Right Now Someone Is Reading This Title: Notes

Video: Various
Audio: Right Now (Van Halen)
Awards: Otakon 2001 - Best Comedy, Anime North 2001 - Grand Prize, Anime Expo 2001 - Judges' Special Merit
AnimeMusicVideos.org 2002 Viewers Choice Awards - Best Comedy, Best Parody, Best Editing
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This video was suggested to me by a friend of mine, Andrew Floyd. I think I'd seen Van Halen's original music video, but long before I got into anime. Thanks to Jason/RYS for the To-Y footage, Justin/ErMaC for the Honneamise footage, iserlohn for the Daicon IV footage, and several people for prescreening the video.

Basically, this is a parody of Van Halen's "Right Now" music video. (you don't know how sick I am of those two words) Their video consisted of various scenes with overlaid text that said "Right now blah blah blah." (it's available on the Van Halen Greatest Hits DVD if you want to see it) At first I was thinking "yeah! woo, I can write whatever I want woohoo!", but when brainstorming, several lines came up that fit with the original video. I won't list them all, but for example "Right now Ryouga is on his twenty-third world tour" was originally "Right now Van Halen is planning a world tour" (in the same "circle-text" style).

A lot of effects and timing were duplicated from the original, with some changes to help readability. (some people still have problems) I didn't bother with a couple of text effects since I didn't think they would add much.

I don't recommend reading the following rambling about the scenes unless you've seen the video.

The opening footage is from the original video, with sections moved in order to change "Ed" to "Madoka". I decided to use "MTV-style" credits, since the opening is a little boring/plain, especially if you've seen it before.
The El Hazard scene was too much for Anime Expo. I sent them two alternative versions. (Fushigi Yuugi and Haunted Junction)
At Otakon, Duane Johnson commented that the choices of Trigun and PPG seemed "arbitrary", but I like them because they're both shows from the two different cultures, each of which can be said to borrow from the other.
The "right now you could be" text was from the original video.
Hsien (Kusoyaro) didn't understand the Ping Pong Club clip joke. ha ha ha.
Kiyone's fist pumping was extended to match the beat.
Although I believe that switching between pan-and-scan and letterbox all the time isn't a good thing, I kept my (three) letterbox scenes together, so there's only one switch in and out. I converted some other letterbox scenes to pan-and-scan.
Some of the phrases are double entendres. Hee hee.
Kero-chan's mouth was digitally closed to make him shut up...
I don't know where to get clean Daicon footage. I did what I could to make it look okay. Sometime I'd like to combine the bunny girl footage from Daicon, Otaku no Video, and FLCL together.
I extended the Naga pan by reversing and flipping the footage, and fading between the old and new clips.
The little girl is my friend's neice.
The "clone" picture is from the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Mock 5". Funny stuff.
I was hoping to use the large Ruri eye scene, but wasn't sure where it was. I settled on another one.
Shut up, Wesley-I mean, Hikaru.
The original St. Tail footage I had was really bad quality.
I was hoping to use the "hand" from the original video, but there wasn't a clean frame of it. I found one of the hand graphics from Monty Python on the web.
I still like the Kenshin clip. Beat-synced whacking!
Something about the idea of Tylor interfacing with the Wired just amuses me...
I was thinking of Brad DeMoss when using the Tex Avery clip. He has a wealth of animation (not just anime) LDs and background. See his "Steam" or "Dangerous" videos.
Someone pointed out that the To-Y guitarist kind of looks like an older/more mature Carrot. Unintentional, but neat. Also, I sped up the footage, and it kind of looks synced to the music to me.
"Neon Jeopardy Evangelion" came around from a handwritten note of mine I couldn't read. ("Neon j? Neon je? Neon what??") A friend of mine thought the clip was a comment on Gainax's crass commercialisation of Eva.
I was going to use a different scene and have "Jessie has it good", but couldn't find it.
Originally, the "sub/dub" words wasn't there. I thought of adding "sub/dub" on the first day of Otakon 2001.
I wasn't planning on repeating footage from the same show, but there were jokes I couldn't pass up.
The plot hole was inspired by Mark Sprague's fanmade "giant plot hole" Ani-Meyhem card.
The final scene was annoying because the camera moved during it. I had to "stabilise" some frames.
In the "things nobody will notice" department... There's a screenshot of Premiere in the monitor in the last shot, with the project file of the video. The preview windows are showing Trigun and the final clip itself. (ooo, recursive)
For every line, there's probably at least one other that didn't make it into the video. Which is good because those were even dumber than these.