the Life."
This project has long since transcended a response to my Super Collab. My mission here is to show each and every one of you that through the pain of loss, depression, burdens, old memories, or anything else you're struggling with, hope never dies. I'm as guilty of losing hope as any man on this planet, so this message applies just as much to me as it does to you.
On that note, I close with a quote from NF95 in her recent b-day gift to me:
"Whether through puns or accidents we have also be united in a mutual understand on Elsa between one another that's opened doors on both sides. I thank you for opening that door in my life, and for being a Christian example in always coming back and *not giving up* when life has had you worn or depressed. As you said, there is no easy answer in those times. Nonetheless, it was still these times that helped connect our friendship; if one good thing has come from them.
...
"If it wasn't for him there's no chance I would still be here today. Not simply in editing inspiration or YT in general, but because of the true friend he's been to me in a season of my life when I needed him; in helping me come to terms understanding personal issues that we both connect with and see eye to eye in over these past three years. Clearly a part of God's plain in the grand design."
I don't have a program that allows me to combine photos, so I couldn't mix Hiccup with Elsa in the thumbnail like I wanted to.
What caught my attention though wasn't the crudely reenacted lyrics but the WONDERFUL sounding tune. I was like, "I've got to listen to that full song!" My eyes instinctively peeked right to look at the recommended options, and the first one at the top was this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk
So began my love affair with Elsa and with "Let It Go." I watched that video three times a day every day that week until Sunday, January 12 when I finally saw the entire movie for the first time. It was a breathtaking experience, only with one caveat: The "Let It Go" scene wasn't loud enough! This is the kind of movie that should have been released in IMAX. So yeah, was I late to the fanfare over "Frozen?" Yes I was. But better late than never.
At the time I saw the "Let It Go" scene linked above, it had 32 million views after being uploaded by Disney Animation on December 6. As of this post its at 96.9 million. Some of the most popular music videos out there fail to garner 100 million views in six months, yet this one scene is set to reach that in about 2.5 months.
Movie scenes don't get that many views unless they're that good, and the "Let It Go" scene is THAT good! It's got the THRILL of Test Drive and the DEPTH of Forbidden Friendship. There's so much I could say about the beauty of that song and how amazing of a character Elsa is, but suffice to say that "Let It Go" is the Anthem of Personal Liberation, and Elsa is just a notch below Astrid as my favorite female character.
That brings me to this video. I decided from the get go that I wanted to make it about Astrid, not Hiccup. The one line, "be the good girl you always have to be" made it feel weird for me to use him, and besides, I had a lot of ideas flying into my head over what I could use with Astrid.
Unfortunately, the video did not end up being as serious or as deep as I intended. I just could not find enough clips that were completely void of humor or playfulness, and I spent 3 whole hours yesterday scourging every TV episode available. So if you thought a few parts were funny, that's great and everything, but just understand that humor wasn't my intention.
My goal was to flesh out Astrid's personal story: How she was taught to be a cold-blooded dragon killer; How she represses any feelings of empathy and happiness as she strives to be the "perfect girl"; And how she eventually becomes who she really is, which is a young woman full of love and tenderness -- not to mention a ton of dragon riding skills!
Once it become obvious to me that most of the clips at my disposal didn't have sufficient depth, I just let it go by creating a fast-paced thrill ride. As a surrogate for Elsa's ice powers, I used those aforementioned dragon riding skills and as many ice/snow clips as I could fine. I tried to mimic the original scene to the best of my abilities, right down to the awesome ice cave/tower from RoB Episode 8 ("Portrait of Hiccup as a buff man"). I even sacrificed some speed at 3:21-3:31 so I could mimic that part as accurately as possible. Could it have turned out better? Probably. But injecting the Winter Olympic Bobsled clip didn't help because every shot was too short, so I left the sequence as is.
As I discovered, there's just no perfect mimic for 2:54-end of the original scene, which makes me explode into confetti every dang time! Watching Elsa morph into that blue dress....and the walk down the hallway....and stepping into the sun....and the shot of her ice castle....it's unlike anything I've seen since a young Viking stepped on lines in the sand and then flew a Night Fury through rocks.
Anyway, that covers everything. Still no custom thumbnail. I might tackle that next weekend.
youtube.com/watch?v=OTdPv1ULgrI
As a reminder:
Stoick: Nick Fury
Gobber: Captain America
Astrid: Black Widow
Fishlegs: The Hulk
Hiccup: Thor
Toothless: Iron Man
This time I had the pick of the litter for whose Loki. I chose Alvin because it went smoothly with the lip sync between him and Stoick/Fury.
Believe it or not, if there's one of my old videos that I intended to remake, it was that one. I finally had a commenter ask, "where are the explosions?" which is something I had thought to myself for a long time now. You see, I made the original in one day and was rushing to get it done so I could go see "The Hunger Games" in IMAX later that evening (not to mention my grad ceremony was the next day). As a result, I didn't have as many explosive clips as I'd like. But now, thanks to a copious supply of TV episodes and a random HTTYD 2 trailer you probably never heard of, THAT ISSUE WAS FIXED!
That said, it wasn't the negative comment which inspired me to reload this thing. It was the aforementioned HTTYD 2 trailer. As you can see, I used like ¾ of the entire trailer, but you might notice a key part wasn't used: The beloved Hiccstrid scene. There just wasn't a natural fit for it. I tried to jam it into 1:57-1:58 when Black Widow says, "this is nothing we were ever trained for." But uh..no. Besides, I would have had to slow it down to get it to fit.
Overall, I didn't keep many of the original clips. I completely redid the intros for Captain America,The Hulk, Thor, and yes, even Iron Man. Please tell me what you think of the three clips I chose for Iron Man's "disqualifier" traits, because while I found it impossible to top my original three, the new ones weren't too shabby! (=
I haven't yet updated my channel to allow customized thumbnails like many of y'all have, but I will eventually. Snow isn't too bad I guess. Fits the Christmas season!
Aw heck, who am I fooling? The Circle has been anticipating this trailer since March 5 when I announced to them that its MINE, MY OWN, MY PRECIOUS! Or as the seagulls in Finding Nemo would say, "MINE! MINE MINE! MINE MINE!! MINE!"
I fell in love with this trailer from the moment I saw it. It's a dream trailer for anyone who loves explosions. And with Iron Man 3 set to hit theaters a week from this Friday, it's a pretty good time to publish this here mock trailer (For whatever its worth, Iron Man 3 has an 8.7 on IMDB after 4,358 votes)
Last November, theNightFuryfan95 and I did a collab for the first Iron Man 3 trailer, which you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNxRtnSK4oI
Hiccup is Tony Stark/Iron Man once again. I stuck with Alvin the Treacherous as the Mandarin, although Mildew still gets one line and the Red Death gets his fair share of footage. And I really like what I did with Stoick. A lot of characters had roles in this trailer, including some DEEP ones for Toothless.
Anyway, maybe it's just that it's my first video in forever, but I'm uh..really really pleased with how this turned out! ^_^
A bit weak on the thumbnails, but they're ok I guess.
So this is my first video with a Two Steps From Hell song since May 16, 2012 when I published "After the Fall." Me, NF95, and HT94 were on a TSFH craze that month, and now we're on another one. Call it TSFH Craze Part Deux! This is my contribution. The song is called "Everlasting." I focused almost exclusively on Hiccup-Toothless, and the only clips I used are from the original movie. My intention was to condense the movie into two minutes. I'd say mission accomplished!
Also, as I eluded to in the first 30 seconds, the Circle has been on a tear with fast-paced videos, which spurred me to get to this project ahead of schedule. I never intended to go Top Thrill Dragster with this song until NF95 uploaded Magika, Wolfie uploaded "Closer to the Edge," and HT94 uploaded "Kingdom Skies." Inspiration leaped along more so than usual for this project! (;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdInGYPy16g
I watched it and was impressed by what I saw. So I left a short, 9 word comment with a smiley face at the end. As far as I was concerned, I had just watched another pleasant HTTYD video. Little did I know what was to come next. On April 20, she uploaded her next video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHB_PYYkyi4
I recognized her Youtube name from the previous week, so I clicked on her channel and saw that she was same person who uploaded "Back Into You." I subscribed on the spot. Then as i scanned her channel, I could tell that she was a deep, thoughtful person. Even her Youtube name intrigued me: "inhonoredglory." It sounded like something majestic and holy - although at the time I didn't look up what it meant or where it was from.
Nonetheless, her channel left a really positive first impression on me, On April 25, I sent my first private message to her, and we haven't stopped exchanging them since. Whether its HTTYD, music, books, philosophy, personality types, or Christianity, inhonoredglory is a young woman who you can talk to for HOURS. She continually blows me away with her smarts. But more importantly, she is a dedicated, loyal, enthusiastic friend. The fact that she creates DEEP, tender, emotional HTTYD videos is amazing enough, but its who she is as a person that makes her a blessing to all who have had the privilege of getting to know her, whether its here on Youtube or out on Tumblr.
On April 27, two days after i sent her that first PM, she uploaded her third video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg8u_phi6zU
I was so wonderstruck that I started our first ever "detailed conversation" in the comments section. It turned out to be the most important conversation I ever had with her. You can see it for yourself, but here are the key lines:
Glory: "I'm still excited to see more of the great vids out here. Thanks for introducing me to the HTTYD world on YouTube!"
Me: "You're welcome! I'm more then happy to introduce you to this incredible world of HTTYD-Youtube videos. This is just my opinion, but I think the best HTTYD video on Youtube is "HTTYD-Dream Chasers" by thefanvideor2. A close second is "Astrid and Hiccup -- It Is You" by bitterbiscuits."
Glory: "Whoa, definitely going to check those out with my sis. Thanks again for your wonderful help in navigating all this. There's so much more that I might have missed!"
Me: "You're welcome! I can't describe how overwhelmed I felt when I first discovered how many amazing HTTYD videos are on Youtube. And that was before I even discovered the two people I interact with the most: theNightFuryfan95 and hiccuptoothless94. I figured I might as well tell you what's the best of the best to save you some time."
Can you imagine an alternative world where I DON'T tell her about NF95 and HT94? Its quite possible that if I didn't tell her about them, then the beautiful friendships would never have formed. I am so thankful that God put the thought in my head to tell her about them. Each of our lives are richer for it.
After that conversation in late April, the rest is history. Our relationship continued to blossom, and she's fully invested herself in the HTTYD world. Today, December 26, is her birthday, and after 8 months of friendship, I did my best to fuse EVERYTHING she loves most into this b-day gift:
1. She is crazy about videos where Hiccup is the focus, as he is her favorite character. To her, Hiccup is the glue that holds HTTYD together. It's why she emphasizes him in her videos and has made him the undeniable center of attention in her novel. The trait she loves most about Hiccup is his selflessness - and by extension his heroism. Therefore, I knew from the start that my b-day gift MUST focus on Hiccup and the trait(s) that Glory admires in him.
2. She has a deep, patriotic love for the United States military and the war heroes that died in the Civil War and World War II. She used to be a huge fan of "Band of Brothers." Her very name, "inhonoredglory" comes from the inscription on the tombstone of unidentified soldiers: "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God." War heroes spark something passionate inside her soul, and I wanted to use a song that had a war-like theme to it.
Even though it's light-hearted and doesn't have a deep tune compared to many other songs, I thought this song was the ideal choice. Unlike Anastasia when it came out in November 1997, I didn't miss Mulan when it came out in June 1998. I was a 9 year old boy on vacation with the family at the time, and this song remains one of my favorite from ANY animated movie. There are several HTTYD videos on Youtube that use this song, but I'm confident I took this to another level.
And with that, I say: Happy birthday inhonoredglory! ♥
Once again I used the Anastasia soundtrack - for the third time already, and with many more to come. (Yes, I'm obsessed with David Newman's work!). This one was originally looking like less of a fan video and more of a "substitution" video where you take a long clip and just apply a different score to it. Indeed, that's what I did here from :16 to :50. Why you might ask? Because it was my first idea, and it worked even BETTER then I hoped it would! I was actually able to extend it longer then I originally thought because the timings were just so fitting - not to mention accurate. Technically speaking I chopped up that sequence, but only to adjust the sound properly. Otherwise, that's the longest uninterrupted clip I've ever used.
I hope you like that sequence as much as I did, because as the title of the score indicates, Astrid is wishing Hiccup good luck before he takes on the Monstrous Nightmare. I was just trying my best to parallel the conversation between Anya and Dmitri (for those of you who have seen Anastasia). After that uninterrupted sequence, everything else is chopped up to the beat, so as far as I'm concerned this is still a fan video.
One more thing: I technically got this done in less then two hours, but I spent an additional 40 minutes playing around with the voiceovers during the Hiccstrid conversation. At first they were too hot because I could hear John Powell's music, and then they were too cold because I couldn't hear their voices loudly enough. After a third try I had my Goldilocks moment where everything was "just right." ^_^
Ahh yes, a fitting thumbnail! *pumps elbow*
So what did i do here? I used the ending of HTTYD and added two flashbacks to fill in the gaps. I hope you think those flashbacks were well placed. This was one of those rare videos where most of it was visualized in my head as I listened to the song. I was just like, "OH, I'll use that clip for that part, then that clip for that part!"
The ending didn't flow as smoothly as I envisioned, so I had to do some major improvising that cost me more time then I would have liked. But even so, for a 3 minute project, I completed this pretty fast by my slow standards. ^^ Other then the ending, everything I envisioned flowed as BEAUTIFULLY as I could have hoped.
PLEASE tell me what your favorite part was, because I had a SLAM DUNK favorite part that made me go "oh GOSH that's beyond perfect!" when I first edited it. (I'll give you a clue: It wasn't the kiss, although that was pretty spectacular as well ♥).
Hmm. Two of the worst thumbnails ever, and one that's....well, unique! (=
...
Actually, that's NOT all. The inspiration for this idea came from two sources. The first was a kick-leggingly hilarious photo reblogged on tumblr by greatodinsghost on November 23:
http://greatodinsghost.tumblr.com/post/36335265565
The photo was created by hiccupthehairyhooligan:
http://hiccupthehairyhooligan.tumblr.com
I don't have a tumblr account, but I've kept an eye on greatodinsghost's feed ever since January 2012 because she finds the most amazing HTTYD stuff. I even told inhonoredglory about her, and to my delight, this was posted on November 16:
http://greatodinsghost.tumblr.com/post/35817578747/inhonoredglory-we-always-support-you-dear
The second source was the video that theNightFuryfan95 created for me in September:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYfLcKLQEfY
I'm just going to borrow from her description of that video, because it fits this one to a tee: There is no way in my right mind I would try and edit this song with HTTYD, not even for a spoof. But here it is! Just hope my humor is showing more then anything else ;)
Seriously, I don't really dig "Girlfriend," but what can I say? That tumblr pic combined with NF95's previous "sanity project" spurred me to create this....this HOPEFULLY hilarious monstrosity! Apologies in advance if anyone is bothered by the crude language midway through. Technically it's edited out, but it's bloody obvious what she's saying. Also, even if I wanted to do the entire song, I couldn't because I ran out of sensible clips to use. If I went any further I would have had to use clips that are off base.
Hmm, pretty good thumbnail given the nature of the video!
*Uh-huh! Everyone is going to be so surprised!*
*BOOM*
*Surprise!!*
9 months and 9 million memories after our paths crossed, I have finally done a collab with theNightFuryfan95!
http://www.youtube.com/thenightfuryfan95
Many of you know this already, but we forged a relationship in late January 2012 when she helped me with my first video. Then she started making hall-of-fame HTTYD videos in addition to the two she had already created when I first discovered her, and the rest is history! If I remember correctly, it was SinbadHiccup and thefanvideoer2 who started the collab trend, and everyone has been doing collabs with everybody ever since. In mid-July I had briefly talked to NF95 and hiccuptoothless94 about doing a mega three way collab, but I quietly abandoned the idea when I ran out of time to get started on my 1 year anniversary trilogy. Besides, I wanted my first collab with NF95 to be really special, and this one is really special for the following reasons:
1. NF95 fell head over heals for my HTTYD-The Avengers mock trailer, in which I came up with arguably my best idea to date by playing Toothless as Iron Man. As such, doing a collab with the first Iron Man 3 trailer (released not but three weeks ago on October 23) is like coming full "circle." (;
2. This trailer is riddled with explosions, and she is at her BEST when she's working with fast paced explosions.
Originally, I was going to do this trailer all by myself until she sent me a PM titled "collision avoidance" on October 28. She was also going to do the trailer but had a hunch that I was going to use it. She was right! Interestingly, this isn't the first time we almost had a collision. Last May when she said her next project was going to be an instrumental, I had a hunch that it was a Two Steps From Hell song. It turned out to be a Brian Tyler song, but then on May 16 when I published my "After The Fall" video, she said in the comment section that that song was on her list of possibilities. She deserves all the credit in the world for reaching out to me before pushing ahead with this Iron Man 3 trailer. She agreed that I could do the trailer myself, but then she said this:
"Well, I wish you the best of luck on it! Truthfully I'm envious of all those explosions you get to trigger! (Yes I'm a bomb nut; how I first fell in love with the Night Fury when he first Dive Bombed, hehe"
Reading that made me feel like Hiccup when Toothless gave him the tear-jerking angel face in GOTNF. I felt so bad taking the trailer for myself, so I put the offer for a collab on the table. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first collab with a mock trailer anyone has ever done - at least within the HTTYD fandom. I let her have literally all the explosions, and that was perfectly ok with me because I would have had to wait till next week to get it done anyway. Besides, she did such a SUPERSTAR job! Those explosions were BUILT for her to work with, not me! You did legendary work my friend! *high fives while jumping in the air*
As for me, I did my best to create a narrative out of my two parts. The trailer kind of just has random lines from Tony Stark/Iron Man, although the last one is an absolute KILLER for HTTYD! I could have done all of Stark's voiceovers from Toothless' perspective, which would have kept the spirit of my Avengers trailer. But Hiccup was a much more natural fit, IMO. Also, I need to point out a couple of things that probably nobody would catch:
-At :25-:27, when Stark says, "nothing's been the same since New York," he is referencing the fact that he saved New York City during the events of The Avengers. (Technically speaking, all 6 Avengers saved New York, but without Iron Man it would have all been for naught because the other five can't do what Stark can do). Iron Man 3 takes place after the events of The Avengers. Everyone has known since the end of the first movie that Stark is Iron Man, and everyone knows that he was right in the thick of saving New York. The touch scene at :25-:27 is supposed to reference the fact that ever since Hiccup and Toothless first bonded, nothing on Berk has been the same. Yeah, I know, that's a cornball substitution, but it was the best I could come up with, and I like looking for an excuse to include the touch scene no matter how lousy.
-At :27-:29, I was trying to pull a two for one in which the clip of Astrid and Stormfly matches with the swooshing sounds of the trailer while simultaneously conveying that she is experiencing positive things with her dragon. If I was just focusing on the "they experience things" line, then I would have come up with something much better. My original idea was to use the scene where Hiccup looks out over Berk as he mounts Toothless at the very end of the movie. But I was severely bothered by the lack of anything to match the swooshing sound, so I did what I did.
Now that I've gotten THAT out of the way...this, my friends, is Gangnam Style! It's a song by a South Korean rapper named PSY in which he describes his perfect girlfriend. Naturally, I made a Hiccstrid video out of it. Unlike the "Candyshops" of the world, this song is clean - which is a breath of fresh air if you ask me! SerimonVideo recently put the music video in his favorites, and if you haven't seen it, watch it NOW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0
Just like the song, the video is also clean. It's got over 550 million views and counting since it was uploaded on July 15. I find it interesting how at the time, everyone was obsessing over the pending release of "The Dark Knight Rises" - myself included. Meanwhile, PSY put this music video on the tubes, and shortly thereafter, it went viral. It has since become arguably the global phenomenon of 2012. NFL players have done the Gangnam Style dance move when they score touchdowns. (That dance move is a horse trot which simulates riding a horse).
I tried to flesh out the lyrics and match it with the clips as best I could. Hopefully you don't mind that I didn't put the lyrics on the screen. That would just be too distracting, especially given how fast-paced it is. I also tried to echo a few parts from the music video, such as the explosion at 1:03 and the sequence at 2:23-2:26. Here are the lyrics:
Oppa is Gangnam style
Gangnam style
A girl who is warm and humanly during the day
A classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee
A girl whose heart gets hotter when night comes
A girl with that kind of twist
I'm a guy
A guy who is as warm as you during the day
A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down
A guy whose heart bursts when night comes
That kind of guy
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let's go until the end
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
A girl who looks quiet but plays when she plays
A girl who puts her hair down when the right time comes
A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all
A sensable girl like that
I'm a guy
A guy who seems calm but plays when he plays
A guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comes
A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles
That kind of guy
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let's go until the end
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I'm a man who knows a thing or two
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I'm a man who knows a thing or two
You know what I'm saying
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
www.youtube.com/user/iVishu/videos
Commence the long description:
This, my dear friends, is my FAVORITE song of all time. It's called "Don't Know What You Got" by Cinderella (no, not -that- Cinderella). It has been my favorite song ever since 2005, when I first heard it as a sophomore in highschool. The combination of the lyrics and the beat struck a chord with me unlike any song I've ever heard. Thanks to HTTYD and the ensuing wave of instrumentals, I can't say this is my favorite song PERIOD, but it IS my favorite as far as lyrical songs are concerned. As such, this project is near and dear to me, much like "Run Away" was.
For the longest time, I didn't know whether to do a video of this song by myself or in a collab. Then it hit me: Who else but iVishu, the one male friend in the Circle? This song is TOTALLY a guys song. I'm pretty sure only inhonoredglory would ever consider using it. The collab with Glory must have put the spark in my mind, because it was on September 2 that I made iVishu the offer (although at the time I didn't tell him the song because he was originally going to wait a little while before getting to it). As fate would have it, he changed his mind and got his part done on September 15, and it was me who took forever to get around to it. Life is weird sometimes.
But beyond the fact that this is a guys song, iVishu is a Grade-A genius at matching clips with lyrics, and in a song this long, I just knew he'd be the guy to guide me along and give me some ideas. Of course, I had a few ideas in mind to start with, but I wasn't remotely close to fleshing the entire song out. He took control and gave me a guideline to follow. Here's a modified version of the outline he gave me, which I followed to a tee:
1st verse and chorus - Astrid loosing Hiccup
2nd verse and chorus - Hiccup loosing Toothless
Bridge and Instrumental - Hiccup vs Stoick, Hiccup and Toothless vs Green Death
3rd Chorus - Berk/Stoick grieving over Hiccup (w/o astrid's part)
Final Chorus - Mostly happy scenes, which are forcefully contrasted against the lyrics.
As you can see, I let him have the verses because that's his forte, and MAN did he deliver! The intro sucked me right in from the moment I saw it. His voiceovers and layer contrasts are INCREDIBLE, everything is pretty much timed perfectly, and the pace is silky smooth. I'll save the rest for the SWAMPING/FLOODING he's going to get in his comment section.
Lastly, I just wanted to make a personal note: iVishu once said something to me so heartmelting that I put it in my channel description. Those of you closest to me know that already, but I just wanted to emphasize it again because it shows what a big heart he has. Thanks for doing this with me man! It was a TREAT!
Please tell me which thumbnail you'd choose. I'm stuck between the current B/W one or the one with Hiccup kneeling down in front of Toothless.
Mandatory Download in case you DID miss something:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/q60r7t
So this is the project I was originally going to do after my "At The Beginning" collab with inhonoredglory. I had completed everything up to :35 on Saturday September 8, and I was going to continue working on it the next day. But that's when I got the stunning message from thefanvideoer2 offering me her apology, and the ensuing collab became first priority. Then a bunch of other things happened in my life that kept me busy until now. So FINALLY, here it is, my Flash special!
My inspiration for this special came primarily from "Anthem of the World" by hiccuptoothless94. I also got a lot of inspiration from the "MW3 Theme" video by theNightFuryfan95. It's 4 months old, so check it out if you haven't seen it:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5eEAhU5kVw
I had actually been planning to do a video with this song ever since...that's right, my Gatlinburg trip! One of my brothers was listening to it on the way down, and I was like, "ooooo, I like that beat!" (It's called "Zodiac" by Jochen Miller). As always, I had a ton on my plate, and several new ideas took precedent. But then when HT94 published "Anthem of the World" on August 25, I was like, "you know what, I can use Zodiac to pull something like that off!" Then when I was working on my collab with Glory, I started playing around with the coloring effect on my program. You'll remember that I had one short clip of sepia tone in that Hiccstrid collab, a clip which I intended to be a mini-preview for a specific part of this here Zodiac video. Tell me what you think!
A few more things: This video is pretty random for the most part. I included some semblance of order for awhile, but then I just kind of bounced all over the place. There's no depth or a new way of interpreting HTTYD. It's just a full-on roller coaster ride! For obvious reasons, this project tested the limits of my program more so than any other project. Oh, and I FINALLY fixed my audio problem! The bitrate for my audio was 56 kbps, and I upped it to the maximum of 1024. I had been using one of the worst bitrates all this time! Silly me!
Next on the agenda is my collab with iVishu, which I'm petty sure you're all aware of at this point.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That HTTYD2014 and thefanvideoer2 had a misunderstanding of Epic proportions. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Skills. That among these are Perfect timings, Fast paced clips, and the pursuit of Heavenly instrumentals. That to express these skills, Videos are produced on their Channel, deriving their just praise from the consent of the viewers. That whenever two talented Youtubers descend into a destructive conflict, it is standard operating procedure to alter or to abolish their relationship, and to carry on with producing amazing Videos, laying their foundation on such Skills, and earning their praise in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that two individuals should not quarrel over light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that trolls are more disposed to suffer, while flamewars are sufferable, than to right themselves by resolving the conflict they have with each other. But when a long train of abuses and insults over perceived indifference, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce Two Titans into absolute Enemies, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Animosity, and to provide new Grounds for their future friendship.— Such has been the three month history of her and I; and such is now this collaboration as the token of absolution for our former System of Conflict.
-----------
Notes and Quotes:
-thefanvideoer2 combined everything and went above and beyond the call of duty by ironing out my voiceovers. Thank you x INFINITY for doing that, my NEW friend!
-Her two parts are, of course, SPECTACULAR. I originally recommended she do Kung Fu Panda, but Rise of the Guardians was even better! I can't wait until it comes out on November 21!
-This will probably be my only video I ever produced in 1080 HD. My parts lag a bit, but I don't think that's much of a problem, especially in comparison to my own final version (which had badly distorted music. I'm going to have to fix that problem somehow. I think I know the answer, but for the purposes of this collab it's irrelevant).
-The Truth is that thefanvideoer2 took the initiative in resolving our bitter conflict by sending me a stunning message on Sunday afternoon. And it was Dido who pleaded with both of us to communicate with each other. Much like Hiccup ignoring the warnings from Toothless about Torch's mom, I didn't listen to Dido. Nonetheless, the conflict was resolved the second I responded to thefanvideoer2's message giving her my full-fledged apologies. Ever since then, we've sent each other something like a dozen messages as we coordinated the collab and talked about a bunch of other cheerful topics (most notably ROTG)
-All in all, this is just a huge weight off both of our shoulders. Mega thanks to her for reaching out to me, mega thanks to Dido for trying to mediate the conflict, and mega thanks to NF95 and iVishu for remaining my friend even after you found out about what happened! *hugs to everyone*
Anyway, WOW, my collaboration with inhonoredglory is finally here! This thing has been in the works for two months. Looking through my inbox, I proposed this collab to her on June 28 (!) The problem was, we had a difficult time finding a song that matched...well...THIS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw2FtObq5WM
That is the gold standard of Hiccup-Astrid videos. Nothing else comes close, IMHO. I echoed the very end of that heavenly masterpiece by showing them riding off into the sunset, and I was inspired to do so by a comment inhonoredglory herself left on that video: "That was so, so very beautiful, and the ending was just so perfect, them going off into the sunset."
Look, I know that Hiccstrid vids are a dime a dozen, and I also know that Hiccup-Toothless and arguably Hiccup-Stoick are more important relationships. But I don't care. The Hiccup-Astrid relationship is hands down the most beautiful human relationship I've seen in any movie, animated or otherwise. This is now my second Hiccstrid video, and down the road I'll make another one - probably with inhonoredglory again - if me or her come across a song as beautiful as "It Is You."
As it is, I still must commend inhonoredglory for finding this wonderful song! I think it gets better and better as it goes on, and the ending just sounds so tender. It's from the 1997 animated movie, "Anastasia," which I've never seen before, but I probably should see it because it's a fictional tale about the Romanov family - the last Royal family of Russia. (The Romanov's were savagely murdered by the Bolshevik communists in 1917). It's the kind of movie that peeks my interest.
One of these days I'm going to make iVishu happy by doing a collab where my partner and I continually go back and fourth between parts (say, 3 and 3). But it's just much easier for one person to do one half and one do the other half. She took the first half, I took the second, and I added her own creation for the closing. (;
I for one think she did an OUTSTANDING, HEARTMELTING job with her part. The beginning sucked me in when I first saw it, and her transitions are all picture perfect! Thank you my dear, dear friend for doing this collab with me! Your talent with HTTYD material - be it YT videos or your glorious artwork - is truly limitless! I'm continually amazed at your tumblr blog. It's now the BEST HTTYD tumblr out there as far as I'm concerned! And once again, I can't thank you enough for the work you did here in this collab! I hope you think my part was able to stay in the same room! (=
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ixt8tf
I'll admit that my busy weekend was fun, but MAN did I miss you guys here on Youtube! I'm late on hiccuptoothless94's flash-tastic video and a whole lot of other stuff. I'm also late on creating this here mock trailer, which I wanted to get done by Friday, but NOPE. ):
Nonetheless, it's FINALLY here, and it's something that was on my agenda ever since SinbadHiccup created this marvel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5diC6py_ZnM
I am a really big fan of Inception. First saw it just before Christmas in December 2010, and I watched it like 10 times afterwards, although it never inspired the same passion as, you know, DRAGONS!!! ;) And I actually haven't seen it since April 2011, when I watched it during a weekend when I was supposed to be working on Finals.(procrastination is my friend). But I got those Finals done, so no worries!
The two trailers for Inception are some of the best I've ever seen, so I decided to do something I didn't do on my first 4 trailers and combine the two into one. I think the transition was....smooth, to say the least! What wasn't so smooth was the audio. I cranked up the volume, so watch your ears. That probably explains why my audio become so distorted after I added the flashes. The audio for the video without the flashes was fine, but I had to jump through some hoops to fix the audio for the final project. Next time I'm just going to leave the audio alone, because I didn't mess with it on the first four projects that I used flashes, and the audio was just fine in the final products.
Also, unlike my previous trailers, there are several HTTYD-Inception trailers here on the tubes, and I watched all of them to make sure I wasn't plagiarizing anyone. I'm confident this trailer is unique, if nothing else because of the 2 for 1.
Thumbnail is average but I guess it's nice to have my first RoB thumbnail. (:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yaxjd6
There are two different versions of this trailer, one with Russell Crowe as the voiceover, the other with Kevin Costner. Both of them fit Hiccup's story oh so tremendously, and everyone seems to like the Crowe version better. But I chose the Costner version because I think it fits Hiccup's story slightly better then Crowe's. Here are both trailers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Maxy_DTZ544
This trailer is very new. It was first showed to the world on Friday, July 20, when "The Dark Knight Rises" was released. When it first started playing I was like, "no way, that's the music from Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring!" My spine tingled up like crazy when I realized it's the first trailer for Zack Snyder's new Superman movie! I'm a big Snyder fan. 300, Watchmen and Dawn of the Dead were all outstanding movies, IMHO (for whatever it's worth, 300 features the voice of Stoick as its main star). I didn't see Suckerpunch or Legend of the Guardians, so I can't comment on those two. But it seems like whenever Snyder is given material to work with, he does an excellent job.
For those of you who have seen Fellowship of the Ring, you'll remember that this is the song that plays when Gandalf falls into that bottomless pit with the big fiery demon. It's kind of a depressing tune, but I think it's BEAUTIFUL! Lord of the Rings was my favorite trilogy until Christopher Nolan made his Batman movies, so to me, this trailer was just EPIC. As I listened to the Crowe voiceovers, I just thought, "oh my gosh, that's PERFECT for Hiccup!" But I didn't now at the time that there was a Costner version, and when I listened to that version I was like, "this is even BETTER for Hiccup!"
So yeah, that's how this video came to be! Enjoy!
http://www.sendspace.com/file/qr3geu
For those of you who are NOT my close friends and loyal followers, this video is the 3rd and final installment of a three part dedication celebrating my 1-year anniversary of seeing HTTYD. Part 1 and 2 are here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35yY6o71PLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsFYqVsjpVk
I feel compelled to share something I said to inhonoredglory late last night: Astrid is the best female character I've ever seen. Even in today's egalitarian society, men get most of the lead roles, so Hiccup is up against stronger competition for "best male character." I still think Hiccup is out-of-this-world in his own right, but I can think of male characters that were better (Batman/Bruce Wayne, for instance, although that's just one man's opinion). On the other hand, I can't think of a female character that tops Astrid. That's because I've never seen a female character that has both a legendary warrior mentality and a loving maternal tenderness. Usually female characters have only or the other, and often they don't have either of those two traits. Astrid's combination of warrior instincts and maternal tenderness reminds of the women of the Bible, such as Deborah, Esther, and Rahab.
In this tribute, I basically ignored her classic "angry faces," with the only exception being :39-:40. I also COULD NOT RESIST using one clip in particular because I just LOVE her reaction there!!
"So it's gonna be like THAT huh?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
September 4 can't get here any faster! (=
Also, I was just LOOKING for an excuse to include the clip at 2:12 to 2:14 even though it's funny nature doesn't jibe with the seriousness of the video. A lot of you guys have expressed how much you like that face she gives, and I do to!
FINALLY a good thumbnail!!! Or as Hiccup said in GOTNF, "YES! Finally!"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yi6tsi
For those of you who are NOT my close friends and loyal followers, this video is Part 2 of a three part dedication celebrating my 1-year anniversary of seeing HTTYD. Part 1 is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35yY6o71PLA
So in this tribute, I didn't include any clips where Hiccup is sad or downtrodden because they just don't fit the mood of the score. (; I tried to keep everything happy and upbeat, and I did my best to organize the clips around the actual Test Drive scene. It's not easy using scores from the actual movie when everyone associates those scores with a specific scene, but I tried anyway!
I also did some experimenting with my program in this project, and I wanted to ask everybody: When you use the zoom feature, do you have the option of controlling the degree to which you zoom in? In my case, I used 180% for the first two zoom clips and 150% for the second two. I had no idea how the zooms would work out, but I left them in there so I could get some feed back.
(I'm done whining about thumbnails. *face palm*)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/99rwar
(I will be doing this on all of my future videos until YT fixes its problems).
It was just another hot summer night. The day was Friday, but it had now passed into Saturday. I was in my bedroom playing video games. Earlier in the day my brother had asked my Mom if she wanted to see the latest movie he ordered on Netflix (the previous one was "The Social Network."). She said she'd watch it with him later that night - which is to say she'll watch it with him at midnight (she's a Night Owl). Anyway, I asked if I could join, but at the time, I didn't even ask what movie it was. I just wanted to enjoy the family experience.
At midnight I went downstairs to get the movie started, but evidently my brother was in the middle of watching something else that didn't end until 1:30 AM. I considered going to bed at that point, but instead I asked my mom, "what movie did you guys plan on watching anyway?" You know her response!
Immediately I thought to myself, "oh yeah! I had planned on seeing that movie anyway." It was only two months earlier in June that I made a visit to the IMDB Top 250, and it was then that I first saw the title "How To Train Your Dragon" splash across my eyes. I remember thinking to myself, "huh, that's kind of a funky title," so I clicked on the page, and both the poster and the description made me interested enough to put it on my "too watch" list. But I had no idea when I'd get around to seeing it.
Fate would have it that at midnight, August 13, 2011, I decided to stay up and wait for HTTYD to start instead of going to bed. I knew I had to drive out Saturday afternoon to help my grandma all day, and I just didn't want to wait too see a movie that caught my interest. So I stayed up until my mom & brother were set, and the movie started almost right at 2 in the morning (they both needed 30 minutes to get themselves situated even after his show ended at 1:30).
The rest is history!!! ♥♥♥♥♥
This video is Part 1 in a three part dedication celebrating my 1-year anniversary of seeing HTTYD. Once you see the title, I'm sure you'll be able to guess what the other two parts will be. (;
In this tribute, as with the other two and their respective stars, I wanted to include only the shots where Toothless is the focus. There are some shots where Hiccup is included, but I hope I still conveyed the feeling that Toothless is the star. In this video as well as the other two, I crafted all the clips around the scene where the score came from - in this case, Forbidden Friendship. This video was the easiest to do in terms of parallel style (IE, flipping back and forth between the Forbidden Friendship scene and everything else), but it was also the longest and most tedious of the three videos to work on. The flashes were especially tedious, and I'm not totally satisfied with some of them, but overall I'm quite pleased with how this project turned out!
Also, I pretty much only used clips from the original movie in this tribute, unlike the other two where I used a heavy dose of GOTNF. You'll see what I mean! (;
GRRRR!!! Y U no thumbnail with just Toothless? ):
Just one little thing: The timing is off because Youtube just made yet another round of changes, and I noticed that the timing of ALL my videos were completely messed up. I think this is a temporary glitch that should be fixed soon enough.
Furthermore, you will notice some new HTTYD clips in this video. I decided to incorporate them after watching this wonderful video by kalimdorman, which I only discovered because Katanna313 left a comment on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TJiFT3QzDQ
Oh, and there's one very short clip in here which was my original idea. The first to correctly guess where it's from get's a free video request (or something of value that we can work out later)!
Now, about this song: As the family and I were traveling to Gatlinburg two weeks ago, we all took turns selecting which song we wanted to listen to. Naturally, I chose a bunch of instrumentals that I first heard through HTTYD videos. (The family liked them all!). But right as we were driving into downtown Gatlinburg, it was my turn to choose again, and in honor of a previous family vacation, I chose "Mr. Roboto" by Styx.
11 years ago in April 2001, I made a week long trip to Sarasota, Florida with my entire immediate family as well as my aunt, uncle, three cousins, and a friend of one of those cousins. We stopped in Gatlinburg for a night on the drive down. I was only in 5th grade at the time and was just under 12 years old.
Anyway, on the drive down in one of those 15 seat vans, my uncle stuck in an album called "Styx - Greatest Hits." To say the least, the album was a "great hit" with everyone in the van, and no song was more popular then Mr. Roboto. If I remember correctly, that album was the ONLY music we listened to on the entire trip!
When I played Mr. Roboto two weeks ago as we drove into Gatlinburg, I was just trying to rekindle wonderful memories. But as I was listening to it, I had an epiphany - the lyrics go PERFECTLY and HILARIOUSLY with the story of Toothless! So, I resolved myself to make this project as soon as I got done with theNightFuryfan95s b-day present and my collaboration with hiccuptoothless94, which were the next two things on my agenda and which I refused to brush aside until later.
I was already having an absolute blast while making this video, and when I made my "armor upgrade," I could not contain my excitement! This is my first time with this "new armor," so my timings might be a little off. Don't worry, I'll get used to it! (;
UPDATE: I called this video a "mini-special" originally because although I timed the beats more closely then any video I've made since my first "special".....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPxmQij7KrE
...I didn't have a 7 second sequence that goes BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. However, now that I think of it, this video IS a "Special" because of all the new tools I used, which kind of makes up for the lack of a 7 second "BOOM" sequence.
HT: theNightFuryfan95
Have you ever had a moment in life where something was so obvious that you missed it? Well, that happened to me recently. See, while composing my "Strange Things Are Happening to Astrid" video, I edited Randy Newman's song in such a way that it matches the Toy Story version. However, not all the transitions were smooth. The song clearly "skips" a few times. Well, I was recently having a private exchange with iVishu...
http://www.youtube.com/iVishu
...and when I explained to him what program I use, he pointed out that I could see the music waveform. That's when it hit me: Why didn't I look at the bloody waveforms when editing the Newman song? I felt like an idiot, because here I was playing darts in the dark! Strange things are happening to me indeed!
Anyway, in this collab project, I finally put those waveforms to good use. This song was composed by Hans Zimmer, and it's from the final scene of "The Dark Knight." I'd recommend you see the scene for yourself...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDQob4AOCsQ
...because I pulled off a trick with hiccuptoothless94's part from 2:13 to 2:40 by using the actual movie as the audio. However, I would never have been able to do that successfully if I hadn't kept a hawk's eye on the waveforms. From what I can see, I didn't mess up any of her timings, and the song doesn't skip at all. Also, the volume levels are pretty much even (the song is a little bit louder then the movie, but it's basically not noticeable).
Also, I owe an apology to hiccuptoothless94 for a communication failure. I should have showed her that Dark Knight scene first and explained to her exactly how I wanted to see this project end. As it is, I still had shivers going down my spine watching this entire video, but if I had communicated my vision for this project, then the scenes from 2:13 to 2:40 would have just been a much better fit with the movie audio (for example, 2:35 to 2:40 would see Toothless and Hiccup soaring off into the sun and then BOOM, the end) . But again, this is MY fault, not her fault. She just did her thing and did it in spectacular fashion, as she always does!
However, there is one person who not only makes terrific HTTYD videos, but she also helped me with my very first video (HTTYD-My Heart Will Go On) when I couldn't upload it to Youtube without it being blocked worldwide. She is theNightFuryfan95, and she once said her birthday is around July 13 when "Ice Age: Continental Drift" comes out. So, this here video is her early b-day present!
As it says in the title, this video is a highlight reel of her marvelous work. I hope everyone understands that I wasn't trying to steal her work in any shape, manner, or form. I just thought it would be cool to highlight what I believe are the best parts of her best videos. I promise I will remove this video if I get a backlash. *crosses fingers*
UPDATE: My fingers are no longer crossed. She loves it, as does everyone else. Yay!
Anyway, assuming you all enjoyed it, I'd like to make a few notes:
Because she's such a superstar and puts all her videos in 1080 HD (more specifically in 1920x1080), my program couldn't handle all of it. So, after I saved the final project (which is in 1280x720) to my computer, I had to stick that final project back into my program, remove and replace the corrupted parts, iron everything out, and then save it again to my computer. It was kind of like saving different parts of the video and then combining them all into one. I took a bet that the clips themselves weren't corrupted, they just became corrupted because I was saving a 7 minute video where almost everything was 1920x1080. Mercifully, I was right. When I copied & pasted those corrupted clips to the rest of the project (which, again, I had already saved in 1280x720), everything worked out like a charm. If none of that made any sense, then just know that I successfully fixed what needed to be fixed.
Also, I pulled a little trick near the end which I'm pretty sure didn't destroy the timing of her original vid. As with everything else, tell me what you think!
Oh, and thumbnails are totally a hit or miss. This time they really suck.
Anyway, I was really anxious to get this done. It's a short little instrumental by a group called "Shockwave Sound," and man is it glorious! I didn't go all out with the ending like I could have, but I still timed the beat throughout. It's weird: Ever since my "Run Away" video, I've been in the mindset of "you got to time every single beat." So i have to remind myself, "uh, no you don't. You just got to find a good rhythm."
While I'm on vacation, I should still be able to respond to any comments and messages. I'll be bringing my laptop so I can use it with Wifi, but I definitely won't have time for new projects. So yeah, I hope you enjoy this one, and see you all soon!
http://www.youtube.com/user/SinbadHiccup
The song is called "The Contender," but I honestly don't know who created it! In every video I looked at, Youtube didn't identify the artist.
UPDATE: Thanks to SerimonVideo and his wizardy at finding stuff, I got the name of this song. To paraphrase him, the music is from "The Contender" album by Hans Zimmer, Steve Jablonsky & David Vanacore. The album is for the "The Contender" TV Series. The song is called "Main Title."
In any case, this song was seriously my favorite instrumental of ALL TIME until I watched HTTYD and discovered, you know, EVERYTHING! (:
It's still one of my top 10 favorite instrumentals ever, and it was one of the many HTTYD projects I had in mind. When SinBadHiccup asked me if I'd like to do a collaboration, this was the first song I thought of. She loved it too, and it was off to the races for both of us! I thought she did a really good job with her part, especially the flash transition at :16. Thanks for working together Sinbad! You are awesome!
One more thing: I added a bonus at the end for a very special someone. *Mega hugs*
One one more thing: BEST THUMBNAIL EVER!!
This video is mostly focused on the Hiccup-Toothless relationship but also highlights Astrid as the video goes on. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEFOlrg1r6s
As you can see, I echoed several parts of her original video, most notably 2:32 to 3:14. The ending to her video is one of the best I've ever seen, and it makes my heart melt every time I watch it. I hope my own ending does hers justice. I also hope you enjoy the song. Some people hate it for whatever reason, but I think it's pretty good.
A few other things: While I was saving this video to my computer, I was browsing an HTTYD blog that I check out semi-frequently, and my oh my what a gold mine I found. The TV series on Cartoon Network is officially called "Dreamworks' Dragons: Riders of Berk."
http://www.berksgrapevine.blogspot.com/2012/06/tv-series-name-changed-to-dragons.html
Even more details can be found here:
http://berksmediavine.blogspot.com/2012/05/dreamworks-dragons-series.html
And then there's this promo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iNRfBZVvo0
I'm so wildly conflicted reading some of the details. For example, some new character called Heather is going to be an "evil antagonist" to Astrid, while Stoick gets his own dragon (and a Thunderdrum at that).
Anyway, yeah, share your thoughts if you so please!
I tried to keep the characters consistent throughout. I settled on Hiccup as Batman because there are too many clips with Batman talking for Toothless (the obvious candidate) to be feasible. For example, from 1:09 to 1:13, I could have easily had Hiccup asking "do you think he's coming back?" and then Astrid saying "I don't know." But that just wouldn't have made sense because it would reduce Hiccup to a random kid and Astrid to, uh, a man. So for 1:09 to 1:13 I was just like "whatever, nothing works here anyway."
Then from 1:01 to 1:07, I could have easily extended the clip and used the Toothless death stare when Bane says "your punishment must be more severe!" But that would imply Toothless is Bane, which, like, NO!!
Oh, and 2:09 to 2:12 was so obvious it made Captain Obvious embarrassed.
That is all! Hope you enjoy!
P.S. The thumbnail selection is fricking terrible! *guh*
EDIT: Seeing as everyone thinks the timing is perfect, this video isn't going anywhere!
Also, this entire project was inspired by two videos in particular. The first one is Norwegian Pirates, of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ednjPiE0PBg
I challenged myself to try something similar, and 2:56 to 3:03 is where I knew I wanted to blow the roof off.
The second video is where I get the rest of my inspiration. I first saw it in September 2007 when I had my first Youtube account, so obviously it wasn't an HTTYD video. Unfortunately, it was pulled from Youtube a long time ago. It was a montage of different movies, most prominently the following: Scream 1 and 2, The Hills Have Eyes 1 and 2, Stay Alive, and The Faculty. All these are horror movies, but the video itself didn't feature hardly any blood and guts, it just had a bunch of different scenes of people running around. The song used in this video was some ridiculous metal song by Mudvayne, but between the clips of people running around and the timing of the video, I got a wild idea: Start "Run Away" by Real McCoy at like the 9 second mark of the video and see what happens.
The result was nothing short of perfection! What you see from 2:42 to 3:03 in this here HTTYD montage is exactly how it played out in that horror montage, only the timing from 2:56 to 3:03 in my HTTYD montage is much better then the same flashing clips in the horror montage. Also, 2:42 to 2:49 is NOT - I repeat, NOT - designed to be timed with the beat! The flashing clips from 2:42 to 2:49 are each 1/5 of a second long (6/30 to be exact), and in the horror montage, it was literally the same way. I watched that montage along with "Run Away" dozens of times as I was a senior in highschool in 2007-2008, and so this HTTYD montage is a 5 year manifestation for me. I might create another project with this kind of timing, but it will never mean as much to me as this one does. Yes, I know most of you probably don't like horror movies, but I'm telling you, that montage + Run Away was the best timed video I ever saw until the HTTYD universe was opened up to me and I saw "Dream Chasers" by thefanvideor2 last November.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWWPJo0vq_Q
Then in January I ran into two wonderful individuals in theNightFuryfan95 (who gave me help on my very first video) and hiccuptoothless94. It was theNightFuryfan95 who referenced Norwegian Pirates in this EPIC video of hers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5eEAhU5kVw&feature=plcp
How I missed Norwegian Pirates when it came out in March, I don't know, but I'm glad I found it. Both these videos showed me what perfect timing at the speed of light looks like. This is my contribution. Please tell me if you think I've risen up to the challenge!
No Gift of the Night Fury this time, although I'm apt to do that when the video isn't random. It's just amazing how the movie unfolds and how it gets deeper, and deeper, and deeper. HTTYD is the ultimate emotional thrill ride!
http://www.youtube.com/user/SinbadHiccup
The instrumental is "Young Hearts" by Hans Zimmer. It's from the soundtrack of "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron," which I have never seen before. I think this instrumental is really pretty, and it definitely goes well with HTTYD, don't you think?
I had no idea what I wanted to do with this at first, but I decided to basically make it a tribute to Hiccup and Toothless instead of including multiple clips like I normally do. Also, this score is actually over 5 minutes long, but I only did the first 2:38 cause that's the good part.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ray2971
The song is "Attack" by "30 seconds to Mars." Naturally, I first discovered this song when I watched an HTTYD video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd3-YxUV3GY
ray2971 asked me if I had heard of the band, and of course I referenced that video. He asked if I'd do a full video of the song, and after dragging my feet for like 2 months doing projects I really wanted to get done, I finally got around to it.
I would have posted this over the weekend, but between family business and seeing "The Avengers" twice in IMAX 3D, I just ran out of time. I think "Attack" is a pretty good song, but then again, there are many songs I might otherwise not have liked if I didn't first see them in an HTTYD video. (Oh yes, there are female songs I love just because I first saw them in HTTYD vids! LOL)
BTW, I edited the song to resemble the Toy Story version. It's a bit rough at a few points, but its not very noticeable (I don't think)
Stoick: Nick Fury
Gobber: Captain America
Astrid: Black Widow
Fishlegs (and his Dragon, Meatlug): The Hulk
Hiccup: Thor
Toothless: Iron Man
I don't have anybody for Loki or Hawkeye, so like, whatever! haha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiddfSSY8SA
Listen to 2:09 to 2:15 of that video, and then listen to :37 to :45 and 2:10 to 2:18 of this here video and you should be able to see what I'm talking about.
I didn't use any clips from Gift of the Night Fury this time. Just the movie. One of these days I'll use clips from Legend of the Boneknapper and Book of Dragons. theNightFuryfan95 used Book of Dragons in her last video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSZGyIF-LnE
And I've seen several youtubers use Legend of the Boneknapper. So yeah.
Hope you like this! It's the score from the 2007 movie, "Sunshine," starring Cillian Murphy. The score was composed by John Murphy. What is it with composers named "John" producing amazing music? All hail John Powell! LOL.
Tell me what you think about this score, cause I LOVE it! It made me well up a bit when I first saw Sunshine about two years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrKErPOQcNM
It was here that I discovered the song, which is called "Breath and Life" by Audiomachine. I'm amazed at all the music I've discovered just by pursuing my HTTYD passion, especially instrumental music!
-I tried to use the "fade out to black transition" for the countdown from 2:11 to 2:23, but for some reason it messed up my clips, so I had to do the generic "clip to clip" just like for my Ocean Princess and Ding Ding Dong videos. If anybody has any suggestions, let me know.
-Astrid is obviously Katniss, but Hiccup is Prim, Peeta, and Gale. So just, like, role with it!
Song: Ding Ding Dong by Gunther and the Sunshine Girls. (Also known as, "You Touched by Tralala").
Anyway, I was amazed that nobody had used this outstanding song for an HTTYD video before. It's called "Ocean Princess" by Two Steps From Hell. Hope you enjoy it!
Also, make sure to watch it in 720 HD. I'm hoping to be able to upload future videos in 1080 HD.


