Pikachu Goes on a Run

Product: 

I made a story where Pikachu has to lose weight in order to beat his opponent, Mega Lucario. Pikachu and Ash go running throughout the city, and come back to beat Mega Lucario. I made this video by mashing together several videos, notably the Pikachu vs. Mega Lucario battle from the XY generation and the running scenes from the Latias and Latios Pokemon movie. 

After downloading the videos from Youtube using Videograbby I used Premier Pro to cut the video clips apart and put them together. I also used it to make my subtitles (the pink bars). 

My Video:

https://youtu.be/onnRMCLLf48

Intention:

My inspiration for this was the running sequence from the Latias and Latios movie. I remember as a kid when I watched it in the movie theatre I was very impressed with how it looked 3D and how it seems like it's from Pikachu's point of view.  I wanted to use those clips, so I built a story around it. 

Pikachu is said to have lost a lot of weight throughout the series, as you can see above. As it's a well known fact among fans, I decided to use it in my video.

My goal with this video was for it to be a fun way to reminisce about Pokemon, which I loved as a child, as well as make a point about how subtitles can be completely wrong. As a bilingual, I often see subtitles that are completely wrong or at least misguiding, and viewers just accept them because they "look" and "sound" right. I wanted to show how easy it was to completely change the story.

Context:

This is a remix, which is often seen on the internet. Just searching "remixed video" on Youtube yields the following results: 

My video also uses incorrect subtitles, which in other works is often not a conscious choice but rather just a product of bad translators. Many of these "fansubbed" videos can be found on the Internet, especially for things like anime and foreign TV shows.

Finally, my video can be considered a fan made video, or a "Fanvid". Many hardcore fans take material from their fandom to make videos that tell a story that they want or to highlight a specific part of the show. Compared to how many fanvids are showcasing a relationship or a love for a particular character, mine just tells an alternative story. 

Process:

First I went on Youtube to look for the videos I wanted. I knew I wanted to use the Latias and Latios running scene so that was the first video I looked for.

Next in order to make it my own story, I came to the conclusion that adding subtitles to an original Japanese video would be easier than finding clips of characters saying what I wanted them to say, so I looked for an episode in Japanese, which I found below.

Next I went on Videograbby to download the videos.

I then moved them into Premier, where I spent a lot of time using the Razor tool and moving clips to fit together.

After I got the running scenes, I thought of my plot, and went back on Youtube to search for videos that would fit, like the one of Pikachu eating.

Once I got the video right, I added subtitles, which I also figured out how to do on Premier. I tried a lot of different fonts before settling on Arial 20pt.

Reflection:

Overall, I'm happy with my outcome, because it makes me chuckle a little, which is what I was going for. The incorrect subtitles telling the story I want them to tell is also a touch that I like. It shows how easy it is to have subtitles that go with the video but are entirely different from what the original script. 

Although some parts may jump around, I actually like that kind of disorienting fast-paced video, so I don't mind. However, I can see that I could still improve some transitions to make it appeal to a broader audience. Other than that, if I had time I would have made a longer video to flesh out the plot more. It would be have been fun to make a episode-length video, but I'm not confident I would have been able to make it hold the viewer's attention. 

By doing this project I learned about how to use Premier more, and also how to put subtitles on a video. I've subtitled gifs before but not videos, so I'm glad that I know how to now. 

Attribution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38EA72KnPR0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6EwTY9Hf84

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfP-LVujbqI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbW4DSuc3nA