AMV MixTape: PieandBeer AMV

I love anime music videos. You might already know this, since I previously wrote an AMV starter kit for the site. But I’ve been asking myself questions lately about the medium. How did my favorite editors get started? What does it mean to edit a video? What place do AMVs have in an increasingly corporatized anime fandom? Are we living in a dry period for the format, or a new golden age?

This is AMV MixTape, an ongoing feature where I speak to an AMV editor about five of their past videos. For our latest installment, I spoke with PieandBeerAMV, who has been making heartfelt drama videos for over a decade now. He’s a big fan of My Chemical Romance, Reigen Arataka, and Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Origin Story

ADAM WESCOTT: When did you first start editing AMVs?

PIEANDBEER: I started in high school around 2008 or 2009 with Naruto GIFs and My Chemical Romance songs in Windows Movie Maker. Then I transitioned into Sony Vegas.

WESCOTT: What My Chemical Romance album were you really into?

PIEANDBEER: I love Danger Days. I referenced it in my South Park video. (Don’t look at my South Park video, though.) But the album I was using with the Naruto GIFs was Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. I’m such a big fan.

WESCOTT: Wait, you did South Park videos? Oh my god.

PIEANDBEER: I did one South Park video. Anime Weekend Atlanta has their Accolades contest, which is a blind contest. Your video is separate from your name so that people will come to it with fresh eyes. That year I watched a bunch of South Park because it was on Hulu and I was going through a breakup. I realized that I could do some lyric sync with “Danger Days” and took it way too far. The video won Best Comedy and Best Lyric Sync. But it’s more of a concerning sign than an AMV I would say. South Park is a touchy topic right now.

WESCOTT: People have a lot of feelings about South Park, that’s for sure. Going back to those Naruto GIFs, what were those exactly? How did you make them?

PIEANDBEER: There was a website called NarutoGIFs.net or something like that. The GIFs were already made, so I saved and pieced them together like a puzzle in Windows Movie Maker with lip flap sync. It was glorious.

I didn’t watch Naruto past the Chuunin exam because I liked Tenten too much and she got her ass served to her. But I still edited those videos anyway.

WESCOTT: What program do you use now for editing?

PIEANDBEER: I switch between Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas. I got the latter in a Humble Bundle so I wouldn’t have to pay for it monthly. They’re pretty similar I’d say.

WESCOTT: Are there other editors that influenced you back when you first started, or who influence you now?

PIEANDBEER: One of my best friends is keiichiface. I wouldn’t be in this community editing this long if I didn’t have her editing beside me. She just makes fantastic videos.

In terms of who I was looking up to when I was getting started, there’s this editor named gotegenks who did a whole bunch of good moody edits. He was very on top of sync, and his videos look modern even to this day.

I’m ripping off my shirt and it says “Nekokitkat #1” underneath. She is perfect. I would die for her. But also I’m looking at her homework when it comes to her videos. Then there’s BecauseImBored1 who is the pacesetter for the whole country. She’s so talented. Also, Ileia is a fantastic raw editor.

WESCOTT: What does it mean to be a “raw editor?”

PIEANDBEER: “Raw video” is an antiquated term because everyone uses effects to some degree at this point. But there used to be a delineation between videos that were just about cuts and sync, and videos that use more transitions and effects to push the envelope in different ways.

Not using effects means relying on different things to get the job done. In terms of what it’s like, I don’t want to compare it to chiseling marble, since it’s not statues we’re talking about. It’s more an exercise in distillation.

Connectable

WESCOTT: The first of your AMVs we’re discussing, “Connectable,” pairs footage from Summer Wars with The Digimon Movie soundtrack. It’s common knowledge at this point that Summer Wars is a remake of Mamoru Hosada’s Digimon film Our War Game. But rewatching your AMV especially, I was yelling, “How did Hosada get away with this?!”

PIEANDBEER: When I suggested to you that we should talk about this video, I didn’t think that I would also have to rewatch it. I did psychic damage to myself!

When I made “Connectable,” I was just off the heels of getting into Finals for the first time and winning my first award at Youmacon. Before that, I was only submitting to Anime Boston and Sakuracon. I was so thirsty to win at that point, just editing for the sake of editing. It’s such a contrast to how I edit now.

I love Digimon, and The Digimon Movie was such a formative moment in my life. The soundtrack is amazing. But for this one, I was just thinking about what I could make for a video as opposed to anything deeper. It did take me a while to edit because I was inexperienced with Premiere and still figuring myself out editing-wise.

I can’t express how much this video matters to me. It’s the first video I saw at my home con Anime Boston on the big screen. At that time, I was so naive that I thought I had a chance against Ileia with “RadioAkshun” and BecauseImBored1 with “Shoot Me!”. I was a rookie and was so cocky about it. Seeing my video together with theirs was such a moment for me.

Afterwards, BecauseImBored1 told me she liked a little bit of the sync, this two second clip. That validation has propelled me all the way to this point.

WESCOTT: The bit in “Connectable” where you see King Kazuma suspended in the air, knocked out by the Love Machine virus, has a gentleness to it that reminds me of your later work.

PIEANDBEER: Even to this day, I don’t know what an action video is. I think it’s just fast cuts. I know that’s not the case, that there’s a logic to it.

WESCOTT: By the way, what’s your favorite season of Digimon?

PIEANDBEER: I like the second season, because I love Yolei. My actual answer is the first season because I grew up and thought, “Izzy is my future husband.” But looking back on it, I realized, “The second season does kinda rock, though.”

Aporia

WESCOTT: “Aporia” wasn’t your first FLCL video, but it is a different take. What vision did you have in mind when you were putting it together?

PIEANDBEER: FLCL is my favorite show, though Magi and YuYu Hakusho come close. I was a kid when it was on Toonami, and would stay up late to see the star bumper they had at the beginning because I wanted to hear “Little Busters.” I’ve also done FLCL videos under different handles, plus one for FLCL Alternative and Progressive. So I keep coming back to it with different lenses.

I made “Stay Young” before I went through an abusive relationship. “Aporia” came after that relationship. The song that I used, “Bad Luck Again” by the Rural Alberta Advantage, was the song I was listening to on the plane when I realized the guy was lying to me.

I came back to FLCL seeking comfort. I wasn’t trying to edit for a contest, or for anyone other than me with that video. The good thing with those videos is that whenever someone likes it, it’s such an added bonus.

gotegenks’s FLCL video “Full Circle” was a big influence on this one. It’s one of my favorites. There’s a clip in “Aporia” where I wanted to evoke how gotegenks’s use of FLCL‘s outro made me feel. Those kids in the show aren’t happy!

The use of purple was more of a superficial choice for me. I was fooling around and thought that the purple looked nice with the yellow in the last episode. I thought, “Let me try and bring everything to this purple.”

WESCOTT: “Fooling around,” you say. When you said “bringing everything to purple,” do you mean layering on the purple as an after effect or color correction?

PIEANDBEER: It was one or two layers of purple overlay. I was experimenting with color for a bit. If I just did that, though, it wouldn’t look right in the final product. So while the purple is on top, there’s color correction on every layer underneath that.

WESCOTT: There are so many good FLCL AMVs out there. If you make one, it’ll be one of many. But if you express yourself, people will come to it and find what you put in there.

PIEANDBEER: There’s still so many things that you can do with that series. It’s made for videos.

Fiat Lux

WESCOTT: “Fiat Lux” is based on Tokyo Godfathers by Satoshi Kon, who’s one of the best. When did you first see Tokyo Godfathers?

PIEANDBEERAMV: I watched it after seeing Nekokitkat’s video. I saw that scene with the fast forward at the restaurant booth, and thought, “I know what I can sync that with! I have to watch this movie.”

WESCOTT: Something that stood out to me in “Fiat Lux” is how it deemphasizes the quirkiness in Tokyo Godfathers in favor of zooming in on the characters and their emotions.

PIEANDBEER: I experienced housing insecurity growing up. When I was watching the movie and editing the video, one of the things I focused on was the trials and tribulations of being homeless. Since I had the song combo in mind from the start when I was watching it, I was able to cherry pick footage a little bit more.

I don’t want to say that I approached it like a book report. But I came to this video with things I wanted to show. I wanted to show that being homeless sucks. I also wanted to convey a feeling of hope, like in one of my earlier videos “Polaris.” Since I’d received some positive feedback for my earlier drama videos, I decided to run with that.

WESCOTT: Like you said, there are ways to leverage Kon’s spatial tricks to tell a story as well as being cool. For instance, there’s a scene in Tokyo Godfathers where Gin gets into a fight and the nearby windows turn into fighting game health bars. Cutting that visual gag really changes how the scene feels.

Another great moment comes at the end, where Hana falls from the building while holding the baby. You cut away to shots of the city, so you don’t know for a few beats whether or not she survived.

PIEANDBEER: I can’t remember how much of that is the film itself. When I’m editing films, sometimes things will fall into place because you don’t have that many scenes to pick from. Editing chronologically means that you run out of choices, which can lead to happy accidents. So while I’m not sure how much of that section is the movie versus me, I was focused on Hana because I loved that character.

I made all my videos except “The Amazon” before I realized that I was a trans man. Looking back on “Fiat Lux,” I realized, “Oh, Hana is my mom. I realize what I got out of this movie.”

WESCOTT: Would you say this video was a breakthrough for you, or just another building block?

PIEANDBEER: I edited it for AKROSS, so I took it a little more seriously than with other videos. AKROSS is an online contest run by a Russian website. Effects reign king there. So I thought that I had to do more to stand out as a raw editor. Not just telling a story, but making a case for why that story mattered.

Kindness

PIEANDBEER: I became obsessed with Mob Psycho 100 because Reigen is my wife. But they’re all such good characters. I love them so much that I’d watch them even if the animation were sock puppets.

I made “Kindness” before I got my autism diagnosis. I was processing something when I made it, but at the same time, I wanted to show respect for the series. So I approached it intending to tell a clear story, even though I was going over a lot of material and shoving in as many characters as I could. I wanted to show everyone my beautiful, beautiful sons. Like I’m in your YouTube subscriptions, or outside your house, telling you to watch this anime. It has fantastic animation and good representation. I have so many feelings about this series; I get so flustered and overwhelmed with emotions when I think about it!

WESCOTT: “Kindness” drills deep into what makes Mob Psycho 100 what it is. In ONE’s earlier work One Punch Man, you’re rooting for the hero Saitama to punch the bad guy, even though you know it’ll be over in one hit. The genius of Mob Psycho is that you never want Mob to reach 100%. Every time he does, it’s the worst! Instead he succeeds by connecting with other people. That’s why I love how you saved the scene where he repairs his classmate’s poetry pages for the end of the video. That’s the heart of the series for me.

PIEANDBEER: That moment in particular was very much animation driven. I realized, “I can fit this part onto that part of the song. I’ve solved the puzzle!” I love your reading, though.

The way that I read Mob Psycho 100 is that Mob is constantly trying to understand people. He’s a different kind of action hero, and represents a different kind of masculinity. With this video, I wanted to say, here is Mob, and here he is trying to understand the people in his life. Here is how those people have changed due to his generosity. That generosity isn’t universal, of course, because not everyone deserves a second chance. There are lines drawn in the series; Mob isn’t expected to be a messiah figure.

WESCOTT: If we’re talking about different models of masculinity, don’t forget famed internet sex symbol Reigen!

PIEANDBEER: The worst thing that’s ever happened to me, including my medical emergency, happened after I bought a tasteful Reigen Arataka body pillow at Anime Boston. I didn’t want them to sell out! When I went home on the train that night, this mother and her kid walked by. The girl stopped there, turned around, and looked at my pillow again. My soul left my body.

WESCOTT: It could have been worse…it could have been a Sans Undertale body pillow.

PIEANDBEER: I want people to have their headcanons. Still, I’m just pointing at the show saying, “They’re all gay. They’re all gay or bi!” There’s something happening with Reigen, at least.

WESCOTT: I love the way that you captured his hand movements as well, which are so key to his character.

PIEANDBEER: Sometimes you’ll drop a clip onto the timeline, and it’ll already be in sync. This time, it was the shot of Reigen from the back where he does the hip thing and the camera’s right on his butt. I thought, “I need to finish this video immediately.”

WESCOTT: I also like the “Mamma Mia” sequence at the end where Reigen is running in his gym outfit.

PIEANDBEER: I managed to keep those credits a secret from everyone I knew for the longest time. I’m happy that people reacted so well to that video.

The Amazon

WESCOTT: The videos we’ve discussed so far have distinct thesis statements. “Connectable” is Summer Wars plus Digimon. “Aporia” is FLCL but the sad parts. “Fiat Lux” is about living with others when you are homeless. “Kindness” is about Mob’s generosity. But I had a harder time pinning down “The Amazon.” It felt to me like it was trying to grasp something much bigger.

PIEANDBEER: “The Amazon” was also made for Anime Weekend Atlanta’s Accolades contest. This time, I decided to make something that I wanted to make. I also had this other motive, where I foolishly thought that I was going to apply for film school and would have to position myself as an experimental video maker. So I thought, “Let’s get experimental with it.” What ended up happening, in a common occurrence for me, is that I made a drama video by accident. Just like with “Military Grade Top Surgery,” which was meant to be an upbeat video!

My thesis for “The Amazon” is that I’m gay and I’m trans. I projected onto Ryo because gender. He didn’t do anything wrong! He’s allowed. Also, testosterone made me as buff as Akira. So I could identify with both of them. Besides that, this video was very much me dealing with current events through the medium of this show.

I’ve only watched Devilman Crybaby once. The video is filtered through what I remember of the show’s story, and also through my yaoi goggles. I wanted to refashion the series into something I could like more. Taking the women out of the series and making it more about the guys. I tried to have a little more flexibility and make something visually different. Masaaki Yuasa’s my favorite director, so I vibed with the flat colors and had a lot of fun.

WESCOTT: No matter how Devilman is told, it always comes down to Ryo holding Akira’s bloody torso as God bears down on them and crushes everything. So you’re right, that relationship is baked in there. No matter what Nagai intended when he started, that’s where it ends up. It’s all over the show, for sure. I also love the scene where a young Ryo holds an umbrella over Akira’s head. I don’t think it was in the manga, but it stuck with me.

PIEANDBEER: Usually I try to stick to the source material when I’m editing because I’m a fan and want to stay faithful. With this one, though, I was focusing on making a music video rather than an anime music video. I mean, it’s still an AMV. But it’s such a mixture of things coming together, rather than trying to bring one thing out of the source or audio.

WESCOTT: At the very end, even after so much intense and gory imagery, you have Akira pushing Ryo into the pool and jumping in after him.

PIEANDBEER: The tender parts of Devilman Crybaby are so tender. I also love the scene where Akira puts the hamburger into Ryo’s mouth. That’s such a poignant moment of physical intimacy.

WESCOTT: Thinking about it, many of my favorite parts in your videos are the intimate moments between characters.

PIEANDBEER: I love people, and I like including those tiny moments that let you get inside a person’s head in my videos. I fill in the gaps with as much time to learn about the characters as possible.

Bookend

WESCOTT: To wrap up, is there an AMV you like that you want to share?

PIEANDBEER: There was an AMV from Otakon in 2011 that set Hetalia: Axis Powers to South Park.

WESCOTT: I can’t turn down Hetalia set to South Park!

PIEANDBEER: The video matches the drama of the audio source, and keeps up the intensity well. It also gets to this point where it’s showing flashes of different characters, just for the sake of showing every character. That’s what I want out of an AMV. You’d think that an editor would have standards. But if you flash my blorbo on screen, I’m voting for you. Iceland’s in this one! Also, I wanted to marry Arthur from Hetalia so much that it changed me as a person.

AMVs are powerful because people are so invested in what you’re showing them compared to other art forms. You’re hitting them with two different mediums, one of which is music, and music is already powerful. So I’m an evil little man cackling behind Sony Vegas and trying to get emotions out of you. That’s what I do.

Featured Sponsor - JAST

The sweetest romance and the darkest corruption, the biggest titles and the indie darlings; for visual novels and eroge, there's nowhere better.

Visit JAST's Website